Life's A Masquerade
Chapter 1
"Alice! Alice get your little tinker bell butt in here!" Bella yelled as she stood in front of Alice's guestroom mirror. She sighed and looked herself over again. Alice had dressed her in a royal blue gown with silver butterflies sewn into the bottom of the dress and had been handed a silver and blue mask that was shaped like a butterfly that covered her eyes, nose, and most of her cheeks. How had Alice convinced her to show up at this masquerade party? It was her first week in Forks and she hardly knew anyone and she had wanted to keep it that way. Bella had always been shy and kept to the books she loved so much, but somehow her new friend Alice had convinced her that the masquerade would be a fun way to meet people without them learning who she really was, or as Alice had put it "you really get to know people when they hide behind a mask".
"Knock knock, you yelled?" Alice asked in a cheery fashion as she skipped into the room.
"Alice I'm crazy for letting you talk me into this. I should have just stayed at home and curled up with one of my favorites."
Alice gave Bella sad smile. "I promise tonight will change your life forever. If it doesn't you will never have to go on another shopping trip with me."
Giving herself a look over once again she sighed and sat down in front of Alice's vanity. "Never again?" Bella asked. Alice's eyes sparkled as she moved to Bella and started to pull her curled chocolate hair on top of her head.
"Never." Alice said with a smile. "But you know that's not going to happen. I have a really good feeling about tonight for you."
"Not again with your premonitions Alice. The last feeling you had about me I ended up under a pile of books." Bella said with a nervous glance at Alice in the vanity mirror.
"Oh don't be such a whiny child Bella. You found that rare book you had been looking for." Alice gave a small laugh. "Now that I have your hair done you can put on your mask and head down stairs to mingle with all the guests."
"What about you, when are you coming down?" Bella asked with a slight curiosity ask she tied the mask on.
"I will be down just as soon as Jasper arrives." Alice glanced at the clock on the wall, gave a small squeak and ran to the guest room door. "Which should been any minute." She said hastily as she ran out the door and down the hall. Bella gave a small laugh at her friend and stood up only to stumble on the heels that Alice had berated her into wearing.
"Stupid death traps" Bella mumbled as she slowly made her way to the door and down the hallway to the stairs. As she reached the top of the stairs she could hear the beat of the music and the laughter and talk of the guests downstairs. Taking in a deep breath Bella pulled up the front of her dress so she wouldn't step on it and gingerly took each step at a time. "Watch me fall and break my leg or my neck. Stupid Alice and her insistence on me wearing these heels" Bella thought to angrily to herself. A few steps from the bottom Bella began to congratulate herself on making down the steps without falling when she heard someone call her name from her right. Bella's head snapped in the direction of the person calling her name and saw Jacob a friend of hers from the reservation. With a smile to him and a quick wave she forgot she was still on the steps and let the front of her dress fall to the floor. With her next step she knew she had congratulated herself to early as she stepped on her dress and sent herself flying forward down the steps. Bella threw her arms out and prepared to hit the ground below, but the hard floor never came. Instead it was a strong set of arms that stopped her.
"Be careful we wouldn't want a pretty girl hurting herself tonight." A velvet voice said. As Bella looked up to thank the man who had helped her, her breath caught in her throat. The man a few feet taller than herself was dressed in black slacks and a white shirt that had the sleeves rolled up to his elbows. His face was half covered in a black mask decorated with crimson swirls. His hair was a dark shade of black which some how looked out of place with the rest of this natural features. But what was most unusual were his golden eyes, they were beautiful but obviously couldn't really be that color, he must have had contacts in for the party.
"Oh, um… sorry about that. I'm naturally clumsy." Bella blushed as she looked away afraid her staring would make him uncomfortable. "Thank you for your help."
"More than happy to help a damsel in distress." The stranger said with a crooked smile. He put out his hand for her to shake. "As I am not allowed to give you my real name tonight per our hosts request let me introduce myself as my character name for the night. I am Cullen the vampire."
Bella took his hand and give it a quick shake. "A vampire with no blood stains, no fangs, and gold eyes" Bella said as she gave him a smirk.
"Ah yes… well there is an explanation for that. There is a book about vampires, something new that all the girls love. My friend suggested I dress like a vampire from the book for the night. I had nothing else to go as, so here I am, a golden eyed vampire. As for the blood stains and fangs, well not every vampire is messy and has to have fanged teeth." Cullen said.
"Well I must say I kind of like it. It's a refreshing twist." Bella replied with a small smile. "You can call me Marie the butterfly princess."
Just then Alice dressed in her short pink dress, pink fairy wings, and glittery pink mask ran over and grabbed Bella by the arm. "Marie come meet the General." Alice said as she tugged on Bella's arm. "Oh hello, sorry I cant stay and chat, but I really must take Marie for a minute." She said quickly to Cullen.
"It was nice meeting you. Maybe we will run in again before the night is over?" Cullen said as he gave Alice a nod of recognition.
Alice pulled Bella a few feet away before she could reply. "Hopefully!" Bella yelled over her shoulder as Alice dragged her along through the crowded room. "Alice what are you doing? I know how to walk on my own, you don't need to drag me."
"I need to you meet Jasper, and if I didn't drag you away I don't think you would ever come with me." Alice stopped suddenly and turned to Bella. "He was kinda cute. Who was he?"
"Cullen, the vampire." Bella said giving Alice a hateful look. "And you dragged me away from him. I may never see him again."
"All good things come in time." Alice shrugged as she grabbed Bella's arm again and began to lead her through the crowed towards a man in a military uniform. Stopping in front of the military clad man she dropped Bella's arm and stood on her tip toes to kiss the man on the cheek as she wrapped her arms around him. "Bella meet Jasper."
"Nice to meet you Bella. You can call me General tonight. Alice was insistent that we all have fake names for the night." Jasper said.
"Wonderful to meet you Jasper… er General. Tink here has told me a lot about you." Bella gave Jasper a warm smile as she gave a quick glance over at Alice who was practically bouncing on the spot. "You can call me Marie for the night." Jasper gave Bella a soft smile and a nod before asking Alice to dance. As they went off onto the dance floor Bella worked her way over to the kitchen to grab a drink before heading back out into the massive crowd of masked people. Looking around Bella saw no one she recognized and no one she really cared to talk with, so she headed towards the library in hopes of getting away from all the noise and people. As Bella slipped into the library unnoticed she gave a sigh of relief.
"Ah we meet again my butterfly princess."A voice said from behind her making her jump and drop her glass onto the floor with a clatter.
This is my first story so please let me know what you think, even if its bad. All comments appreciated because the comments will help me know if Im doing good or not. Im still trying to figure out if I should continue or not.
