high school is kind of boring really

[self_composed]

School plods along. Bella is native-quality fluent in Spanish, professor-level at math, well and thoroughly versed in the workings of the United States government, capable of doing actual independent research projects in biology, and she's been speaking English since she was one. Alas, these skills only make classes easier for a short time. After the novelty wears off they're just tedious. Bella winds up squaring her homework done more often than not so she can work out the kinks in her design for telekinesis, or play music, or attend soccer practice, or write little computer games, or read, or just fly around. This works out fine. Magic is pretty good at homework.

She winds up not attending most of the dances, but she does want to go to the end of year one, as she will be leaving Forks High School forever and it has some good points. Alice promised her a dress...

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[edgeofyourseat]

Alice did promise her a dress.

He's been working on his sewing; the materials are conjured, but the dress itself is the product of genuine physical labour. The fabric is light and floaty, black veined with silver; the design is sleek and minimal, not a stich wasted, with exactly enough room to move and just enough skirt to twirl.

And, because he can, he makes himself one, too. It's nothing like hers at all. Miles and miles of skirt swirling around his ankles, blood-red and unapologetically beautiful. He looks gorgeous in it.

[self_composed]

The night of the dance, Bella rolls it up, puts it in Tegu's saddlebag, and changes at school - she wouldn't want to try cycling in it, just one of the many disdvantages of dresses in general. But she likes it. She shimmies into it, in the bathroom stall, and stalks out in matching conjured ballet flats.

She goes stag, she dances with everyone who passes within arm's reach, even Mike, because grudges are silly and he hasn't bothered her or Alice in months - and none of them are at all good at it, more's the pity.

Well, Alice is good at it.

[Wanna bet we can reduce the entire room to staring at us if we do something ridiculously ballroom to the upcoming techno music?] She snuck a look at the playlist.

[edgeofyourseat]

[Let's do it,] he says happily.

[self_composed]

So Bella leads him around, indulging national-contest-level tricks and indeed reducing much of the surrounding population to bewildered stares. (How much of this is due to their ability to recognize skilled dancing, and how much of it is due to no one having gotten used to Alice in dresses, is unclear.)

And eventually the dance is over, and Bella changes back into her leathers.

But she keeps the dress. She likes it, and you never know when you're going to need a little black dress, shot through with silver like spindly frosted tree branches.

[edgeofyourseat]

Alice considers the night a thorough success. Especially the part where Bella enjoyed her dress, and also the parts where she danced with him.

Everyone is going to get the wrong impression about them all over again. But there is no longer really any reason to care, is there?

[self_composed]

The year ends. There is a summer to dispose of.

Bella's stepdad makes okay money, and Renée was so thrilled about Stanford that she insisted on buying Bella a round trip to Europe. Bella tells everyone that she plans to spend this trip "backpacking".

This means "flying".

She doesn't want to leave Tegu sitting in the airport parking lot for three months, so she leaves it in Charlie's garage and lets him drive her to the airport. She flies away. She fully expects Alice to follow her and leave his mom and Hilary to wonder where in the blazes he went off to.

[edgeofyourseat]

His exact words to his mother are, "I'm gonna fuck off for a while, dunno when I'll be back, see you," while standing in the foyer with a backpack containing his favourite book and not much else. Since he never announces absences as short as a weekend, his mother correctly interprets this as meaning he will be gone at least several weeks, and hugs him. He hugs her back, walks out, and takes off as soon as he is out of sight.

[self_composed]

Ultimately, Europe is reached! Bella flies around Ireland, doing touristy things and admiring scenery and puzzling out the accent.

[edgeofyourseat]

Alice tags along, sometimes visibly and sometimes not, getting in manageable amounts of trouble and admiring scenery and enjoying the proximity of Bella being Bella.

[self_composed]

Bella hits every country in Europe - why not? She can fly fast enough - and picks up languages as she goes. ("I was never anything special in Spanish class really, good but not great," she imagines saying, "but for some reason, put me in a country with native speakers and I can pick up anything...") She takes up a habit of sitting on top of high things. Like the Eiffel Tower. Or Mount Everest.

[edgeofyourseat]

Alice takes up a habit of sitting on top of high things with her, just below her if he can get away with it, right beside her if he can't.

[self_composed]

It is on Mount Everest that she looks speculatively at her companion, and tilts her head thoughtfully, and decides that she may as well try kissing him.

So she does.

[edgeofyourseat]

...Alice did not expect that at all!

It is the very best surprise she has ever given him, out of some stiff competition.

He falls in love with her all over again, kisses back, and hugs her impulsively, all at once.

[self_composed]

Bella decides that this was a pretty good idea.

Mountaintop makeouts: totally a thing now.

[edgeofyourseat]

It's possible that Alice should be thinking about whether or not this means she is redefining their relationship somehow, and it's possible that if he were anyone else, he would be. But he is Alice, so he is thinking pretty much entirely about mountaintop makeouts and how much he loves Bella.

[self_composed]

Her modeling of Alice as being liable to do that is a fair fraction of why she decided to kiss him at this time instead of in several months. She has not come to all relevant conclusions, just the conclusion that kissing him would be nice. With any non-Alice, actually following through on that would have required more thinking first. With Alice she can just do whatever she wants and not do whatever she does not yet know she wants. She likes that.

She decides some of that might be worth articulating. [Only have this much figured out,] she says. [In case you wonder, when you have more of your brain online,] she adds teasingly.

[edgeofyourseat]

[I like this much,] he says happily. [This much is good.]

And Alice has all of his brain online, thank you. It's just largely devoted to processing kisses at the moment.

[self_composed]

That's all Bella has to say.

Actually, no it's not, she's not that good at shutting up. [The top of Mount Everest has to be the best place for a first kiss ever.]

[edgeofyourseat]

Of course she thinks that.

[It's pretty damn cool,] Alice agrees fondly.

[self_composed]

[I mean, there are other iconic locations, but I bet a million people kiss each other at the Eiffel Tower.]

There. Now she is probably done talking.

[edgeofyourseat]

In which case Alice is also done talking.

Mountaintop makeouts! Mountaintop makeouts and boundless, unselfconscious, radiant love.

[self_composed]

Bella indulges in some feedback-looping.

It turns out it's more seductive during kisses.

[edgeofyourseat]

That is not really a big surprise.

[self_composed]

Some time - some considerable amount of time - later, Bella breaks off, grins brilliantly, and shoots up into the sky. [Race you to Karachi!]

[edgeofyourseat]

Laughing, Alice chases after her. With his person-compass trained on Bella, he can follow her by feel and watch the landscape sliding away underneath them while he does it.