Face the Elements

Chapter 1

1. Ariel

 

I watch as Lex gets ready. She has her own room, but for some reason she’s always in mine--or dragging me into hers. She is seated at my bureau, meticulously fluffing her long blonde hair. I have always loved watching her get ready. We’re twins, and identical, but I always felt that she was prettier than me, even though I knew that the whole identical part pretty much makes that impossible. It’s probably the whole confidence thing. She’s got it, I don’t. You always want what you don’t have.

When she finally finishes getting her hair just to her liking, she swivels on my stool and locks her eyes onto mine, smiling broadly. Her eyes... Okay so we aren’t completely identical. She has such hazel eyes that they could really be called orange--not carrot orange, but more of a sunrise, as cheesy as that sounds. Mine are greenish-blue, more blue than green.

“What are you supposed to be again?” she asks lazily, as if it didn’t really matter and she was just asking to be nice, which she probably was.

I was sitting on the edge of my bed. I look down at my outfit, complete with radish earrings, “I’m Luna Lovegood.”

“Ah, yes, that’s right. C’mon, Ariel, don’t you know that Halloween has become an excuse for girls to dress up in barely-there clothing?” her eyebrows furrow slightly as she takes in my look, “You could’ve at least been a slutty Luna Lovegood.”

I laugh, “You’re not wearing ‘barely-there’ clothing,” I throw her own words back at her, “You’re actually more covered up than usual.”

She stands, smoothing her hands down her all-black ensemble. She’s wearing skin-tight leather pants, so tight I would’ve wondered how she got them on had I not been in the same room to witness the feat, and a body-hugging black shirt with tiny cap sleeves that fall off her shoulders. She has a belt at her waist, and the look was completed with thick gold hoop earrings and red heels.

“Please, skin-tight is equivalent to barely-there. Not to mention leather ups the ante even more,” she tosses her curled hair over her left shoulder and winks at me, “Grease is the word.”

It is clear that she’s ready to go, so I stand and follow her out of my room, throwing one last glance in the mirror. I enjoy my costume, even though it isn’t exactly overtly sexy. I think I look good.

As I walk behind her downstairs, I mumble, “And what’s with the hair? A little out of character isn’t it, Lex? You’re much more Victoria’s Secret than Sandy.”

“Thanks, twin.”

Well, I guess she would take that as a compliment, she spent an hour working on it. I just let my own blonde hair do what it wanted, which, like usual, was just to hang straight, flowing like a curtain past my shoulders. I twirl some strands self-consciously as Lex and I enter the kitchen, where the boys are waiting for us. As soon as we walk in, a wolf whistle pierces through the room.

“Leather? Hell yeah!” Rhett, as usual, only has eyes for Lex. He moves around the counter toward her, and I notice a specific lack of a costume. This would not go over well. I step around the couple and move over to where Clayton still sits at the breakfast bar.

“Happy Halloween,” he smiles, tilting his head down slightly toward me, his grass green eyes fixed on mine.

I greet him back, my cheeks warming from a blush from his intense eye contact. Then I notice that he isn’t costumed either as I take Rhett’s abandoned seat next to him, whispering, “So why isn’t Rhett dressed as Danny Zuko? Wasn’t that the big plan? Sandy and Danny?”