IMPORTANT NEWS:

Due to the possibility of having "Welcome to Drama Academy" turned into a real life novel, only the first chapter of the story will remain on Fanfiction as the others have been deleted for personal reasons. I'm sorry to have to make this announcement but please know how much it would mean to me if all of you understand.

As you probably already know, I decided to rewrite WTDA last year- a couple of months after the final chapter of the Fanfiction version was posted. When I made that decision, I removed my story from Fanfiction but posted it back up when a couple of readers pointed out to me that they never got the chance to finish the story or start on the story. So I reposted it two days later and then decided that I wouldn't remove it until I was done with the rewriting of WTDA.

The Fanfiction version of WTDA has been finished for a little over a year now. Even so, I still have alerts, reviews and favorites coming into my mailbox and I want you to know how thankful I am to have both my old readers rereading my story and new readers giving WTDA a chance. I understand that not everyone shares the same opinion about my work. I try to accept the fact that it's simply impossible to NOT receive any flames for one story since let's face it, nobody's writing is perfect or capable of pleasing everyone. Even successful writers like Stephenie Meyer and J.K. Rowling have people bashing their work, not that I'm comparing myself to them since they are both goddess in the world of writing, in my opinion. Anyway, lately I've found that the reason as to why I've been wanting to delay the rewriting of WTDA is because of the flames that come in occasionally every month or so. To be honest, I don't really think I can handle the pressure from flamers while attempting to pursue my dream as a writer. Sometimes when I read the flames, I just… feel like deleting WTDA from my computer. A person can only stand so much "your story sucks and your writing is a piece of crap" or "all of your readers are idiots if they think this junk is worth their time" while he or she writes.

I try not to let the flames get into my head. But I'd be lying if I say they don't affect me at all because they do upset me. So in order to keep myself focused on WTDA and its sequel, I'm choosing to pull WTDA from Fanfiction for now. Hopefully that will allow me to get the original version of WTDA done faster. Please don't think I'm punishing you guys because of the flamers. I love each and one of you for being so supportive of my stories and I don't know where my writing would be without you.

A couple of you might be wondering… "WHAT ABOUT THE SEQUEL?" The sequel will still be updated and will not be removed from FF anytime soon. I will never leave a story unfinished. It's just… wrong.

To those of you who wanted to read WTDA but never got the chance to, I give you my apologies. I hope one day if I do get the chance to turn it into a real novel, you'd be interested in that and would be willing to give WTDA another chance.

At this point, I'm no longer allowing translations to WTDA. But I'm incredibly grateful to the fact that you guys enjoyed the story so much that you're willing to translate it for non-English readers to enjoy. Also, I DO NOT wish to have my story posted on Wattpad, Blogspot, or any other websites even if you do credit me as the author. That just kind of defeats the whole purpose of my pulling WTDA from Fanfiction and I really don't feel comfortable with having my story under someone else's name. So if you guys see possible plagiarism or an unauthorized copy of "Welcome to Drama Academy", please PM me and let me know. I would really appreciate that and I thank you in advance.

I hope that you guys understand my decision and don't hate me for it. I'm going to need all the love I can get. Thank you all for being so kind when it comes down to my stories. Honestly, I wouldn't even be on this site if it weren't for you guys- the readers. So again, THANK YOU! You are all awesome and don't let anyone tell you otherwise.

Important News Edit 1; I know a couple of you are wondering why I left Chapter One online and didn't just delete the entire story. Well, the thing is I've seen people claiming another author's work as their own and I want to leave my story on Fanfiction to prove that I did indeed write the story. The first time I announced I was removing WTDA for good, a person told me that there was no way I could stop her from posting my story under her name because my story wasn't copyrighted and there would be no prove of WTDA being my story after I removed it from the Internet. So, to prevent similar situations from happening again, this is purely a precaution. I'm sorry if it upsets you. I assure you it is not my intension.

1. East Coast Academy

oooooo

I sighed as I stared and examined the place that I would have to call home for the next two years.

"Isabella, call if you ever need anything, okay?" My father said for the thousandth time before handing me my luggage.

