Chapter Two: Camisado
It's not so pleasant
And it's not so conventional.
It sure as hell ain't normal
But we deal, we deal.
Panic! At The Disco - Camisado
The bell for lunch rang much sooner than Lucy had anticipated. Her English resembled a battlefield of black and blue ink. Frowning, she threw her books in to her bag and exited the room. A boy a few inches taller than her ran around her as she exited.
"Hey Luce, You goin' to the dance next Saturday?" The boy asked, his dark hair falling in to his brown eyes.
"That depends, are you asking me?" The slightly shorter girl asked with a grin as she walked towards the cafeteria.
"Yes." He grinned in response, pushing open the door for her.
"Then no, I'm not going. I think I'll wash my hair, or something like that that girls these days enjoy doing so much." She said with a laugh, walking towards the lunch line with her book bag over her shoulder haphazardly.
"Why must you hurt me so!" He cried out theatrically. She laughed, rolling her eyes.
"Don't you remember what happened the last time I agreed to go with you to a dance?" She smirked, grabbing a slice of pizza as she walked down the line. He walked behind her with his tray. She snickered at the memory of the dance.
"It isn't my fault that Jessica tripped and spilled punch on your dress." He countere quickly.
"No, it was hardlyyour fault." Lucy rolled her eyes with a sardonic laugh.
"I'm only coming with you because you were too pathetic to get another date." Lucy said firmly, adjusting the top of her dress; it clung to her figure more tightly than she had hoped for, but the sales woman had promised it looked good. She had never cared much for fashion, so long as something looked good it was fine with her.
"I didn't see you getting any other dates." Matt snickered at her, his shaggy hair was pulled back in to a stylish pompadour that would have made greasers jealous.
"Perhaps that is because I don't like dancing." The dark haired girl countered as they stood besides the punch bowl at the prom. It was then that Jessica Jones appeared, her date a tall man with waving blonde hair. Lucy recognized him as one of the football players, a likely target for her affection.
"Of course you don't like dancing, that's because you can't." Jessica snickered, grabbing a glass of punch. She turned to walk away snidely, but a mysterious foot stuck out, causing the brunette to trip, her bright red punch spilling entirely over Lucy's new green dress.
"If I remember correctly, it was entirely your fault." Lucy snickered, walking away from the lunch line.
"Po-tae-toe, po-tah-toe." He shrugged with a laugh. Matt had been one of the first people for Lucy to befriend when she transferred to Forks her freshman year. He and Sam had been eager to welcome her in to their small group of friends.
"Oh... I've got to work with Jasper and Jessica for a history project." Lucy cursed under her breath as she watched Jessica eagerly waltz out of the cafeteria without food. "Wish me luck."
"Good luck." He laughed loudly as she walked towards the doors leading to a small courtyard.
Emmett and Jasper sat quietly at a table under an awning, while Jessica stood across from them batting her eyelashes and flipping her hair with such force that Lucy had to wonder if the reason Jessica did so poorly in class was due to focusing so much on her hair flipping technique. She sat down with a frown across from Emmett. He was snickering at something.
"Oh great, you're here." Jessica proclaimed loudly. Lucy smirked at Emmett's less than quiet snickering. Jasper looked almost pained as Jessica took a seat besides him at the round table.
"I was thinking it would be really cool if we could dress up; I have a cool old style dress." Jessica said as she 'subtly' inched closer to Jasper. Lucy glanced up with a smirk at Jasper; Emmett was whispering something she couldn't hear, but he looked absolutely uncomfortable. "But I don't know what you guys would wear."
"I've got some old war uniforms." Lucy offered without even thinking. The three teens looked up at her curiously, confusion written plainly across Jasper and Emmett's faces.
"Of course you would have old war uniforms." Jessica rolled her eyes, leaning over to Jasper, inches from him as she started to say something.
"Why do you have old war uniforms?" Emmett asked her curiously, cutting off Jessica before she could speak.
"Because she's a freak that actually likes stuff like that." Jessica smirked, rolling her eyes in an annoyed fashion.
"I've always been inexplicably in love with the Civil War; my mother always said I would have been a soldier back then if they had let women in." She explained with a grin that lit up her face; if there was one thing that she loved, it was the Civil War. Not even Jessica's comments could ruin her enjoyment. "My mother used to work for a Museum in Galveston, so I got a lot of old war memorabilia."
"You lived in Texas before you moved here? I can't even hear an accent. When I first met Jasper I could hardly understand him." Emmett laughed, patting Jasper on the back.
