Chapter 7: Walgreens-the beginning of the end
BPOV
"Dare"
I was sure Edward hadn't picked a dare yet. That was the only reason I could think of for Alice accepting. His smile told me I was right.
"Since we will go out with Esmé and Carlisle tonight, I dare you to wear clothes from Walgreens, picked by Bella, when we go out to the movies like you saw in your vision. All of us will be able to dress normally and shower, but you will wear those clothes for the rest of the day. Rosalie will do your hair and make-up. Girls, I trust you with this" Edward stated calmly, looking at us "The clothes must be approved by me, since you are such good friends. I will also supervise the make-up before we leave. Bella, Rose, Alice, you can leave- now!"
Alice stood up and immediately took our hand in hers. We got into the car and left for Walgreens seconds later.
"OK, people, I blocked my thoughts with Edward so he won't know our plan. Bella, I will choose clothes with potential with your approval. Rose, get terrible make-up, we've got good stuff at home" We arrived at the store and left the car "I will find the shoes. Now, split!"
Rose, Alice and I went running into the store immediately. We were girls with a mission.
APOV
Edward. I would kill him! What he did was plain mean and he knew it. Make me, Mary Alice Brandon-Cullen, dress in Clothes from Walgreens! I couldn't believe he was arrogant enough to think it would work… Good think I had practice blocking my thoughts.
I entered the shoe section. Walgreens didn't even have cheap Prada, Gucci, or Chanel imitations! It only had shoes from an unknown designer with terrible taste. No wonder no one knew who Stephenie Meyer was. Shoes weren't her forte. She should have become something that didn't require people seeing you (or what you wore) a lot-like an author.
I needed something ugly but with potential. Huh. That was hard to find. Luck was needed. I started walking up and down the aisles, hoping to find something cute-like me! Suddenly my feet stopped of their own accord and the red shoes I was holding fell from my hands. I started to see myself walking down an aisle next to some green skirts and finding some really cute black ballet flats with some red ribbons that ruined them almost beyond repair. Almost. But not quite ruined.
The vision ceased and I swiftly picked up the stilettos and put them in a box. I left them on a rack and started searching for the green skirts. I turned a corner and saw them. Bingo! I ran towards the middle of the aisle in front of the skirts and found the shoes, and they were my exact number too!
"Yes!" I yelled, jumping up and down like I'd just won the lottery. Everyone turned around and stared at me. Oops. I stopped jumping, turned on my heel and left towards the exit to pay the shoes.
RPOV
I headed towards the make-up side of the store. This would be too easy. Every living male in the store turned to look at me as I walked by. The salesgirl in the make-up counter watched me with envy. Who didn't envy me? Only someone blind.
"Hello, miss. Do you need any help?" The girl looked like her eyes would pop out. Then she smiled, showing a mouth full of crooked teeth and braces. Her dentist must be rich by now.
My polite upbringing took over me
"No, thank you" I smiled back.
"I'll be here if you need anything" She insisted
I nodded politely. Yeah, right. Like that would happen.
I started browsing and found some terrible make-up in bright orange, green and blue. Poor Alice. She would have to enter the cinema like this. Oh, well. I would fix it later, anyway.
I then found some acceptable make-up of some unknown brand. It wasn't as good as Lancome, Clinique, or Dior, but it was something. I quickly stocked my cart with everything necessary and left the make-up aisles to pay.
The cashier smiled in a way that he must have thought was sexy but made him look more repulsive than he already was, if that was possible. Ew. I smiled and dazzled him. He couldn't stop staring.
"Hello? Um… Are you OK? Hello?" I waved my hand in front of his face and he finally reacted. This was great for my self-esteem, but it was really irritating sometimes.
"Huh? Oh, sorry, miss. That would be $3.25" The cashier recovered surprisingly fast.
I met Alice at the car and we both left our purchases there. Apparently Bella was still in the store. We turned around and went right inside, together.
BPOV
I headed towards the clothes section after a perverted clerk stared at my chest for 3 minutes straight. I missed Edward.
After some time searching, I found some really ugly ankle length denim skirts. Alice could cut them and make a mini in no-time. Then I started browsing in the shirts section and finally found a horrid red shirt with a V-neck and long sleeves that ruined it. We would just cut the sleeves into thin straps. That would look great on Alice and show off her slim figure.
Suddenly I felt a tiny hand on my shoulder.
"Well, have you found anything, Bella? Ooh, these are great! You, my dear sister, are an evil genius. I never thought this about you… The clothes have lots of potential. I just hope Edward won't find out. Let me check." Alice's face went blank for a few seconds and then she smiled, returning to the present. "Nope, looks like everything will work out fine. Let's go pay, girls!"
Alice was so excited she actually skipped towards the exit. Rose and I looked at one another and shrugged.
