Alice stood in the middle of her closet, her little hands resting on her hips,
her mouth turned down in a thoughtful frown. She scanned row after row of
clothes, most organized by fabric and then by color, as she contemplated one of the most important decisions she would face that day. What to wear?
The problem wasn't that she didn't have anything to choose. It was that she had
far too much to choose from. The closet in question could hardly be called a
simple closet. It was the size of the bedroom from which she had just came and
fully stocked with an array of couture that would make even the most indulgent
fashionista green with envy. She sighed and thought it a shame that one couldn't
simply have six or so costumes changes throughout the school day the way people did at the Oscars or the Emmys.
Her porcelain hand trailed lovingly over the red chiffon of a new Robert
Rodriguez gown and she pursed her lips. No, that wouldn't be very inconspicuous,
not even at the Forks High School prom in a few months. She had already planned
a dress for that event though, thinking it would be better to keep it under
$1500 for the sake of blending in.
Blending in was something they had to stay vigilant about after all. The humans
of Forks couldn't know what they truly were. No one could know. And, for the
time being, they had them all fooled. Carlisle went to work at the hospital,
Esme volunteered on various committees, and she and her adopted siblings
attended the local high school. Life followed a predictable routine and no one
was the wiser regarding the family of vampires that lived right outside of city
limits.
Today, however, was going to be a little out of the ordinary. A few days prior,
Alice had foreseen a new girl coming to Forks High School. The rest were just
flashes, small glimpses at a future which was as of yet uncertain. It had,
however, put the Cullen family on edge. An outsider, with new eyes to look upon
their facade. They would have to be extra careful for a while until this Bella
Swan came to accept and mostly ignore their presence in the way that the rest of
Forks now did.
In the spirit of representing normalcy, Alice chose a puffed sleeve purple top,
a pair of jeans, and black flats. Okay, so the top was Gucci, the jeans were
PRPS, and the flats were Balenciaga but no one in Forks would recognize anything
as being designer so it was alright, she reasoned. All told she had on about a
$1700 outfit. She grabbed a black wool Marc Jacobs pea coat as she made her way
out of the massive closet with a smug smile. Might as well make it an even two
grand, she thought.
A quick look in the mirror to arrange her black pixie cut into contrived
disarray with practiced fingers and she was done. She skipped down the steps
with the grace of a ballet dancer, pleased to find Jasper, Emmett and Edward all
dressed in the clothes she had selected for them yesterday. If their life were
an act, then Alice had happily and enthusiastically taken on the role of costume
designer.
"Is everyone ready to go? Where's Rose?" she asked.
Rose insisted on dressing herself, much to Alice's chagrin. Though she did have
to admit, she never could find fault in any of her choices. If anyone knew how
to accentuate their own beauty, it was Rosalie.