The Door Is Open [Annabel]

[JASMINE MEL CASSIDY]

"Jasmine, everything's all set in the kitchen," Mrs. Cassidy said while walking into the large living room. She threw on a pair of gloves as she walked up to Jasmine, who sat on a large white couch. Jasmine looked up at her mother smiling. "Thanks, mom," she thanked her mother. Her brown eyes watched the forty-two year old as she throw her black winter coat over her shoulders. "Your father wants to take me out to dinner so we won't get back till late. Before hand he's taking me shopping." Jas couldn't help but notice the big smile sitting on her mother's face. You two are just too cute. Sometimes this water elemental wished she had someone special to take her out to dinners like her father did for her mother. "Sounds interesting."

Jasmine stood from the couch to follow her mother to the kitchen. She wanted to see her mother's doings and Mrs. Cassidy also wanted her daughter to see her work so she could see her face before she departed. Mrs. Cassidy worked hard on what waited for Jas as she walked down several long hallways and through several doors, then finally took a step into the huge kitchen. The kitchen was located in the far end of the house so it's obvious it took a while for them to maneuvered around the large mansion. When they got to the kitchen Jasmine's mouth started to water. On the counter centered in the middle of the kitchen, what Jas loves to call an island, large bowls of junk food sat; popcorn, white chocolate covered pretzels, and large fluffy marshmallows. Surrounding the large bowls were a large variety of mini cakes, chocolate bars, soda cans, Oreo, homemade potato chips with dip, twizzlers, and mini doughnuts.

Tempted, Jasmine wanted to run over and attack the neatly arranged junk food sitting a few feet away. Who wouldn't besides people on diets and those who are allergic. "You really out done yourself, mom. Thank you very very much!!" Jas said before giving her mother a large, tight hug. She really had out done herself this time. Mrs. Cassidy might be a chocolate shop owner, but back in the day she went to school to become a chef. Once she laid her eyes on Jasmine's father she dropped out of school. "You're very welcome. Now, I must get going. Your father is waiting," her mother said in an English accent. Before following her mother, Jasmine looks back at the food laying on the island. Today was a very special day, at least for Jasmine. For a while she's been planning a sleepover for a very special friend. Annabel Dale. This was Jas's way of apologizing for the times she'd promise she'd spend with Anna before she'd gotten extremely sick.

Following after her mother's trail, Jasmine walked back to the front of the mansion. Mrs. Cassidy walked past the door that led to the living room and pulled out her cellphone. "Oh! I'm ordering you guys a pizza. Cheese alright?" she asked. Jasmine watched her mother's fingers dial in the number to a pizza shop before answering. "Yeah, though the meat lovers pizza sounds better." Jas walked in front of her mother and opened the door for her. "Hello, Annabel," Mrs. Cassidy said in a happy tone when she noticed the water elemental outside the door. Jasmine's eyebrows shoot up as she looked out the door. "Annabel, you're finally here!!!! Come in. You brought some clothes with you, right?" Jas asked before grabbing hold of her friend and pulling her into the mansion.

Jasmine waved to her mother good bye and closed the door. She turned around to face Annabel and jumped in excitement. "I've got a lot planned for us tonight. Junk food, possibly pillow fights, and scary movies!" With that said, Jasmine dragged Annabel to the living room. "Let's get this sleepover on the road, yes?"

[Blah! Is this fine with you?]

[ANNABEL LYNNE DALE]

Annabel fidgeted impatiently as her older brother took his sweet time in getting ready for the drive to Jasmine's house. "Hurry up," she insisted before throwing open the bathroom door. Her brother turned and shot her an accusing glare. "Hey! Knock first, I could have been doing anything!" She didn't reply to his outburst and he scowled at her. "I'm getting ready, Belle, be patient. We don't all roll out of bed in the morning and head out the door." She might have been offended by the comment if it wasn't true. "I need to shave, for fuck's sakes." She giggled. It wasn't often that she saw her brother with facial hair. He usually got up far before her and finished his morning routine but he'd stayed up all night studying for medical school and slept in. "You look funny with a beard," she teased. He frowned at her and then at his reflection in the mirror. "I look like something that just crawled out of a damn dumpster, that's what I look like. Go downstairs, I'll meet you in a minute." She stuck out her tongue, mature as ever, but obeyed his request and hurried downstairs to wait.

