Of Costumes and Commodities
Halloween was coming up and that meant the Halloween dance at Forks High. It was an exciting time for the students, well the students who were into dances, but especially exciting for Cynthia and I. We'd never been to a dance before, so this was a very special occasion for us. Before it was just too dangerous for us, loud music, dim lights, and lots of people… too easy for one of the Suits to come in snatch one of us up and leave without anyone noticing. Now that the Cullens seemed to be holding off them, indirectly, we had that freedom. Don't get me wrong, I was going to be keeping track of Cynthia the whole time we were there, just in case, but the fact that we had the ability to actually go in the first place was a luxury.
I had joined the dance committee that would be helping set up for all of the high school's dances, but Cynthia didn't because she thought it would ruin the surprise. I didn't mind having the surprise spoiled.
"So," I started, looking at all the friends I'd made. It was lunch time and our last topic had died out. "Are you guys going to the dance?" I asked.
Eric took my hand and squeezed it gently, smiling at me. "I'm going if you are," he said before kissing my temple. I giggled, blushing, and leaned away.
"You're embarrassing me," I mumbled.
"Oh, get a room, you two," Mike commented, rolling his eyes. I stuck my tongue out at him.
"Admit it, you're just jealous." Eric retorted.
"Okay, you asked for it," Mike said in mock anger, before jumping out of his seat, around the table, and toward Eric, who jumped out of his own seat and sprinted off. Mike followed, yelling unintelligible things.
I rolled my eyes and laughed before turning back toward the ones left: Jessica and Angela.
"So, you guys coming?" I prompted.
"…maybe. Dances aren't too much my thing, but if I have a group to hang out with, the chances increase." Angela answered softly.
"You should come. You'll have us… and I do mean Mike and Eric, too." I encouraged. "It'll be fun. And you'll get to dress up… I mean, it's kind of for kids, the whole dressing up thing, but it's still fun." I shrugged and realized I was probably revealing how excited I was about this dance. I'd never dressed up for Halloween either, if you couldn't tell.
Angela laughed. "I'll think about it. But you make a convincing argument, Alice."
"Well," I said, sitting up straighter in my seat a bit, and brushing off imaginary dust from my shoulders. "You know how it is."
Angela held up a hand and tried not to laugh too loudly, but her body shook with it. I grinned before turning to Jessica, who… apparently hadn't heard me. She was busy watching Mike chase Eric around the lunchroom and disrupt other people's nice and peaceful lunch.
I exchanged a look with Angela before I waved a hand in front of her face. She started, blinked and turned to look at me.
"Sorry, sorry," she exclaimed. "I was…" She swallowed hard, her eyes flickering back to Mike and Eric, who were currently on opposite sides of a table, jerking back and forth, trying to fake each other out. "Um, I was just… zoning out." She finished, looking back at me. A light blush stained her cheeks.
"You should ask him out," I told her softly.
"What if he says no, though?" Jessica groaned. "I don't think I could handle it."
"But you'll never know until you try." I disagreed.
"You don't understand, Alice," Jessica whispered. "I have had a crush on him since freshman year! That's a long time to be… longing after someone! If he says no, it'll be the end of me."
"If you've had a crush for that long, I think it stops being a crush," Angela commented. "At least, in my opinion."
I waved a hand at Angela and nodded. "Exactly," I said. "You should go for it. I am quite sure that he'll say yes, because, guess what? I think he likes you, too."
Jessica bit her lip and looked down at the table.
"Okay, maybe," she finally said, "but I'm not making any guarantees." She added in a mutter just as the two boys came back to the table, breathless but laughing.
"Have fun?" I asked dryly, as Eric sat down next to me, Mike next to Jessica.
"Yeah, because I totally beat you!" Eric exclaimed, jabbing his finger at Mike.
"Oh, please, you're just being a sore loser," Mike sang.
"Beat him at… what?" Angela asked, unaware, like me, of the game they had supposedly been playing.
