Breaking Dawn: Part II - the final saga comes to an end

They braved the cold and a little rain, but nothing was going to push dozens of Twihards — Twilight movie fan diehards — out of their place in line as they camped out Thursday at Porterville’s Galaxy 9 Theater, hoping to be one of the firsts to see “Breaking Dawn: Part Two,” the final saga of the Twilight series.

“I’m so excited,” said Michaela Lambert, 13. “On a scale of 1 to 10, I’d say I am 1,000 right now. That’s how excited I am about today. I am a nerd for Twilight but we do this as a tribute to my sister who died three years ago.”

Lambert, a Burton Middle School student, and her younger brother Colton, 10, were the first in line at the theater, arriving at 4 p.m. Wednesday and taking their place in line after getting the OK from management.

“Twilight movies are always crazy,” said Veronica Garcia, general manager of the theater. “This is actually one of our biggest crowds. Twilight fans are pretty big. We are showing it in four auditoriums, with Theater No. 9 completely sold out.”

Theater No. 9 is the Porterville Galaxy’s largest theater, with a seating capacity of 410.

“We expect to sell all four of them out,” Garcia said.

And as they do, a new screen will open until all nine are filled — something that happened when the second film in the series “New Moon” was released in 2009, and something that Garcia said she is expecting to happen again.

The popular films are based on a four-book series by Stephanie Meyer — a love story about a vampire, Edward Cullen, who falls in love with Bella Swan, the new girl in school. Bella Swan is caught in the middle as Jacob Black, a werewolf and enemy of the vampires and a long-time family friend, also falls for her.

The triangle has led fans to announce their loyalty to Team Edward or Team Jacob, with other characters eventually getting teams.

Thursday’s movie — the final book was split into two films — is the last in the series and one fans did not want to miss.

By 1:30 p.m., the line of Twihards, an approximate 200 of them, snaked around the theater.

Michaela’s crowd of 14 people had posters, blankets, pitchers of hot water for hot chocolate, air mattresses and tents. For entertainment, they played the soundtracks from the four films — Twilight, New Moon, Eclipse and Breaking Dawn.

If they needed anything, friends were only a cell phone call away.

One person, Jacky Bader, baked “Twilight” cookies.

Behind Michaela’s crowd, another group of 10 friends and family members also camped. They arrived an hour after the first group.

Andrea Paul and Veronica Lopez, calling themselves partners in crime, admit to being true Twihards.

“We have about 25 friends, family and co-workers here,” Paul said.

They saved spaces for some of their coworkers and for Demerae O’Connor, a student who got up at 5:50 a.m. to get ready for school.

The entire group wore matching vampire rings — blood-red lips with fangs and hanging jewels representing dripping drops of bright-red blood. Another member made “Twilight” trinkets — pins, photo frames and other paraphernalia to sell and share.

“We’ve been planning this since July. I asked for the time off one year in advance to get two days off,” said Lopez. “It’s fun to do.”

At the end of the 1 p.m. line were Brizzia Mendoza and Ronie Sandoval. The two, who said they were best friends, requested the day off from work in April and a year ago November, respectively. Both claimed to be members of “Team Edward.”

“We had to work last night or we would have been here sooner. Usually we aren’t this far back,” Mendoza said. “We’ve done this for every movie, except the first — they didn’t have a midnight showing for that one.”

As the evening wore on, people arrived by the hundreds, standing in long lines, in anticipation of the 10 p.m. show.

Contact Esther Avila at 784-5000, Ext. 1045. Follow her on Twitter @Avila_recorder.