Stephenie Meyer owns Jasper and all the rest of the Twilight series concept, dang it!
I'm just playing with the characters.
HALLOWEEN, 2012
Halloween Party – Part 1
Chapter 1 – Party Preparations
Halloween. Standing in the shadow of the overhang at the public library, I tried to fight back the uneasy feelings I had been plagued with all day. Something was close to happening; I could just feel it in my bones. I had a restlessness and a yearning for…I didn't know what. It was just an unsettled feeling that I was not accustomed to.
It had been a gray, overcast day, typical for Forks, Washington. And it didn't help that right now, I was being worked on by Alice.
"C'mon, Bella," whined Alice. "I'm not going to the costume party alone! P-l-l-e-e-a-s-s-e come." My best friend knew how to push all my buttons.
"Alice, you know how I feel not only about parties, but dressing up. Besides, I don't have a costume!"
"Yes, you do!" she replied cheerily, and a bit too quickly. "Wear your costume from the ball scene of 'Phantom of the Opera'."
Yeah, Phantom had been Forks High School's musical this year. Even though we only had a grand total of twenty students in drama club, the drama teacher decided to stage "Phantom of the Opera." Miss Beam was retiring this year, and she obviously wanted to go out with a bang. In order to get enough people on stage for the ball room and other scenes, she recruited volunteers from the city. Turns out lots of the local ladies wanted to wear a ball gown, and they wanted this enough to put their husbands in a tuxedo and mask and bring them too, so they would have a dance partner.
Lauren got the lead role of Christine, and though I got roped into doing a bit of Assistant Producer type duties, I had an onstage role as well. We actually staged the masked ball with the falling chandelier scene. Although it went quite smoothly in rehearsal, during every night of the actual show, somebody got hurt when our supposedly safe prop fell during a climactic scene. And for once, it hadn't been me. I don't know why I felt so smug about that. Maybe my lifelong bad luck streak was about to change.
But just now, as Alice and I were talking, I saw a car come to a sudden stop across the street. The windows were tinted so I couldn't see the driver; I could only see that it was a NICE car. I didn't really know cars, but the sleek lines and spotless paint job meant that one was expensive.
Alice was continuing to chirp out her enthusiasm as the car door was opening. "Oh, it's going to be so great tonight," she almost sang.
"Really, Alice," I said, watching as the driver exited the car across the street, "it'll be too much."
My voice died out as I saw a tall, lanky stranger gracefully extricate himself from the driver side. He had wavy blond hair that fell gracefully to his shoulders, a strong jaw and even features, and was wearing sunglasses…on an overcast day without a hint of sunlight. But the shades were hot. He was hot!
And he was looking at me?
Alice, however, was looking at her watch and missed the whole thing. She kept talking though, a thousand words a minute, barely pausing for breath. Lunch hour was almost over, we both needed to hurry if we were to get back to class on time.
"I can get you into the dress, don't worry," she continued. "Come on; it will be fun!"
"I'm never putting that dress on again. I looked like a cream puff!"
"You looked wonderful. All those ribbons and underskirts, it was amazing. I wish my mother could sew like yours," she sighed. Catching my eye roll, she quickly continued, "But don't worry; I'll get you dressed again. Really, all you have to do is stand there."
"And be laced into something so tight I can't breathe? How did women ever stand to wear those corsets?" I retorted.
"You really do exaggerate," she replied, sighed dramatically.
I watched as the stranger, still across the street, seemed to shake his head and open the car door. As I looked back at Alice, I heard the car start. It slipped off silently. I bit my lip, petulantly. He was gone. Whoever he was, he was too good for this dead-end place.
I sighed. "OK." I relented. "I'll go."
She squealed, saying, "I'll pick you up then."
"The library after school, OK?" I called after her. "I have to finish my paper." As I watched her dash off towards her car, trying to avoid the rain that was just starting to fall, I sighed. I really dreaded putting that costume on again.