"I tagged you first, man," Mike explained.
"No, you did not. I totally got you first." Eric quipped.
I exchanged incredulous looks with both Angela and Jessica. "…so, you guys are fighting over how won a game of… tag?" I asked.
They both looked at me and asked defensively, "What?" in complete synchronicity.
Jessica chuckled, "Did you two plan that?"
They denied it before continuing to argue who won until the bell rang. Which, thankfully didn't take long. We all got up and threw away our trash before heading to our next class. I gave Eric a quick goodbye kiss before following Angela and Mike to Forensics.
"So, then have you thought about what you'll be dressing up as, Alice?" Angela asked as the three of us made our way down the hall.
I shrugged. "Well… yeah, kind of, but…" I trailed off shrugging again. "I don't really have that much costume wise." I finished in an embarrassed mumble. I'd been so caught up in the excitement and the banter at the table today I actually thought my life was normal.
"Oh, well, there are a few costume shops not far from Forks." Mike interjected.
I made a face. "I'm not really one to go out spending money on something I'll only wear for one night of the year." I lied.
"Oh, well, we could show you the thrift shop in town and you could put something together?" Angela suggested. "That way you wouldn't be spending too much and you might just be able to find something you'll wear more than once."
"Thanks for the offer, guys, but it's okay. I mean, the dressing up thing isn't mandatory or anything—I'm just excited to go to the dance. Truthfully, I've… well, I've never actually been to one."
Mike and Angela stopped short as I continued walking but when I realized that they had stopped I stopped too and spun around to face them. They were looking at me in stunned silence.
"Uh… we're-we're going to be late if we don't keep walking, guys," I told them, pointing behind me. They blinked and nodded before quickly walking up to my side, with that we continued toward the class at a slightly faster pace. "It's not like it really matters, I'm still going to the dance."
"You just seemed so excited about the dance, I thought… well, I thought maybe you'd been to a lot and just enjoyed them. You strike me as that kind of person." Mike stuttered awkwardly, trying to salvage the pausing and staring.
"I suppose it was bad of us to assume—you know what they say. Your excitement could definitely constitute not having been to a dance before." Angela added. I could tell they were both embarrassed and I'd accidentally made them nervous.
"Oh, no, no, it's totally fine. Assume away." I assured her.
"It's just you're very outgoing," Angela continued explaining. "And you seem to get along with everyone so well, so I figured you were an extrovert and that you'd like dances and had been to a lot, because you're an extrovert. They thrive on social interaction."
"Seriously, guys, it's fine." I promised as we stopped outside the door to the classroom. "The facts are this, I've never been to a dance and I'm excited that this'll be my first one with some great friends that I've made at this school."
Mike and Angela seemed to relax at this and smiled. I returned their smiles with my own before we filed inside.
As always, Jasper was sitting at our desk before I was. And as always, he had his chair as far away from where I was sitting as possible. I couldn't blame him, but my scent was all over their house by now, it really made me wonder how he could stand it in there without attacking me.
The only reason I felt awkward sitting next to him was because all I could think of was when I'd woken up with my shirt ripped open and he had been in the room. Ugh! I just wanted the earth to swallow me up thinking about it. How humiliating!
The first half of class was notes on hair, how they look under the microscope, the structure of hair and what things were called, etc. The second half was doing a worksheet Mr. Banner handed out. I was focused on my work, intently answering the questions and such, the quiet chatter going on throughout the room good background noise, when Jasper cleared his throat.
I froze, dropped my pencil and looked over at him. He had angled his chair toward me, even though he was still as far away as the table would allow.
"You sounded pretty excited about the dance today during lunch," he commented quietly, his southern twang barely noticeable and I figured it was because he was at school.
