GATHERING

Surprisingly, after all the stuff that occurred this morning, Ozario and I made it to school early. It was a new semester, we had new courses, and again with Ozario, I only attended class. Drama. It had been an upgraded class. Some of our friends like Cher, Henry, Frankie, and Adam took the class with us. Because of this, I fell in love with that class. Also, the class itself was incredibly enjoyable.

Mr. Honder was an iconic teacher. He used any and every story instead of using already completed scripts, turning them into theatre scripts and screenplays himself. Our teacher agreed that the class was going to research short stories by Edger Allan Poe. Ozario's got a whole set of them. Last night, he shared it with me to introduce me to Poe. Edgar was quite a macabre and romantic writer. I came to that conclusion after listening to The Black Cat, which kind of frightened me. Still, I was sorry for the wife and the animals in the tale.

In class, all students were assigned different short stories by Poe and placed into groups. Tell Tale-Heart was our party. The tale of a deceitful, mad man who murdered the owner of the house because of his blind eye. Afterwards, he had so much remorse that he pled guilty to the police. Ozario seemed nervous about this story, staring it down damnably. It wasn't the look of hating something or opposing to use it for our project. It was almost like he had an awful experience with it. Onyx moved it very slowly towards Cher, so that no one would notice his feelings for the little book. Yet Henry and I knew him well enough to see through. Henry narrowed his eyes slightly at Ozario, and Onyx rolled his eyes subtly, staring away from him.

"That's strange," I commented. "You have all of Edgar's stories. Do you not like this one, Onyx?"

Ozario glanced at me from the corner of his eyes. With a loving smirk, he answered, "It's not the story for which I am apprehensive. Truly, I love it ... I just hate ... the inspiration for why it was released." He looked down and his smile faded.

Adam repeatedly tapped his shoulder. "Dude!" He called out. "You know the reason for the mystery behind this story? Nobody knew why Poe wrote it for years! This story is like a thousand years old! Tell us, please! Tell us!"

"It's not that old. It's 174, now," Onyx replied, playfully glaring at Adam.

Wow. I thought as my eyes widened.

"… But, I will at the bonfire," he continued to say. "It's a great horror story – almost better than this one." He promised with a devious grin.

Henry crossed his arms. Ozario ignored him with a softer smile. His eyes lowered at the book again and then his smile fades. I raised an eyebrow. What's going on between those two? Why is Henry upset all of a sudden?

Cher shook her head and waved her hands. "Whoooaaa! No scary stories. I don't know if I can handle that. I couldn't even handle Catalina wearing a dress to school! I thought someone died. Look at it! It's so cute and fluffy! If I can't handle her in that, I know I can't handle freaky stories."

All of us laughed at the table. I touched my soft, gold champagne dress at the side. It wasn't fancy at all; however, it reminded me of a Pinterest dress or something from wish. It was a terrific look and matched perfectly with my golden wedges. It was kind of cool how they looked like converse. The top had a lace layer on it. The skirt was puffing out a bit. My necklace looked like dropping particules of gold. My clothes didn't have a tag on it. I was curious how much this dress cost. I tapped Ozario's shoulder to ask him.

"Where did you get this, anyway?"

Onyx rested his head on the crossed arms that lay on the table. He answered, "I made it. Henry took care of your shoes."

I stared at his clothing, then back at him. Three times, I repeated this action. "Really?"

Henry nodded.

Ozario chuckled. "Yup."

Cher's smile grew. She gushed out, "Aw! I wish I had a boyfriend like him! So, cute!"

For a second, I turned away. Oh, I would like Ozario to be my boyfriend, too. But, no, he never asked me. I mean, a guy who makes clothes for me? Cool! I don't know. Ozario and I behave like we're dating sometimes, I suppose. It doesn't count, however. Does it? Did he feel the same way I did? I supposed I should've denied before she got the wrong impression that he was my boyfriend.

I opened my mouth to deny it, but Ozario said something before I could. "You will find someone better. You just have to be patient with him."

Cher crossed her arms, smiling. "Someone better? You mean, than you? I see the way you treat Cati. Yea, I don't think there is a guy even close to that."

