TWENTY-FIVE | HOW TO BE NORMAL

"Mom?" I call when I get home, dumping my back pack onto the floor of my room. I'm met with silence. *Huh*. I look around the house briefly before going out to the greenhouse. Relief rushes through me when I see her planting stuff in the unused corner.

"Oh, you're home," She beams at me over the row of greenery she's kneeling in front of.

"Yeah." I roll up my sleeves and walk over to examine the plants. "What're these?" The leaves are bright green, broad with ridged edges and try to bite at my skin when I touch them. The spines aren't barbed or sharp enough to draw blood, but I note faint scratches on my skin. Feisty little suckers.

"I visited a botanist-friend of your father's today. They gave us these as house-warming gifts." Mom says nonchalantly.

"Botanist?" I ask, crinkling my nose. *When has she ever needed to consult a botanist?*

"Mhm." She pats the soil at the base of each leafy green before removing her gloves and placing the worn fabric on the workbench behind her.

"Why?" I cross my arms over my chest, immediately worried. These things seem like defensive herbs. Non that seem to really harm Wolven, but not entirely harm*less* either.

"I had some questions for him." Mom shrugs, feigning nonchalance, but I sense the mental walls she's putting between us.

"Hm," I eye her warily, knowing I'll get nowhere if I press her for the truth.

"Anyway, I'm glad you're home. I need your help," That gets my attention.

"What's wrong?" A thousand and one different possibilities begin popping into my head.

"Nothing, honey." She comes over and runs a soothing hand over my hair. "I just need your opinion. I need to buy a dress for that Halloween dance this weekend."

"Oh." I look at her in surprise. "You're going too?"

"Your father decided to volunteer us as chaperones." She sighs, rolling her eyes.

"Chaperones?" I wince, thinking about how awkward that's going to be - considering I'm now not only going to the event to sing, but dance with Blue. "Oh God. I don't have a dress either."

"Perfect. We can shop together!" Mom clasps her hands and actually looks excited for once. I feel myself starting to relax. It's been a while since I've seen her so happy.

"Yes, ma'am." I finally agree, deciding to just let her have her way for once.

- - -

"I like this one." Mom tells me, holding a modest, royal blue dress up to my body, tilting her head this way and that.

"It's nice," I agree, looking down at it, then over to the mirror. "Meh."

"That's what you've said about the last five dresses I've shown you!" Mom actually pouts. I smile at her as she shakes her head and put the dress in the 'no' pile. When we came into this store, we decided to go our separate ways and choose dresses for each other since neither of us are very fashionable and just pick what we thought the other would look best in.

"I don't know," I sigh and look at the stack of various blue dresses she's been showing me. "Maybe not blue?"

"But the color looks so nice with your eyes," Mom whines and admires the fabrics.

"Meh." I remind her and turn back to the various dresses I collected for her. "Your turn." I shuffle through the different colored clothes. I pull out a particularly nice one. The neckline is modest with a scooped back...kind of reminds me of a 'twenties dress in the way it sparkles, the color shifting from pastel purple to a rosy pink.

"Hm." Mom looks the dress over, then pulls it close to her body, looking at herself in the mirror and turning slightly. "I'll try it on." She finally says, nodding.

"M'kay," I murmur and go through the other dresses I'd picked for her and think carefully. "Hm..." I come across a dark red dress with lacy black flowers - there are even sleeves and a gauzy sort of layer that stretches down about six inches below the hem. It would disguise the worse of my scars and go well with my hair.

"Oh, Wisty," Mom comes up behind me and looks at the dress. "That one. Definitely that one would look wonderful on you." She gives my shoulder a gentle squeeze.

"Maybe..." I say aloud, but I'm almost positive that this is the dress I'll be wearing to the the dance. "We still need to find masks after this. As cliché of a theme as a masquerade-ball is, Ms. Jones wants everyone in the choir to be following a certain dress code."

- - -

The rest of the week falls into a rhythm. Blue's more relaxed than I've ever seen him. He doesn't bother with pestering me aside from the daily text-reminders about school work. In the classes we share, he always stays near me, within a few feet. Never farther than the span of the classroom, and almost always keeping an eye on me. He smiles more, too. A gentle, soul warm, toe tingling smile that feels like it's just for me.

We've teamed-up, conspiring to get Yuri and Darine to at least go to the dance together. By Tuesday, the four of us have started eating lunch together in the courtyard outside the cafeteria. They keep shooting us dirty looks, but no one addresses the elephant in the room or objects too much to the new arrangement.

