Designing a proper costume was turning out to be difficult.

It wasn't a lack of sleep causing me problems, I managed to get a solid two hours' worth of nap in before Carol got home and I woke up. It wasn't the nagging thought of having homework to do, I already did it all. It wasn't hunger, as we already had dinner, the usual slightly awkward affair with Victoria oblivious to it. Hell, it wasn't even me getting distracted with the question of if I'm a bad person or not.

It was just next to impossible to make a decision! Letting out a silent groan, my arm dropped to my bed, my phone with it. It should be easy, deciding what my costume was gonna be. I already knew it was going to be armor. How was I supposed to know that there would be so many different kinds of armor? All it took was a quick search on my phone to get absolutely swamped in it all.

Do I try to make actual full plate armor? That felt like it might just be copying Dean, and I did NOT want to copy Dean. Something like chainmail? Then I might get associated with Crusader, and I was NOT a Nazi! Greek Armor was already taken by Dauntless, and Japanese-style armor would connect me with the ABB. There were no good options here. I even actually looked up 'wooden armor' on my phone to try and get some ideas. Some Japanese-style stuff came up, and stuff from video games and fantasy ranging from ramshackle to just a leaf bikini.

Letting out a sigh, I slid my legs off the bed and silently padded over to my desk. The house was quiet and dark, everyone had gone to bed an hour ago. I wasn't going to stay up all night, just until I got a solid idea of what I wanted as a costume. Turning the lamp on, I grabbed a notebook, a pen, and… stared at the open notebook, trying to make ideas come into existence. I didn't have much luck.

Ugh, why is this so difficult? Think Amy, think. Are you really so pathetic you can't come up with a damn costume? Starting to drum my fingers against the desk, I gave the notepad the best glare I could manage. This isn't working. Maybe… start somewhere else? A name? A name would give me an idea to base the costume on. Looking back at the notepad, I just started writing down a list of various words related to nature. Starting with generic words tied to them, and moving into various types of trees after that. Once I couldn't think of any more words to do with nature, I made another list next to it, thinking of words that would match. Eventually, I had a list of possible names. Of which not all were equal.

Maple Maiden, Willow Warrior, Birch Baton, Ash Armor, Fir Fighter, Oak Heart, Pine Princess, Chestnut Charger, Brash Branch, Leaf Loner… Yeah, only a couple of those were alright. Not counting the stupid ones, there were Maple Maiden, Willow Warrior, and Oak Heart. Still, that was a small list. Maybe I can find something online? Panacea is a goddess, maybe there's something historical or mythological I could steal. Quickly typing "Tree God'' into the search engine on my phone came up with Yggdrasil, which would carry E88 connotations, a bunch of different lesser-known gods from various mythologies, and Dryad. Not necessarily a bad name, though kind of cliche.

Staring at the names, I ripped the page out and tossed it in the garbage. Maple Maiden, Willow Warrior, and Dryad were all written on separate spots onto the page. Well, the names gave me some indicators of where to take the costume at least. In particular, the name Dryad gave me a lead to follow in terms of style. Though a quick search just revealed a bunch of… half-naked tree women. Real useful internet, real useful.

Scrolling down through the list, one of the images caught my eye. An image of an actual naked statue, carved from wood. Something about it jogged an idea in my head. Something I hadn't considered yet. Opening my desk up, I took out the ball of wood from school. It was pretty simple to have it reabsorb the proteins that gave it its white skin, leaving just the wood underneath. Glancing at my phone, I scrolled back up to some fantasy drawing of a Dryad with the right features.

You're making a face Amy, you've repaired facial bones a hundred times. This should be easy. Setting to work, I set about molding the ball into the proper shape. Rather than just let the power handle all the work, I used my hands as if I were working clay, molding the wood as if it was a pot. It was pretty fun actually, working the wood into the form I wanted. It went fairly smoothly as well, memories of how all the times I helped fix someone's face coming easily to me. Eventually, I finished it off and grinned.