True to his word, Josh didn't take much longer and soon they were getting into the white Aventador and driving toward her friend's house. As they both lived in the upper-class neighbourhoods it was not a very far walk but it was cold and snowy and so she'd dismissed the idea very quickly. She liked the winter but she didn't like it that much. "Have fun," said her brother as she got out of the car. "I'll pick you up tomorrow afternoon, 'kay? Make sure you call me if you want to stay longer." She nodded to show she'd heard before bidding him farewell and skipping up the steps toward the door. She was lifting her hand to ring the doorbell when it opened, startling her into letting it drop. "Oh!"

Mrs. Cassidy and her daughter were standing at the door and Annabel smiled sheepishly at them. "Psychics!" she accused playfully before returning the older woman's greeting with a chipper, "Hello Mrs. Cassidy!" She liked the woman, she seemed really nice.

Jasmine seemed excited and that energy rubbed off onto the younger Water elemental, a wide grin plastered across her lips as she nodded with enthusiasm. "Yeah, I brought all my stuff. This is gonna be so awesome!" She did not resent the girl for not hanging out with her as of late. Joshua had told her that Jasmine was ill and, being the sensible older brother that he was, had also lectured her on how it was no one's fault and that Belle should be nice about it. Not that she would have been mean otherwise! Josh was just the lecturing type. "Ooh, what kinds of junk food? Josh practically hoardes ours, I have to get to the fridge early so he doesn't steal it all from under my nose!" She sounded miffed but it was the friendly sort of irritation she always held toward her sibling. "Is that cake I smell? God, it smells good. Is it for us?" She was asking a lot of questions but she was excited, damn it!

She followed her friend into the living room with a. "Yeah, let's do this!"

[It's absolutely fine! Nothing wrong with it at all <3]

[JASMINE MEL CASSIDY]

Seeing others really happy always brought a new kind of joy to Jasmine. She could never explain why, but it just did. The same thing happens when you see innocent children receive gifts for Christmas that they absolutely adore. It's a very sweet, rich feeling that fills your whole body and leaves it tingling. Jasmine smiled at Annabel and gave her a nod back. "Good, but just in case I had some extra clothes you could wear! Never know who might stop by and want to sleepover, yeah know? Always better safe than sorry." Jasmine couldn't help the laugh the soon followed. She hoped she didn't appear rude in front of Annabel, but she found it funny how Anna talked about Josh. It hadn't felt like that long ago that Josh was talking about Anna in a similar sense, but not with all the irritation.

"You and your brother are too much. He hoards the stuff so you have to do what you have to do. He's told me about it before, just never the way you've telling me. He never mentioned hoardering." Jasmine said before laughing again. She honestly felt amused and she liked hearing what Annabel had to say as well as Joshua. It's like watching a mystery movie and you're finally getting to hear both the victim's and defendant's sides. Interesting. I'll have to bring that up in one of my conversations with him next time. Let's see what he has to say. Already, Jasmine felt like the sleepover was going to be a big success. "You can just wait and see what junk food I have in store for you, haha. I know you'll like it. Hopefully."

Eyebrows shot up, Jasmine stopped walking and just stood there. Her mouth dropped opened for a few seconds, but quickly she grinned. "By god! You have one heck of a nose. You could really smell that cake? The cake's in the kitchen with the rest of the junk food..... Don't worry it's just for us so you can eat as much as you want. Wait, scratch that. You can eat as much as you want until it's gone." Jasmine shook her head unbelievably. She couldn't believe Anna was able to smell the cake all the way from kitchen which was quick a distance away. She knew cake always had a delicious aroma too it that could be smelled 'through' walls, but even if it was smelling that good, she couldn't smell it still.

As they arrived in the living room, Jasmine ran over to the new sound system her parents bought recently as a present. She turned the large flat screen television on with the flip of the remote and placed a random CD into the DVD player. Wall to Wall started to play and Jasmine smiled at Annabel. "After the pizza gets here we'll eat some junk food. Is that alright with you? My mom was planning on ordering a pizza and I wanted you to get a few slices down before destroying all that cake my mom made. Meat lovers fine with you? Do you like Chris Brown, by the way? He is so cute! If you don't want to listen to him I have a bunch of other Cd's you can pick from over there..." Jasmine pointed to a metal stand shelved with thousands of Cd's. Nodded towards the couch Jasmine added,"You can lay your things on the couch. I don't want you to have to carry your things around."

[Hope you like <3 This is all I could do so far. I wanted to write more but I'll stop here for now.]