By Thursday we've begun talking more amicably - about school mostly. The weird tension between Yuri and Darine drains and I start to see a new side to Yuri and Blue's relationship. When the three of us are alone, Yuri is loud, Blue's more quiet. Their roles reverse when the four of us are together. Yuri gets a little more withdrawn and Blue becomes more vocal - so their almost the same - in terms of talkativeness.

It's an odd thing, too. I never expected to get along so easily with other Wolven. Or humans. But the four of us talk freely to one another.

Unfortunately, Blue and my plan to get Yuri and Darine together for the dance hasn't worked. It's now Sunday evening and I'm sitting on my bathroom's counter as Mom stands behind me with a comb. About an hour ago I showered and brushed out my hair before announcing to her that I was just about ready to go if she needed my help with anything. Mom immediately shook her head and redirected me to the bathroom and proceeded to put makeup on me.

"So...Choir, huh?" Mom asks as she brushes out my hair. I shrug, looking at myself in the mirror. My eyes skim over the light eyeliner and layer of almost-as-red-as-my-hair lipstick. I look so...normal. With the barely-there scars and the light coating of makeup, I can easily picture myself living a normal, human life. Well...no, I don't think I'd ever like to be that normal. Maybe just a chill Wolven life?

"It was something a lot of the schools had." I admit, returning my thoughts to her question.

"Well, so long as you don't feel obligated to do it..." She begins, frowning a little at my reflection. I feel a little smile twitch at my mouth and study her own done-up face. Her strawberry-and-grey hair is artfully twisted in an intricate up-do. Strands of her hair are gorgeously coiled and pinned in place with pearl-studded hairpins.

"I don't. It's relaxing for me." I tell her, shrugging again. And that's the truth of it. Singing has become a hobby of sorts. A stress-reliver for my strange life.

"Good. Then I approve." Mom grins at me in the mirror. "So, how many songs are you guys singing?"

"About ten. And some covers if we get an encore." I say, mentally cataloging the songs we're scheduled to sing.

"Seems rather intense for a dance." Mom says, eyebrows raised in surprise.

"Yeah, well, Ms. Jones - the director - is an intense person." I laugh a little grimly, recalling how intense the director's been this week.

"Let me know if you decide to ditch. I'll come rescue you." Mom winks at me in the mirror. I smile back.

"I've missed you." I say, it feels like I've been saying it a lot this week, but it's true. I've missed having someone on my side. Someone who knows all about my past. Someone I trust whole-heartedly. Someone I can talk to about everything.

"I've missed you too, honey," She smiles at me, finally finishing with my hair and wrapping her arms around my shoulders from behind. I smile back at her through the mirror, squeezing her arms to me. Our faces are level - and you can immediately see that we're mother and daughter.

"I'm going too change, then maybe have some tea before we go." Mom says. I nod, liking the idea of a hot cup of tea before the dance.

"Okay, I'll put the kettle on," I tell her, hopping off the counter.

"Alright, why don't you use some of those cinnamon sugar cubes your father brought last week?" She recommends, touching up her makeup.

"M'kay," I hum, and go toss on a shall to cover my shoulders. The lacy, black fabric is beautiful, though it's not cold outside, I like having the extra layer. Old habits, and all.

In the kitchen, I fill the tea kettle, a silvery contraption Mom bought the second night of her living here, and set it on the stove. I hum to myself, running through a few warm-up sequences as I prepare the loose tea leaves and put them into the little porous metal spheres Mom also got for the loose tea leaves she got as a gift from her botanist friend. I also put two cinnamon-sugar cubes that Hale gave us last week into my mug.

They're 1'1 cubes, a dull reddish-brown color and smelling gorgeously of cinnamon ad sweetness. I smile to myself and pop a singular cube into my mouth, humming with appreciative delight when the explosion of flavor hits my tongue and dissolves. My bones seem to warm as the thing melts in my mouth and I roll the sweet liquid in my mouth for a moment before swallowing. I shiver as the warmth of the liquid hits my stomach and go back to humming.

I always feel so much better after a cup of tea, though I'm not sure why. I bounce a little as a new wave of energy hits me. The water is finally ready and I decide to pour out two mugs, putting only half a cube in Mom's mug. She's never been one for sweets. I pop the other half of the cube into my own mug before pouring out the hot water and dunking the stainless steel spheres holding the loose tea into each mug.

Just as I finish up my task, the doorbell rings.

