Chapter 22: Common Ocurrences

The week passed pretty uneventfully. We'd amped up the frequency of the practices, since it was getting closer and closer to when Alice said that James was going to come. We now practiced every day after school. Emmett had complained about being tired, but I had reminded him that it was either this or get his ass kicked in the first few minutes. After that he had been quiet on the matter, save the occasional groan. But Emmett was Emmett.

It always frustrated him when he would spar against me, since even though he had finally started thinking and not relying so much on brute strength, I was much faster than him. He'd get upset since he could never land a blow on me, but I would duck and weave and dance around him. It especially frustrated him that I was fast enough to avoid his punches and then land a quick succession of my own that he was having a pretty hard time blocking.

Jasper and I would spar with everyone once, to evaluate their progress and find weaknesses that they needed to work on, so that we could help them reach full potential. The rest of the time, we'd be working with someone individually or working on ourselves and each other. No matter how good you are, you can always be better, after all. Although recently we had also been working on not only solo fighting but also in pairs. When you fight in a pair with someone you trust and knows you, you can watch each other's backs, and make the whole process all the more efficient and powerful. Also, your opponent will find it harder to fight back.

Two heads and all.

Anyways, it was now Friday afternoon. Alice had instructed the guys to stay at my house and do whatever it is guys do, but to make sure Emmett was ready. She'd even picked out his clothes for him. Well, it was more with him, since he was keeping the venue a secret from Rose, and didn't want to take any chances of it being leaked.

We females were meeting at Rose's house. Alice was going to bring all her torture devices, I mean, beauty supplies, while I was bringing snacks. Because apparently getting Rose ready was going to take three hours. Three. Hours. Absolute insanity in my book.

I was mostly going to just watch Alice work her pixie magic. I was a bit clueless as to the whole process, at least, Alice's process. Even Rose couldn't keep up with Alice's fashion mania, and she was a lover of pretty. So what hope did I really have? My normal attire is a graphic or band shirt and jeans. Or jean shorts. Not really very fashionable.

So I was most likely going to end up just sitting there talking to Rose and Alice, and maybe help with the basics. Which was fine with me. I could barely even braid my own hair 'properly'.

"Alright! Time to get started!" Alice chirped, plugging in a curling iron and setting it down to warm up. She turned to face us with a slightly manic gleam in her eyes, and clapped her hands together as a wide grin spread across her face. To be honest, I was a little freaked out at her expression, and I wasn't even the target of her mania. Man, was I glad I wasn't Rose. Rose looked completely alarmed and a little scared for her life.

Alice plugged my iPod into Rose's dock, since it had the most variety. I bought whichever songs I liked, regardless of the genre. The result was a mess of songs that sounded pretty eclectic when put on shuffle. And that was how I liked it.

Humming along softly to the current song, Alice sat Rose into the chair in front of her vanity, instructed me to comb her hair very thoroughly and then spray it with water and leave in conditioner. She then danced over to Rose's closet, and began looking through it, making small 'hmm' sounds periodically.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*Destiny~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

"Alright, finished!" the makeup and hair pixie extraordinaire announced. She dashed one last swipe of lip-tint across Rose's lips before leaning back to admire her work. "Yep! You look beautiful, Rose! Emmett is going to be all over you tonight!"

She was right. Rose was even more stunningly drop-dead gorgeous than ever. Her outfit was semi-casual, a backless silky red top and dark skinny jeans jacket, along with a kickin' pair of peep toe pumps with some bling on the front. A gold pair of earrings and necklace, along with some stacked bracelets finished her off. And that was as detailed a description my limited fashion knowledge allowed.

"She's right, Rose. You look fuckin' amazing." She smirked.

"I know. Thanks, you guys for getting me ready. Alice, you did some beautiful work, and Izzy did some great sitting."

"Hey, I did some amazing sitting. I mean, not just anyone can sit as well as I do." Cheesy comeback, maybe, but it got the desired results.

"So, are you nervous?" Alice asked, as she was putting away all her various tools.

"Of course I'm nervous. It's a first date! But at the same time, it's Emmett. So I'm not worried about how it'll go, because as long as I'm with him, it'll be amazing." She had that starry eyed look, and I knew she had it bad.