"I'm from Texas, Emmett; not Alabama." Lucy said with a laugh, putting a slight twang to her tone when she spoke it. "I try not to sound southern; Everyone thinks you're uneducated if you're from the south."
"I think they're cute. You should have heard Jazz's." Emmett laughed, patting Jasper once more. Lucy was confused at how roughly he was patting him, but didn't bother dwelling on it.
"Will you two stop flirting so we can get this project done. I don't know about you, but I find history to be a bore. We could just let Lucy do it, and we'll-" Jessica began smoothly, sidling back over to Jasper.
"I find history to be fascinating. There is no reason to make Lucy do it on her own." Jasper said sharply. She jumped away from him with a look of pure shock that he would have said anything that could remotely be conceived as 'standing up for' the dorky girl that she despised.
"Don't be such a namby-pamby." Lucy frowned at Jessica. "Stop trying to pass the buck and just do your work."
"Don't worry, Luce. Jazz is ... what did you always say..." Emmett looked deep in thought as he watched Jasper. "Someone to ride the river with?"
"What?" Lucy burst out laughing boldly. Jasper frowned at Emmett, and Jessica looked thoroughly confused. "I haven't heard that in years."
"No, I don't imagine you would have." Jasper said darkly, pulling notes out of his bag. Lucy was smiling as she reached in to her bag to pull out a notebook.
"These were the notes I wrote down while in English." Lucy held the sheet of paper out to Jasper.
"Here." Jasper handed her his curtly, while Jessica sat with a sour frown.
"You have very elegant handwriting for a man." Lucy mused as she read the neat script. Emmett snickered, while Jessica glowered.
"Thank you." He said under his breath as he read over her notes.
"These look good, though Lee's army only had 72,500 men engaged, and the cavalry was under Major General James Ewell Brown Stuart, or better known as Jeb Stuart." Lucy said looking over his notes before handing them over to him.
"I think I know my facts." Jasper frowned, handing her back her notes.
"I think I know my facts." Lucy returned firmly. The blonde boy looked up at her with a glare.
"All right you two; how about we just leave that out of the project." Emmett said quickly as he jumped up, waving his hand between the two teens.
"But I'm right." Lucy said through gritted teeth. She knew she shouldn't have gotten so riled up over it, but he wasn't exactly being innocent. He said that she was wrong; she knew that she wasn't.
"No, you're not." Jasper responded just as tensely as she had. Jessica seemed almost fearful as she looked between the two.
"It's just history you guys, it really doesn't matter. Who cares anyways?" Jessica offered, though she audibly gulped as the two turned their dark looks from one another to her.
"You don't need to act like a know-it-all constantly, Lucy." Jessica offered. "So what if Jasper thinks you're wrong; just give it up. Everyone knows you know everything about history."
"Thank you, Jessica." Lucy said smugly as she looked down at her notes, writing down a couple of random facts she could come up with.
"Well, Jasper looks like he actually has a life. Unlike you, who probably sits at home looking at some stupid civil war shrine on Saturday nights. It's hardly his fault if he can't be as pathetic as you are." Jessica shrugged. "It's no wonder your mother left you."
"I don't know where you're hearing this scuttlebutt from, but I suggest you check your sources before you run your mouth off and open the ball." Lucy said icily, standing up from the table. She pulled a pen from her bag and quickly wrote down something on the top of her note paper before handing it to Jasper. "I'm out. Call me if you need to talk about anything."
"What?" Jessica choked out, confusion written plain on her face. Jasper was frowning, while Emmett laughed boisterously. Lucy angrily dumped her full tray in to the trash as she entered the cafeteria. Furiously, she stalked to the table where she usually sat and plopped besides Sam with her arms folded beneath her head.
"Uh oh, What happened?" Matt asked cautiously as he looked across the table at her.
"Jasper Hale," Lucy spat out in a disgusted tone. "Is the most imbecilic man I have ever had to work with."
"Jasper is the one that has you in this horrible mood?" Sam looked confused. "I know he's not the nicest, but I thought Jessica would be worse."
"They're both perfectly horrible. He actually had the audacity to tell me that I was wrong!" Lucy complained, hitting her head against the table. "ME! I am never wrong."
"What?" Sam laughed out, Matt was snickering across from her, as was their friend Amber who sat besides Matt.
"I'm sorry, Lucy. But you're not right all the time." Amber said with a laugh, pushing a short strand of brown hair out of her eyes.
"Yes, I am." Lucy told them stubbornly, thankful when the bell rang.
