Summary:

After going through a handful of unsuccessful figure skating partners, Bella Swan is on the verge of giving up her skating career. When her coach pairs her up with Edward Cullen, she decides to give her gold medal dreams one last shot.

A/N (Author's Note): ALL HUMAN.

Chapter 1: The One

Bella:

I stepped into the gym, praying that I wouldn't see her or rather them. Please don't be here, please don't be here… I prayed silently.

Unfortunately God must have been too busy to answer my pleading prayers.

There they stood, on side by side treadmills. She looked more like she was skipping through flowers rather than working out. Not a single drop of sweat was visible on her perfectly sculpted face. Her memorable red hair breezed effortlessly behind her as she ran.

The man beside her spotted me and leaned over to whisper something in her ear. Her eyes narrowed and searched about the gym until they landed on me. I tried to hide behind my hair, but it was impossible considering that I was wearing a ponytail. A malicious smile appeared on her face.

Victoria said something to James and they both slowed to a walk on their treadmills and stepped off to start towards me.

I bit my lip and looked around frantically trying to find an escape but there were none. Sensing that I was trapped, Victoria's vindictive grin grew wider.

"Bella," she greeted me flatly.

"Victoria," I responded in the same flat tone.

She looked around me as if looking for someone and sneered. "I see you still haven't found a partner after all these years," she stated, her eyes widening with fake innocence.

She clung onto James's arm and smirked. "James-y and I have been working together for… oh, two, practically three years now isn't it? We're so, so comfortable with each other. You know that a skater's relationship with her partner is just as important as knowing how to do the tricks… don't you? James and I have finally gotten comfortable with each other's skating, just in time for the Olympics that are just two seasons away, isn't that right James-y…" she cooed.

I stared at her blankly; trying to show my nonchalance when on the inside I was panicking because she was right. She continued ranting about the importance of having a compatible partner which I tuned out mindlessly to concentrate on my own thoughts.

The Winter Olympics were just around the corner—just two seasons away. I had one year to find the perfect skating partner so that I could accomplish my gold medal dreams.

I've been through four failures worth of partners, and I still haven't found the right one.

The first one, Jasper, lasted six months before he made other commitments to my best girlfriend, Alice. We had worked alright together, but I knew that our partnership wouldn't have lasted even if he hadn't started going out with Alice. Balancing skating and a social life isn't easy, it's either one or the other. Jasper had chosen his social life.

James, yes, Victoria's James was my second try. He was nice enough I guess, we worked alright together. He secretly harbored a romantic relationship with Victoria though, and sixth months after we started working together I found them going at it up against the wall of the locker room, I promptly ended our partnership there and then. Shortly after, James informed me that he was planning to drop me for Victoria anyways.

It was a low blow, but it didn't affect me much. There wasn't much chemistry in our skating, and during the practices it felt like I was turning on autopilot instead of putting my heart into it.

Victoria and I were born seemingly to share the spotlight. When she was eight, Victoria moved to the United States to train, but still represented her home country, France. We both trained under the watchful eye of supreme Russian coach, Tatiana Zablosky from the time we were young to our teenage years.

The year Victoria turned eighteen, she decided to switch coaches. She had claimed that the reason being was a disagreement with Tatiana, when I knew that it was probably to get away from me.

I took her departure as a blessing from the heavens above.

The next guy, Jacob, had incredible potential. I had high hopes that he was the one. He was great— perfect body, excellent strength to lift me, and all the right skating skills, but a ski accident at Whistler ended his skating career. We almost made it to our one year anniversary before that accident occurred. I still see him every once and a while around the area, but I heard he moved to sunny California.

My most recent attempt, Mike, was a complete bust. The moment I laid eyes on him, I knew it wouldn't work, but Tatiana coaxed me to give him half a year to see if we could work it out. I knew Tatiana was desperate to find me a partner because my time was running short. I guess I was just as desperate when I agreed with her request.

Through our entire relationship, Mike had always been more interested in pursuing a romantic relationship with me, rather than the gold medal.

He probably spent more energy trying to seduce me than he did training. When he lifted me into the air he would sometimes grope my ass harder than necessary, which was merely disturbing and disgusting.

I counted the days until I would be able to drop Mike, and when six months was up I promptly kicked him to the curb—somewhat politely.

It's been two months since I got rid of Mike, and I still haven't found any potential partners. If I don't find one soon I'm going to be in big trouble—heck I'm already in trouble now! The Olympics are only a year and a half away, and when the other teams are choreographing their routines, I'm still trying to find someone to throw and lift me up into the air!

I have high standards for my skating partners, which makes it even harder to find a good one.

First of all, we have to look good together. His height must be well-matched with mine (It's awkward when a man has to lift a woman that's taller than he is, so our height ratio must be a perfect 3 to 5 or maybe 4 to 5. Either that or he has to be at least four or preferably more inches taller than me). He also has to look good beside me to a certain degree (Complimenting eye, hair, and skin tones).

Second of all, he has to be strong enough to lift and throw me.

Thirdly, he must be a consistent jumper because if one of the two partners falls on a side by side jump combination, they are both docked the points. It's all or nothing in pairs skating.

Last, and most importantly, we must have chemistry. The chemistry between couples is what sets apart the gold and silver medal. It's the component that determines the fine line between the winners and the losers.