I sat up straighter and turned back to my worksheet. "I don't think that's any of your business," I told him, scooting my chair in closer to the desk and refusing to look at him. I went to pick up my pencil and twirled it because the eraser side—or what was left of it; all that was left was the metal that held the eraser I'd worn it down—was facing down, but my fingers fumbled and it flew out of my hands and onto someone else's desk, narrowly avoiding their face.
I gasped and leapt out of my seat over to them, grabbing my pencil and apologizing profusely. My face stained red, I went to sit back down and continued working on my worksheet. I could feel Jasper's eyes on me. Through the corners of my eyes, I thought I could see him smiling.
"Shut up," I mumbled, slumping a little.
"I didn't say anything," he replied, though I could hear the laughter in his voice. "I was simply trying to make polite conversation, before."
"You shouldn't have been eavesdropping on our conversation," I remarked coldly, giving him a side glare. This was really just an act, I was overcompensating for my embarrassment. Probably even involuntarily blaming the whole incident on him.
"You're right, I apologize," Jasper conceded. "I got bored and had nothing else to listen to."
We fell into a silence as I continued on my worksheet. I had just finished erasing something when he spoke again.
"Do you like to dance?" he asked.
"Don't you have a worksheet you should be doing?" I countered, wiping off the eraser shavings, only my hand went too far and knocked my eraser off the desk. I let out a frustrated sigh and stooped down to pick it up, only it fell out of my hand twice before I actually got a good grip on it. By this time my face had turned crimson once again and I had to focus all my energy on keeping my eyes trained on the paper in front of me.
"I actually finished it already," Jasper answered after a moment. Of silent laughter, probably.
"Of course you did," I muttered agitatedly, but more with myself than with him. I wasn't usually so clumsy!
"So, do you?" he asked prompted.
I paused and decided to drop the business-like air. I nodded looking over at him, meeting his dark honey eyes.
"Yeah, I do," I admitted. "Ballet mostly, though."
Jasper smiled at this. "I'd love to see you dance sometime." he said.
I blinked stunned at his smile for a moment. Since I'd been here, and even from all the dreams and visions, I'd never seen Jasper smile so genuinely before. It was beautiful. When his eyebrows furrowed and he called my name I blinked and remembered he'd said something after he had smiled.
"Oh, no, no," I stuttered turning back to my worksheet. "You don't want to see me dance, I'm not that good." I mumbled blushing for the third time in the last ten minutes.
"You can't be that bad," Jasper disagreed. I turned to tell him otherwise, but his expression caught me off guard and the words got caught in my throat. It wasn't like it was bad or anything, but I wasn't the intensity and sincerity in his expression.
"E-even so, I don't like dancing in front of audiences. I have stage fright, if you can believe that." I didn't know why I was admitting all this to him when our previous interactions hadn't been all that great. I mean, after the van accident, he seemed to have warmed up to me a little more, but he seemed to have jumped from one end of the spectrum to the other and it was confusing for me. He still seemed to keep his distance seeing as he only interacted with me mostly only in this class, but that was understandable if he was having trouble because of the smell of my blood.
The bell ringing broke me out of my musings. Startled I quickly scribbled in the last two answers on the worksheet before packing my things up. Surprisingly Jasper didn't leave as soon as the bell had rang. Instead he waited for me to finish packing my things before taking my paper.
"I'll give this to the teacher for you," he said quietly.
"Oh, okay, th-thanks," I stood and he followed. "I… I guess I'll… see you around." I said awkwardly. "B-bye."
He smiled again, making my heart skip a beat before bowing slightly. "Bye, Alice."
I turned then and started to head out, only my foot caught on one of the table's legs and I hit the floor about as gracefully as a Gooney bird landing. I grabbed the edge of the table and quickly hauled myself to my feet, acting like nothing had just happened. I could feel Jasper's eyes on me again as I cleared my throat, blushing yet again, before smoothing out the ruffles in my shirt. Without looking at him or acknowledging him, I made my exit as quickly and non-klutzy as possible.