I suppressed the idea of rolling my eyes; it wouldn't be very polite since I knew Charlie was just being a dad. I'm not going to lie and say the endless Are you sure?s didn't get on my nerves, and I suppose it was a good thing that he seemed worried about me. I mean, at least he cared.

"Dad, I'll be fine," I assured him, hiding the annoyance in my voice even though I was completely tired of repeating the same sentence over and over again. But as long as I was keeping on the happy façade, I might as well as just do it thoroughly. So I smiled; a happy, reassuring smile that should have told him I was going to survive and enjoy this place.

"Good luck, kiddo." He patted my head and gave me a tight hug. "I hope you meet great friends."

Don't hold your breath, I almost blurted out.

"Sure. See you later."

I waved him goodbye and sighed in relief as soon his BMW was out of sight. I was sick of the fake, cheerful face that I forced myself to put on for his sake. I knew it wouldn't have been fair to him if I pouted the entire way here, since coming here was my decision and I should be grateful that Charlie was being so nice about this. But the second my flight landed in California, I was beginning to have second thoughts. The less noble side of me told me to bail. Get on another plane and go back to New York, where I belonged.

That was the problem though. I didn't belong in New York. Or otherwise, I would have never made up my mind on coming here in the first place. The problems that I had in New York weren't going to solve themselves. And if I went back, I was only allowing history to repeat itself. Maybe coming here would change everything, said the optimistic side of me. Maybe, just a small maybe, I'd actually like it here.

Yeah right.

Taking a sharp breath, I turned around to face my new school- East Coast Academy, home of the Bulldogs.

Huh. Perfect.

My father, Charlie Swan, was a movie producer. He wasn't well-known or anything so I don't think any of you have heard of him, but then again, what movie producers were famous? Nobody ever paid attention when the credits began rolling. It was the movie stars that get all the fame and glory.

Anyway, he lived in Beverly Hills, the far-famed 90210 while I lived in Brooklyn, New York with my mom, Renee. Since we didn't live together, we were never really close. The topics of our exchanges on the phone either involved the weather or the basketball games on T.V. Needless to say, totally pointless and awkward. I could sense his effort on making a conversation with me in the hour-long car ride a while ago, but despite how hard he was trying to make everything seem Aliceural and easy, it was one of the longest hours of my life. Not that I blame him or anything. We were never conversationalists around each other.

My parents divorced when I was a toddler. Mom got remarried recently and her husband, Phil, was a pretty cool guy. He wasn't the fatherly figure; I saw him more as a friend than a stepdad, but I was completely fine with it. The last thing I needed was a pair of parents. I mean, having one set was good enough. Doubling that would just be… unbearable.

Charlie's new wife, Carmen, however, was a problem. She somehow deluded herself into thinking that she needed to look after me and stick her nose in every single one of my problems. I constantly reminded her that I had a mother- a real mother. One that actually cared about me and not just faking it in front of my dad to get on his good side. Of course, I wasn't that blunt about it. But normal people with a bit of a brain could detect the true meaning behind my words.

There was nothing that I liked about her; we had nothing, nothing in common. She was a total shopaholic, that shameless gold-digger. I mean, how else could she have afforded the endless shopping sprees and makeovers at the salon if it weren't for my father's financial support? She didn't even have a job, for heaven's sake. I had no idea what Charlie saw in her.

I wouldn't be so pissed off if she wasn't only ten years older than me. Perhaps that was the reason Charlie married her- she was young. But come on, do you honestly expect me to call someone who was old enough to be my sister mom or stepmom for that matter? She must have been out of her mind if she thought that was going to happen.

My mom and I were never desperate for money. She made a good salary as an agent in a real estate company and her income was enough to support both of us over the years. We didn't live in the fanciest neighborhoods, but we had a nice, little house in Brooklyn, facing the Brooklyn Bridge and everything. Then a few years ago, my father produced a huge hit and his career began sprouting from there. He now had several houses on Sunset Boulevard, although he only kept one for himself and Carmen since he rented out the rest of them to part-time or small-shot actors in need of a place to stay while they were filming. He always told me real estates were good investments.