Adam eyed Cher. "Really? I'm sitting right here," he chimed in.

Cher blushed. "Whaa?"

"Ha! I bully Cat. What do you mean?" Ozario chortled, sitting up and straightening his back again.

"He really does," I agreed, shaking my head downward.

I figured Ozario would tell Cher that we weren't really dating. He had not even denied it the slightest. It relieved me that he had said nothing about it. I grinned, wondering if he thought we were dating, or if he didn't want to admit that, too. If these are some of the cases, how am I supposed to deem our relationship? Ozario grinned at me while Cher and Adam debated about nice boys. I felt happy I had nothing more to say. Perhaps, he knew that I was going to say we weren't dating, and he saved me from doing that ... Or even himself?

"So, are you two dating, because... uh... you look like it," Adam burst out?

I flashed him an evil glare. Dammit Adam, you had to ask!

Adam jerked.

I sucked it up, and was just about to admit the truth; but once again, Ozario cut me off., "Aye! Stop getting ahead of schedule."

Adam shrugged, laughing. "What did I do?"

"Hush," Ozario murmured at him.

Cher and I were staring at each other, laughing and nodding, as though we knew there was something going on today. Many of our guy friends acted a little odd all day. Adam kept asking questions to annoy Ozario; Ozario smacked his own forehead, gently, and shook his head. Cher and I were laughing at their argument and humorous banter. How adorable Onyx 's face was as he flushed in red every time he declined to answer Adam's questions. Henry snickered as his younger brother would often do. Soon, I realized where Ozario got his humor from. Onyx snickers almost like him.

Honder has assigned us the job of writing our own skit based on Edger's short stories. It could be in whatever genre we want as long as it was written in the language of the 1800s. The instructor gave us a dictionary and a list of 1800 slang terms to use. Ozario and Henry were laughing at the pages. The terms were not good enough, they thought, and they used their own. It was poor etiquette, apparently, to use so much slang during conversations. The only time they were used was amongst middle and lower class citizens and the flat-out poor. We were going to be upper-class characters. They had their own "slang."

The class worked as the timer was set for 15 minutes. With the Xaviero brother's help, we made it on time and had written an amazing skit. None of the words that we used were on any of the pages that Mr. Honder gave us. When everyone got done, the instructor called the students to show their skits to the whole class. When the rounds hit our table, our group had performed the best comedy skit in front of everybody. Our entire class laughed so hard tears fell from their eyes. Thanks to the brothers, Mr. Honder decided to place our skit on the wall outside his classroom.

Our school bell alerted the students to get out of class and let some of the other students know it was time for lunch. Most of my friends, including Henry and Renesmee, sat together at the Wild Table. I walked over and sat down. I put my food on the surface. My friends spoke about the bonfire party that Kyle organized at La Push later. Since he was living around the beach, he figured it would be fun to do something like this on Valentine's Day.

"Aye!" Michael Cider showed up at the table by popping his head next to my left shoulder.

I jumped at his creepy entrance. "Aye," I responded, confused?

"What up, boy," yelled Maria!

The group began giggling as they watched Maria and Cider clash at each other's throats like they always do. Michael Cider Angelo was the associable kid everyone enjoyed being next to. He always hugged everyone with his exciting aura and happiness. Maria secretly liked him for it. Their bond was one of the strongest in the entire group, aside from Cher and Adam. I figured it had something to do with them being elementary buddies.

Cider sat between Maria and me. "Well, well, well, little stray," he called cheerfully! "What do you have for us today? A boyfriend after all?"

"Where did everyone get 'little' from," I asked, curiously? I avoided the boyfriend part.

A thick peaceful aura touched my back. I looked at Ozario, who set his hand on my head. "Have you seen how short you are," he commented?

I glared evilly at him. "Hisss."

"Ah! Ahhha... Ah." Ozario jumped back, pretending to be scared. "I knew you were a cat," he confirmed. He sat right of me.

Cider touched my shoulder. "Seriously? You don't deny it," he asked?

"Deny what," I returned?

"SO, what time should we head to your party, Kyle?" Ozario butted in about Kyle's party later before Cider could pose his question again.

