I have't spoken to Ceece, AJ or Parker since my outburst and that was on Tuesday, 3 days ago, however I don't have the time to worry about them now as in just an hour I have to present the project with Alice. Oh, Alice. She was so thankful when she came over to mine Tuesday evening, much like Edward was; she was very shocked I defended her and she wondered why. I couldn't exactly tell her about the crippling crush I have on her, so I simply said I owe her and her family a lot and I deeply value their friendship, which is true in many ways except I still haven't met 2/5 of her siblings, or her parents.
"Bae, breathe." I hear Alice say, breaking me from my thoughts.
My eyes refocus on her sat across from me at our usual table in the library. I exhale slowly. "Al... I think I may projectile vomit over everyone." I whisper.
"No you won't, don't worry. You are going to be perfect. We've practiced every night this week, and every free period, and you know this better than I do." She says gently as she reaches across the table and squeezes my hand softly for a split second before retracting quickly.
I blush and smile a little. "Thanks... you'll take those words back after this impending disaster."
"Not a chance." She grins. The bell rings and I literally freeze, causing Alice to laugh and have to drag me up. "Come on, silly."
I bite the inside of my cheek - hard - as she drags me to biology; as we pass, Rosalie calls out 'good luck' as her, Emmett and Jasper head for their free period. I force a smile as Alice continues to drag me along and into the class; I tune everyone out until I see Molina walk in and say he's got a list of who goes when to save arguing and fussing. Guess who's first?!
Alice skips ahead and hands him the paper and a copy of the presentation as she sets the projector up. I take a deep breath and see Edward give a supportive smile from his seat near the front, which fills me with a little hope. Alice is beside you, I remind myself, you've made it this far now do her proud and do not chunder. Easy, right?
"Our system is the integumentary system..." Alice begins as she uses the clicker to change the slides; she never stutters, never shows any nerve and speaks at a speed everyone understands.
And then theres me... I stutter, I spit accidentally as I talk, I fumble over my words and several times I have to be reminded to speak up. By the time its over and everyone is forced to clap, I feel the redness engulf me as I flush with embarassment, a grimance on my face as we head to our seats and Angela and Mike get up to do theirs.
"You did so good." Alice whispers with a smile as we sit down.
"Na.." I whisper back as I clench my shaking hands.
I feel her smirking, but I don't look up from my lap to see. "You won't win an argument with me, sweetheart."
"Sweetheart?" I hold in a smirk.
"Uh huh." She grins.
I smirk as I stare at my lap; we're on to pet names now. Heck. Yes.
-
"Okay, Reggie, you have to be super good today for me. Can you do that?" I ask as I tie her shoe laces and check Emmy has hers done.
"Okay." She sings smirking; she is so excited to meet 'Alice's sister'. I've told her Rosalie's name over a dozen times but she keeps forgetting.
Emmy zips her coat up. "Is Rosalie like Alice? Is she kind..?"
"Rosalie is super kind, she is not like Alice but that doesn't mean you won't like her, and she has a very cool car." I smile. I hear a honk outside and I smile as I open the door to see Rosalie leaning on her shiny red convertible.
"WOAH!" Reggie gasps as she grabs her backpack and runs out. "Alice doesn't have cool car like this!"
Rosalie smiles wide and kneels down to her height. "That's because I'm cooler than her." She teases. "You must be Regina." She holds her leather glove clad hand out.
Reg grins proudly that she knows her name and shakes her hand. "You must be Rosalie." In many ways she reminds me of young Stephenie from FULL HOUSE.
"I'm Emerald!" Emmy butts in eagerly.
Rosalie holds her hand out to Em now. "It's lovely to meet you, Emerald."
I smile as I come over after locking the door. "Hey, Rose, I see you met the twisted sisters."
She laughs and stands, helping the kids in the car; Alice took Reg's car seat home last night so she could strap it in for me. "They don't seem so twisted." She says as we climb in.
"Just wait!" Emmy grins as she straps herself in excitedly.
Rose smiles. "Do you guys want the roof down or up?"
"Down." They both say together in a 'duh' tone.
We both laugh and I glance over at them as Rosalie drives away; they both thoroughly enjoy the wind blowing through their hair as we hit the highway. I'm sure if we were driving much longer Rose would have put the roof up, but since we take the first exit we come to she leaves it down. We hit the higher end of town and I internally groan, sighing slightly.
"Oh Hale..."
"Oh Rowe!" She grins.
I roll my eyes. "C'mon, I said cheap."
