a roar of a motorcycle engine coming to life and made jared and mina's head snap up in the direction of the street. a man dressed in all black was sitting on a motorcycle, watching them.

mina felt the trickle of cold sweat slide down her back.

"i recognize the scent," jared said quietly. "grey tail." they watched as the black reflective helmet nodded at jared before tearing off down the road, leaving a trail of burned rubber behind him.

"what's going on, jared?" mina asked in as brave a voice as she could muster.

"time is running short. the pack is gathering."

two weeks before the dance, mina noticed that jared had made himself scarce. he didn't attend classes the rest of the week. she knew he, too, could feel what was coming. when mina did see him, he always seemed to be walking a fine line between barely controlling his anger and being completely aloof. he avoided brody entirely.

surprisingly, he appeared thursday during lunch. he walked directly toward her and slid onto the bench next to mina, ignoring her presence as he asked her best friend, nan taylor, to the dance.

mina waited for him to look at her, to glance her way, acknowledge her with a self-satisfied smirk or even a frown. she needed confirmation from jared that she wasn't in this alone, that he had her back or was there to help her out. she waited for jared to bait her with a snide comment or joke. he didn't.

when nan accepted his offer, jared squeezed her hand and told her he would call her. he exited the table as silently as he had appeared, without a backward glance at mina.

mina was crushed. without jared's help, mina knew she couldn't finish the tale. only brody's weight on the bench snapped mina out of her depression.

"what's going on?" he asked nan.

nan positively glowed with excitement when she told brody about her date. brody's smile turned into a frown as nan spent the rest of her lunch hour talking about costumes.

chapter 20

when mina told her mother about the dance theme, sara wisely didn't say anything, but gave her daughter a wary look. she even helped pick out mina's costume. the costume shop was dimly lit, and smelled like a cross between shoe polish and a school locker room.

"it smells like old people," she whispered to her mom, wrinkling her nose in distaste.

sara tried not to laugh. "it's the moth balls, honey. there are a lot of old clothes here. they are vintage after all."

mina did her best to put on a smile. to sara, vintage meant cheaper than the mall and one step up from a thrift store. mina tried to look enthusiastic when the sales lady greeted them. she only hoped the dresses didn't smell like the store.

just for fun, mina tried on various renaissance gowns and princess costumes, probably castoffs from some long ago school plays. but every costume had the same problem: it didn't fit with what the story wanted. it seemed as if the story was controlling even mina's dance attire. every dress had a fault or wouldn't fit.

"this would be a great cinderella gown." sara grunted as she pulled and fumbled with the zipper. "it must be caught on something." sara tried and tried but could not get the zipper to cooperate. even when mina explained that the story wouldn't let her go as any other character, sara seemed determined to try and change the story's mind.

"try this one instead." sara held up a sapphire blue dress with long, delicate sleeves. "you could be sleeping beauty. that tale doesn't have any wolves." she smiled hopefully but mina detected the stress that was ticking under her mother's left eye. when that dress, too, refused to zip, sara was awash in tears of frustration. a store seamstress, molly, came over and tried to help, but neither one could get the zipper to work.

"that is so strange," the seamstress commented wryly. she fumbled with the zipper and could find no cloth or string hindering the teeth. she tried a different dress and tested the zipper before asking mina to step into it. "let's try a larger dress."

mina rolled her eyes and stepped into the next size up, blowing her bangs out of her eyes. she was exhausted from trying on dresses. yes, she would have absolutely loved the blue cinderella gown, but she knew better than to get her hopes up.

"it's stuck!" molly gasped out. she tugged and tugged on the zipper that had worked perfectly only minutes ago. "i don't know what to tell you. i was sure it would work." she was flustered and didn't know how to appease sara, who was by now moved to tears of frustration.

"oh, my poor girl!" sara cried and blew her nose on a tissue from her purse. she knew what the signs meant as well as mina.

mina usually enjoyed dress shopping, the few times they had the money to do so, but this was getting ridiculous. mina scanned the rack of dresses and her eye stopped on a deep red one.

"that one." mina pointed to the rack and molly jumped up and pushed the dresses to the side. she pulled out a beautiful red dress that flowed out in billows from the petite corseted waist. most of the fabric was gathered and pleated down the back in a late victorian style. the corset was a deep red, made from many different fabrics that sparkled and twinkled with the lights.

the dress was gorgeous -at least the story had good taste. this is the one she would have chosen, if it hadn't been red.

"i didn't think i've ever seen this one," the seamstress exclaimed, gushing over the dress, then taking one looked at mina's petite figure and announcing. "i'm afraid it might be too small."

"it will fit." mina knew deep down it would. this was the dress she was supposed to wear.

sara helped mina into the dress, her hands shaking as she went to try the zipper. "i can't." sara backed away from the dress to sit on a small pink padded stool by the mirror. she held her hand to her mouth fearfully.

molly stepped forward and pulled the zipper up with ease, carefully hooking the top eyelet.

"well, i'll be. i would have thought it was two sizes too small, but it fits like it was made for you."

mina's eyes went wide when she saw her reflection. molly began cinching the back of the corset and tugging the ribbons and arraying them. mina had to actually pinch herself, to make sure she wasn't dreaming.

she looked different: older, more mature, and beautiful. she couldn't remember ever looking this stunning in her whole life. her dark brown hair flowed down her back and was lost among the ribbons of the corset. her eyes looked huge and her lips red and full. her nose, the one she always feared too small for her face, looked straight and perfect. she gave a sleeve a cursory sniff and sighed in relief when it smelled of cinnamon and honey instead of mothballs.

molly stood back to admire mina. "wow. you look like something out of a fairy tale."

sara cried harder.

mina spun around and looked at the dress from every angle in the multiple mirrors. it was better than any princess dress she had tried on so far. mina's only worry was that the dress had layers and layers of material in the back. it would make it very difficult to run in, if it came down to it.

"we'll take it," mina told the girl, not even bothering to ask the price was. if the story wanted her to wear the dress, then the story had better provide.

unsurprising to mina, molly had to check twice on the price on the tag, confirming the price. "i can't believe it. i didn't even know we had dresses for this price, but i've checked with the manager, and she thinks it's fine. it seems you have yourself a dress." she clapped and pressed her hands together in excitement.