Disclaimer: All of the characters, concepts, and anything affiliated with the Twilight saga belong to (their rightful owner) Stephanie Meyer. The rest of the work belongs to me and should not be copied in any way, including translations, without my explicit consent.
Major thanks to Flyaway Dove for Beta-ing this.
Set: Sometime after BD.
Seth POV.
I Feel Pretty, Oh so Pretty:
The Tale of A Five Year Old Cross Dresser
It's Halloween. I love Halloween. It's the time when we get to dress up and pretend to be superheroes and go door-to-door and get free candy. Free! I know! I'm so excited, this year I get to go out really late with Leah.
It's almost time to go out and I'm getting impatient. Mom was supposed to help Leah with her costume and then help me with mine. Dad would help, but after he tried to put it on five minutes ago, Mom told us to just leave it and she'll do it.
I don't understand, I thought Dad and I were doing okay. We got my pants on…sure they were backwards, but hey, I thought they looked cool.
Anyways, this year is going to be even better than last year. One, I get to stay out late, two, I'm going with Leah, (she always knows what to say to Mom and Dad so she gets her way and gets to stay out late), and three I have the best costume ever. I am going to be a Power Ranger. But not just any Power Ranger, oh no, I'm going to be the red Power Ranger. The best Power Ranger.
I have the belt, the mask, the boots, everything. For Halloween, I, Seth Clearwater, will be a superhero; I will be the red Power Ranger. All my friends at pre-school will be so jealous. I think even some of the older kids will be jealous, I know for a fact that Quil Ateara wanted to be a Power Ranger but they didn't have any costumes in his size, except the yellow one. No one wants to be the yellow one, so he's a Ninja Turtle instead.
"Ah! Leah! You will put your costume on this instant!" I hear Mom yell.
I look at Dad; he just shrugs his shoulders and says, "When you're my age, son, you'll get used to this type of thing," and goes back to watching an old football game.
"NO! I won't wear it! I refuse! If you love me, you won't make me wear it!" Leah shouts.
Uh oh, Leah shouldn't shout at Mom. Sitting down on the couch, I continue to listen to the muffled voices of my Mom and sister.
"Harry! Come and get your daughter before I kill her!" Mom yells.
Dad sighs, looks at me and says, "We'll be lucky if we even get to go out this Halloween, bud."
I almost cry right then and there. No Halloween? But…but…I waited so long. A whole year, I waited a whole year for this day; this wonderful, fantastic, magical day. Leah can't wreak that, she may be bigger, and stronger, and three years older than me, but I'm considered to be the 'cute little guy' of the family. I've seen Leah use her status as the 'pretty little woman' before, and I will cry if that's what it takes for us to leave Leah and go out for Halloween. I need to; it's the only holiday that we get free candy.
So this is my plan: whine, beg, and cry to leave the house with or without Leah to go trick-or-treating. I walk towards Leah's room. I stop at the doorframe and watch what's going on.
Leah is standing in the middle of the room in her underwear and undershirt, refusing to wear the pretty pink dress Mom is holding. Dad is standing beside Mom, patting her back, trying to calm both she and Leah down.
"Leah, please honey, just wear the dress. You want to go out trick-or-treating don't you?" Dad asks in a calm voice.
Leah looks up at Dad with a pout on her lips, "I do, Daddy, I love Halloween." Her brows furrow and her pouts juts out even farther. "But I don't want to go out in that," she points to her princess costume.
Mom lets out a frustrated breath, "You see what I'm dealing with Harry? You see? Your daughter refuses to wear her costume! She's gets her stubbornness from you."
The doorbell rings, probably trick-or-treaters asking for free candy, something I should be doing right now. Mom stomps out of the room, finally having lost all of her patience with Leah. "You deal with her; I'm going to hand out candy."
Dad nods and looks at Leah. She has her arms folded against her chest and refuses to even look at her costume. "Leah, honey," Dad starts off cautiously. Leah is a lot like Mom; she loses her patience quickly when things don't go to plan. "Can you tell me why you don't want to wear your costume?" he asks tentatively.
Leah looks at Dad and her bottom lip starts to quiver. Oh no, she's going to cry. "I don't want to have the same costume as Emily," Leah says in a small voice.
Emily Young, our cousin, said that she wanted to be a princess for Halloween. But, she lives on the Makah reservation, far away from here. Why is Leah so upset? No one here will know that she and Emily are the same thing this Halloween. I don't even think that anyone on the reservation, besides some grownups, even knows who Emily is.
"Oh, honey, you're upset because she has the same costume as you?" Dad asks in a sympathetic voice.
Leah nods her head, "Her costume is better than mine. She'll be a prettier princess and everyone will love her as a princess. But, that's okay, because I don't want to be some silly princess that waits for a prince's kiss to wake her up. The princess was stupid enough to fall for the evil witch's trick, and I am not stupid," she explains. Leah looks at Dad and smiles. "I'm a Clearwater. I'm strong, smart, and better than any old princess. So I don't want to be a princess for Halloween. I want to be something different, something better."
Dad smiles at Leah, "So, you don't want to be a princess."
She shakes her head, "I want to be a hero."
Dad nods his head and scratches his chin in thought. "Well, what if, what if you were a hero disguised as a princess?" he asks hopefully.
Leah's smile falls. "No. I'm not wearing that dress. That's final," she deadpans.
Dad sighs, defeated, "What do you have in mind?"
Leah perks up and her eyes sparkle, "I could wear Seth's costume and he could wear his Scooby-Doo costume from last year."
"NO!" I shout. "Le-ah! No! You have your costume and I have mine! That's not fair!" I whine.
She glares at me, "You're not even wearing it, Seth. It's not like you'd have to change out of it or anything. I could go in your room right now and put it on and you'd have to wear your Scooby-Doo costume!" she smirks.
I'm on the verge of tears. "Lee, I've wanted to be the red Power Ranger for a long time. Please let me wear it," I beg. I look in her eyes and see that begging won't work. Enough is enough, this is my costume and that's that! "You chose your costume when we were in Forks, Lee! You chose to be a princess, and I was a Power Ranger. It's your fault if you don't like it," I huff.
Fifteen Minutes, Three Costumes, and One Tiara Later
It's breezy, not restricting, I don't understand why Leah doesn't want to wear it. I feel so pretty. I'm sort of glad that the Scooby-Doo costume didn't fit.
I look at myself in the mirror. Leah picked out a nice dress; it's really sparkly and flowy. I feel bad for Leah; she's stuck with my Power Ranger costume. But, I get the dress. Mom helped me put it on and even let me wear the matching tiara! I look so pretty, Leah said I looked beautiful, prettier than Emily. Good, because this is my costume. I don't care what anyone says, I look good and I know it.
I grab my purse/candy bag and head out with Mom and Leah to go trick-or-treating. Dad said that he would stay home, because he's feeling a little sick. I don't know why, he was fine before… I hope he feels better. But I won't let Dad being sick ruin my night. Tonight's Halloween and I, Seth Clearwater, am the prettiest princess of La Push.