[ANNABEL LYNNE DALE]

Annabel loved to swap clothes with her friends and borrow things from them and so she wouldn't have minded borrowing something of Jasmine's if she'd forgotten. Annabel had silk Yoshi pyjamas that she was pretty damn proud of, though, and she held them up with a grin. "I'm all set! Aren't these great? Josh got them for me!" Her brother was not a gamer but he'd always understood her obsession. That's what happened when you lived with someone your entire life, she supposed. "I brought clothes, too, of course. Just in case!" Sometimes a one-night sleepover turned into more than one night in her experience and so she always came prepared for anything.

Speaking of her older brother, she frowned when Jasmine let her in on a little something. "Woah, woah, woah. He talks about me behind my back? That little shit!" Annabel was being a little bit of a hypocrite considering they were standing here and talking about her brother but she was offended nonetheless. "I bet he blamed it all on me, didn't he? Hmph." Sibling rivalry at its best. They'd never been rivals in a negative way, however. Shaking her head, she said, "God, it's still weird to think that you talk to him and stuff. Like, as a friend. Most of my other friends don't know him that well." Belle didn't look at it as a bad thing but it did lead to semi-awkward situations like this one.

She nodded with obvious enthusiasm. "Well, duh! It's junk food, what's not to love?" She loved sugar. What teenager didn't? Hell, what person didn't?

A devious smile curved her lips and she seemed pleased with herself. Annabel had an ego and she was more than happy to have it stroked by compliments like this one. It probably wasn't good for her friends to encourage her but she certainly wasn't complaining. "I'm like a dog," she grinned. "Our house always smells like food, I guess I got used to it!" She had her older sister-in-law to thank for that. There was always something to eat in the Dale mansion. It was very convenient. "Dude, awesome. What kind of cake is it, though? I'm good but I'm not that good." She supposed she'd be able to tell if there was a strong smell of strawberry sauce glaze or something like that but she was too far away to figure it out. She just smelled cake. And cake was fantastic.

Growing up in an incredibly wealthy family, Annabel did not swoon in awe over large flatscreens or sound systems, though she did take a moment to admire it. "Hey, this wasn't here the last time I slept over," she noted. "Is it new or am I just blind?" She had an appreciation for technology that went beyond that of your usual fifteen year old. Considering she was obsessed with computers and video game consoles, it was not much of a shock that she'd taken notice.

"Pizza, too? Damn, you guys go all out! Meat lovers is awesome." She loved meat and she loved pizza so they were all set. Jasmine was already melding the topic with another one and the chatty Water elemental had no trouble keeping up. She made a face. "The wife beater?" All right, so Rihanna wasn't his wife at the time but Belle could still remember the incident that a lot of Chris Brown fans seemed to ignore. It didn't affect the sound of the guy's voice but it had certainly changed her opinions of him. She shrugged. "Not really my type. That's cool if you want to pop in his CD, though. It's your house and all." Annabel didn't want to force her friend to listen to something she wasn't into.

[JASMINE MEL CASSIDY]

It takes a lot to surprise Jasmine and Annabel's pajamas surely took the water elemental by surprise. Her brown eyes stayed glued on the pjs, baffled. It's not like she never saw pajamas before, it's more like she never saw that kind...A small green dinosaur wearing orange shoes appeared several times around the silk material. Something about that green dinosaur seemed very familiar, but Jas couldn't quite put her finger on it. Soon, her puzzled face turned into one of recognition. "Hey! Isn't that little guy from Mario!?" Jasmine asked, her gaze quickly wondering back to Annabel. She would have guessed quicker, but the last time she'd played Mario was over a year ago. Back then she was into video games, not nesscaryilly, but she would always enjoy a Mario classic. Who wouldn't?

Jasmine made a silly face, scrunching up her nose and eyes. "He bought you that!? Well, of course it's great! But it would have been nice if I had a pair of pajamas like those..." Jasmine sighed and gave Anna one of her best puppy dog eyes. Rarely the water elemental had to pull her puppy dog eyes out, but this was what she considered an emergency. "You and your brother missed my birthday last year and you'd be making up for it if you bought me Mario pajamas...." The whole puppy dog eyes thing dropped as quickly as it had raised, and Jasmine gave the young water elemental a big nod. "Good job! Better safe than sorry, right?"

Everything seemed to be going fine until Jasmine opened her mouth and spilled the beans on Joshua. Crap. Was I not suppose to say anything? Jas watched Annabel frown and call her brother a little shit. Her mouth stayed shut as Anna continued on. Did he blame you? Maybe.... For the moment the best way to keep the conversation from getting any worse was by keeping her mouth shut. It took her a few moments before she'd caught on and learned Annabel wasn't exactly anger. A little irritated maybe, but not anger exactly. Small hands combed through brown hair as Jasmine sighed at her friend's comment. "It is kind of weird isn't it? Sorry, had you forgotten our parents are old friends? It would only seem normal that your brother and I are friends...." If her words seemed a little harsh, Jasmine hadn't intended on it. She apologized.