Rolling over in her bed, Lucy groaned. Despite it being a famously overcast day outside the bright light shone in through cracks in the light curtains. Her room was modestly decorated: A large quilt over her bed, a couple of pictures of friends, a bed stand with a lamp, and a closet. Begrudgingly, she stood up and grabbed clothes for the day. It was only Saturday morning; she had no plans other than to stay at home and read.
Stepping on to the porch on her way to the kitchen she grabbed the paper, quickly jumping back inside from the chilly January air. She dropped the paper on the couch before grabbing the previous day's paper from the coffee table. With a small yawn she began crumpling the old paper and stacking small chunks of wood in the hearth. Within five minutes a good sized fire had started; it would only take an hour to warm up the rest of the house if she was lucky.
Bowl of cereal in hand, she sat at the table, propping the news paper up as she read it. There wasn't much of interest; it was more something to fill the time. Jessica had been right; she really was pathetic and had no life. She was about to put her bowl in the sink when her phone rang, an unfamiliar number flashing on the caller ID.
"Hello?" Lucy answered the phone curiously, wondering who was calling her. She rarely got calls.
"Hi, is this Lucy?" The voice asked. Lucy frowned; even over the phone she could tell who it was. The deep, smooth tone sounded like rich, warm honey.
"Jasper?" She asked with a frown; she hadn't really wanted to deal with him telling her that she was wrong this early in the morning.
"Yes. I just wanted to apologize for not believing you yesterday; you were right about the numbers." His voice said. She grinned broadly, suddenly not dreading the conversation.
"Oh, It's all bosh anyway. I take it too serious. Jessica just drags me out." She said casually, setting her bowl in to the sink as she walked in to the living room to check the fire.
"She seems to do that to everyone." She heard him chuckle on the other line. She grabbed a stoker and began pushing the wood around.
"Emmett and I were coming in to town later, and I thought I'd ask if you wanted to work on the project without Jessica." He told her. She could hear voices in the background, though she couldn't hear what they were saying. She heard him hiss something to whoever was talking.
"Sure, that would be great." She said politely, returning the grate in front of the flames to keep it from hitting the carpet. "Do you guys want to stop by my place, or meet elsewhere?"
"We can stop at your place; I must admit, I would like to see your uniforms." He told her, almost sounding sheepish.
"Of course!" She told him, realizing why he probably wanted to meet up; it gave her a strange feeling of excitement to talk about the uniforms with someone else, even if it was the last person she had expected to invite over for that reason. Perhaps he was as crazy about the civil war as she was.
"We'll probably come in to town in an hour or so. Will you be home?" He asked curiously.
"Yeah. Do you know where my house is?" She asked.
"Off of fourth?" He said. She was shocked that he had known, though she tried to remind herself that in a small town, it was inevitable that everyone knew where everyone else lived.
"Yes!" She said brightly, perhaps a bit more brightly than she should have in an attempt to conceal her shock and confusion.
"We'll see you later, Bye!" He said.
"Bye." Lucy frowned as she closed her phone. She felt her heart race as she glanced around her living room. A small TV sat on an antique radio stand, and with the exception of the TV, nothing looked younger than 50 years old. She frowned and eagerly ran upstairs to gather an armful of recent portraits with friends. She hurriedly carried them downstairs, pulling old photographs from shelves and tables to replace them with the newer ones. She turned on a modern radio station, and tried to brighten up the room that was filled with muted earthy tones; the walls a pale sage green, while all of the furniture were in deep woody browns, and reds.
She ran in to the basement and pulled out the box that held old uniforms she had saved, her fingers tracing over the material as she lugged it upstairs to the living room. She let out a huff of breath when she dropped the heavy box besides the couch and turned her attention to a large server.
Sliding her old photographs in to a drawer she sighed and grabbed an old photograph that she had left out. Jessica had been right, she spent all of her time obsessing over the past; she was stuck in it. Her fingers traced the carved frame of the photograph. The picture was old and worn, with drab hues of brown and cream from age. A young woman and a man stood excitedly in the portrait; he wore a decorated uniform for the confederate army, while the woman wore a long light colored dress covered in ruffles and lace; i fell off of her shoulders, and her waist looked tiny. Long black hair fell in tiny ringlets beneath a small bonnet; both of their faces shone with pride. She hadn't realized she was staring at the picture before a knock came at the door, shocking her out of her thoughts. Sighing, she laid the picture face down on the lace that was draped over the desk and went to answer the door.
"Hey." Lucy said, putting on a smile as she pulled open the door and forcing herself to ignore the portrait she had just looked at. "Come on in."
"Your house is so quaint." Emmett laughed as he entered the small, warm, cottage style home. "Did you get your style sense from your grandparents or something?"
