"Ladies! If you don't hurry up we're going to be late!" Carlisle called from the base of the stairs.
"There, all done," Alice chimed, finally taking her hands off of the tiara sitting atop of Marietta's head.
Marietta smiled in the mirror, admiring herself as she brushed a brown curl over her shoulder.
"Hey!" Rosalie warned, "Don't you dare. I spent quite some time on your hair."
"Ladies! We don't have forever!" Emmett teased from downstairs.
"Shut up!" Bella answered, "We're coming."
Marietta stood, smoothing out the pink, glittering tulle on her dress. "This is so exciting. I mean what fifteen year old from Georgia gets to go to a royal Italian ball?" She beamed clicking down the stairs in front of the women. "So are these guys cousins? Like the Denali's?"
"Not exactly." Carlisle was clearly trying to dodge the question.
Jasper took the hint and jumped in, studying the girl's sparkling dresses, "So, let's see what we have here. Esme, peacock. Rose, some rococo show girl, predictable. Alice, darlin', you make a lovely sprite. Bells, are you supposed to be a wolf?"
She smirked proudly, "I thought that Aro would just love seeing a wolf at his party with an invite."
"Nice," He gave his signature half smile, "Now, it's just you my dear. What have we here?" He took Marietta's hand and spun her around, "Pretty pink princess?"
"You wish. Am I THAT shallow? It's theatrical."
"Oooof course." Edward laughed.
"Hello? It's Christine's dress from Masquerade!" Marietta smiled and struck a pose.
"I got it." Rosalie grinned, "Considering I'm the only one who paid attention in theatre class."
"I liked princess better." Jasper informed her.
"Who knows? Maybe I'll find my prince charming tonight? Would you guys be cool with an immortal Italian son-in-law?" She giggled.
"How 'bout no." Emmett crossed his arms, exchanging protective slash worried glances with the other male coven members.
"I thought you said it was a castle." Marietta remarked as their limo came to a stop in front of an enormous stone clock-tower.
"The Volterra is a hidden, underground castle." Alice explained.
She sighed confused, "Ok, this is becoming more and more unrealistic by the minute." Alice gave her a look. "Oh right, we're all vampires who sometimes keep company with werewolves. TOTALLY slips my mind every now and then. Now tell me, am I gonna meet zombies tonight too?"
"No ma'am." Jasper replied to her sarcasm while opening the limo door, "Just a WHOLE bunch of irritated Italian vampires."
"Fun!" She squealed, over enthused as she bounced out, heels clicking on the cobblestone. This was all new to Marietta. She had gone to a business function or two with her father while they were alive, but never as a social, bonding adventure. He only flaunted her accomplishments and then neglected her the rest of the time, but that was ok. She preferred her neglectful father over her malicious father any day. That had a lot to do with why she wasn't too distraught over their deaths. It was the first time the three of them had been in the same car together for years, so the rain fit the circumstance…but also made the road slippery. Sure enough, a large eighteen wheeler lost traction and rolled into their lane. Her parents were declared dead on the scene. She was rushed to the nearest trauma bay. Luckily for her, Dr. Carlisle Cullen was in Atlanta at the time for a medical convention, and he was handed her case. It was quite clear that her time was limited. Carlisle on the other hand, conceived that her personality and potential made her too great of a loss, so he changed her himself and took her back to Forks with him. Her southern heritage and enthusiasm immediately bonded her with Alice and Jasper, so for the first time, rather than Carlisle and Esme handling the newest addition to the family, Alice and Jasper became her pseudo-parents.
Marietta had never seen anything more beautiful in her entire life; the halls flooded with costumes, the beyond ornate architecture, the colorful decorations from ages past, the swelling music, grand music. It wasn't long before she was well mixed into the sea of masks, and separated from her new family. She didn't mind however. The elaborate masquerade ball seemed more to her like a fantasy stage production than it did reality. Besides, even with masks on, she could tell that the crowd was full of young, attractive gentlemen. The only problem was that she couldn't tell who was taken and who wasn't out of the crowd surrounding the foyer. She wasn't even sure if anyone would be interested in her, but it was worth a shot, so she made her way towards the dance-floor. Little did she know that she'd already caught the eye of her very soul mate.