COLLIDE 🌑 jasper hale x oc

fifteen. PAGEANT QUEENS

'Cause there's too much to give,
'Cause you'd rather live for the thrill of it all

"Pretty please come dress shopping! I need your opinion on what to wear to prom with Eric! Come on Carmen, it'll be fun!" Angela pleaded as the new friends trudged out of the faded yellow classroom, balancing towers of books within their straining arms. 

Posters that curled at the corners beamed from the peeling white walls. Eric Yorkie had stuck them throughout the corridor that morning to announce Forks High's Monte Carlo theme. Carmen hoped that meant Selena Gomez would make an appearance in the tired town.

Carmen Swan's eyebrows scrunched together, considering Angela's proposal, speeding her steps to her locker to ease the strain of the books weighing on her arms.
"It'll be the perfect opportunity to show you around," Angela's eyes pleaded behind the purple rim of her glasses.
"But..." Carmen hesitated, feeling disconnected without the enthusiasm of Alice whose absence had left a void in the school's positive demeanour which she had grown accustomed to. As though the sun were hiding behind clouds. A climate not helped by the headache and sore throat that Carmen and the others seemed to have caught from their beach escapades.

"Just because I don't have an excuse right now doesn't mean I can't find one," she informed with a grin, glancing over at Angela whose features had contorted into an attempt at a puppy face. She gave in with a laugh and groaned in acceptance. 

"Yay! I'll take that as a very enthusiastic yes. We'll leave at 3:30 on the dot," Angela confirmed, a victorious smile gracing her lips as the two walked through the rusting green doors. "Now you have to help me convince Bella," sharing a knowing glance that Bella and shopping were rarely associated with one another.

"Oh no, that's on you! Good luck with that. Trust me, you'll need it," she laughed, greeting the sunbeams that kissed her tan skin with a smile as the two girls meandered over to the wooden table out on the school's lawn where Bella and Jessica resided.

"Guys! I'm going to the prom with Eric! I just asked him, I took control," Angela said excitedly as she reached their friends pulling a celebrating Carmen in tow.

"I told you that would happen," Bella replied, accepting an excited hug from Angela.

"Are you sure you have to go out of town?" Angela complained to Bella who fidgeted with an apple, a clear sign to Carmen of some lie her sister was afraid of being caught. Making eye contact with her sister, Carmen shot her a confused glance whilst Bella replied pleadingly, begging for her to support her fib. Shrugging, Carmen sat crossed-legged opposite Jessica on the table, smoothing out her beige pants.

"Oh yeah, it's...a family thing," with a frown, the twins' new friends turned to Carmen, questioning if that also discounted the older twin from Prom.

"Oh yeah, I'll have to check with Dad if I can bail on family weekend, though I'd hate to miss out on crying, pooping baby cousins" she responded with mock disappointment and thick sarcasm, earning a laugh from the others.

"Okay, we should go shopping in Port Angeles before all the good dresses get sold out," Jessica decided.

"That's what we were thinking!" Angela replied excitedly, gesturing at Carmen, "Let's all go after school, I'll drive."

The end of lunch bell echos out whilst Jessica nods and Carmen sends her twin a begging glance.

"Port Angeles? Mind if I come?" Bella asks, glancing between their friends.

"Uh yeah, I need your opinion," Angela states as though it were obvious whilst preparing to journey back to class before celebrating with a quiet "yay" to Carmen.

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"Oh please, I've watched every season of Say Yes to the Dress, I'm practically a fashion critic at this point. It's a definite no from me," Carmen waves her finger up and down at Jessica's current prom dress attempt from her position on the window ledge opposite her twin.

Frowning, Jessica looked down at the layers of soft green tule exploding from her waist. "Yeah...I look like the love child of Draco Malfoy and a pageant Queen," she replied as they all laughed.

"Ooo, definitely try that dusty rose one, definitely your colour," Carmen pointed to the dress hanging at the end of a wrack before Jessica whipped it up and headed back to the changing rooms.

"What about this one? Lavender, is that my colour?" Angela asked, twisting around in front of the floor-length mirror to inspect the form-fitting dress.
"Incredible!" Carmen replied with a chef's kiss as Jessica walked over beside Angela, pulling a pair of white gloves with sequinned edges up her arms. "Okay I like this one, it makes my boobs look good."
"Looks hot af, my work here is done," Carmen responded with a grin, slumping back against the glass to feign exhaustion.

An abrupt knock sounded from the widow beside Bella and an obnoxious "aye!" gained the girls' attention as a group of guys starred pervertedly through the window at the girls' forms. "Nice!" They assessed, only to be flipped off by the fiery twin, followed by a "fuck off!" as the last of the group knocked to gain Bella's attention.
"That is uncomfortable," Jessica cringed,
"Oh that's disgusting," Bella responded in a quiet, disgusted voice. "Tell me about it," a seething Carmen replied.

Glancing at Bella, the girls asked "what do you think?"
"Oh, it looks great."
"You said that about the last five dresses though..." Jessica responded.
"I thought they were all pretty good."
"You're not really into this are you?" Angela asked, sharing an amused glance with Carmen at the brunette's prediction of her twin's lack of interest in fashion.
"I actually really just wanna go to the book store, um... I'll meet you guys at the restaurant?"
"Thunderbird and Whale? Mind if I come along Bells? I promised Billy that'd read up on a few tribe legends"
"Yeah ok," Bella nodded, gesturing for the twins to depart,
"Catcha soon," Carmen smiled at the girls.