I was still having nightmares (I'd come to accept the fact that I'd never get rid of them, no matter how "safe" I was) but my body wasn't mimicking what was happening anymore, which was good. I couldn't understand why it'd done it in the first place, and why now, either.
If I was being honest with myself, when my lips had turned blue the first time I came into contact with Jasper, I had lied to the teacher and my friends when I'd said it happens all the time. I just didn't want them to worry. But now I was worried, and awfully concerned, because I couldn't figure out what was happening to me. I vaguely wondered if our mom was still alive if she could tell me, but there were so many strange and mysterious things that were unexplainable when it came to the paranormal, so there was really no guarantee.
Even so, I'd have to start monitoring that more carefully and controlling my visions. I couldn't control them completely, because they usually came to me at the most inconvenient of times, but sometimes I could summon them if I wanted to, and sometimes they'd come anyway but weren't all that inconvenient… like say, picking stocks to invest in.
It wasn't like I meant for it to happen, honestly. One day after school I was wandering around the Cullens' house, trying to find something to distract me. I was avoiding homework because I had to do math and I'd always hated math. It was never my strong suit. I'd finished all my other homework, it was just math that I hadn't even started. So, I deserved a break.
Anyhow, I was wandering around the third floor and came across the door to what they referred to as the library. I knew what they'd done and did in here because Jasper had helped every now and again, but curiosity was getting the best of me. I wanted to actually step inside and see it with my own eyes, not from someone else's perspective. I was hesitant, however, because I wasn't sure if they would allow me into their super-secret den. And just when I decided to reach out and grasp the door handle a voice called my name from inside.
"You can come in, Alice, it's all right," they said. I jumped a mile, my heart spasming in my chest painfully. I quickly calmed myself and stepped inside, peeking my head in the door. Carlisle and Esme were sitting at a single computer, it looked like discussing something. They both looked up when I opened the door.
"It's all right," Esme assured with a genial smile. "We're just discussing stocks."
"Oh, okay, I'll just leave you to it," I mumbled quickly before ducking back out but before I could close the door fully, Carlisle called my name again. I hesitantly slid into the room and closed the door behind me, but I stayed by the door, still not comfortable being so close to vampires.
I mean, I was getting more used to it. Living with them but never seeing them didn't really put me on edge, because I never saw them. When I actually saw them my fight or flight kicked in because of how I was conditioned. Some people think that in invisible enemy is the worst kind of enemy, but the vampires that we'd dealt with always showed themselves to us, as a scare tactic, and they weren't hard to spot if you were really looking. Per the Volutri's instructions, to get close to us, they had to blend in. No making a scene, no exposing the existence of vampires. So I always saw them coming, whether that be in real time or in one of my visions.
Sitting next to Jasper almost every day was helping though, because I was getting used to being so close to a vampire. It wasn't like I hadn't been close to vampires before, I'd met one or two red-eyed vampires who were kind and weren't working for the Volturi, but they never got too close to me because they knew what went on, what the Volturi were up to. And upon first contact when seeing the fear in my eyes and on my face, they knew and immediately backed off and respected that. Obviously, this didn't help my fear of being near any sort of vampires, golden-eyed or otherwise.
"How good are you at controlling your premonitions?" Carlisle asked.
I smiled nervously. "You've been talking about me in relation to investing, haven't you?" I questioned.
Carlisle and Esme exchanged a look. "It's crossed our minds a few times, yes." He admitted with a sheepish smile. "You know we don't do the things we do to hurt people. That's the last thing on our minds. But having an extra flow of money wouldn't hurt. Especially if we need to move away quickly or help a friend."
"There'd be something in it for you, too, Alice," Esme added when I hadn't responded. "It's not a bribe, though it sounds awfully like one, and I apologize if it does to you, but you'd be able to buy new clothes for both you and your sister. After so long wearing the same three items of clothing, wouldn't it be nice to have new clothes?"
