Merry Christmas, as a present I've written a new chapter for EVERYBODY - and some NEW STORIES! Cause God help me, the new stories just keep coming and coming and I'm drowning...

Well, I have to say it guys, I've really sucked at sticking to my posting plan. But, my New Years resolution is that I'll stick to it. But I can only do ONE story at a time. So we're gonna have a little contest! There will be a poll on my page with all the sorry titles on it. But in also going to create a rule that each REVIEW, and only a REVIEW, (from a guest or not) will count as a vote for that story. You can follow and favorite to your hearts content, but it won't count. Thank you! Please review and vote! Will be open until the 9th of January.

Here we go - a new story!

Disclaimer:

LA: Please Don't sue us! We only own the OC, the AU thing is new to us...

Chapter 1

I checked my closet again. Hoping that I could find the perfect dress out of all of them, but again, came up empty. So, I called my mother, who had just gotten off work,"Hello," her peppy voice picked up.

"I can't find a good dress for Uncle Greg's party. Can we go shopping?"

"Is all your homework done?"

I sighed, having been in college, this question was strange and annoying, but always suited my mother hen,"Yes, and besides it's Friday."

My mother grumbled into the phone, before clearing her throat and saying,"Sure. We can go to the mall as soon as I get home and change."

I was flipping through the racks, waiting for something to catch my eye,"Why are we going again?"

"Because your uncle has been promoted to a Colonel and their throwing a party for him."

A worker from the store pranced up, this being the second time for him to do so he asked,"You sure you're okay, Miss?"

My mother and I both froze, and I swallowed,"Um, Yes," you pulled the dress that I was currently holding, some mint number,"Does this come in a medium?"

The man scanned over the dress, looking completely unphased and checked the tag,"I'll check in the back."

As he pranced away, I set the dress back and sighed, letting out the breath I hadn't known is been holding. My mother set her hand on my shoulder,"Don't worry dear, you'll find them, eventually."

I glanced down at my ankle, knowing full well what was hiding underneath my jeans. A script of somewhat legible cursive in maroon ink, that read, "You sure you're okay, Miss?" It was the first words my soul mate would say to me, appearing on my ankle at midnight they day I had turned 16. I had kept myself awake that whole night until finally the clock struck midnight, and I scoured my body before finally finding it.

Thinking back on my behavior with the attendant, I laughed,"That wouldn't have worked anyway, that guy talked to us earlier."

My mom giggled,"I know, but every time I hear someone even remotely say those words to you I get excited. Which happens far too often."

"Not all of us can be lucky enough to have their soul mates names in their first words like you and dad."

My mom smiled sadly, trying to sneak a glance at her wrist that has Hello, I'm James McDonald written in cursive, and green ink, that she now hid with brackets. My mom quickly hid the glance with a roll of her eyes and as she pulled a purple gem toned dress from the rack,"I know, I know. But if those are their words to you, just think about yours to them."

I giggled,"They might be having heart attacks if they work in the service industry."

The man from before came back with the same mint dress from the rack in a size medium, which I gladly took with the previous three that I and my mother had both picked out,"Let's go try them on."


After trying them all on, my mother and I finally settling on the mint colored dress that fell about an inch above my knees, it was a tunic dress that took in details from a yukata or kimono. With sleeves that ended widely and the cross section at the chest. It was light, flowy and comfortable.

So, when Saturday rolled around, I paired it with black edges that had a zipper in the back and seemed to hug my feet. I straightened by naturally wavey red hair and put it in a bun, making sure to flesh it out tying socks around my pony tail and then wrapping my hair around it.

My mother smiled and popped a red rose into my bun, "You look beautiful, Honey."

"Thank you mom." I put the finishing touches on my make up and did the clasp on a string of pearls that my Aunt and Uncle had gotten me.

The party would be held in a Suburb of Gotham, where my Uncle lived. The home was one that I had been plenty of times and visited often in my childhood. The backyard was only about half an acre but it was backed into a plot of land that held a creek going back into it. I smiled, thinking about all the times my Uncle, Dad and I would adventure back into it, and walk across the fallen tree trunk that lead to a clearing. Right after the clearing was a small stretch of woods that entered into a small strip of drugstores, restaurants, electronic equipment stores and hair salons.

My mother held my hand as we entered, and I almost fell when paparazzi started flashing cameras at us. This was a small suburb, only twenty minutes of the city, no one famous lived out here, until a limo pulled up and the paparazzi abruptly left us and swarmed it.

My mouth fell open as the Wayne family exited, my mother pulling me along,"Come along dear, I'm sure they don't want us to stare."

"Why didn't you tell me the Waynes were gonna be here?"

My mother sighed,"Well, I knew your uncle invited them, but I hadn't expected them to show up."

"Why did he invite them?"

"Contract work he had done for Mister Wayne. He claims that it was working with Mister Wayne that got him the connections to meet his rank."

I sighed. Great. I gazed back over my shoulder, Mister Wayne stepped out of the car, followed by his wife. We entered my uncle's house, and I tried to forget about them, after all they were just people like me and mom.

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