She's Royal

note: This story came to me while I was vacationing in Hawaii this week. It will be a shorter story, but fun I hope.

note: The title comes from a reggae song that I heard repeatedly in Hawaii--if Bella's lullabye was a reggae song, it would be this song!lol I put the youtube link up on my profile. You can also go to youtube and simply type in "she's royal" and it will come up first.

APOV

a/n: The actual conversations and external happenings in the club are in italics/underlines; the regular format is Alice explaining things in her head.

"Where did Edward go this time?" I stomped my foot in fustration. "He needs to be out here right this minute!"

Jasper rubbed my shoulder softly, trying to calm me down as he let out a gentle laugh. "Edward's a big boy, Alice. I think it's okay if he disappears for a couple minutes to use the potty."

This night-this very moment actually- was the direct result of a good 9 months of planning on my part. Everyone thought it was the most random idea for a graduation present for my twin brother-and I let them think that. I let them think that I was just being crazy, extravagant Alice, letting her over-the- top party planning skills get the best of her.

The last thing Edward would ever wish for was a vacation to Hawaii. One look at him would answer the question why-he had the palest skin possible. It looked beautiful against his striking features and perfectly messy, copper hair. But the thought of that delicate outer layer exposed to the hot Hawaiian sun only made you cringe in anticipation of lobster colored "tan lines" and painful sunburns.

One look at his lifestyle would also explain why Hawaii and Edward didn't mix. He is a winter person through and through. While I complained constantly growing up in one of the wettest, soggiest towns in the Continental US, he thrived in the environment. He loved the rain, the snow in the nearby mountains, the slow pace of our small town setting. He was actually saddened when summer brought on a drier, warmer climate. An ideal vacation gift for Edward would be a skiing holiday in Aspen during Christmas break--not a 10 day sun and surf holiday on the busiest island of all in the Aloha State-Oahu.

I quickly hurried out towards the outside area of the club, where I had seen Edward escape to several times during the evening. I scanned quickly for a shock of copper hair, but to no avail. As I whirled around to head back to the entrance to look for him, I bumped into Rose.

"Oh!" We both started giggling, since my head bumped right into her chest--as if I wasn't lacking in height enough between Jasper, Edward, Emmett, and Rosalie, Rosalie had to put on 4 inch heels on top of it to rub it in.

"Sorry, hon," I said as I tried to move past her swiftly. She grabbed my arm and searched my eyes for a moment.

"What, Rose?"

She scrunched her nose. "What's going on Alice? You've been acting so high strung the last couple days--and I don't even know how to describe the way you are treating Edward this whole night."

I tried to play it off innocently. "What? I just want to make sure he's enjoying himself, that's all. You know how he shies away from things like this."

Rose gave me a suspicious look. "When has forcing him to wear a suit you picked out for him, and making him stay by your side all night equaled good times for Edward? It's the first evening we've gotten away from your parents, and you are outEsme-ing Esme in terms of coddling him. I wouldn't be surprised if he made a break for it and went back to the hotel."

My eyes widened with the distinct possibility that he did just that- I rushed off to the entrance dragging Rose along. "Rose, I need a favor from you-- can you go check the upper level dance floor for him while I check the front door area. I really need to find him--"

She looked at me, silently demanding an explanation. So I pulled out my old standby- I threw her the most rounded puppy eyes I could conjure up and pleaded, "Please Rose."

When I insisted on this trip, my whole family was resistant-but my relentlessness paid off in the end. Everyone saw this trip as yet another example of Edward's loving but overbearing twin insisting things be done her way-her overly lavish way.

The reality was that it was much more...complicated than Alice overextending Daddy's credit card for a blowout holiday in Hawaii.

Most people realize that twins have a very special connection. That didn't even come close to explaining what Edward and I had though . We were eachother's best friends and confidantes. We finished eachother's sentences. And we did have our own special language-but not like other twins have. Our "secret language" was something we never explained to others--we didn't even try to process it for ourselves. There was nothing to explain really-we didn't know any other way. We simply knew we needed the other to survive in this world-we were, in effect, eachother's saviors.