Held in my hands was a mask of a beautiful woman. There was a slight worry in the back of my head that it'd wind up just looking like Victoria, but the reference had stopped that. It was a bit longer than her face, less youthful and more mature with high cheekbones, small pursed lips, a greek nose, and almond-shaped eyes. It was missing something though. Something to make it not just a pretty face. With a flex of my power, pine needles burst from along the brow, forming into a pair of thick bushy eyebrows. Reaching up to the top of the mask, two nubs formed and flowed out into my hands. Guiding them upwards, a pair of small antlers quickly took their place at the top of the mask. Perfect.

Glancing down at the notebook, I set the mask to the side and grabbed my pencil. It took a couple of different attempts for each, but eventually, I had a decent sketch of the mask with different expressions for each of the ideas. A slightly mischievous expression for the Maple Maiden, a slightly sorrowful one for the Willow Warrior, and a calm serene one for Dryad. I stopped after that, staring at the finished sketches. They honestly sucked. It was the best I could do and it at least got the job done. One thing did come to mind though. It didn't protect the back of my head.

Glancing at the mask for a moment, I started sketching again. A side view of the mask, but instead it was a full helmet, going all the way around my head. I'd have to tie my hair in a bun and have a hole for it to go through. That'd just make me look weirdly bald though. Maybe… leaf hair? Yeah, leaf hair would work! A rough sketch of a head of leaf hair later, and it was looking much better. A helmet that was designed to look like an actual head, giving it a unique look of its own.

Armor, I still need armor. Turning the page over, I pulled up an image of a generic woman's outline and copied it down as best I could. Then, I began to draw. I still sucked, but it was more about getting my ideas onto the paper rather than making some amazing piece of art. A sort of leaf bodysuit to cover any exposed skin would be good. The armor could be in sections that look like bark, making the mask more distinct. Though it should be relatively slim armor, just so it looks good… Should I give it a cape? A full one, or a half one? Some kind of weird shoulder cape maybe? Could make the leaves hydrophobic, add a hood in case it rains. Wait, why would I need a hood if I have leaf hair?

Putting my pencil down, I took in the… absolute mess I made of that piece of paper. There was the outline of the woman covered with squiggly lines and swirling bits to represent armor, with just a few lines showing where the bodysuit ended. A few cape designs were doodled off to the side, though I wasn't one hundred percent on adding them. At least, it was a good amount of progress on designing a costume. And I even managed to get a trio of cape names figured out. Closing the notebook and sliding it back into the desk, I reverted the mask into a ball and put it back as well.

Heading back to bed, a thought occurred to me as I climbed in. What was I going to use as a weapon?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I wound up answering that question relatively quickly the next day. On the bus ride to school, I went looking for potential weapons on my phone. Even though I was pretty sure I could make even an equivalent to a gun with my power, I needed something unique and not so threatening. A lot of capes in the city didn't use weapons, but there were notable examples. Armsmaster has his halberd, Dauntless has his lance, Miss Militia has everything, Cricket has those sickle things, Crusader has a spear, Victor has his guns, Oni-Lee has knives and grenades.

A ranged weapon is a given, you can't get hurt if they can't reach you. The two main options didn't work. Guns were just threatening and didn't fit the aesthetic, and crossbow didn't fit it either as far as I could tell. Really it only left one option with the whole 'tree' aesthetic I was going with. A bow and arrow. I'd never used a bow and arrow before, didn't know the first thing about using them. For the image of the cape in my head, I was just gonna have to learn how.

I could even potentially convert a bow into a melee weapon and vice versa. If I was being realistic, the weapon that suited me the best was probably just a big stick. Luckily a bow could very easily be converted into a big stick! Though there wasn't much room in the design for a shield. The extra range and reach should hopefully cover that issue. Maybe. I was honestly winging it since there wasn't exactly anyone I could ask for advice.

As I sat down at the table with Vicky and her friends to eat lunch, it struck me just how alone I was gonna be for this. Vicky couldn't know because if she did, it'd almost definitely result in Carol finding out. None of the Wards could learn the truth, because then they'd almost definitely tell Vicky. Unless I met some people while out in costume, there was almost no one I could ask for advice from. Maybe there was some PHO group dedicated to helping out new capes?