On the day of my mother's wedding, he told the both of us that he'd be happy to take over my schooling expenses- including college and everything- now that he could afford it. Don't get me wrong; before he became a big-time producer, he mailed in checks every month but they barely covered anything since everything in New York was extremely pricey. After producing his second successful movie, the monthly check was tripled and that didn't even cover the tuition money that he promised! My mom and I felt bad about it at first, but Charlie said it was his way of saying Thank you to Renee for bringing me up by herself over the years when he wasn't much of a help.

Attending a boarding school had been a dream of mine since I was in elementary school. I thought the kids looked "cool" because they could live without their parents at such a young age. But as I grew up, the idea of boarding schools became less and less appealing. I was old enough to know a thing or two about money and I knew exactly how expensive the tuition of the private schools could be. And this was definitely a lot more than a private school. It was a boarding school. So I came to a conclusion at the age of ten and gave up on that dream; it was a placed for rich kids, not for commoners like me.

But after Charlie landed those gigs in Hollywood, I began to think maybe this dream was no longer impossible to fulfill, even though I wasn't as thrilled about boarding schools as I was back in elementary. He made an offer on me moving in with him and Carmen and after contemplating, I asked him if it was okay for me to attend a boarding school instead. He didn't understand the boarding school deal, but I couldn't just go up and tell him that his new wife was a total cow and how I would rather stab myself than to live in the same house as her. So I lied and told him about the dream fulfilling story and to my astonishment, he was surprisingly agreeable about the whole thing. Then, before I knew it, I was packing and leaving for one of the best boarding/private schools in the country- ECA.

Even though coming to ECA was a decision that I had made for myself, I wasn't really looking forward to it because the entire boarding school idea was my last resort. I wasn't afraid of not meeting friends since I'd always been a loner growing up, but I was reluctant to be proven that I was a freak again. I mean, there had to be something wrong with me. Why did I never fit in? Why did I feel excluded even when the other kids back home included me in their conversations? The thing was, I had no connections with the people my age. While the other girls dreamed of being popular cheerleaders in high school, I wanted to be the valedictorian. Which roughly translated what I was to them- a complete nerd and geek. And was moving to California going to change that? I didn't think so.

East Coast Academy had a population of two thousand students compared to the four hundred back home in New York. My first impression of the campus was that it was very bright and modern. There were guys tossing footballs and freebies on the grass, girls sitting on beach stools to get tans, students coming out from the bookstore with shopping bags… I felt like I was visiting a hotel or a country club by how relaxed everyone was looking.

The buildings here were also magnificent. Every one of them held their own style; most of them were classy Romanesque architectures, but there were a few high-tech looking buildings further down the pavement. There was a beautiful, Victorian fountain in the center of plaza, where most of the students were gathering at, and beside it was a copper statue of Abraham Lincoln. Palm trees were lined up neatly along the sidewalk whereas the flower bushes below them were nicely trimmed into shapes. The campus was clean to the extreme- not a dry, fallen leaf in sight.

I took a sharp breath then walked hesitantly toward the Administration Office. There was a very pretty lady- Roxanne, it said on her name tag- sitting at the reception table, typing speedily on an impressive, high-tech computer. I secretly hoped that not all of the people here looked like her. Because if that were the case, I would definitely not fit in.

She's not going to bite you. Get a grip of yourself. After breathing in and out to get my system working normally again, I cleared my throat to get the attention of the lady, who still hadn't noticed my presence since she was so engrossed in her work.

"Umm… Excuse me? I'm Isabella Swan. I'm new here."

She glanced up from her computer screen and her face was plastered with a huge, professional smile.

"Hello, sweetie! Welcome to our school. Let me get you some forms to fill out… would you like something to drink? A cup of water? Tea?"

"No, I'm fine. Thanks."

"Alright. I'll be right back."

The click-clacking of her stilettos grew fainter as she disappeared into one of the offices. A few minutes later, she came back with a stack of white paper and a stack of yellow.

"Here's your schedule, a map of our school, and I need your signature on all of these…"

That was what I hated the most about transferring to another school. Paperworks. Agh.