Annabel's comment sent Jasmine into a burst of laughter. "You're not suppose to call yourself a dog and yes you're house does! The many times I'd been over, I have to admit it really does always smell like food....All kinds. Not exactly sure what flavors, but there's a bunch," the water elemental answered. When they'd made it to the living room, she spun on her tippy toes towards the new sound system. "Huh? This thing? Yeah, it is new. My mom just bought it a few days ago."

Jasmine heard all the rumors and stories about Chris Brown already. Just because he beat the heck out of his ex, didn't mean he wasn't a good singer anymore and he didn't make any good music. Jasmine would always side with Chris Brown, but her judgemental side has made her less of a fan. She's always been in a constant battle with herself because she wasn't just bubbly and happy, but irritable and judgemental. Her judgemental side wanted to yell at her and say because Chris Brown disrespected a woman, he's music would turn crappy, but her bubbly side craved him....Jasmine nodded at Anna's question. "Yes, the cute wife beater...." Annabel is a really nice person, and if she wasn't who she was, Jasmine would have probably screamed at her...I know he beat someone up, but come on..... With a small nod, she added,"Yes, yes it is my house. And that's why I like you so much! I love your politeness. I just hope the pizza guy hurries up!" Someone seems to be impatient....

[Sorry for the late reply. It may seem all over the place because I rushed...]

[ANNABEL LYNNE DALE]

The Water elemental grinned broadly as Jasmine hit the nail on the head, clearly pleased about this. "Sure is! Yoshi's awesome! I always use him in Super Smash Bros." He was too adorable to resist and she loved turning people into eggs and then tossing them off the edge of the screen. Kirby was fun, too, with all his hats allowing him to take the form of the other characters, but Yoshi would remain her favourite.

Her friend expressed an envy for the pyjamas and Belle raised her eyebrows. It was fairly obvious what she was trying to do, even before she pulled an unfair guilt card. "Hey!" Her protest was not angry but a touch indignant. "I was totally there! Josh too, from what I remember! We never miss a birthday if we can help it!" The cheerful Water loved hanging out with her friends, especially during a birthday party. She couldn't speak for Josh but she knew that he was good about showing up for things. "But hey, if you want them that bad, what's the point in waiting for a holiday?" When you had a lot of money, saving up or begging your parents for things only during Christmas was less of a reality. "We can go shopping tomorrow and take a look, or I could always look online if the stores have nothing in stock!" The internet was like a magical shopping mall in her eyes. It had everything. She'd gotten her NES bed set online.

Friends couldn't always be pleased with one another and so Annabel looked a little miffed. "Well geez, when you put it like that," she said sarcastically, shaking her head. Unlike the rest of her family, she did not have many issues with anger and so found it easy to get over her exasperation. "Of course I know our parents are friends! But he's my brother." She made a face, like this should explain everything about it. Siblings often got weird about having the same friends or hanging around one another and though they generally got along, they were no exception.

With a cheeky grin, she said, "Why not? I know I'm a bitch!" She admired the stereo with a smile on her face. It was different from the one that they had but it looked equally as sleek and expensive. "How good's the sound quality? How loud can you crank this thing?" She had no intentions of making them both go deaf but she was curious.

The Water lifted her hands. "Hey, if that's your thing!" She wasn't attracted to Chris Brown, situation aside. He really wasn't her type. Not realising that Jasmine might be upset as she wasn't psychic, she continued on without hesitance. "Polite? Nah, I'm just chill!" She supposed she knew her manners, too. Please, thank you, don't hit people in the face with doors. It was mostly out of habit. "When did you call for it? Maybe we can complain if it's too late and get it for free." All right, so maybe that was a bit cheap but hey, she was stubborn. If they were late that would be their own fault.

[JASMINE MEL CASSIDY]

Jasmine knew exactly what she was doing when she'd decided to play the unfair guilt card. She knew Joshua and Annabel stayed loyal to her when it came to her birthdays. She knew, if they didn't show up, there was an important reason behind it all. She also knew she couldn't trick her young friend into believing her false words, but it was all worth a shot. If she didn't have such good memories of attending most of Jasmine's birthday parties, Jas might have gotten away with it. She would have ended up with a silky pair of pajamas, similar to Anna's. Her puppy dog eyes didn't seem to work, but Anna did bring up a very good point. What is the point of waiting for a holiday? When it came to money, both Annabel's and Jasmine's parents had no problems paying for the things they desired. She wasn't completely sure about Anna's parents or her guardian/brother, but there was no limit when it came to Jas's desires. Whatever she wanted, they'd hand it to her on a silver platter. The only exception would be her getting into some kind of conflict. No parent has ever liked their child getting into trouble.

