Chapter 8

Julie hurried to get to school. She was going to be so late! She hadn't set her alarm clock on Sunday and school started in a half an hour! She threw on a T-shirt and some jean capris, shoved on her sneakers, grabbed her bag and went downstairs.

"Julie," her mother said as she started for the door. "Eat breakfast first," "I'm gonna be late mom," she said grabbing her jacket. "You have to eat." Julie rolled her eyes, shoved a breakfast bar in her mouth, kicked the door open and left. "See ya!" she yelled back and started running to school.

She got there as soon as the first bell was ringing, so she made it to class just in time. She sat down next to Chase, out of breath and exhausted. "What happened to you?" he asked. "What...do you mean?" she asked in between breaths. "I ran to school and got up late….not in that order…" "Your hair is soaked." "Sorry I didn't have time to dry it," she said smartly. There was a long pause for a while. Their teacher was still not there, obviously late. "You could have got here late and no one would notice," Chase laughed. "I know,' Julie replied. Then there was another silence for a little while. "So…um…about yesterday," Julie said. Chase looked the other way. "Um…yeah….what time should I pick you up?" "Seven's good I guess." Just then, the teacher walked in. "Sorry I'm late," she said hurrying in. She had a pile of papers in her hands and started to pass them out. It was a bunch of questions about the movie they were going to watch…busy work…

Since that morning, Julie had been feeling weird about going to the prom with Chase. He had already bought a ticket and so had she, so she couldn't back out now. She was feeling really weird about it and Edward kept coming in her mind. It wasn't fair to him that she liked him a lot she was taking Chase on a date. But it wasn't a date. They were just going to prom as friends. Even though she kept telling herself they were going to stay friends, she wasn't so sure it would feel that way.

Julie arrived at the mansion and before she knew it was looking for Edward. It was times like this that she wished the house wasn't so huge.

She finally found him in a room she didn't recognize. It was a pretty big room. There was a bed, a small rocking chair, a dresser, and a picture of an older man on the dresser. When she found Edward, he was sitting on the bed, looking at the picture with his back towards her. Then she realized that this must be the inventor.

She hesitated whether or not to go in or wait for him to come into his room and find her. She then remembered how much she grieved her grandmother's death and all of the alone time she wanted, but never got. So, she quietly left him to his thoughts and walked back to his room.

While there, she waited for him and thought about her grandmother. She remembered the times she told Julie the story of him and how she never grew tired of listening. She remembered the picture she had of her when she was young. She had the same red hair Julie had. She had pretty brown eyes and was way more colorful then Julie. She could just picture Edward and her together, embraced by the window of her great grandparent's house while the rest of the town was hunting him down. Then, she thought of how her grandmother always told her story with such emotion. This was why Julie never doubted it was true. Julie wished now more than ever that she could just hear the story from her grandmother one more time, even thought she had it memorized from beginning to end. Tears started to roll down her cheeks. She tried wiping them, but more came. Then she heard the creak of the floor behind her. She wiped her tears quickly and turned to see Edward.

"Hi," she said getting up. "Hello," he smiled. "Emily didn't come?" he asked. "Not today, she's with my mom. I made you something," she said. She pulled out of her bag a beautifully colored painting of the mansion, resting up on its hill. It was the vision Julie saw from her window, one of her old ones. Edward smiled when he saw it. "Thank you," Edward said. "Your welcome," Julie replied and placed it next to his fireplace.

Julie sketched a little while talking to Edward. The subject of dancing somehow came up, leading to the subject of the prom.

"I'm a little excited about prom this year," Julie said "dancing is okay I guess." Edward looked up at her, "Prom?" he asked. "Yeah," Julie said, her face lighting up. "Senior prom is supposed to be one of the most special nights of a teenager's life. It's almost like a big ball. Everyone dresses up really nice. Girls wear beautiful dresses and guys are supposed to wear suits I guess. Everyone dances and has a good time. And then two people are voted for king and queen. I don't vote for that, though. I think that's kind of stupid. I doubt me and Chase will even be in the running, anyway." Edward looked so interested in the subject. Julie wished she could show him. "Chase?" he asked. "Chase is the guy I'm taking. We don't like each other as a couple that much, but we've been really good friends for a few years now." Julie stopped and let out a small laugh. "He's one of my only friends actually. Except you, that is." Edward smiled at this.