The dormitory that I was supposed to be living in was really close to my classrooms, or so it seemed on the map. I thanked the receptionist one last time before exiting the office. She wished me luck and I returned a smile. Luck was exactly what I needed.

I honestly thought it wouldn't be hard to find the dormitory since I assumed I could just go to the place with the most girls. That had to be the place, right? A dormitory. How hard could that be? But I was wrong. The crowd that I was tailing after spilt into four groups when they reached four identical buildings that were each five stories tall. I sighed, defeated and scowled at myself for being so naive. Of course there were going to be separate buildings. I couldn't honestly expect one thousand girls to fit in one building. So I checked to see if there was any other information in the stack of paper that the receptionist had given me earlier that could tell me which building was the right one for me.

Rosenberg Hall-B. Room 206.

Okay. The B had to stand for something, right? I examined the buildings through narrowed eyes and caught sight of the tiny letters that were painted inconspicuously on the corner of each building. My breath was caught in my throat when I found the one that I had been searching for. I stood there, immobile with horror. Questions that I hadn't considered before my arrival were overflowing my mind. What would my roommate be like? Would she be nice? Mean? Would she be like one of those villains from the movies that would hold a knife against your throat when you're asleep at night and manage to get you annihilated without having anyone finding out?

I shook my head. I'd been watching too much horror movies lately.

A group of blondes exited from the gate, laughing as they flipped their golden hair under the sun. Shyly, I dragged my bags across the hot pavement and found myself in the student's lounge after dialing the password at the gate. Even though my luggage had not made any noise at all, most of the students in the common room seemed to have acknowledged my presence. Lots of snickering and pointing took place and I encountered a few sneering, unfriendly-looking group of girls who looked very unimpressed by my outfit after giving me an once-over.

"Ha… Newbie."

A girl with long black hair smirked and clicked her tongue when I strolled by. Her friends started cracking up and began whispering giggly to each other when I said excuse me to get by. Ignoring them, I headed for the elevator. This place was going to be my personal nightmare. What was I thinking, moving all the way across the country for this?

The elevator was empty- thank goodness- and it allowed me to recollect myself before going on my next mission. Room hunting. I did the breathing in-and-out routine that my mom's yoga teacher had taught her and it was helpful, surprisingly.

Room 204… Room 205… Oh, here it is. Room 206. My heart pounded heavily against my chest when I reached a door with an empty corkboard hanging below the doorplate. This was it. This was it.

I inhaled deeply and dug in my purse for my key. There was someone else in there already; I heard a voice coming from the other side of the door before touching the knob.

My roommate.

Hesitantly, I turned the knob and caught a slight peek of a girl who was facing me with her back, babbling at top speed into her cell phone. I stood there frozen in the hallway, uncertain if I should knock to get her attention or I should just waltz in. But my struggling was unnecessary. The girl hung up as soon as I stepped in and turned around to greet me with an enormous, dazzling smile.

"Hi!" The girl skipped cheerfully then stopped right in front of me when she was about a foot away. "You must be Isabella! I'm Alice Cullen."

She hugged me as if we had been friends for life. The word "shock" would be an understatement compared to what I was feeling as I stared at the stranger in front of me. After composing myself, I began scrutinizing the bubbly girl, who was still staring at me with a warm smile.

Alice was very pretty; she had the cutest dimples when she smiled, was blue-eyed, and had short, spiky raven hair that was pulled up into a high, straight-to-the-extreme ponytail. I was a couple of inches taller yet she looked so much more energetic. She had a radiant glow on her.

Her enthusiasm was impossible to be ignored. I beamed back, pleased with her friendliness.

"Hello, Alice. Please call me Bella."

I always hated being called Isabella. Such a mouthful.

She laughed. "Oh my gosh! Here I am hugging you when you're probably dead on your feet! Let me help you with your bags!"

She took the luggage from me as if they weighed nothing at all and dumped them all on my bed, which was the one closer to the window.

"Thanks, Alice."

She turned around to face me with an apologetic expression that I didn't quite understand.

