A/N: Happy (Belated) Halloween! I wrote this oneshot in honor of the holiday. Pure fun.
Warning: This really doesn't fit in with the series at any point, since Bella came to Forks in January of her junior year and Edward was gone by Halloween of her senior year. So just pretend. They're in high school, probably about senior age. And the situation with Bella's classmates is the way it was in Eclipse. Friends with Angela and Ben, kinda with Mike, not with anyone else. Bella knows about the werewolves. I guess you could call it AU?
Disclaimer: I don't own Twilight.
Happy Halloween
"Hey, Bella!"
I turned away from the school parking lot to see Angela hurrying towards me, her face lit up in excitement.
"Hi, Angela. What's up?" I asked, casually glancing around for Edward.
"Wanna come to a Halloween party tonight at my house?" she asked eagerly.
I frowned. "Halloween party?"
"Yeah. You are aware that it's October 31st, aren't you?" she teased. "Sorry it's such short notice, but you weren't at school yesterday, and my parents only gave me permission Wednesday night. I would have called, but I had to work, and it was late when I got home."
Yesterday had been sunny. The Cullens had skipped school, and so had I.
I hesitated. "Well, I'm not sure…I don't know what I'm doing tonight…"
"A Halloween party?" A melodic voice asked from behind me.
Edward wrapped an arm around my waist and rested his chin on my head. Alice appeared on my other side, grinning.
"That sounds like fun, Bella," she said. "Is it a costume party?" she asked Angela.
"Of course. There's even going to be a contest on whose is best."
"Can Edward and Alice come, too?" I asked desperately. I had been under the impression I would spend the evening at the Cullens, or Edward and I would help Charlie pass out candy. What did vampires do on Halloween, anyway?
"Sure!" Angela nodded enthusiastically. "The more the merrier."
"Well…okay. Sounds like fun."
"Great!" she flashed a wide smile. "The party starts at seven-thirty. Be sure to dress up!" And she disappeared across the parking lot to her car.
I turned accusingly to my vampire companions.
"You did that on purpose."
Edward gave me an innocent look. "Did what?"
"Set me up. I was hoping we were going to do something together tonight."
Alice laughed. "Did you think we did anything different than everyone else on Halloween, Bella? Besides hand out bigger candy bars?"
"You are vampires…" I muttered.
They both laughed. Edward squeezed my hand.
"You need to be human every once in a while, Bella," he murmured to me.
It was impossible to remain annoyed at him for long. I shrugged and set off towards my truck, parked, as usual, next to Edward's silver Volvo.
"Well, I never liked Halloween very much, but I guess it won't be too bad," I admitted reluctantly.
"You're such a martyr," Alice laughed. She perked up. "We'll need to get costumes. There's a Halloween store just down the road. You could go as a princess, Bella."
"Oh no," I protested, backing away. "You are not going to force me into a sparkly dress and tiara."
Edward chuckled, but Alice looked disappointed.
"Fine. Be that way. We'll see what we can find."
Alice drove Edward's car while he rode in mine with me. Alice had been right. The store wasn't far. I climbed out of the truck and glanced apprehensively at the store's front. The windows were filled with spooky lights and masks, and a couple animatronic spooks.
"That's it. I'm out of here." I turned around, but Edward took my arm and Alice pushed me forward to the door.
"You're no fun," Alice complained as she pulled the door open. A bell tinkled overhead.
"Humor Alice," Edward said quietly, a small smile turning up the corners of his mouth. "She's never been to a Halloween party."
His sister had already pranced ahead of us and was rummaging through a rack of costumes. I followed more slowly, glancing around uneasily at the creepy decorations.
It was amazing to me, after everything I'd been through, that I could still be afraid of fictional ghouls and ghosts. But at the moment, they seemed much more frightening than a few vampires and werewolves.
"What do you think of this?" Alice asked brightly, lifting a rather revealing Batgirl outfit.
"No."
"Pirate?"
"No."
"Cinderella?"
"No princesses!"
"Black cat?"
"No."
"Ninja?"
"No."
She crossed her arms, frowning at me.
"Well, what do you want to be, then?"
I glanced at Edward. He was watching me, golden eyes pleading.
I sighed and approached the rack myself, sifting through the costumes and finally pulling one out of the mess.
"How about this?"
Alice's eyes lit up. "A witch! That's perfect!"
The dress was black with purple accents. Not over-the-top, but not too plain, either. It did look like something a witch might wear.
Edward flitted to my side and took the costume.
"I approve," he said silkily.
Alice moved to the accessories rack and pulled a black conical hat off a peg.
"This is perfect. We can tie some purple ribbon to match the dress. And…" she moved gracefully across the room and held out a long pair of purple and green socks, "…these will be perfect. Esme has just the pair of shoes for you to wear, too," she added.
Edward gathered my costume into his arms.
"What about you?" he asked Alice.
"Pixie," I said immediately. Both Cullens turned to me inquisitively.
"What?" Edward asked.