Kyle's face was stuffed with food. It took him a moment to answer, but he finally replied, "Five or six, your choice."

Cider lowered his eyelids at Ozario.

Oni looked his way and smirked. "What? Did I do something," he deviously asked?

"Cat," Cid continued, "Are you two dating or what?"

"Why are you being so nosy," I spoke, snarling at him? My arms crossed, and my right eyebrow rose.

Michael backed away with his hands in the air, laughing at my rude reply. "My bad, damn."

Again, my friends laughed. Ozario grinned, his white teeth showing. He seemed to be more interested in my answer to Cid 's question than why all the others were grinning. It's not that I didn't want to respond to Cider, I just didn't want to say yes and get turned down or say no and hurt Oni's feelings. I wanted to say this to Ozario, but how was I supposed to answer Michael without asking Ozario the same question? Are we or are we not? Why have we not, yet, refuted the question? It seemed that Ozario didn't know the answer, or that he didn't want to hurt my feelings by telling the truth. Something interesting was going to happen today, though, and only the guys gave the impression they knew. I was unable to figure out what it was. Nonetheless, I could only feel it. Was he going to ask me today?

Later the same day, Kyle's party was lit in flames and hand-held fireworks. Some of the members of the Quileute tribe participated. I supposed it was to watch over those of us Cullen members because, of course, I had been told about the treaty. Jacob came only for Renesmee's sake, hoping to shield her when she needed it. A few years ago, the law preventing all vampires from going to La Push had been removed only for the Cullen members. Mostly because Renesmee, Henry, and Ozario were what and who they were. Henry and Ozario joined Jacob's pack. Renesmee was the imprintee of Jacob. I didn't know why the ban was implemented in the first place, but I never thought to ask. Both groups cared about protect the humans. I'm only glad they made up, kinda. It was good to finally meet Sam Uley and his pack.

It was a hot night, something that was not usually felt in Forks. There was a wide-open, free feeling and energetic atmosphere that made me so happy that I had decided to come. Particularly because Ozario constantly begged me to do so. You see, I wasn't going to come at all. I wasn't the person who really enjoyed going to parties or dancing with big or small crowds. I figured I was going to be a burden because of my enemies, who have been around for decades. I never realized I had, however, a party animal side. I'm a freestyle dancer, closeted mostly. I was excited to be unchained from my house and let loose. This party helped me get out of my stress about the Vipers or school exams coming soon and let me have a chance to have fun with my friends.

As the DJ performed great old and new songs, we rooted for each other to dance. We danced around the flames, spiraling our handheld fireworks. The only thing that ignited that night and turned into explosive leaps was joy it seemed. We kicked the sand under our feet. I had no idea that, until now, Ozario and Adam were both freestyle dancers too. They had so much more class than all of us that we believed those fancy ballroom dances were the only things that they could do. Some of my other friends had been line dancing, including myself, like the good ol 'cupid shuffle and stuff. Others just liked our company and playfully heckled us from the side.

The party was incredible, but something made me wonder what was going on behind the scenes. Something mysterious was happening, I swear. During the slow songs, everybody kept moving people together like they were couples: Cher with Adam, Kyle with Frankie, Maria with Michael ... Clearly, me and Ozario. They'd even try to tell me to stay by Ozario's side all the time we were at this party. Because of our friends, who continuously urged Onyx and I to be together, Ozario face palmed or sighed often. However, they weren't specifically provoking me. Our friends challenged Ozario to do... SOMETHING. I had no idea why.

It reached precisely eight o'clock. Kyle, Adam, Jacob, and some of the other guys left the area to go farther down the beach, where they began to light something up. It looked like a pile of tiny candles. The girls were over-excited though I still couldn't understand anything. Frankie, like me, was just as lost. Yet, I knew that the event was going to be romantic. Since a couple of guys told us all to come over, most of the girls started pushing other girls towards the area. Our other friends, who weren't involved in the plan, watched curiously to see what was happening. We had reached the spot where three of the boys stood inside of the candles, in the middle of a big heart shape. With all I saw, I was at a loss of words.