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...

Comments

[edgeofyourseat]

Whee!

This round's adjective: "Tough".

[self_composed]

Renée: "Having An Operation".

Bella, snorting: "My Body".

[edgeofyourseat]

He cracks up and selects "My Body" as the winner.

[self_composed]

Renée draws "Unforgettable", and Bella gives her "My Bank Account", laughing.

[edgeofyourseat]

"Hot Lava", after some perusal of his hand.

[self_composed]

Renée mulls this over, then says, "Charming, Bella, but you know I forget my bank account all the time," and gives the card to Alice.

Bella gets "Sensitive" and Renée gives her "Wine Tasting".

[edgeofyourseat]

...Man, Alice has no good cards for this one. He puts down "Surfing the Net" just to get it out of his hand.

[self_composed]

Wine Tasting wins, then.

[edgeofyourseat]

The game progresses. Alice awards cards for such charming combinations as "Apple Pie"/"Misunderstood" and "Corvettes"/"Refined"; he plays "Choir Boys" against "Irresistible" on Renee's turn and acquires only a raised eyebrow for his trouble; and on two consecutive turns of Bella's, he plays "My Love Life" against "Squeaky Clean" and "My Bedroom" against "Peaceful", winning both.

No one is tracking scores, so they all have more cards than the defined limit when someone finally bothers to notice, but Bella has the most.

[self_composed]

"I win," Bella says merrily, and she reads off all her cards, ascribing them to herself in turn. Renée applauds softly and starts putting away the game.

[edgeofyourseat]

"That was awesome," Alice enthuses.

[self_composed]

"It really does work better with more people," says Renée, "but yes, that was fun. Oh, it's late, I'm sure you want to go back to wherever you're staying, Alice. Do you want a ride?"

[edgeofyourseat]

"Nah," he says, "thanks, I'm good." (And grins at Bella. He can't help it.)

[self_composed]

"All right. Well, I'm sure we'll see you again later this week," Renée says cheerfully, showing him out.

[I'm glad you and her get along,] Bella says.

[edgeofyourseat]

[Me too! She's awesome.]

"See ya," he says, and trots away out of sight, and turns invisible and circles back through the air to land on the roof.

[self_composed]

The next day is beastly hot - Bella isn't bothered, but she can sure tell - and so Renée takes her bathing suit shopping, buys her a red and blue flowered bikini, and drags her along to the beach! They set up a big beach towel to sit on and a big beach umbrella to sit under and apply sunscreen.

[edgeofyourseat]

Alice approves of this outing, although he does independently wonder whether invisibly flying to invisibly hover over the beach qualifies as creepy. It's not like he's watching anyone who doesn't know he's there.

[self_composed]

[It's a public beach; everyone knows that you or someone like you could be looking at them even if they don't have the means to actually detect you in particular,] Bella says.

She flaunts, just a little, craning around to put sunscreen between her shoulderblades. Her mother might ask an uncomfortable question (probably only one, but still) if Alice appeared to help her with that.

[edgeofyourseat]

[You're really pretty,] Alice asserts.

[self_composed]

[Thanks!]

When Bella is fully sunscreened - she's not going to get burnt, but she would like to be able to explain that to her mother, who had plenty of trouble keeping her pale child uncrisp in years past - she runs out and dives into the water.

[edgeofyourseat]

Alice wonders if his invisible self will remain really-invisible underwater, or if there will be an obvious Alice-shaped absence of water zooming around. Perhaps he should test it!

[self_composed]

[If you copied mine, you won't show up in water,] Bella says. [But you can still make visible splashes and stuff.]

[edgeofyourseat]

[I'll try not to,] he says cheerfully, and wish-replaces his clothes with, whimsically, a copy of Bella's bikini.

Invisible swimming time! He ceases to breathe while he's underwater, just because it makes things easier. And if he doesn't interact with the surface, he can't make a noticeable splash.

[self_composed]

Bella meanwhile floats on the surface, letting waves bear her up and down. [I haven't been to many beaches before. I mean, besides freezing Pacific beaches near Forks.]

[edgeofyourseat]

[I haven't been to any,] he says, grinning up at her. [This one's fun!]