But Alice always gets her way, so a few short hours later, I was standing in my room, while Alice pulled all those layers over my head. First the chemise, which was topped by the corset, which Alice laced. Then the first layer of petticoats, which would be covered by the hooped skirt or crinoline, a final petticoat called the Over Petticoat, and at last, the top layer of the dress itself. In the old days, there would have been several more layers of petticoats. The dress Renee had made for this year's Phantom production was draped, and had two shades of blue, with the top layer's darker blue draped and caught with bows at the hip, and the bottom layer pleated below it.
My mother had originally made me the costume for "Beauty and the Beast," in which I had the lead role as Belle the year before. So it had originally been Belle's ball gown, all yellow and frothy, fit for a young ingénue.
This year, for "Phantom," Lauren got the lead of Christine. I was playing Carlotta, the aging star who Christine replaces. As far as my costume, Renee managed to keep most of the undergarments from Belle's gown the year before, as she had left a bit of room in them. She had changed the outer dress slightly, and made it blue. At least now I didn't look like a butter ball. But it still draped, and had ruffles around the bodice and had bows that attached the across the skirt. Totally not me.
I had to admit, though, that it was beautiful, as Renee could sew. She did a little of everything; she just never kept doing any of it. But she made my costumes for all the productions I was in.
She and Charlie thought Drama Club would help me overcome my shyness. Actually, I didn't think I had a problem with shyness. I had friends, but I just didn't feel the need to surround myself with a crowd. While I think Charlie understood this, he was still just so in love with Renee, and wasn't going to argue with her when it came to me.
"I think your mother is right, when it comes to the social things. She always understood those things better than me," he would say gruffly. "I love you like you are, but she wants more for you. Drama can't hurt on college applications either," he would add. He knew he had me there. I would need scholarship assistance of some kind, and the more I could show on my college applications, the better.
So I was put in drama from the third grade onward. Of course, in elementary school, plays were generally class plays, and participation wasn't optional. Over the years, I had been everything, whether animal, fruit or vegetable. I had been a carrot in the Easter Musical in grade school. The bunny parts had gone to the popular girls. I quickly saw how it worked, and decided I just didn't want the hassle. I managed to be an apple in the health presentation for fifth grade. It beat playing one of the germs that always got booed off the stage. That always lead to backstage crying, and parents asking the exasperated teacher why they would subject their child to such trauma. Oh, the drama!
I kept to my minor parts, and watched the game playing and positioning that went on for the other parts. So all the way through middle school, I had always been part of the chorus or one of the minor casts.
Then I got bored, and started going after the other parts. Why not? If I was going to be on stage for all those hours, and going to have to wear make-up and costumes, why not be one of the leads? It meant more to do, that would break the tedium of hours of rehearsals and performances.
During my freshman year of high school, I surprised everyone by getting the part of Anita, the supporting female lead, in "West Side Story". Jessica and Lauren had always managed to get the lead and supporting actress roles, and this upset their orderly arrangement. Jessica got to play Maria that year, and I had to spend my time avoiding Lauren's dirty looks and attempts to trip me backstage.
The next year, I decided to play it safe, and be the student producer. I didn't try out for a part. My mother threw such a fit about my lack of on-stage experience that the following year, when for some reason they decided to produce "Beauty and the Beast," I tried out for the part of Belle. I beat out both Lauren and Jessica, to everyone's astonishment.
This year, I was playing Carlotta in the "Phantom of the Opera." She plays the star who is replaced by Christine, the young ingénue of the Phantom. End result: my characters dies early in the production, and I just play a masked dancer at the ball and sing in the chorus. Hence the dress.
So for the Halloween party tonight, the costumes will be as follows: Alice will wear her Little Red Riding Costume; Rosalie plans to show up as Marilyn Monroe, in that white, va-va-va-voom dress from "The Seven Year Itch"; and I will go in my ball gown from "Phantom."
The Halloween party is at one of the churches, as they have room large enough space for all of us. The local parents decided years ago to stop hosting individual parties, and send the teen-agers to one party in the city, where there would be decent chaperonage. And the individual sets of parents wouldn't have to watch their own liquor cabinets, I'm sure.
