Author's note: Okay, I'm just not happy with my descriptions of the dresses in this next chapter, so I'm going to post links to the dresses on my profile page so you can see them for yourselves and get a better mental picture. The models don't really fit my mental picture of the girls though…except for maybe the one wearing Malia's dress.
Anyway, enjoy and thank you for all of your reviews. And Emi Zuniga…your email address wasn't there so I can't let you know if I update. Sorry…but if you sign up you can tell fanfiction to email you alerts when I update. Thanks everyone for your continued interest.
28. Hijacked by Fashion
I woke up contemplating how wonderful things had been the night before. I found it interesting as I sat thinking how much better the date was than it would most likely have been if it had happened last weekend as originally planned. Connor and I had the opportunity to have two more intimate dates where we had the chance to talk and get to know each other more and a whole week of regular routine before the big night that made us comfortable with one another. If we hadn't already had the familiarity, then the whole night probably would have been much more awkward and probably would not have ended with such a wonderful and amazing first kiss and a dance invitation. I never would have dreamed a week ago that I would be sitting here a week later grateful for that stupid broken hand, but here I was. It's funny how things seem to work out for the best in the end somehow.
It wasn't too very long after I woke up that I got my first text message from Leighton.
OMG! Connor told us about asking you to homecoming. We MUST go dress shopping ASAP!
I sighed thinking of the battle I will face with Alice if I take away her dress shopping fun.
Alice informed me last night that she was taking me dress shopping. It's sort of her passion, so I agreed, but if you and Malia wanted to come along, I'm sure she's be thrilled to have two more subjects to dress as well! Warning: She's a fashion Nazi!
LOL! Sounds awesome. Let us know when and where and we'll be there.
A few seconds later Alice dashed through my doorway so quickly that she appeared to materialize out of thin air.
"Thank you for letting me take all three of you shopping! Arrange for them to go with us today! We'll find everything we need at Nordstroms and there's a big sale, so Malia is actually going to find a dress that she loves and can afford."
Alice wants to go today. You guys up for it? She says there's a big sale at Nordstroms.
Sweet…let me check, but I'm pretty sure we can both go. I'll get back to you in a few.
Three hours later we were up to our elbows in dresses at the sales racks. The three of us were walking in and out of the dressing room stalls in an endless parade of dresses Alice picked out for us. I had to admit that she was the master of finding the right shape to suit each one of our body types.
Leighton was tall and slender with no real curves to speak of. By the end of the trip we had narrowed her down to two perfect dresses. One was a beautiful blue silk slip dress with a black chiffon overlay encrusted with crystals and the other was an adorable dark pink colored halter dress made of a chiffon type material that had a tiered effect. Since the price difference was about one hundred dollars, she ended up choosing the dark pink. Alice helped her accessorize with a carefully chosen hair comb encrusted with like colored jewels and a matching ankle bracelet.
Malia was extremely petite with some gentle curves. She was a little harder to shop for because everything looked so lovely on her. We finally narrowed her down to gorgeous magenta jersey number that had a crystal encrusted empire waist with a wrap style bodice that twisted up into a single shoulder strap and an adorable little spaghetti strap dress with pin dots and a pink stripe accenting the bottom hem and as a backing on a small belt that went around the waistline. The purple was definitely the fancier of the two dresses, but it was really stretching her dance budget, so she went with the pin dot because it was on an amazing sale at only thirty dollars. She was so excited to get such a great deal because now she could afford to go all out on accessories.
I was the difficult one to find something we were all happy with. Everything they tried to talk me into made me feel way too exposed. It was one thing to feel exposed for a few minutes as I auditioned for a play, but something entirely different for me to feel that way for an entire night at a dance. As girls who didn't have the problem of being excessively curvy, they just didn't understand my aversion to really low necklines. Finally they brought me a few more conservative dresses that I didn't fear I was going to pop out of and ended up narrowing it down between two dresses that were extremely similar. One had more of an iridescent lavender taffeta base with a ruched empire waistline with a bow at the bottom left hand side of the waistline and a halter type bodice that was covered in sheer black lace with light beadwork, while the other was identical except instead of the halter neckline it had a basic V-neck with cap sleeves also covered in the black lace and was an iridescent blue. I finally chose to go with the halter because I preferred the color and the girls insisted I had to be at least a little sexy. Alice insisted that I would borrow her heart necklace again to go with it for the big night.
Finally fully satisfied with our purchases we made our way back home. The reality of the coming dance was starting to set in now that I had my dress in hand. Once we were finally back home Alice insisted that I put on my dress and model it for Rose, Bella and Mom. I refused to go down and let the guys see me though. I was embarrassing enough doing it for the ladies. They oohed and aahed over me agreeing that we found the perfect balance of class and modesty. Alice brought in her necklace and pulled my hair back in an impromptu up do and forced me to put on a pair of black satin stilettos. I stared at my reflection pleased at the final product. The only thing I was not sure of was the heels, but if my feet hurt too badly I could always go barefoot.
"Don't you dare!" Alice called out less than a second after the thought had crossed my mind. She stood on her tiptoes doing her best to get high enough to look me in the eyes, but still falling way short. We locked glares for a few seconds before she finally shook her head, "Okay fine, I'll see if I can find something a little less painful as long as you promise not to go barefoot!"
Bella and Mom laughed as she dashed off in an attempt to find a more comfortable alternative. She came back with a slightly wider and shorter heeled shoe that I could tell immediately would be a little easier on my feet. Once that was all settled and made our way back downstairs to visit with the rest of the family.
Jake and Nessie were back and they both ran up to me and gave me a big hug.
"How come you always save the best excitement for when we're not around?" Jake joked. "Of course you pick the weekend that we couldn't come along to actually use all that stuff Emmett and Jasper's been teaching you on an actual human."