"Something like that." She laughed, shaking her head lightly. She held the door open as the two larger men entered, shutting it cautiously behind them as they entered, looking around.
"Wow, you look just like her." Emmett picked up a picture from her desk. She frowned as she looked up to see the one that he held. Jasper eyed it from besides him.
"That's what I've been told; she's my great grandmother." Lucy laughed awkwardly, walking to the box. "Here are the uniforms. They've been folded in this box for a few years, hopefully they haven't deteriorated or anything."
"So that's why you're so interested in history. Was your family from Texas? What brigade was he in?" Emmett asked her curiously; Jasper gave him a dark look. Lucy began pulling out the uniforms and frowned.
"He was in the Texas Brigade; he joined when he was 17 during the 1850's. He would have joined during the Texas Mexican war if they had allowed him to." She shook her head as though disapproving of the man's actions. "I always got to hear stories about how promiscuous he was; always running in to battle without a second thought about the repercussions. It's no surprise that my great grandmother received word that he had died in battle at Gettysburg."
"He must have known General Lee." Jasper commented as he looked at a picture on the wall of her grandparents with their families, presumably at a wedding or engagement.
"Yes, he did." She said, running between he and Emmett to rummage through a drawer. She pulled out one of the pictures she had put away. "They were actually quite decent friends."
"This is amazing." Jasper said as he looked to the picture. Lucy grinned as she returned to the box, pulling out a couple of other uniforms.
"Are those real uniforms?" Jasper asked, setting the photograph on her desk as he approached the couch. He held one up, his fingers tracing along the threads.
"Of course." Lucy grinned, pleased to see that someone else had seemed nearly as enraptured with the past as she was.
For nearly three hours they sat in her living room talking about the civil war and exchanging facts; as though to play a sparring game of 'who knows more,' that ended inconclusively. Perhaps what had surprised Lucy the most, more than the fact that there was someone out there as nerdy as her, was that it had been the angry blonde boy whom she had shared every history class for the past two years with. He had hardly even looked uncomfortable during his visit, only occasionally getting tense.
"Listening to you guys is more boring than watching paint dry." Emmett groaned as he leant back in a chair by the fire. Jasper had sat on the couch besides the uniforms, while Lucy was sitting on the ground by the fireplace besides a table that they had set notes out on.
"You guys haven't even talked about your project." Emmett continued darkly. "I feel like I'm watching the history channel, only you're speaking in Texan accents and using slang that no one in their right mind would understand."
"Yes we have." Lucy huffed. "Jasper and I will dress up as soldiers. I'll die, because I'll be a union soldier, and Jessica will be my Yankee wife."
"We should have Emmett with us, as the union was vastly outnumbered." Jasper suggested.
"Do you really think her highness Gripling would go for that. She's a copperhead at best." Lucy responded with a smirk.
"She'll allow it; she loves us." Jasper told her with a laugh.
"Of course she does, you flash her a smile and she's dazzled for days." Lucy rolled her eyes. Emmett laughed at her sardonic tone. "I should just befriend you guys so that every time I accidentally call her out on being a deadbeat you can dazzle her and make her forget me."
"We should get going." Jasper said suddenly. Lucy looked between them, feeling a bit confused at the sudden change.
"You're right, it's getting late. Esme will be expecting us for dinner soon." Emmett said quickly. "You go start the car and I'll get your notes and everything."
"Thank you for all of your work, Jasper." Lucy smiled as Jasper walked briskly out the door.
"Thank you!" He called out as the screen door shut behind him.
"We promised Esme we'd be home half an hour ago." Emmett told her sheepishly. "We lost track of time."
"Oh, it's fine. I understand." Lucy said with a slightly relieved smile as she went through the uniforms. She handed a couple pairs of pants and jackets to Emmett.
"Thank you for doing this with us. If they don't fit, just let me know and I may have different sizes, though I'm not a stock room, so it is limited." She told him with a grin as he held them.
"Thank you, these are great." Emmett told her with a laugh "I never thought I'd meet someone as crazy as him about the civil war. Maybe now he can call you when he wants to talk about it rather than bore the rest of our family."
"That would be grand; none of my friends can stand to listen to me." She said appreciatively, holding the door open as he walked towards their small black car.
"Have a great weekend, Luce. We'll see you in class on Monday." Emmett grinned, disappearing to his car. She shook her head as she laughed. She had seen their car at school, though it was still somewhat surprising to see how nice it truly was.
Glancing to the clock above the fireplace she frowned; it was only 3 in the afternoon. They must eat dinner very early.
A/N: Here's the second chapter. I still don't own anything. Let me know what you think, or if you have any ideas! Thanks! :D