Sometimes when I meet with potential skating partners and show them this list, they back out right away. I guess it kind of is a demanding request.

"And finally, if you don't have a partner by now, you shouldn't bother to try out for the Olympics," Victoria finished her rant. I snapped my attention out of my thoughts.

"Go to hell," I scowled and trotted towards one of the exercise bikes.

"It's a sign for me to retire from eligible pairs skating, Tatiana, I know it! If I were meant to win the Olympic gold medal, God would have given me the perfect skating partner by now!" I argued while unlacing my boots. I massaged my sore foot; the practice had been a tough one.

Tatiana, my longtime coach shook her head and tsked her tongue.

"You must be patient," Tatiana chided in her thick Russian accent. "I know good male skater will be here soon. The best things come to girl who wait. Other skaters find partner fast. Pah. Those partner not as good as long awaited one that is for you!"

"How can you be so sure?" I raised my eyebrows.

"I found nice man for you today! Very tall and handsome. He came practicing at rink earlier, says he is looking for partner. I told him you looking for partner too. Said he just moved from Chicago and wanted to test Forks ice rink," Tatiana explained elatedly.

"How do you know he's any better than Mike?" I asked, bored. This wasn't the first time Tatiana had tried to play pair match maker with me.

"I know as soon as I see him skate," she exclaimed proudly. "Told him you will meet him at Starbucks this evening! His name Edward Cullen and you meet him at five thirty."

I sighed. It was worth a shot; hopefully Tatiana's taste had improved since Mike though.

"Alright," I said slowly. "But this I going to be my last try… I'm getting older and I don't know how much longer I can take this intensive training. There is no way I'll be able to stick around another four years."

And it was true; being a figure skater was intense. Almost everyday I spent five hours on the ice and three hours doing off ice exercise. If I don't stop soon, it's eventually going to kill me… or at least give me arthritis.

"Don't be pessimist, Bella. Have faith in Mr. Edward," Tatiana scolded.

I involuntarily rolled my eyes. Tatiana caught my dismissive actions and frowned.

"He could be your ticket to gold medal. Do not let this opportunity waste," she told me seriously, and patted my shoulder. "Well I must go now… Remember five thirty tonight," and she left.

I sat there for a moment and scoffed. While the few friends I had were getting set up on blind dates to find a boyfriend, I went on them to find a skating partner. Pathetic.

I sighed and flipped out my high tech phone that some cell phone company had wanted me to endorse back when I had a career. My fingers flew over the keyboard, typing Alice's number into it. I had called Alice so many times that I'd memorized the number and didn't even have to look at the keyboard when I typed it.

If I was going to meet Edward Cullen—my ticket to the Olympic gold according to Tatiana (rolls eyes)—I wanted to do it right.

I wasn't the type of person to leave things half done.

"Hello!" Alice's singsong voice echoed through the speaker.

"Hey, it's me. I need help picking out an outfit," I informed her, covering my ears for the squeal that would soon erupt on the other end.

Just as expected, Alice squealed three octaves higher than a normal person did.

"Okay, what's the occasion?" she asked, turning all businesslike.

"Meeting a potential partner," I sighed.

"Romantic or skating?" Alice pressed. Alice took my skating business very seriously. She's designed all my competition dresses, practice outfits, gym clothes, and accessories.

"Skating."

"Alright," she didn't sound surprised. "I had one of my visions about some guy coming into your life yesterday! He had bronze-ish color hair, these really nice green eyes, but the rest of the image was fuzzy. I had a great feeling about him throughout the whole thing though! I swear he's the one!"

I rolled my eyes, Alice's visions had never been completely inaccurate, but they were extremely vague.

"The minute I had that vision, I got an outfit pieced together for you!" she continued.

I couldn't help but smile, of course Alice was always on top of all things fashion.

"Wow thanks, I thought there was a reason why I chose you as my best friend," I teased.

"What would you do without me?" she said in mock horror. "Be at my place as soon as you can." I heard a click on the other end, signifying that she had hung up.

I placed my phone back into my bag and looked around sneakily for any signs of Tatiana.

Seeing none, I pulled out a dollar and two quarters from my wallet and ran up to the vending machine to buy a coke. Tatiana had forbidden me to drink anything besides milk, diluted juice, or water after a workout, but coke always relaxed me. Plus, I really, really needed it right now.

Coke was like a soothing remedy for me. I loved the cool, fizzy feeling I got when it sloshed smoothly down my throat.

Quickly I inserted my money, pushed the buttons, and grabbed that bottle that fell out.

I slipped it under my arm and headed towards the rink exit doors. I was about three feet away from the door when Tatiana popped up out of no where and grabbed the bottle from behind.

"How many times I have to tell you? No coke," she held the bottle disgustedly and threw it into the trashcan.

I sighed dejectedly and took my diluted juice out of my bag. She nodded, approving my choice and walked back towards the coaches' room.

Gazing longingly at the trashcan, I considered fishing out my coke since it had been unopened, but figured that there would be no point in trying.

End Chapter

A/N:

A review would be greatly appreciated.

If some of the stuff didn't make sense, leave me a review about it and I'll either clear it up by either replying to your review or touching base on it in the next chapter. If it did make sense, please drop a review anyways.

Also, I don't have a beta, because I think I'm pretty good at editing my own work and it helps me get out chapters faster—but if you do find any mistakes let me know.

Thanks.