Whether Annabel's willing to buy her the pajamas or not, Jas is determined to get them. When Anna offered to take her shopping the next day, she didn't hesitate to say yes. "Yes! Shopping sounds good. Hopefully, the pajamas are at the mall because you know how impatient I can be. I'd hate to have to wait for days till it arrives. Sometimes shipping can take up to months. Even with special delivery, I doubt they'll get here quick enough." Jas knew the basics of how the whole online shopping thing went. You search for your desired item and then you order it, special delivery or normal, blah, blah, blah. Jasmine just hoped all the time she'd took to purchase the item then pick the delivery, would be all the time it took for it to get to her doorstep. That's why she'd never bothered with online shopping. She'd roam the catalogs and get all excited, but then she realizes all the hours and days she has to wait for it to reach her house. Not very fun for someone as impatient as herself.

Jasmine always seemed to find amusement in the young water elemental. When she'd called herself a bitch, she almost choked on air before laughing. "You got jokes don't ya?" she asked playfully. Jas gave the girl a shrug of her shoulders when she'd began to question her on her parent's new sound system. She wasn't much of an electronic person, so she couldn't exactly answer her friend's questions. "Sound quality is pretty good I guess. You can play around with it if you want. Not sure how loud it can go, but I think it might can go really loud. Ear damaging loud."

Chill? Yes, you are chill. Jasmine nodded at Annabel's claim. "You are completely right! You're polite, but extremely chill. Chill....That word describes you perfectly. Your name should be Chill. Hello Chill, I'm Spicy," Jasmine said while given her friend a small curtsy, then a few finger snaps. Someone seemed to be a big confidence booster. Jasmine's closed off attitude lifted in mere seconds. That didn't stop her aggravation over the pizza though. "My mom was ordering the pizza on her way out or at least I hope she did....Maybe we should call them. Ain't nothing better than having a sleepover and free pizza."

[ANNABEL LYNNE DALE]

Belle loved shopping. It was so fun to hang around the mall for an entire day and go in and out of stores, bolstering her wardrobe and purchasing a few more video games for her vast collection. She was a regular customer at the electronics store, enough that they knew her by name. Sometimes she'd just go in to look at whatever new stuff they'd gotten in. Struck with the urge to do this again, she asked, "Just as long as you promise I can drag you places! You know me." Some people found video game stores boring, just like Annabel couldn't bring herself to go grocery shopping if you paid her. What was the fun in food? Sure, she loved eating it, but buying it? With a laugh, she said, "Months? Come on, it's not that bad! You're not starved for a new pair, you could wait a week or two!" Not that Annabel was known for her patience. Though she didn't admit it, she'd probably be just as whiny if the tables were turned.

An amused breath huffed from her nose. Jokes were the speciality of a Water elemental, she was sure Jasmine knew that full well. She liked to think that she was funny, but then that was the ego talking. An ego that Jas was pretty good at feeding, if Belle did say so herself. She liked to surround herself with people that buffed her confidence every now and again, it made her feel good. It also made her cocky, according to some people, but she ignored them. They weren't the ones that mattered.

Not waiting a second after she was told that she could mess around, Annabel fiddled with the remote of the sound system, turning it up louder than necessary but not so loud that it would damage their ears. She had enough problems with loud music from her games. "This is awesome," she crooned. "Hey, does it hook up to the TV or anything? We could switch it to one of the music channels." Mainstream music might get overplayed but that didn't mean there were no catchy songs. People that said otherwise... well, they tended to be hipsters or douchebags, maybe both. "Chill as a lake. See what I did there?" Snorting at Jasmine's return, she said, "Spicy, really?" She gave a teasing smile.

Much as she wanted to sink her teeth into a good old meat lovers slice right about now, she doubted that Jasmine's mother had been gone long enough that they could make a complaint. Sighing, she said, "Better give it another ten minutes or something. They usually give you a delivery estimate but I'm guessing your mom didn't say, huh?" Sometimes those estimates could be as long as an hour on busy days. It was an awful pain when you were hungry and just wanted your food right there and then. "Maybe we should do something to pass the time," she suggested. "Whatcha in the mood for?"