"I'm sorry," she said. "I must have scared you with my... forwardness. I'm just so happy about having a roommate! I mean, at the beginning of the year when they said the girl that was supposed to be rooming with me dropped out of school, I thought I was going to be alone until next semester. And then bam. Three weeks after school began, they tell me I'm having a roommate! I have a feeling that we're going to be great friends."

"Me too. You really are the nicest person that I've met all day!" I chuckled.

She grinned. "Then it's a good thing we're roommates. Do you need help unpacking?"

"Umm… I'll do it myself. You must have something better to do on a Sunday afternoon."

She shook her head. "It's fine. My boyfriend's in basketball practice so I don't have anything better to do. Besides, I remember my first day here. It took me a whole week to get settled." She grimaced then glanced around the room. "My advice? The sooner you get your things unpacked the better."

The room was fantastic, I'll give you that. A few yards away from the door was a spacious television area with a white, grand leather couch facing the plasma screen. There were soft, pink curtains draping elegantly over the glass windows and the walls were decorated with delicate, artificial flowers that matched perfectly with the little dining table in the south corner. In the middle of the room stood two queen-sized beds each with two huge, fluffy pillows. The bed looked so soft. No trouble getting sleep tonight, I thought to myself, amazed and awed.

She misread my silence.

"Oh, if you want to hang something up or if you don't like any of these decorations, feel free to take them off. This room is just as much yours as it is mine… I wouldn't want you to feel uncomfortable in it."

"No, Alice! The room looks awesome. Much better than my old bedroom back home," I said, still awestricken.

She looked pleased. "I'm glad that's the case. You had me worried there for a minute. Well, let's get you unpacked!"

She clasped her hands together and I unzipped my bags as I thanked her again for the generous offer. I had a feeling that we're going to get along just fine. Great friends, just like she had said.

We chatted while we unpacked. I found out that she, too, was originally from New York along with the rest of her family. She moved here when she was five due to the relocation of her father's job.

"…. It took some time to get used to, but Cali…."

There was a knock on the door and a beautiful blond-haired girl walked in, making Alice break off mid-sentence. I swallowed; she was breathtaking to look at. It was hard to believe she was actually a student here rather than a model for Runway. Her shiny blond hair was long and wavy; it curled up into delicate, lovely ringlets right above her waist. Her eyes were a clear shade of blue... just looking at her made me feel insignificant. There went a big strike on my self-esteem.

"Speaking of family," Alice chuckled. "Bella, I'd like you to meet my best friend, Rosalie Hale. She's my brother's girlfriend."

Before I could say anything, Rosalie smiled and extended her hand.

"It's really nice to meet you, Bella. Alice was so excited about having a roommate. I swear, I was beginning to get worried with all her talks of having one." She rolled her eyes at Alice and was accompanied by a laugh.

"You too, Rosalie." I smiled back at her.

"Rosalie's a senior and she lives right next door," Alice stated, unfolding another stack of my clothes to hang in the built-in closet.

"You don't have a roommate?" I asked tentatively, slightly intimidated by the gorgeous blonde in front of me.

"No," she replied, turning slightly pink. I frowned, puzzled, because the secretive smile that she shared with Alice made me feel like I was missing an inside joke.

Alice must have sensed my confusion.

"She needs the privacy with Emmett, my older brother." Alice elbowed Rosalie and when it finally dawned on me, I laughed. Rosalie looked desperate to change the subject; the blush still hadn't faded from her cheeks.

"So you want to head down to dinner now, Alice?" she inquired. "Of course, Bella is definitely more than welcomed to join us."

I didn't even notice that it was already 6:30.

"Sorry, Alice. I kept you working for so long," I said, smiling apologetically.

She patted my shoulder. "Don't worry about it. I wasn't even hungry. So what do you say, join us?"

"Er… sure, why not?"

"Great. Let's go to Hal's," Rosalie suggested. "Emmett and Jasper are there already. I saw them coming out from practice a while ago."

"Come, Bella. Let me introduce you to the rest of the group!"