"I'll get it!" I call and leave the kitchen to run to the front door. I sense the presence behind the thing almost immediately. Lately, it's been easier for me to sense people and animals around me. This presence has become familiar these days. I open the door to see Hale on the other side. I'm still not used to thinking of him as my father, but I don't just think of him as my English teacher now either.

"Hey, there, sunshine." He grins at me and holds out a box to me. Still, now I'm able to see the familial resemblance. We have the same nose, long and slightly curved...kind of a button-y look. Our eyebrows are the same too, finely arched and quizzical.

"What's this?" I ask, frowning as I move aside, popping open the long, rectangular box.

It's a necklace. A long stainless steel chain with a simple crystal at the end. I study the crystal, unable to decide if it's blue or green in color, but somewhere in between. My eyes get lost in the multi-colored depths.

"An early birthday-present." He shrugs and shuts the door behind him. "You look lovely, by the way." He adds. I smile at him.

"Thanks." I say, glancing at my dress and shawl. I pull the necklace out of the box and easily fit my head through the loop without having to unclasp it. "What is it?" I ask after a second, feeling a slight hum of energy from the crystal. I lift it and study the crystal again.

"It's called benitoite, but this one," He gently pulls the crystal from my hands and lets it fall back down. "Has a charm on it. I have a contact that is a rather gifted witch-"

"Seriously?" I cringe.

"A good witch, don't worry." He smiles at me, placing a hand on my shoulder and leading me back into the kitchen. I go to my mug of tea and take a sip. "I had them add a charm to the crystal that should help you as you get closer to your birthday."

"Help me?" I frown at him over the rim of y mug. "Help how?"

"As you know, you'll be Blooming this year. Which means your vampire abilities will...uncovered." He says carefully, glancing at my mug. "You'll become stronger, faster, heal better...silver won't affect you as much as it would normal Wolven." He lists, still sounding overly cautious.

"Really? That sounds great-" I say honestly, setting my cup down.

"There's a catch." Hale grimaces.

"Of course there is..." I sigh under my breath. "What kind of catch?"

"You'll need to sustain your vampiric side with blood-" He begins, but I cut him off.

"No." I say immediately.

"Listen, Scarlett-" He tries again.

"I'm not killing people for their blood. No way." I repeat firmly. Hale cringes.

"We don't kill for blood. What kind of monsters do you think vampires are?" He looks offended.

"Well-" I blush in embarrassment, realizing how prejudiced I must sound right now.

"You should come visit my Coven. There are many people who could help you while you transition-"

"I also don't want to sleep in a coffin. And I really like garlic-" I try to assert.

"As do I," He laughs, looking extremely amused. "Sunshine, those are just myths."

"And wooden stakes through the heart?"

"Myth. Though it hurts like hell."

"Immortality?"

"Nope. But we can live rather long lives due to our accelerated healing and slow aging." Interesting...

"How old are you?" I ask curiously.

"That's a rather rude question to ask a vampire." He visibly flinches.

"Why?"

"It's very personal. You can always tell a vampire's age based on the amount of glamour they can control- For example, I can change the way other perceive my form by controlling the glamor around me." Like how I couldn't tell he was my father when we first met, though I knew he was familiar to me at the time. And how the color of his hair and eyes were different to me than from my memories.

"So...you're ancient?" I deduce.

"Wisty, stop pestering your father!" Mom hisses at me, suddenly come into the room before Hale can asnwer.

"It's fine, Ris," Hale chuckles. "Our daughter is just curious about her lineage. It's only to be expected."

"Hm." Mom mutters and comes over to us, wrapped in a nice shawl of her own, though hers is made of soft black fabric so you can't see her dress too well under it. "We should get going."

"Hey, don't forget about your tea-" I tell Mom, holding her mug out to her, and frown as she recoils slightly from it. I frown, my words faltering at her reaction.

"Here," Hale takes the mug from me and downs the contents. "Ready."

"Let's get going then." Mom seems to collect herself, but her nose twitches slightly. Like she doesn't like the smell of the house or something. Or maybe she has the urge to sneeze?

I try not to think about it as I run back into my room for our masks and my black flats. Cause, hey, a dress and makeup are enough, I don't want to trip over my own feet getting on or off the risers tonight. Or fall all over Blue when we're dancing.

My stomach churns at the thought - but in a good way. I'm kind of excited to be attending my first dance - and with a date. But since the choir has to arrive early to rehearse and coordinate, we're not arriving together - rather, meeting up after I've finished singing. It's the only reason I'm so calm right now. I still have another two hours before I have to face Blue. But, oddly enough, I'm kind of looking forward to it.