AN: So 2 years after the movies have finished and the last time I wrote, I get this burst of inspiration to write this story. Hope you like it. See you at the bottom….hopefully.

Chapter 1: The Dream Begins

It always started out the same.

My mother and I would be playing around in the house. She would lift up my four year old self and twirl me up into the air. I would let out a high pitched giggle as I wondered at this beautiful woman in front of me. I would watch her hair flowing behind her and think whether I would grow up to be half the woman she was. The house we would be living in was in Phoenix, it wasn't a big grand house but it wasn't small either. We would have a bright red Renault in the front yard that I loved so much, that my mother had to go to 'Toys R Us' just to get me a toy steering wheel which I would always take with me on car rides and pretend as if I was driving along with her. My mother would then sit down on the brown leather couch with three cushions placed on it and plop me onto her lap. She would smile joyfully down at me, her playfulness bright in her eyes. Then suddenly as she remembered something, her face would fall into a serious expression.

"Bella" She began carefully.

"Mom," I would copy.

"I know you wonder about your father sweetie, I see it every time we pass another family and you see a father with their child. I just wanted you to know….." She sighed.

Then I would realise where she was going with this, you see my mother's name is Renee but I didn't know the name of my father. I had never met him so I never thought that it would be a necessity to know about him. It was not until I began to notice that other families had three members instead of two and that the third member missing from our family was a male. The first and last time I had brought it up I was assured that not all families were like that and that you don't need three to make a family, two was enough as long as those two people loved each other very much. Of course back then I hadn't really been introduced to the need of the birds and bees to produce a child so that answer was sufficient seeing as how I didn't think there was a father needed. I thought that children were picked by man and woman or just one of them from a magical place to make a family. Then in that very moment like it was scheduled to the precise second, the door would be unlocked and in would come a man. Like in every dream so far, the man would step in and somehow my brain would recognise him instantly. I would run to him as fast as my little chubby legs could let me and yell out

"Daddy!"

My mother would gasp in surprise and tears would spring into her eyes and she would rush into his awaiting arms, like he hadn't been gone 4 years of my life. All would be forgotten. Our little family would be happy. And then

I wake up.

As I regained consciousness and my eyes adjusted to take in the room I was in, I could conclude that I was in that very same house in Phoenix like in the dream but instead of it being a medium sized house it was huge and that was because two doors down was my mother and her new husband Phil Dwyer. Phil is a huge baseball player and as a fan of baseball myself imagine my surprise when I was introduced to Phoenix's number 1 player. I had nearly melted into goo, I might have knelt down and repeated lines of I am not worthy but I didn't. After watching Phil on TV and practising what I would say to him if I ever did meet him, all that came out of my mouth was a huge "HUH?".

Flashback

It was life as usual at the Higginbotham household, I was in the sitting room watching re runs of one of my favourite shows of all time F.R.I.E.N.D.S. and mom was doing whatever crazy thing that mom was doing lately. I was laughing loudly sprawled out on the couch in my sweatpants and hoodie when mom entered in a black dress, make up and an earring in her hand.

"Who is he? Where does he work? Is it a legal profession?" I began asking.

A year ago mom began dating this guy Sam Tivin who tells her that he works in the profession of making people's dreams come true but what he really did was corn people into giving him large sums of money to invest in their "futures". He was pretty convincing, I mean his flyers seemed legit, so he tells mom that she has a wonderful singing voice which should have been a red light because I have heard my mom sing and it's not "wonderful" trust me. Mom of course with her spontaneity rushes at the chance and gives Sam a $1000 to help with her music career which she had been dreaming of achieving for like 5 seconds. She tells me that if this works out maybe we could duet together when we become famous. Sam then takes mom to his "Studio" and right in the middle of filming what happened to be my mom's version of 'My Heart Will Go On" by Celine Dion the cops burst in, shut the thing down accusing Sam of being a con artist and thus taking his scamming ass to jail leaving my mom to live up to the song by having a couple of hours ice cream therapy and heading back into the dating world again. Although I have a feeling that she was mostly upset that she didn't get her 15 minutes of fame.

"Oh Bella, it's been a year already. I think have learned to choose men whose careers…" She started.

"Or fake careers," I interjected

"Or fake careers will not get them in jail," She finished.

"Okay then mom who is this new non career faking prince charming," I asked in boredom.

"Wait until you see him," She says ominously heading for the kitchen.

"Ah but dear mother, you know I hate surprises," I said following her.

"Well you'll like this one," She winked.

"URGH but you better be home by 11:30," I groaned playfully

A ding interrupted my playfulness making me dash to the door.

"I wonder if Prince Charming is wearing any handcuffs, I hear their in style," I yelled over my shoulder.

"One time!" She yells back, walking quickly behind me.

I flung the door open only to be greeted by the smiling face of Phil Dwyer, flowers in one hand and wearing a suit. I thought my jaw was going to fall of judging by how wide my mouth was.

"Phil! You're here, lovely to see you. This is my daughter Bella," She exclaimed

"Hi, I'm Phil" He held out his hand but all I could do was stare at it.

"Trust me Phil; I think she knows who you are." Mom laughed.

"Oh so you're a baseball fan?" He asked raising his eyebrows.

"HUH!?" I uttered in shock "What are you doing here? Outside my house!? Phil Dwyer is outside my house! Oh my God!"

"Er I'm actually here to take your mother on date," He said awkwardly.

"You are going out with mom? MY mom?" I questioned.

"Yes," they both answered. Weird.