The guys were grumbling, as that meant it would be hard to get the liquor into the punch. As usual, once the announcement of the usual church party was made, the guys quickly began to organize a second party, which they declared would more fun, as in the punch would be spiked. This year's clandestine party was going to be at the old "Dazzled by Twilight" storefront. There had been a downstairs bar, called "the Dungeon," that the guys had somehow gotten a key for. It promised to be a great setting, I had to admit.
As we would be trespassers, it made it all the more exciting. What would happen if they caught us? As the Chief's daughter, I felt sure Charlie might make an example out of me, but really. We knew the landlord, and I doubted he would do anything serious to us if we didn't break anything or make a mess.
By the time the evening rolled around, I was started to get into the concept. Alice had gotten me into my dress, and done my hair in an elaborate do that she saw from an old Harper's magazine from 1860. I felt like an idiot. Hairspray and bobby pins were not my thing. At least I convinced her to go light on the makeup.
At the appointed time, Rose came by in her car, as it had the most optimum seating. My truck would only seat two comfortably, and I would not be able to get into Alice's little Honda in that hooped skirt. After we were settled in, we set off for the party.
In the car, on the way to the church party, Alice and I asked for updates on the plans. Rose, of course, had all the latest on the boy's doings. Her date was Tyler. It was Tyler, Mike Newton and a few of the other guys had been sneaking into the property after dark all week to get things set up. Almost the entire block was vacant, and the town pretty much shut down after dark. The guys' cars at the location could be attributed to after school activities, as the high school was only a block or so away.
Tyler told her they had managed to get the power on and they had set up a dance floor. I suspected that the real reason for the power was to keep the beer cold, but I kept silent and let Rose talk. It was better to have real lights rather than candles since we would be in a basement, after all.
As we arrived at the church party, we got the usual hugs and admiring ooh's and ahh's over our costumes. After the standard amount of time spent mingling, dancing and admiring everyone else's costumes at the church party, it was time to move on. Tyler and Mike made the announcement they were leaving, as they wanted to get up early to go hunting the next morning. The male chaperones all nodded, they knew about the guy's enthusiasm for these things. They also figured something was up, but Halloween was a night for hijinks after all.
We finally made it to the second party at the Dungeon. We were met by Eric in a cheesy werewolf costume just inside the backdoor of the property. He was working the door in the early part of the night, and Ben Cheney was to relieve him later. He wished us a "scary evening," and then we went downstairs.
It really was creepy. They had put up cobwebs and stuck gooey things on the stairs, so we were giggling and shrieking as we encountered unexpected sensations on the way down. The main room had cobwebs, creepy table cloths and corpse type material draping the room, with black and red lighting contributing to the overall spooky effect. The guys had posed scary figures around the tables, some of which I recognized as having been "borrowed" from the neighbors' yards. That wasn't going to make the neighbors happy. Tyler caught my disapproving look, and whispered quietly that they would replace them by morning. Like nothing had ever happened.
Once we had admired the set-up and gotten our drinks, we settled in, listening to some good music for a change. It couldn't be as loud as we wanted, but it was our space, no chaperones.
Suddenly, heads turned and all conversation stopped as two more guests came down the stairs. One was a tall man, dressed as a confederate soldier; the other was a huge guy, dressed like the Hunchback of Notre Dame. Neither looked like local kids.
But my eyes were on the Confederate Soldier. I was sure that he was the stranger from the car earlier in the afternoon. He looked dashing, wearing a double breasted gray jacket, with a single gold star on the collar and gold trim on the sleeves, blue trousers, and a sword. He also had gloves and a kepi cap. As he came in, it seemed his eyes bored straight into me. Walking over to me, he bowed.
The guys were getting quite drunk, and my date, Mike didn't quite know how to handle the situation. He and Tyler greeted the newcomers with typical drunken tact, demanding, "So, who are you guys?"
"Just visitors," the soldier drawled his eyes still on me. "We heard this was the better party. And we brought gifts." He pulled a bottle of Jack Daniels out of a brown paper bag, and handed it to Mike with a courtly bow. The Hunchback produced a six-pack of wine-coolers and passed them to Tyler, saying, "For the ladies."