I blushed. "I always thought Alice looked like a pixie…you know, with wings."
A pleased smile uncurled on Alice's face.
"I like it."
The next several minutes were spent finding Alice a pixie costume. I couldn't help getting into the spirit as we dug through messy shelves of costumes and accessories. Eventually, Alice came up with a short, sparkly blue dress, and I found black wings with blue glitter to match it.
"I have some old ballet slippers at home," I found myself saying. "Your feet are smaller than mine, so they'd most likely fit. We could spray-paint them blue. They'd match the dress."
Alice hugged me.
"Thank you, Bella," she whispered in my ear.
Then it was time to find Edward a costume.
Alice's first choice was a wizard, but the costume looked utterly ridiculous on him, if that were possible. Then I suggested a Roman god, but he simply looked at me, one eyebrow raised.
I decided he looked too much like a god already.
Nothing was good enough for Edward. He outshone all of the costumes. I had an idea, but I wasn't sure he would like it. Finally, though, I decided to put my idea to the test.
I hid something behind my back and approached my boyfriend, smiling. Alice smirked; she had already seen what I was about to present.
"Edward," I said calmly. "How would you feel about embracing the stereotype?"
He frowned, and then his face cleared as he glanced at Alice. He reached behind me and gently pulled the costume from my hands. It was a cape, black on the outside, red on the inside, with a tall collar. A vampire cape.
He stared at it blankly for a moment. Then he began to laugh, leaning against the wall for support.
I glared at him, miffed.
"You don't have to be like that. You could just say no."
"It isn't that, Bella," he assured me, holding the cape out for a better look. "I like it."
"You do?" I asked hopefully.
"Why not?" he chortled to himself. "No one would ever know." He wrapped the cape around himself and spoke in a frighteningly realistic accent. "Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. Velcome to ze castle of Count Dracula!"
I rolled my eyes. Sometimes he reminded me so much of Jacob…
"You'll need these." Alice held out a pair of plastic fangs.
He started laughing again.
--
Three hours later, the three of us stood at Angela's door, dressed in our costumes and decorated with fairly realistic-looking makeup, compliments of Alice.
I had purple and green makeup on my face - I had to admit that it looked good. Alice had given herself similar makeup and covered her face and arms with glitter. Even Edward had had his already pale face painted a pasty white, and red "blood" dripped from either end of his mouth. He seemed to be enjoying the costume.
Angela opened the door, her eyes lighting up when she saw us.
"Wow, you three look fabulous! Come on in!"
"You look great, too, Angela," Alice complimented our hostess.
She did. Angela was costumed as an angel, with white fluffy wings and a white dress, as well as a golden halo sticking up from her hair.
"Thanks. I'm so glad you guys could come," she replied, leading us into the basement.
It looked like the party was already underway. Music played from a stereo in the corner, near a table laden with food and soda. I recognized many students from school dressed in varying costumes, laughing and talking and playing games.
"Bella!" Mike suddenly appeared in front of me, dressed as a mummy. "You look great!"
"You too," I told him, glancing up at Edward.
Mike's attention was directed to the Cullens.
"Oh." His mood dampened somewhat. "Hi."
"Hello," Alice said brightly.
"Where's…um…" Mike struggled to find the name.
"Jasper couldn't come tonight," Alice explained. "He's out of town for the weekend."
"Too bad," Mike muttered unconvincingly.
"Hey, Mike!" Ben called from across the room. "You have to come bob for apples!"
Mike shrugged and gave me a small wave as he left to join the line.
"Would you like to bob for apples?" Edward asked me.
I spotted Lauren and Jessica in the line next to Tyler and shook my head.
"I want to get a drink."
As it turned out, I spent most of the evening glued to Edward, watching rather than participating in the festivities. Alice joined in with gusto, however, being far more social than I'd ever seen her among our classmates. The others were slightly dazed by Alice, but they managed to stutter out responses to her remarks. Angela and Ben were the only two who seemed completely comfortable with the Cullens and I.
Edward and I did play in the pumpkin beanbag toss – we both lost, though I knew Edward had been missing on purpose.
Alice won the costume contest by nearly unanimous vote – her prize was an extra large Hershey's bar.
By the time the party was over, I was ready to go home. I'd had more fun than I'd thought I would, but clearly not as much as Alice or Edward.
Bidding our goodbyes and thank-yous to Angela, we climbed into Edward's Volvo and drove towards my house.
Alice hugged me from behind.
"Thank you, Bella!" she said happily. "My first Halloween party. That was fun."
"I'm glad you enjoyed yourself."
"I did. We'll have to have a Christmas party," she decided.
I groaned. Edward laughed.
"Easy, Alice," he murmured.
Alice laughed, too. "Well, we'll give it a couple months, shall we?" she suggested, dropping her chocolate prize into my lap.
"Good idea."
Edward wrapped an arm around my shoulders as he drove one-handed. I snuggled into him, removing my witch hat and dropping it at my feet.
"Happy Halloween."
A/N: Review!