I could just hear Cynthia in my ear begging to take up this offer. Playing the "never had a real teenage experience" card again on me, which included shopping for clothes and being able to wear different outfits every day for at least a week. I also thought about the Halloween dance, how I might actually be able to dress up in a costume.
Biting my lip I slowly approached the both of them, my heart fluttering in my chest, my instincts screaming to run the other way as fast as possible and never look back. I ignored this, which had to not become a thing or I was in trouble, and stopped inches from them, so I could read the computer screen clearly. They both turned back to the screen as well when I approached.
"Can you pull up the list of stocks you've already invested in?" I asked. Esme pulled them up and I glanced over them. "Well, they all look good, except for these two." I pointed to the two on the screen before saying, "Go back to where you were before." I scanned that screen too and pointed to two others, "I'd give them a try." I pulled back from the screen and looked at Carlisle and Esme then. "You don't have the follow that, of course," I told them quickly. "I mean, I've never done this before, so I don't know how accurate I'm going to be."
"Have your visions ever been wrong before?" Carlisle asked.
"Well…" I thought about this. "No, I suppose not." I mumbled.
"This is more for his sake, than yours, Alice," Esme comforted. "He's…" She glanced at him. "Running an experiment of sorts on your psychic abilities."
I relaxed a bit, but would still feel guilty if they lost money.
"You'll… have to tell me how it turns out. Good, hopefully." I laughed nervously, backing toward the door.
"Alice, before you go," Esme said, stopping me as she stood up and walked toward me at human pace, thankfully. She pulled out a folded wad of money, held together with a golden clip. The top was a 100 dollar bill. "Here's five hundred dollars. Go shopping with your sister, buy a costume for the school's dance. Have a little fun." she said quietly, holding it for me to take.
I looked back and forth between her and the money stunned. "I couldn't." I finally managed to say. "It's okay, really. Five hundred is so much."
Esme smiled. "Someone might have told us how excited you were about this dance. Another someone might have told us that you've never dressed up for Halloween before." Her eyes flickered over my shoulder to the door with a knowing smile. I quickly turned my head to look. The door was cracked open and I thought I saw Jasper but I blinked and he was gone, if he'd even been there. I turned back to face Esme. "We don't know what kind of trouble you're in, but you're safe here. You deserve to take a break from being afraid and worrying about you and your sister. You both deserve to have somewhat of a normal teenage experience."
When she put it that way… I could hear Cynthia once again pulling the "never had a real teenage experience" card on me with this one, too. Hesitantly, I reached up to take the money before smiling at Esme.
"Thank you, so much. Cynthia will be… ecstatic." I said to her. My eyes slid over to Carlisle who had turned back toward the computer. "Uh… thanks, Carlisle." He turned and smiled.
"It was our pleasure, Alice," he said.
With one last smile to Esme I quickly exited, trying not to outwardly freak out. I would've done that when I got back to my room but living with vampires who could hear every single thing you did from a mile away meant that even if I did squeal in my room, they'd all know. Even so, I couldn't hold back my excitement about this. 500 was a lot and I didn't think I'd be spending it all, but at the very least I'd be able to get a costume, and so would Cynthia.
And I knew just the costume I wanted.
All right, so I know these last two have been kind of fillers, but I promise things will start getting a tad bit more interesting, it's just getting a slow start. I'm working on easing into the romance between Alice and Jasper as well as easing into the danger that Alice and Cynthia have brought upon the Cullens.
Also apologies that the stocks part was so vague, I've invested in mock stocks in a class that taught us how to pay rent, invest in stocks, etc., but that was several years ago in, like, sixth grade.
Finally, I have ideas and plans, I just need to put them on a timeline and then write them. It gets a little confusing and jumbled when I'm juggling ideas, plans, and a timeline for this story along with ideas, plans, and a timeline for my other stories. So bear with me, I promise things'll get a little more interesting in the next few chapters.
As always, even if it was kind of filler, I hope you enjoyed!
Thank you for reading,
TheBrightestNight