"And I said you clearly don't know me." She grins more. "Look, Edward said he'll go halfs-"
"Nope."
"- on the dress with you to say thank you." She says, ignoring my interruption. "And if needs be I will loan you the money." She shrugs.
"Not a chance." I smile bitterly as she parks outside a fancy looking boutique; Sally's. This is where the popular girls and spoilt girls will get their dresses.
She helps the girls out and smiles as Reggie refuses to let go of her hand. She doesn't seem to mind. We head inside and the woman shows us to a seating area while she gets a consultant for us. I gaze around at all the dresses, not convinced the one for me is here.
"Rosalie, in which universe am I a puff girl?" I say as I hold some of the many layers of material from a ball gown between two fingers.
She rolls her eyes. "I know you're not, that's why we won't look at those; they have some real nice cocktail dresses and formal dresses, as well as your typical prom dresses and such. I promise you we will find a dress."
"Damn your sister for asking me." I mutter and sigh.
An overly bubble girl, Cindy, bounces over and introduces herself as my 'fairy godmother' for the day; I hold in a sarcastic comment and let Rose do the talking. Cindy takes us to the less extravagant dresses and my sister's instantly begin looking with Rosalie. I glance at a few, not entirely interested.
"Oo, pink!" Emerald gasps as she pulls a floor length, one shoulder dress off the rack; the pastel pink color is sickening.
"Emmy... when have I ever worn pink in your life time?" I say smirking.
"You suck." She sighs sadly and puts the dress back.
Sassy little Regina butts in. "You wore pink at Aunty Lucy's wedding."
"I wore a bridesmaid dress I had no choice in. Plus, you refused a pink dress and so she gave you two the lilac option." I sass back.
"I don't know who gets their sass from who." Rosalie smirks.
I roll my eyes playfully. "I'm the queen off sass, thank you very much."
The girls laugh and Reggie tugs on Rose's hand. She bends down and Reggie whispers something to her, pointing to a dress as I raise an eyebrow at them.
"Excuse me, ladies, no secrets." I say. "Me and Emmy feel left out."
Rosalie straightens up. "Reggie has found your dress; she wants you to go into the changing room, close your eyes and let the women dress you."
My eyebrows shoot up instantly. "No no no-" Reggie's face slowly drops and so does my hard. I sigh. "Okay, fine, okay." I mumble and she lights up once again. I go into the fitting room and take the scarf Cindy hands me to put on; I tie it over my eyes once I've stripped to my undies and then feel her help me into the dress.
"Don't remove the blindfold until you're out here." Emmy calls and I groan, making them giggle.
"One step up and you're good." Cindy says as she helps me out to the stand; I step up on to it and run my fingers over the dress, feeling the pleats in it. Pleats? Really?
"Can I look now?" I ask eagerly; I don't see the fuss in all of this, but if it is making Reg happy then of course I'll do it. Maybe Alice told Rose that, and that's why she agreed to bring them.
"Hmmm.... okay!" Regina calls and I remove the blindfold.
My eyes scan the dress in the mirror before me; its red. And white. Strapless with a ruffle. Ankle length. I think its probably the most 'me' dress in this store, so really Reggie did good. I smile a little. "You know what? I love it." I say gently.
Watching her adorable face light up makes me so happy; I complain, I moan, but in reality I do really like this dress and I'm glad she picked it for me. I just like to make a fuss!
I feel the price tag jab me in the armpit and I pull it out, glancing at it. The air leaves my lungs. "Holy sh- fudgesickles." I hiss.
"What?" Rosalie says looking over from the girls.
"$856 is what!" I snap.
She just shrugs. "My shoes cost more than that."
"Rose, some of us don't have that kind of money." I glare and go to the cubicle.
"We'll take it; use this card." I hear Rosalie say.
"ROSE!" I yell, but I can't run out and stop her as I'm stood in just a bra and my undies.
She giggles menacingly and I hurriedly slip my jeans back on, throwing my tshirt on after. I burst out of the room, only to see Cindy hand Regina the too big box which she holds in her too little arms. All anger leaves me, but I manage to muster a glare; she has used my own baby sister against me like a weapon!
"Alice is going to love you in the dress, I bought it for her just as much as I bought it for you." She smiles.
"Where do you even get money like that from, you're like 17!" I grumble as we go back to the car.
Rosalie rolls her eyes like its nothing. "Allowance; the occasional job. Birthdays, christmases..." She shrugs.
I sigh; wow, don't I just feel like a charity case.