I shrugged with a half smile, "Guess you can't let me go anywhere huh Jake?"
"Guess not," he said putting his hands up as if to block. Taking my cue from him I threw a couple of light jabs his way as he ducked and shuffled around me like a boxer. We laughed as I finally managed to land one, only resulting in making my hand sting having forgotten my recent injury would be tender. I yelped and shook it reflexively as the rest of the spectators laughed and my father growled under his breath.
"You need to be careful with that Lina. You don't want to re-injure it."
I winced, "Sorry Dad."
"Yeah DAD she'll be sure to keep it to knocking drunken football players off their feet from now on." Emmett teased from behind me. I rolled my eyes and I heard my father sigh as he left the room. "That reminds me," Emmett continued, "We need to get sparring again. You looked a little rusty and it took you about half a second longer than it should have to react. You're getting weak little girl." He smirked ruffling my hair.
I spun out from under his hand smacking it with my left hand as I went. "I was still plenty sharp to deal with that guy. Actually now that you bring it up, I was thinking that I probably won't be sparring with you guys for a while. Besides the fact that the play is going to be taking up most of my free time, I was thinking I might grow out my nails for the dance and stuff."
Emmett opened his mouth to start making fun of me, but didn't get a chance because Rose and Alice were in front of me squealing in girlish delight. "Really? You're really going to grow out your nails?" Rose started.
"Let's go condition your cuticle bed and prep your cuticles now. You know if you take proper care of the cuticles then your nails will grow much more quickly and will be much stronger." Alice rambled dragging me up the stairs as she spoke, Rose following closely behind.
Like Rose said, "beauty is pain." I thought to myself as I tried my best to completely ignore Alice's ramble. Guess if I'm serious about looking the part for the dance and the play then this is the pain part…
I spent the next hour with my hands splayed out in front of me as Alice and Rose each worked on one, babbling the entire time. I sat there and thought about how much I'd rather be talking to Connor or Seth than enduring this trial of my patience. Almost as if he could hear me begging for his call, my phone began to ring the tune that I had saved as Seth's personal ring tone.
"Okay ladies, that's plenty for today. I really need to get this." I said trying to pull my hand out of Rose's grasp in order to reach for the phone. She held it for a few seconds and then reluctantly let go to allow me to answer.
"Hello there my favorite rescuer."
"So what exactly did I save you from?"
Alice and Rose rolled their eyes as they left the room to allow me to talk in relative privacy.
"I mentioned that I thought I might grow my nails out for the dance and the play and before I knew what hit me Alice and Rose hijacked me for an hour long manicure. I swear my fingers have been buffed down to nubs!"
Seth laughed, "Well, I'm glad to be of service ma'am."
"Thanks…more than you ever know, thanks! It's not like Alice hadn't already gotten to dress me up all day anyway. She took my friends and I dress shopping. I didn't think I was ever going to find something that I felt comfortable in. I finally got lucky. Anyway, enough about my day…what's up with you? The site coming along?"
"Yeah, I'm really surprised how easily it is all working out. I guess I need to run ideas past you more often…I think you're my muse." Even though he wasn't allowed to tell me much, he did discuss ideas for how he wanted the web menus to flow and the effects he wanted to throw in and I threw out a few suggestions of my own, although I had no clue how to make them work that way in reality. He had liked them though and said he thought he could probably make them work if he gave them a shot.
"Muse? I don't know about that Clearwater. You're the genius, I just told you what I thought would look cool."
"Well what do you think a muse is anyway? A muse inspires the creator, and you did…so a muse you are!"
I laughed a little embarrassed as I pictured myself wearing a toga and holding a harp on Mt. Olympus. I shook my head trying to force the ridiculous image out of my head as I continued. "So how long before I finally get to see this masterpiece anyway?"
"It's scheduled for public release at the end of November, but I'm allowed to run it past an editorial staff in early November. So guess what…You're hired!"
"Nice, what's the pay boss?"
"Ummm…getting to see my work early?"
"Wow, that's the most I've ever earned. I'm so proud of myself!" I said giggling. "Seriously though, I can't wait!"
"I'm excited for you to see it. I think you'll be impressed."
"I'm sure I will." My stomach decided to start grumbling as soon as I finished the sentence.
"Sounds like I need to let you go eat some supper."
"Yeah, I was planning on grabbing something when my manicurists abducted me. I probably should get back downstairs and see what I can rustle up."
"Okay, well I guess I'll catch you later."
"Alrighty Seth. Thanks again for the rescue."
"Anytime."
I jogged out of my room and down the stairs to kitchen still cheerful from my phone call from Seth. Jake had it right when he referred to him as a "happy little punk". Seth was always in a good mood and it seemed to be contagious. It took a very bad day to keep me from cheering up during a conversation with him.
I walked into the kitchen to see Alice and Rose holding a plate of warm leftover spaghetti and a salad. It was their attempt to apologize for keeping me from eating sooner. They sat with me in the dining room as I ate and were gracious enough to broaden the topics of conversation beyond fashion for once. They asked me all about my date with Connor. Alice had seen it all unfold, but she told me that she likes to hear it from my perspective since she's just a third party observer and doesn't get to hear what's going on inside people's heads in her visions.
During supper I got a text message from Connor asking how dress shopping had gone. I told him that it would take too long to text and asked if he was able to talk. He called back right away and I he laughed as I told him all about the fashion related dramas that had dominated my day. We talked for a good hour before we finally decided it was getting late and we needed to be getting some sleep.
I was really looking forward to being able to drive myself to school the next morning, but admitted to myself that I was really going to miss hitching rides home with Connor. It would have been nice to have more opportunities to learn a little more about kissing.