"Hey, Amy." A voice drew me out of my thoughts. One of Vicky's friends, Wendy if I remembered correctly, was looking over at me. "I'm hosting a party at my place, brother's come in from out of town. You wanna come?" One of my eyebrows quirked up at the question. It was pretty rare for any of her friends to ask me to do anything, especially since I always turned them down. At my silence, she elaborated. "I asked Vicky, but she apparently has some party to go to with Dean."

"I'll go." It exited my mouth as soon as I heard that. Part of me whispered that I had to go to that party with Victoria. To keep an eye on Dean. I crushed that with as much viciousness as I could muster. She isn't mine, keeping her away from Dean was pointless. It'd just make me feel awful about what I couldn't have. It's better to have an excuse at hand if Victoria tried to get me to go with her. Besides, she wanted me to socialize more. This would get her off my back for a bit.

"Sweet! No need to wear anything special or anything, it's a pretty casual party. Brother's insisting he wants to meet my friends, and I figured at least one half of the Dallon pair should show up." She continued on after that, talking excitedly about her brother. I just nodded along, giving the occasional hum of an acknowledgment as I made plans. Show up to the party, hang out in the background for a bit. Then leave. It'd give me some time to slip out somewhere private and work on the armor.

The bell started to ring and everyone started getting up to go back to class. Closing up my lunchbox, I moved to follow when I felt a hand on my shoulder. "Wait." Wendy dug something out of her pocket before pressing it into my hand. "Adress and phone number, the party's at six!"

With that she hurried off, leaving me there holding a scrap of paper. Shoving it into a pocket, I hurried off towards class. Put it out of mind Amy, you've got classes. I spent yesterday daydreaming, Carol will throw a fit if my grades start tanking… Kinda wonder how Vicky's gonna react to me going to a party without her though.

It turns out, she'd be super fussy. Watching her dig through my closet, I couldn't help but sigh. I should have expected this. "Vicky, I already told you. This is a casual party, I don't need to wear anything fancy."

"Casual doesn't mean don't look good, if anything it makes it harder to look good. Because you can't seem like you're trying too hard." Vicky pulled another shirt out of the closet, squinting at it for a moment before shaking her head and putting it back. I liked that shirt!

"I'm not planning on being the center of attention. I'm not even sure how long I'll stick around…" Apparently, that was the wrong thing to say, as Vicky stopped her search to turn and stare at me.

"Do I need to call Dean and tell him I can't come? I don't really have to be there, it's just a cousin's birthday party." We both know that was a lie. Dean and his family were expecting her, and she didn't want to make the birthday girl upset.

"Vicky, I'll be fine. I'm not gonna skip the party and make myself look like an ass… Don't you have to get ready for your party anyway?" Vicky grinned a bit and shook her head, pulling out a light grey sweater to shove in my direction. When did I get that?

"Nope! I finished figuring out my outfit two days ago. It was important enough to merit a lot of forethought. I think I've got an idea for an outfit even you would like… Or at least won't mind." Arms loaded with clothes, she dropped them on the bed for me.

It turns out she had actually managed to figure out an outfit I didn't mind wearing. The aforementioned light grey sweater, a dark green winter coat I was pretty sure she bought for me, some actually comfortable stonewashed jeans, a pair of boots with a bit of fur around the top, and to bring it all together, a red scarf.

It… was honestly surprising. "When did you realize I didn't like skinny jeans and crop-tops?"

She blushed a bit and scratched the back of her neck. "I always knew that, you never let me not know it. I just figured with the weather, probably should dress warmly… While also looking fashionable."

A small snort escaped me at that, which earned a small glare from her. "I understand, after all, not all of us have a forcefield to help stay warm."

She grumbled at that, but couldn't deny it. Even in the dead of winter, she tended to dress light because of the protection her forcefield provided. "I can lower my forcefield if I want…"

"Yeah, but I can count the times you've lowered it on one hand. Now go get ready for your party, I can handle dressing."

"But I still have to do your hair!" Rolling my eyes at that, I grabbed her by the arm and started pulling. If she didn't want to move I couldn't move her, but she usually took the hint. Sighing dramatically, she allowed me to shove her out the door with a laugh. Then, I was getting dressed and doing my own hair. Not like there was much to be done, it was its usual frizzy mess that I wrangled into a loose ponytail. The outfit looked good, but also just felt comfortable to wear. Unlike a lot of what she tried to get me to wear.