Alice took a moment to 'awww!', before resuming her cleanup. "Well, he should be here soon, so you won't have to wait long." She paused for a moment, closing her eyes and concentrating on the feelings she sometimes got about the future, before speaking again. "In fact, the doorbell should ring just as I'm done with this sentence."

Right on time, the doorbell sounded. The biggest smile spread across Rose's face, as she grabbed her jacket and rushed to the door. Taking a moment to exhale, she smoothed down her already perfect hair and straightened her top. She took a deep breath in, before opening the door casually. I hid a smile. She had already gotten to the door, whereas I was only about halfway there, and Alice behind me.

"Hi," she breathed, her eyes all lit up and sparkling. Emmett on the other hand was completely silent, just staring at her and grinning like an idiot. A very lucky idiot.

Finally, he seemed to realize that she was expecting an answer. "Uh, yeah. Hi. You look-very nice." He had obviously seen the back, or lack thereof, of her shirt. He swallowed thickly and I fought back a laugh. "Seriously, Rose. Very nice." His tone said all the things that he didn't, and Rose gave him a stunning smile. He grinned back, and they kind of stood there for a while, just grinning at each other. "We should, uh, we should go now…yeah, Rosie?" This time I chuckled a little, under my breath. Emmett only ever had trouble speaking when it came to Rose. Plus he was the only one who could call her Rosie and get away with it. She said that when others said it, it sounded too cute, like a baby's nickname.

Rose just smiled again, and kissed him sweetly on the lips. With his arm around her waist, and his other closing the door, he caught my eye and winked. He then mouthed 'thank you' to Alice, and then they were off.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*Destiny~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

After I helped Alice pack up all her stuff, she loaded it all up in her car and sped off to her house. Today was one of the rare days her mother was home and wanted to spend time with her, so they would be having dinner together. Alice had been a little begrudging, after all they weren't that close. Also, she wanted to be waiting when Rose came back so she could hound her about her date as soon as possible. But she had agreed in the end. As long as she could take Edward. He was very good with adults, as they tended to agree with his polite and courteous demeanor. She was hoping that much of her mother's attention would be deflected onto him.

So that left me and Jasper, once again. Not that I was complaining.

Currently, I was watching him beat up a punching bag. He was working on some moves, and I was helping him, and vice versa, although it was his turn now. I was supposed to be currently watching him and telling him if he made an error. It was proving quite difficult. I kept getting distracted. And who could blame me? He was shirtless. And sweaty. And grunting. And I could see his muscles tightening with ever move he made. His dirty blond locks were hanging around his face in a haphazard way, and I found it mesmerizing. When I managed to focus, I would get sidetracked again. I would keep admiring his form, the quick lithe lethality of his strikes, his force and yet his swiftness, his footwork.

I blew a stray wisp of hair out of my face. It had fallen out of my ponytail and was apparently undeterred by the elastic headband. It was now annoying me, as it kept falling into the picture perfect view I had of Jasper. God he was hot. I swear, that guy will be the death of me. I was saved from further ridiculous thoughts by the clearing of a throat. He was standing in front of me, arms crossed and a single eyebrow lifted.

"Where did you go, Izzy?" he asked, a hint of a smile on his lips.

"Oh…uh…I-you know what? I was staring at how fuckhot you are." Might as well tell him the truth. A full blown smirk now graced his lips, a soft chuckle escaping form them. He shook his head at me in amusement.

"Why thank you, darlin'," he said in that accent of his that made him impossibly sexier. What? I was a hormonal teenager with Jasper as a…whatever he was to me. This was going to be a common occurrence.

AN/: Hey, so sorry I haven't updated in a long time…my fault, entirely. But yeah. Originally this chapter was going to be more interesting, but at the end, it kind of just turned into fluff or whatever my version of fluff is. Yeah. So, I probably won't be updating very often, since real life gets in the way…just going to apologize in advance and ask you to keep this in the back of your mind…I'm so thankful and happy every time I get an email alerting the fact that I have a new review or someone put this on Alert, or Favorite Stories…yeah. Anyway, I fired up my crappy Microsoft Paint and threw together what I envisioned Rose's date outfit to look like…so link is below. Do with that information what you will. :)

Pics link: http / / : rustydaggers . blogspot 2012 / 07 / i-forgot-about-this-site-for-while . html (just remove the spaces and voila!)