Tyler grabbed the liquor and wine coolers, and declared, "Well, you heard right. This is the better party! And these calling cards of yours just put you on the invite list. Where you guys from?"
"Elma," said the big guy. "That scene was too dull. The cops found our party set-up last night and busted it. We didn't have time to work up a new space. We tried to find you guys earlier today to get a more official invite, but decided to just follow you over here when we saw the cars leaving the church. OK to call our dates?"
At the mention of dates, the Tyler and Mike seemed relieved. They exchanged glances, and Tyler said, "Sure. Just be careful you're not seen. Wait, how did you get in?"
"The door was unlocked," said the soldier, his gaze back on me.
"Yeah, but Eric was supposed to be up there, working the door. Didn't you guys meet a werewolf up there?" asked Tyler.
The two strangers exchanged looks, and smiled. "Trust me, if we had met a werewolf, we would have noticed," the tall one said as the big guy laughed.
"The name's Hale," the tall man said, extending a gloved hand to Mike. "And this here is…"
"Quasimodo," said the big guy. "That's my handle tonight. Other days, I go by Em."
Mike and Tyler introduced themselves, and then turned to us. Alice was in her usual place, perched on her steady date Edward's lap. Quasimodo, or rather Em, couldn't take his eyes off Rosalie. Or rather, he was struggling to look at her eyes, and not at her chest. Rosalie seemed to take his gaze in stride. She tossed her head, forgetting she had put her hair into a Marilyn Monroe style do, so her blonde hair wouldn't be swinging as she tossed it. But she recovered quickly, and managed to still look regal as she acknowledged his admiring gaze as her due.
But once the soldier turned to me, I couldn't focus on anything else. His steel blue eyes held mine as he bent over my hand in a courtly kiss.
"My lady," he said. It almost looked as if he was sniffing my wrist, inhaling my scent. Weird.
I dipped into a curtsey and pulled out my fan. I looked at his gloved hands.
"I didn't wear my gloves because I didn't want to get them dirty. Now I feel quite naked," I said, as I held my open fan over my mouth. Since I was in a ballroom scene in the musical, I had looked up the language of the fan. Holding an open fan over your mouth meant you were single. But I was sure no one else would know that.
His mouth twitched slightly. "I liked feeling the warmth of your touch, though there were times when such an omission would have been quite scandalous," he said with a raised eyebrow. "But I'm rather enjoying it."
He glanced over at Mike and then back at me. "You're not here with your steady date, then?"
Startled, I wondered if he had recognized the signal I made with my fan. I stopped myself, what the hell was I doing? Flirting with a cute guy, that's all. It's just a party, loosen up, I told myself. "We're friends," I said.
The smile on his face broadened, and he glanced over at Quasimodo and Marilyn Monroe, who were gazing into one another's eyes as they slow danced to a fast song. They obviously were in their own world, moving to their own beat.
"Really, where are you guys from? I thought I saw you earlier today, across the street. Was that you, stopping in front of the library?" I asked.
"Yes, well, we were looking for the party. We realized we must have gone past the old storefront, so we were going to turn around. But first…I had to get a better look," he said, leaning closer to me, pulling me closer to him.
My breathing increased and was becoming ragged. "Better look?"
"At you. I saw you standing on the corner, and it was…as if the world stopped."
I laughed, starting to push him away. "You must mean Em saw Rose, because she's the only heart-stopper around here…" I started.
I was startled by what sounded like a low growl coming from him. It stopped quickly, as if he hadn't realized he was making the noise. He pulled me closer with one hand, as the other dropped down to my knee where he started to stroke my skirt.
"No, I sensed you were there. And I've been looking for you…for a long time."
PLEASE REVIEW. I'M NOT SURE IF THIS STORY WILL HAVE TWO CHAPTERS OR THREE. IT'S JUST A SWEET LITTLE HALLOWEEN PRESENT. I WILL SEND A PREVIEW OF WHATEVER IS NEXT TO ALL REVIEWERS.
