Free Living Dead Girl (Vampire Hunter Book 1) by S.C. Reynolds

was stuffed in the corner of Henry’s closet; maybe I could do something with that? I pulled it out and laid it flat across the bed, trying to smooth the wrinkles with my hand.
    Hmm. I really did like the shade of the fabric, a pale pink – my favorite color. The problem was the dress just looked so young , and I wanted to portray a maturity, a wisdom beyond my years.
    I pulled a cropped black jacket out of the heap of clothes I had discarded. It was slowly starting to come together in my mind. Moving swiftly, I darted back down the two flights of stairs and headed for the kitchen. There must be some scissors around here somewhere. I rifled through drawer after drawer until I located them, then thundered back up to Henry’s room. I had to hurry – it was nearly 2 o’clock now. Henry would be back from school in an hour.
    Grabbing the pink dress, I slowly cut into the fabric just below the empire waistband. It took a few minutes of careful work to detach the top half of the dress from the billowy skirt. When I had finished, I held the new ‘tank top’ up to my face and examined my work. It wasn’t perfect by any means – I could see some edges that looked a little rough, where my hand hadn’t been as steady – but all in all I was pleased with the outcome.
    The upper half of the dress had been transformed into an interesting shirt, not like anything I had ever seen in the stores I used to frequent. 
    I undressed quickly and pulled on my newly envisioned ensemble: pink top, black jacket, and boot cut jeans. I headed back to the bathroom, almost scared to look at myself. But I was actually pleasantly surprised by what I saw. The bottom of the tank top hit just above my bellybutton. It was more obvious in the mirror that the hem was slightly uneven, but it looked like that was intentional to make the shirt interesting. The black jacket looked great with the shirt and jeans and helped cover me so that I wasn’t showing too much skin.
    I was grinning ear-to-ear. Lucas won’t know what hit him . There was just one thing missing now. I crept down the staircase and through the hall to the Matthews’ bedroom. I felt terrible about doing this, but I really wanted to borrow a smidge of makeup to wear for tomorrow.
    The master bedroom was spacious and everything neatly in place. This whole house had such a different feel than my home, where every room looked lived in. I don’t think in all the years I’ve known Henry I’ve ever even been in here.
    I looked around hesitantly. I was hoping to get in and out as quickly as possible; I really wasn’t the type to snoop and I felt guilty about being in their bedroom at all. There was no makeup sitting out where I could see it. Maybe she keeps her makeup in the bathroom .
    I tiptoed across the room to the master bath and swung the closed door open. Wow! It was huge, with double sinks and a whirlpool tub. This is exactly my dream bathroom . And sure enough, against the wall by the window, was a vanity with a jewelry box and makeup on top. I opened the top drawer to find it was stuffed with even more: lipsticks, eye shadows, powders; this woman had everything!
    Sorry . I said a silent apology to Valerie for raiding her makeup, and grabbed a handful of products from the drawer before I could think better of it.
    I was back in the master bedr oom when I heard someone downstairs. Not again! There is no way this can be happening twice in one day! Or maybe it’s Henry home from school?
    I’d left my cell phone up in his attic room, but I could have sworn I hadn’t spent practically the entire afternoon figuring out what to wear tomorrow!
    I stood frozen in place, listening.
    “Aurora?” I heard Henry call up the stairs.
    That’s a relief . “I’m here,” I shouted back. I shoved the makeup I had taken into my jacket pocket and hurriedly got out of his parent’s bedroom. I had reached the edge of the stairs just as Henry was getting to the second story.
    “What are you doing