Julie and he were locked in a stare for a while. She was looking into his eyes. They were so beautiful. She could only imagine what they held trapped inside of them. Then, she got an idea. "Do you know how to dance?" Edward shook his head, which was the response she expected. Hesitantly, Julie asked "Can I teach you?" Edward looked a little confused. Julie got up, and so did he. She placed one of his arms around her waist (carefully avoiding the razor sharp blades…) and held his other one right at his wrist. She guided him in a twirl around the room. They spun around the room for a while. They were both pretty bad at it too and found themselves laughing at each other. For a while, they were having a great time, until Julie slipped and Edward's blade gave her hand a slice right in the palm. Julie pulled her hand away and looked at it. It wasn't that bad, just a little bit of blood.

"I'm sorry," Edward said with a very guilty expression on his face as he pulled his blades closer to him. "It's okay," Julie assured him. "It's just a little bleeding, that's all," she said. She went over to her bag and pulled out some bandaged she knew she might be needing and the iodine she had since the first day. She cleaned off her hand and wrapped it in the bandage, hoping Edward didn't feel too bad.

He was standing over her as she fixed her hand and she got up. "See," she said holding up her hand for him to see. He looked at it, still feeling pretty guilty. She went over and put her arm around him…kind of…he was a little bit tall. "It's okay," she said, "It was only an accident. Besides it's not like my whole hand came off." She smiled. He smiled back at her and their eyes locked again.

Julie regained her thought. "Well," she said looking at her watch. "I'd better get going," she said putting away her things and putting her bag around her shoulders. "Bye, Edward." She said waving back at him. She left, in kind of a daze, thinking of him. She thought about his compassion towards her and how it made her feel loved and safe….she felt the way she used to feel when she liked Chase…did she like him more than she thought she did? She avoided the thought, or at least tried to, and walked home.

Halfway there, she got a call on her cell phone. It was Chase. "Hello?" she asked. "Your mom called and wants you home." "Lucky for me I'm almost there. Why?" "She wants to take you shopping." "I guess now I do need to go huh?" she laughed. He did too. When she reached her house, they hung up and Julie went into her house.

Her mom was ready to go with Emily and waiting for Julie. "That was fast," her mom said. "Well…" Julie said thinking. "I came home fast to…tell you the news!" "What news?" "Chase and I are going to the prom together," "Oh honey that's wonderful!" her mom exclaimed, hugging her. "I knew he was your boyfriend!" Emily said pointing at her. "He is my friend. We're going as good friends." "Well," her mom said. "It's getting late, so we better get to the mall. There is a sale at DEB on dresses and I thought we could try again?" "Okay," Julie smiled.

"I'm so fat!" Julie said opening the dressing room door and handing her mom the dress. "Julie, we'll find another dress. And you are no where near fat!" "I can't believe I couldn't fit into that stupid dress." Julie said crossing her arms. "I'll check down here," her mom said grabbing Emily's hand and pulling her down that way.

Julie looked through a bunch of dresses and found a few she liked, but nothing that looked right on her. The colors were off. The only colors she liked were black, red, and blue. She couldn't find a dress that fit her right or looked right on her. She was looking through the last rack of dresses on her side when she found a really nice, but different one. It was black silk (fake) under black netting like material. It was ling with spaghetti straps, but the twist was that it had a lime green on it. On the top, there was a thin lining of green as well as on the bottom, which ruffled three layers, all of them with lime green on the ends. It was simple, not too fancy, and different just like Julie wanted. There were three of them. Julie grabbed her size and hurriedly tried it on.

When she turned around to the mirror, she smiled at what she saw. It fit! It looked good on her! She had actually found a dress for once in her life since she was three that looked great on her! "Mom," she called over to her mother. Her mother was already coming this way. She examined the dress as Julie stepped out of the room and smiled. "I like it!" she said. "It's different, especially the green. And it looks so good on you!" Julie smiled. "I want this one!" she said like a child looking for a toy. "Are you sure you don't want to look around for a while?" "Positive! I like this dress!" "Alright," her mother said. "Let me put these back and I'll meet you at the checkout counter."

Julie went up to her room when she got home. It was pretty late when they got back and she was full, tired, and had a headache. Julie took the dress out of her shopping bag. She couldn't wait to show Chase! She went to Icing and got some jewelry to wear and got some shoes at DEB before they left. She was excited and ready for the prom. She changed and got ready for bed. She noticed that her mom didn't notice her cut today. She couldn't let her, either. She easily thought that arm-warmers would easily hide it and she hoped to forget about it. Prom was this Saturday and Julie couldn't wait. With all of this in mind, she drifted off to sleep.