Alice and the Stock Market
(Alice's POV; visions in ittalics)

BEGIN ALICE'S FLASHBACK

Tuesday October 22, 1929

"Oh Jasper! I feel like doing something, I'm tired of just sitting here all
day."

"What do you want to do Alice?" he asked me with a sigh.

"Let's do the Charleston!"

"Alice--"

"Please Jasper? We can get Edwar--"

People were running to banks, trying to withdraw their money but the bank's
doors were closed, and the people's life savings were gone. Forever.

Women cried in the streets and hugged their children close and men were hoisted
out of their jobs. Children were dying of hunger and the government could not
pay for enough food to sustain them all.

Then I saw the crash. The reason for all of this happening. The stock market
had plummeted. The country was in shambles. Even our family. Rosalie -
Rosalie who had to have everything perfect - was wearing what looked like
little more than rags.

I gasped as my vision ended. Jaspers hands were protectively holding my upright
and I saw Edward come into our room. His normally pale skin was even paler
than usual, his eyes wide with shock.

"We have to tell Carlisle." Edward said, as if I didn't know.

"I'll tell him." I offered at once.

"What happened?" Jasper inquired.

"Edward will explain, I have to call Carlisle."

"Carlisle." I started.

"What is it Alice? What is wrong?" Carlisle asked and I could hear the worry
in his voice.

"I had a vision."

"I thought as much."

"I had a vision of the stock market... crashing. The crash is in two days
Carlisle. I saw such destruction, banks closing people homeless..." I let out
a dry sob and I could no longer continue.

"I'm coming home."

"alright, bye Carlisle."

"Goodbye Alice."

I put the telephone back on the receiver.

I could feel Jasper's protective arms snaking their way around my waist and I
buried my head into his shoulder.

"Oh Jasper... what are we going to do?"

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

"As you all know," Carlisle began as he confronted our family about the problem at hand. "Most of our money is in the stock market, the other money is in banks scattered around the U.S."

"And as some of you might not know, Alice had a vision, the stock market will crash on Friday and as a result the banks will all close. Now what I am asking you all is, do we take advantage of our knowledge or do we sit back and pertend like we don't know anything?" Carlisle asked, and I knew his speech was over and it was our turn to take up this conversation.

"There is no way in hell that I am going to wear rags." Rose said; she was the first one to break our uneasy silence.

"Rosalie Hale, watch your language." Esme scolded.

Silently I agreed with Rosalie, but I was not about to let any of them know that… crap. Edward will know, but he'll be the only one.

There was a general murmur of agreement at Rosalie's comment and Carlisle grabbed the phone quicker than any of us could see.

"Yes, this is Doctor Carlisle Cullen… I'd like to withdraw all the money from my account… Yes, something like that… Thank you very much sir… Goodbye to you too."

Carlisle did this about 10 times before he was finished. He had refused to put a lot of money in one of the accounts; he would never put more than $ 100,000 in a single vault.

He let out a long sigh and said that he didn't want to look suspicious for taking all the money out at one time and then take out all of the stocks also. He said ti would not be a good idea.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

Friday October 24, 1929 (Headline and news article in bold)

I walked slowly down the stairs, with Jasper by my side looking into the eyes of my forlorn family's eyes. They all looked strained and angsty.

Suddenly I heard the paperboy going by and I rushed out the door to get the paper before anyone else in my family could respond.

This was it.

I opened the paper to read the front cover and even before the news carrier was out of sight I had read the whole front page. I let out a terrified scream and I felt Jasper's arms around me, I turned into his chest and sobbed dryly into his shirt. My fault, my fault, my fault.

Edward was chalky pale again and Carlisle looked worried, he bent over Jasper's shoulder, who fought off the urge to growl at our father, to my head and pulled my chin up with his finger.

"May I see the paper?" He asked me calmly, and I nodded my head before burying my face into Jasper again. I didn't need to see it again, that page would be implanted in my memory forever.

BREAKING NEWS!

The stock market is in shambles. Stocks are plummeting like crazy and there is only one thing known about how this happened: Some very wealthy man out there had his hand deep into the stocks and in the early hours of yesterday afternoon this man withdrew all of his shares and got his money in return. Him withdrawing his money was the first stone to cause the avalanche. He was one of the few lucky ones. Many banks have already closed due to their lack of money. Please wait for confirmation, President Hoover will have something worked out shortly.

There was also a picture I vaguely as being Wall Street, but I didn't care. This was all my fault, my vision was going to come true because I had seen it in the first place.

Before I even realized we were moving I could feel myself being placed on the couch next to Jasper. Carlisle Faced me and cleared his throat before saying,

"Alice, I want you to know this was not your fault, it would have happened anyway sooner or later, but although we know it is not your fault, I feel that you would want to help out these poor people?"

I merely shook my head in agreement.

"I think it would be best…" Carlisle started, and he suddenly looked nervous. Oh cap, what is he going to ask me? "If you sold most of the clothes in your closet, if you can sell them you can buy food for people suffering, if you can't then we can give them the clothes directly."

I think I shocked everyone in the room then, for I walked robotically up the stairs and before anyone else could come up to talk to me I was back down the atirs with 12 trash bags stuffed full of my clothes slung over my shoulder.

"Are you coming with me Jasper?" I asked him as I walked out into the cold morning air, though I felt nothing of the heat as we ran towards town.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

"So, let me get this straight," Bella started, "The reason you can't show me your flappers' outfit from the 20's is because you caused the Stock Market to crash, which helped lead to the Great Depression and you sold all your previous clothes to help those in need?"

"Yes?" I answered questioningly, looking down at my intertwined hands that were folded in my lap.

"I would have settled for 'I got bored of them'." She said in amazement, then she mumbled under her breath, but I was sure she knew I heard her, "You might as well tell me that Carlisle brought the rat that caused the Black Plague to Europe."

"HEY! It wasn't his fault he was still a young vampire and didn't understand the consequences…" I trailed off looking at Bella's shocked face and cracked up laughing. Good thing I didn't tell her Emmett running across Kansas to get back to Rosalie was what caused the Dust Bowl…

A/N: Sorry about how rushed it is, I have a horrible headache today. Mike's Surprise will be out tomorrow or the next day, if MS isn't out tomorrow, look for the newest chapter of Unexpected Changes -innocent smile-