"Alice will be Alice" We said at the same time, which made us laugh hysterically. We found Alice in the car (thanks to Rose's nose) and climbed in. Rose put the good make-up in her bag.
Alice turned up the music and we sang all the way home. It was lots of fun. I didn't know she and Rose had such great taste in music.
We arrived at the beautiful white house to find Edward on the doorstep waiting for us.
"Well, girls, let's see what you've got. Alice, there is no way out of this, so don't even try to manipulate me. It won't work." Alice gave a pretend groan and Edward laughed. He looked at me and Alice winked when his back was turned.
We went inside and settled on the living-room. Rose took out our bags and handed them to Edward. He inspected them and looked at Rose and I.
"Great job, girls. Do you have some grudge against Alice that I don't know about?" Rose and I shrugged. Edward was actually falling for it! And he said I wasn't a good actress… Ha! I was beyond that. Real actors are so good, you'll never catch them acting. "Well, sis, time to go change"
Alice grabbed the bags and headed towards the bathroom with Rose hot on her heels to do her make-up. Around 10 minutes later (vampires are fast) they came out and Alice looked as horrid as a vampire can get, which meant she looked pretty damn good. The look on her face was heartbreaking, but Edward seemed immune to it.
Carlisle and Esme arrived. They looked at their beautiful daughter and their mouths flew open with shock.
"Wha-"
"How-"
The two vampires were at a loss of words. Esme, like a true woman, recovered faster than her husband.
"Alice, we are going out tonight, as I'm sure you've seen. Are you going out like that?" Esme asked tactfully.
"Yes, Esme, I am" Carlisle and Esme couldn't find out about our games of truth or dare, that was the golden rule.
"Well, alright, dear" Esme loved Alice too much to tell her that her outfit totally sucked.
Rose led me to her room so I could borrow clothes and make-up. After 5 minutes she was done with me. The torture was over.
I looked in the mirror and a beautiful girl stared back. Was that my face? Oh. My. God. Rose was great!
"Rosalie, I didn't know you were so good with make-up! How did you manage?" Rose smiled warmly.
"It's not only the make-up, it's a person's potential that determines how you end up looking. You, my dear sister, have lots of potential" Well, heck! That really helped a girl's self-esteem.
Rose and I went back downstairs an Edward's mouth opened in shock when he saw me. Huh. That was an interesting reaction.
"Bella, you look-wow. Not that you don't always look this good, it's just that-I mean-wow!" Edward stuttered. Wait a second! Edward stuttered? Now my boyfriend wasn't even being coherent. Great!
We all piled into the car moments after.
"So… Where are we going?"
"We're going to the cinemas to watch a new vampire movie. It's called Queen of the Damned and they say it's really good. Mostly, though, it'll make us laugh" Said Carlisle.
Emmet grinned. "Yeah, those vampire movies really suck! And I actually broke a table from laughing so hard when I read Dracula"
"Wait a second, Emmet. Are you trying to tell me you read Dracula? As in, read the book?" I asked. Edward laughed.
"Well, with Eddie bothering me for three years (literally) yes, I did. I read a book!" Emmet said, proud of himself. We all laughed.
When we got to the cinema, I started to act uncomfortable, just like Alice had told me to.
"Bella, are you OK?" Edward looked at me with concern. Alice had a vision of me asking to go to the bathroom with the girls. Edward looked embarrassed.
"Let's go, Bella!" Alice saved me the mortification of having to say it (as the plan stated) and we quickly left.
We got to the bathroom and Rose immediately got to work with Alice. I quickly cut the sleeves off the shirt and improved it a lot. Then I started to work on the skirt, but I wasn't strong enough to cut the denim.
"Rose, I can't-"
"OK, just do Alice's eye shadow and I'll cut it. Use the silver one" Rose took the scissors off my hands and started cutting.
When we were done, we stepped back to look at our masterpiece. Alice looked like a supermodel-literally. She could be on a runway and no one would be the wiser. I smiled at Rose and we high-fived. Alice looked in the mirror and grinned.
"Mission accomplished"
We ran out of the bathroom and I quickly looked at my new watch-a gift from Edward from my last birthday. Only seven minutes had gone by. Perfect.
We gave up our tickets and scanned the room to see where the guys were sitting. They had gotten seats all the way at the top of the cinema. We ran up the stairs and I sat down behind Edward. Jasper was on his right, which meant Alice had to pass in front of him to get to her seat. When she did, Edward gaped.
"Alice, the dare said you couldn't change clothes"
"I didn't, I just cut them! Don't I look great?" Alice said, smiling. Edward growled.
"I'll get you back for this, Alice"
"Sure you will!" Alice said, acting like Edward was a five-year-old who said he would be president when he turned eight. "Now, let's watch this movie"
We all settled down on our seats, waiting for the movie to begin. Edward was sulking.
Alice had won once again.