As it turned out, there wasn't a cafeteria in this school. There were different kinds of shops, restaurants… even hotdog stands. It was as if we were living in a mini town. We passed by many chain stores like Pizza Hut, Subway… they even had a shop strictly for ice cream- Haagen-Dazs. Crazy, was all I could think.

When we reached Hal's, I saw two good-looking guys sitting outside and waiting at the table. They waved at us and apprehension slowly began to hit me. Of course, they were Emmett and Jasper. The two guys that Rosalie had mentioned earlier. God, I was so slow today.

"You must be Bella," said the bigger, more muscular one. With his curly brown hair and his insanely scary biceps, I suddenly felt alarmed. But after seeing him smile, I instantly relaxed. It was a warm, friendly smile. "I'm Emmett."

"Nice to meet you. How… how did you know my name?" I asked shyly. Emmett was at least a foot and a couple of inches taller than I was. I had to look up to talk to him.

"Well, Alice told us a lot about you on the phone a while ago. She has a tendency to do that: prattle endlessly about the things that she's excited about." Emmett snickered and sank back down on his chair.

Alice stuck her tongue out at him and I assumed she kicked him from under the table since Emmett's face was suddenly contorted with pain. I remember seeing her wearing heels before we left. Ouch.

"I'm Jasper," said the other one, laughing as he took in the scene in front of him.

Jasper looked very different from Emmett. He wasn't as muscular looking, but he was definitely built as well. He wasn't quite as intimidating looking with his gelled blond hair- which made him look as if he had just walked out from a shampoo commercial, but he still had this dangerous look, like Emmett, that would make you nervous at the sight of him. Perhaps it was the tiny silver hoop that he was wearing on his left ear that did the job? No. It was more than that.

"We're twins," Rosalie told me in a deflated tone.

"Unfortunately," Jasper added with a soft laugh.

"Oh…" I murmured. "So… what do you guys want to eat? I'm starving!" Emmett asked as he ran a hand across his stomach. "The coach made us run twenty laps at practice today."

Jasper licked his lips. "I don't know about you but the super-sized pizza sounds good to me."

Alice and Rosalie decided to get spaghetti while I ordered a Caesar salad for myself. I wasn't really in the mood to eat. Although the set of people in front of me seemed incredibly nice, I was still feeling fidgety.

"I'll be right back with your order," said the waitress, looking slightly flustered at the sight of the boys.

Emmett had ordered two refills of his Coke while we ordered. He smiled sympathetically at me as soon as the girl was out of earshot.

"I bet it's tough, huh? Moving to a place where you don't know no one."

"Anyone," Alice corrected him.

Emmett rolled his eyes. "Alright, grammar Nazi. Whatever."

"Umm…I guess it's hard. But I think I'll get used living here." I shrugged nonchalantly. "The campus is impressive."

Alice was about to say something but her face was suddenly wrinkled up with annoyance. She groaned and shook her head, disgruntled.

"Well, look who's there."

Rosalie put so much fake enthusiasm in her tone that it made me giggle. Then I followed the direction of their gazes and saw a bronze-haired boy, arms around a pretty blonde and a pretty brunette, laughing as he strolled by our table. He was lean andtan- he was no doubt better looking than any of the guys that I'd seen around our age.

He met my eyes briefly as he passed by and I found myself lost in his gaze. His eyes were smoldering and beautiful, just like the rest of him.

"The girls that he dates are idiots. Can't they see that he's playing them?" Jasper scoffed, looking away with apparent disapproval.

"They know. They just want to brag about their night with 'the Edward Cullen'…" Rosalie said, irritation creeping into her tone. "Jeez, what can they possibly see in him?"

I didn't dare to question about the attractive guy since they all looked frustrated by the fact that he existed. Rosalie and Alice went on ahead as if we had not been interrupted in the first place and prattled about an exam taking place next week. I stayed quiet and ate my food. I wanted to listen to them, I really did. After all, it would have been smart for me, the new kid, to keep up with the latest updates and gossips of this school. But instead of keeping tabs of the things that they said, dangerously, my thoughts wandered off to the gorgeous guy that I saw a while ago. What was his name again? Right. Edward.

Edward Cullen.