I was seen as the bold, free spirited twin; Edward was seen as the thoughtful, cautious one. Those qualities somehow shaped how our special connection manifested. Edward's watchful yet introverted ways made him one of the most perceptive people on the planet-he could peg a person's character within a few minutes of observing them. But when it came to reading me, his gift was much more powerful. He knew what I would think or how I would act or react before I did half the time. He was constantly influencing me to think before I acted rashly on pure emotion and intuition.

Yet it was that emotion and intution that helped me to save him on many occasions as well.Something deep inside me would let me know when Edward needed to be nudged in one direction or another. That something deep inside came up to the surface of my consciousness in dreams-and Edward had come to respect those visions I had concerning his life. Most of those nudgings dealt with the "small things"--but I had my share of dreams that dealt with important, life altering choices as well.

And that's where Edward's random graduation present comes in. My dream was so short and without any context back in September of last year, when Edward just started his final year of undergraduate school.

Edward was in a dark, crowded club. The music wasn't the usual club music you hear in the states-it was a reggae/dancehall style. And among the sea of tanned, after beach clubbing, swaying bodies, Edward looked out of place. He was overdressed, undertanned, and standing alone. Then something caught his eye- a girl with her back to him was dancing gently to the music. Her thick, long, brunette hair swayed about a beat behind her moving hips. She was alone too, and Edward started closing the distance between them. In the background, a musical refrain could be hear loud and clear:

"she's royal yeah, so royal,

and I need her in my life,

I never knew anyone, so one of a kind

until the night that I seen your eyes,"

Edward softly tapped her on the shoulder, smiling so widely and openly as she turned around to meet his gaze. I couldn't see her profile as she turned, because a flower behind her ear blocked my view-- but I heard Edward clearly say, "Finally."

And then I woke up. I woke up and wrote down every detail I could remember-how the club goers were a mix of Asian, Caucasian, and Hawaiian looking patrons. That made me conclude Hawaii was the location. How the inside of the club was decorated--with good day of googling, I located the club in Waikiki-a place called "Pipeline. How the song playing in the background went lyrically. And most importantly--what the mystery girl looked like. I didn't get a good view at all, but I wrote down what I could. Petite, frame and height wise. Thick, beautiful dark brown hair that went down her back. A simple but pretty summer dress in a deep shade of blue. And a lone plumeria tucked behind her ear. From there, my plans for a graduation "present" for Edward began furiously.

I checked the front entrace area-he was nowhere to be found. I scurried back into the club and checked the other three dance floors. No luck either. When I caught up again with Jasper, Emmett, and Rose, they all looked at me like I was insane.

My brother Emmett looked at me cautiously..."Alice, what are you doing?" He said it in a tone that people must use right before they throw someone into a car and committ them to the psyche ward involuntarily.

I tried to calm down in front of them. "Nothing. I just need to find Edward and tell him something..." I glanced around as casually as possible, trying to spot his hair in the crowd. Out of nowhere, I started having THAT feeling I get when dreams and reality begin to align. My body always reacted strongly when future and present meet in front of my eyes. Suddenly things began to drown out around me-faces, voices, anything that distracts from the realization of a dream. All I could see now was darkness, the song that I heard so vividly in my vision--and a flash of white and yellow plumeria beside a mane of dark, thick hair.

(song playing in the background):

"No, I never been someone shy

Until I seen your eyes "

I couldn't move though, or even talk at that moment-all I could do was see things happening. And realize that Edward wasn't in the picture to complete the vision.

From the side I could barely hear Jasper whisper in my ear, "Alice-there's Edward over there-he's actually dancing with someone. It's a miracle."

I tried with all my might to focus-to find Edward, despite the tunnel vision I was experiencing. I finally locked in on his copper hair to the right of me-and saw him dancing tenatively--with a cute girl who had...shoulder length blonde hair.

I pushed my way towards him, but I could tell I was going too slow.

The main motivation for my furious planning was seeing the look on Edward's face when he saw the girl in the dream-as if he recognized her, and had been waiting for her all this time. It was so easy to accept Edward's reasons for not having a relationship since high school-and not even a real date in the last year that wasn't forced upon him by me. He was so focused on following in our father's footsteps as a doctor, he had finished his premed program in just under three years--just like Carlisle. With his intense schedule and long term goals, most people accepted that Edward "just didn't have time" for a relationship.

