Redemption (Book 6)

15

After school, I grabbed a bite of a pretty little cheerleader named Annie and then went home. I figured there had to be something to entertain me. And sure enough, soon after I was home, Jessica came storming in.

"You turned her!" she yelled as she came in.

I flashed a look at her, then went back to reading some trash tabloid.

"Did you hear me? You turned Leah into a vampire!" Jessica screamed.

With a heavy sigh, I set the magazine aside. "Don't get all worked up about it. She was collateral damage. I needed to turn someone to become immortal, so I did."

"Collateral damage? How can you say that? She's one of you best and oldest friends!" said Jessica as she sat down hard.

"Like I care," I said. "And besides, it isn't fair to say she's worth more just because I know her. It was convenient to turn her, so I did."

"I don't believe that for a second. You're making trouble," she hissed. "And yes, she is worth more...to you. Or at least she should be."

Over the next week, I didn't talk to anyone except Ansel, and I was dreadfully bored more than lonely. Everyone was freaking out about poor Leah, the girl who got turned into a vampire. They had only judgment and bewilderment when I turned, but for precious Leah they were there to support her. But when the next week came, preparations for the Flashback Dance were in full swing. The 'Flashback' was our theme for Homecoming this year. Leah was back at school and heading up the committee just like she was supposed to. It was her harebrained idea, her strange little obsession, with the whole decade theme, that got our Homecoming to be a 1920s theme. Of course, I wasn't complaining; it was a good theme. But Leah absolutely had to have it her way and no one else's.

Apparently, she had spent some long hours with Isaiah and Jessica learning about her new existence. He was teaching her how to be a vampire just like he had taught me. I wasn't hurt, I was just jealous. And the only thing that occupied my thoughts was exactly how I was going to get Leah back for being...herself.

So the night of the Flashback Dance came and I went to pick up my costume. That is when I saw Leah and Jessica there. Jessica put her hand lightly on Leah's arm.

"I'll handle this," she whispered.

Leah was dressed in a white dress dripping with fringe and had an enormous feather coming from her beaded headband. She was Daisy Buchannan from The Great Gatsby. A planned immediately formed in my mind I couldn't help but smile.

"She really doesn't want to see you now," said Jessica.

"That's okay," I shrugged. "She doesn't have to. I'm just getting my costume."

Out of the corner of my eye, I watched the seamstress take the measurements so that dress could be altered to fit Leah better. When Leah took it off to have it altered, I watched both her and Jessica leave the store. Then I walked over to the saleswoman and looked into her eyes.

"I'm going to need that costume," I said. "And I'm going to need it altered to fit me."

She nodded.

An hour later, I walked out of the place with the costume that was now mine in my hands. It had somehow become an unspoken agreement that Ansel would take me to the dance. So when I came downstairs, my hair pinned up to look like a bob in fingerwaves and dressed in my costume, Ansel was waiting. He was dressed in a pinstriped suit with a hat cocked off to the side over his eye. Ansel smiled at me and held out his hand.

"You look ravishing tonight, Claudia," he said.

"Thanks," I smiled and took his hand. "You look very dashing. I feel like a gangster's Moll."

He laughed. "You look like one, too."

That is when I heard Isaiah coming down the steps and looked over my shoulder at him. He was coming down the stairs in a pure white suit and he stopped halfway down the stairs to look at me. He was Gatsby and I laughed. Stepping away from Ansel, I twirled around quickly make the fringe snap and fly our around me.

"You like?" I asked.

"That's Leah's costume," was all he said.

I stopped. "How do you know that?"

The fun of the moment was going away rapidly.

"Do you think I'm going to this dance for you?" he brushed past me.

The doorbell rang and he walked up and opened it. Leah stepped inside. She was wearing a bright red dress that was completely beaded and had fringe in an elaborate pattern on the bottom. And draped around her shoulders was an enormous, flawlessly white fur. Her hair cascaded around her in wild blonde curls and was only mildly tamed by the wide, beaded headband. She jutted her chin out and smiled at me.

"You ready to go, Leah?" Isaiah asked and she took his arm.

"I'm ready," she leaned against him and they walked out the door looking like the perfect couple.

For just a moment, I stood looking at the spot where they had stood. How was it that everything I did with Leah simply backfired? Turning her had gotten her sympathy and taking her costume had made her look even more beautiful. What sick joke was the Universe playing on me that I couldn't get ahead?

"Shall we?" I asked Ansel.

Shaking his head but with a smile, he held out his arm and I took it.