"Did I miss an entire season of The Bachelor or something where my mom happened to get date with Phil Dwyer?" I demanded.

"No actually your mom and I met the other day and we got to talking…. and then I eventually asked her out on a date," He revealed sheepishly.

Phil was one of my favourite baseball players and I didn't have a crush on him or anything like that but I did have a great amount of respect for him. Mom was four years older than Phil but that's not bad. Holy shit if this goes well, I will be living with Phil Dwyer! This could work out well for everyone! Renee Dwyer. Isabella Dwyer! It was a step up from Higginbotham that's for sure. How did these names get created in anyways?

"Oh well! I have kept you two long enough! You two kids have fun! Bring her back anytime" I said waving my arms around.

"But you said eleven…" Mom began.

"Time is ticking mother, you need to leave" I cut her off.

They both laughed at my antics. Phil turned to mom and put his arm out for my mother to take which she did as they stepped down the stairs to Phil's Vauxhall Astra VVT. I think I might have just swooned for her. After sending a text to my mother commanding her to treat Phil nice, I jumped on the couch and squealed in excitement before returning to my reruns.

End of Flashback

When mom and Phil got engaged there was the matter of which house we were going to live in, ours which we held so dearly to our hearts but was too small for Phil to have all his stuff and I'm not joking it was a lot of stuff or Phil's which he shared with his sister but held no emotional attachment to at all. After a few weeks of tossing ideas back and forth I, the adult in the soon to be family decided that if Phil's only problem with our house was size we could expand it a bit more to the size he wanted and we could stay in the house we were so attached too. This expansion meant that we had to move into Phil's house for the couple of months it took to build it. The house was finished during the course of my mom and Phil's honeymoon where I had to stay with Aunt Mel; Phil's sister. I was unhappy with arrangement of course because I was a strong independent young woman whose rights to able to take care of herself were taken away from her. Whilst in the midst of explaining this to my mother she had laughed at me pointing out that I was exaggerating. After moving into the house I expected the house in the dream to change to fit the mini mansion that we now had but it didn't, it stayed consistent. I also expected Phil to make an appearance in the dream but not even once had his face popped into my dream. Dragging my half asleep body I got out of bed and went into my bathroom to wash my face before heading downstairs. You see unlike most teens my age on the weekend I didn't go out and get so smashed that the name I was given as child would just fly out of my head. I preferred to stay in and get lost in the fictional world. Not caring if the world saw me in my Marvel's pyjamas I opened the door and headed to the mail box like everyone in my grade had been doing. It was that time of year again. University acceptance letters were coming out and so far I had gotten two from the University of Phoenix and the University of Washington but those were both for majoring in Literature and Creative Writing. I love writing, I really do but there is one thing that I am more passionate about and that is music. I had also applied to The Cullen Arts and to MUNY but when the letter from MUNY came, the words 'We regret to inform you…." had me running up the stairs and letting my emotions out and into my pillow. After the rejection from MUNY and the lack of response from The Cullen Arts, my hope had begun to slip away. Sighing heavily I grabbed the stack of letters and walked back to the house. Hearing clattering in the kitchen I walked towards the noise to be greeted by the sight of Mom and Phil making out.

"Gross guys, I would love it if you kept it PG-13 in my presence," I said disgustedly.

"Ah Bella. Good morning to you too" Phil said pulling away from mom.

"Morning sweetie," Mom giggled "Let's take a look at that mail,"

Giving the mail to her, I walked to the fridge and grabbed some orange juice. Picking up a glass from the cardboard I went to Mini Island, pulled out a chair and sat down. Phil opened the newspaper he was reading yesterday and I began to pour my drink whilst we waited for Mom to start reading.

"Okay, electricity bill, phone bill, water bill, The Cullen Arts, Invitation to Leila's wedding..." Mom muttered.

"Wait what," I gasped almost knocking over my juice.

"Urgh, I know honey this is going to Leila's 4th husband. I am getting sick of going to her weddings," Mom said missing what I was surprised about.

"Honey I don't think that's what she was talking about," Phil said amused.

He picked up the letter with The Cullen Arts logo on it and passed it to me. My heart began to race as I watched the piece of paper. My palms began to sweat as trembling fingers reached out to touch the envelope, only to have them fly away like I was touching something hot.

"Maybe I should open it later," I suggested.

"Bella whether you open it now or later the answer that is in there will still be the same. Best to open it now," Phil advised.

"Fine," I sighed

I reached for the envelope again, turning it around and ripping it open. Reaching inside and grasping the piece of paper that would make me or break me; I held my breath.

"To the Parent/Guardian of Isabella Dwyer," I began.

As I read the next words my heart stilled. I couldn't believe it. My breath hitched and tears began to invade my eyes.

"Honey if they can't see the talent that you have..." Mom started sorrowfully.

"We would love to inform you that Isabella Dwyer has been ACCEPTED into The Cullen Arts," I finished screaming.

Mom and Phil joined in my celebration by screaming themselves. Wrapped in the arms of two of my favourite people I began to cry only to hear a noise that was louder than my crying interrupt the moment. Turning around I saw my tiny golden retriever glancing up at us, head cocked to the side. Bending down and embracing, I laughed in amusement as he licked my face.

"Guess what Archie; I got into The Cullen Arts!" I whispered as reality struck me.

I Isabella Marie former Higginbotham now Dwyer was going to the school of my dreams and I could not wait to get there.

AN: So that's it for now. I hope you enjoyed it and leave a comment on your thoughts on the story; I would love to hear them unless those thoughts are you suck. Lol….. I'm not joking