But that wasn't the whole truth-and Edward knew it. His gift of perception, his sixth sense of reading people quickly, was a blessing-but also a curse. Being able to understand a person's character in a matter of minutes, without even having to interact with them much, changed how Edward did things next to everyone else. There was no room for lightness and flirtations and possibilities when it came to meeting girls-he knew what he was getting into right away. It made the prospect of love much more tiresome and daunting for him when he didn't even get to enjoy the infatuation stage of a relationship. And so he did what he's been doing since high school, after a brief relationship with a harmless, but incompatible girl. He dove headfirst into his studies and individual pursuits--and maintained very strong relationships with friends and family.

This worked just fine when we were in high school. We didn't need anyone else back then frankly-even Emmett was included in our bubble world alot of the times. But as we were starting our new lives in different directions, I could feel Edward being left behind. I had been with Jasper for two years now--Emmett had been with Rosalie for three. And all I wanted more than anything was for my dearest brother and best friend to have someone to love deeply-and for that someone to love him deeply back.

I walked groggily towards Edward a couple steps but couldn't keep my footing well.

"Alice, are you okay?" Jasper rushed to my side and kept me propped up.

"She's blacking out, "Emmett said casually-he'd seen me do this before, and everyone dismissed it on me getting up too suddenly.

By the time I came back to, Edward was by my side, along with the others-and everything was back to normal. Nothing was drowned out now, the song was over, and as I looked hurriedly around, there was no plumeria flowered mane of hair in my field of vision.

"You okay, Alice?" Edward was patting my head sweetly. I closed my eyes at that moment--I couldn't look at him. I felt like I had just failed him--9 months of planning, and the moment passed without him even knowing...

Edward said firmly, "Let's call it a night. She needs to get home and rest."

BPOV

"So, do you want to go back in, or call it a night?" Angela looked at me with concern as Ben offered to get us some sodas across the street. We had been planning this trip for over a year, and three months ago she had gotten together with Ben. He joined us at the last moment with my blessing--how could I refuse Angela anything? But after just one day of our vacation here, she was regretting letting him tag along. As much as she was attending to me like a good friend and Ben was being equally wonderful, I was feeling somewhat like a third wheel. I didn't want her to know I felt that way though, so I kept up a brave face.

I checked my watch. "Yeah, we better go. We don't want to miss the last bus to get us back to the right side of the island." We had gotten a great deal on a condo, beachfront even-we just didn't realize it was a whole 2 1/2 hours away from the center of Oahu's hustle and bustle. If we didn't catch the last bus, we'd be stuck on the wrong side of the island for the night.

Ben ran back with sodas for us as we headed to the bus stop. I walked behind them casually as they held hands. They were the rare couple that actually deserved eachother--in a good way. But there was a part of me deep down that was slightly envious of them in that moment. We were stuck on one of the most romantic places on earth;and after a whole night of clubbing, I had only been asked once to dance. I spent the majority of the night swaying to music on the side alone, feeling slightly awkward and invisible. Some things never change.

As we waited at the bus stop, I people watched the club patrons leaving. Beautiful people, tanned and casually glamorous, were streaming out consistently. I looked down at my summer dress that I was so excited to have found on sale at the mall a couple of weeks ago-suddenly it didn't seem so bold and attention getting as I imagined at that time. I tried to smooth out the wrinkles on my lap, when I watched a group of patrons come out who actually stood out among the beautiful. They were all tall, save one of them-and yet she stood out because she was so petite. They all had beautiful hair, beautiful skin, beautiful clothes. There were two couples among them--with a spare tire behind them bringing up the rear. He looked around disinterestedly before putting his head down as they walked away, his brightly auburn hair falling into his face.

I laughed slightly, finding some consolation that even the beautiful people can leave a club looking as alone as me. " I know exactly how you feel," I mumbled.

Angela turned my way. "Did you say something Bella?"

I shook my head and smiled reassuringly at her. "No, Angela." I looked up distractedly. "I think that's our bus coming now."

I looked back, and took one last glimpse at the most beautiful of the beautiful people disappearing within the crowd. The last thing I could make out of them as I hiked up onto the bus was that brilliant auburn hair, bobbing down the street.

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a/n:okay, tell what you think...lol