Shoving my phone and wallet into one of the coat's pockets, I moved to the door and stepped out into the hallway. This was gonna be weird. I was pretty sure the last time I'd gone to a party without Vicky was when I was in elementary school. Frankly, I wasn't entirely sure how I was gonna handle myself, usually, Vicky was there to absorb all the attention. It's not like I'm gonna be the center of attention, it'll probably just be a few people trying to make idle conversation.

I turned to head for the stairs when I heard Vicky step out of her own room. Surprisingly, it wasn't as fancy as expected. Just a knee-high yellow skirt paired with a white shirt. Quirking an eyebrow at her, she just gave me a shrug. "What? It's a kid's birthday party. Just because it's important doesn't mean it's fancy."

"... Fair enough." Wasn't much else to say. She looked good in it, with her hair done up in a bun like it was she looked mature. As I went down the stairs, she floated after me, not bothering to actually use the steps.

"If you want? I can fly you over to Wendy's house before heading over to Dean's." That just earned an eye roll, even if I appreciated the sentiment.

"It's the exact opposite direction of Dean's house, I don't want to make you late. Besides, I rather not have the attention you swooping in would bring. It shouldn't take more than like ten minutes on the bus."

That earned a nod from her as I opened the front door. About to leave, my heart skipped a beat. Vicky wrapped her arms around me from behind, giving me a hug. Her head came down to my shoulder, and I could smell the faint cherry perfume she was wearing. Her voice was a quiet murmur as she gave me a squeeze. "Try to enjoy yourself, okay?"

My hands came up to rest on Vicky's arms. Dammit Vicky, why do you have to remind me why I love you? This wasn't making things easier for me. A small war wages in my head. I wanted to just stay there in her arms forever. I wanted to beg her to come with me to Wendy's party, not Dean's. I wanted to scream about how unfair this was, her doing this to me. Forcing everything as deep as I could, I gave a shaky sigh and nodded. "I-I'll try… That's all I can promise."

I could feel her nod and pull away. My body followed her arms for a moment before I forced myself to stop. She moved past me out the door and gave me a smile so bright it made my heart skip another beat. My lips moved of their own accord to give her a crude parody in return. Still, that was enough to appease her, as she raised a hand to give a wave as she slowly floated off the ground. "See you tonight Ames, I expect detes!"

With that she was gone, soaring into the dark winter sky. I stood there watching until she disappeared behind the buildings, before forcing myself to move. One leg after the other, I walked to the nearest bus stop. Taking my sweet time had apparently been a bad idea because it was just about to leave when I got there. Climbing aboard, I paid the fare and sat near the front.

Unable to contain it any longer, I bundled the loose ends of the scarf up in my hands. And let out a frustrated scream into the fabric. The driver gave me a weird look but didn't ask any questions as we pulled away. Leaving me to my thoughts.

It wasn't fair. I try so hard to get rid of those thoughts, to push them aside. Hell, I succeed! I didn't look at Vicky romantically even once after school. Then she has to go and do something like that! I pressed my forehead forward into the seat in front of me. She has to go from the casual sister dynamic to so sweet and caring and… just… UGH! She doesn't even act like that to Dean! They just trade stupid nicknames and suck face…

That's the worst damn part. I would have gone CRAZY by now if not for those moments. Literally, the only bright spot in my entire damn life is Vicky. Mark's too depressed most of the time to do much more than mumble a hello. Carol's a bitch and will always be a bitch. If I didn't have Vicky… I wouldn't have anything. I managed to fight back a sob, closing my eyes tight. So why did I have to go and ruin it with these damn FEELINGS!?

She deserves better than her creepy sister perving on her. Honestly, she deserves better than Dean, but that definitely wasn't me. As much as I might dream about it… Wiping my eyes, I took a deep breath as I looked out the window. Getting close to my stop. I need to move past this. I gotta get a damn grip. For her sake. Do what she said. Try to enjoy this party, without her. To move on.

A/N: Double the time this time. I truly am the pinnacle of consistency with fanfiction...