Episode 1.07 – The Ghost Dance – Deleted Scenes – Gypsies and Dresses
“Hold still or you’re gonna get stuck!” the young fashion major snapped at her cousin.
“I’m trying!” Ileana couldn’t help but laugh a little. She remembered when Lily had been little and the two of them would dive into Ileana’s trunk of clothing and put on a fashion show for Caroleena.
“Stop fidgeting! I swear, you are a horrible mannequin.”
“Ow!”
“I told you!”
“You did that on purpose.”
“Seriously, Aunt Ella, this is my midterm!”
“Shush… don’t call me that here. Who knows who’s listening!”
“Oh, please. The security in this place is tight. No one is going to find out your dirty little secret. Do you have warrants out again?”
“Not in Texas.”
Lily laughed a little. “What for?”
“Nothing important.”
“You know, one of these days you’re going to have to explain to me how you went from my aunt to my cousin… and you haven’t aged a day. I think I look older than you now.”
“Good genes,” Ileana grinned.
“Yeah, my butt. We’re related, remember? Mom’s genes aren’t that good, and I know you’re not from Dad’s side.”
“You’ll find out eventually.”
Lily stood up and stepped back from her subject. Ileana had been standing on a small stool for over an hour, and Lily had been draping various fabrics and pinning them around her. Every time Ileana thought they were done, Lily would get frustrated and start over.
“This just isn’t working,” the young student sighed. “The hem is just too low.”
“Are you kidding? It almost shows my knees!”
Lily gave the older woman a dubious look. “What is this, the 19th century? Knees are in… in fact so are thighs.” She knelt down and started repinning.
“That’s scandalous!”
“Hush, you!” Lily scolded playfully. After a few more pins she stepped back once more. “Wow… you have really nice legs, Auntie.”
“That have no place out in the open.”
“Don’t give me that. Have you ever watched a tennis match?”
“Little whores chasing balls all over a court? No, thank you.”
“I swear, you are so old fashioned. You stick out like a sore thumb around here too.”
“I do?”
“Yuh huh.”
Ileana’s face grew a little dark. “I didn’t realize.”
“Trust me, your clothes are tight, but they’re just too… old fashioned. You can pull ‘em off, but you’d be way hotter in something a little more… I don’t know… post-1920.”
“I’m not going for way hotter or tight.”
“You should. I don’t remember the last time you told Mom or me about a boyfriend. You can’t just coop yourself up with all those books. I know you love reading, but geez, live a little. Get out some.”
“I get out plenty. With those WEIRD kids? Please.”
“What? They’re a very… nice group of people.”
“And not one of them knows how to have a good time. Hell, a couple of ‘em don’t even know how to bathe. Willy’s alright, but that boyfriend of hers is a) clueless and b) taken, and I don’t see you as the man-stealer type.”
“Lily!”
“Oh, but that one guy is cute… what’s his name… the redhead’s brother?”
“Jean?”
“Mmhmm… that’s the one. He’s on the football team, right?”
“Yes.”
“He’s hot,” Lily said, starting to move pins around once more, this time around the neckline.
“It sounds like you’re interested in him.”
“Not me.” She grinned mischievously up at her aunt. “But I bet you could hook ‘em pretty easily.”
“Me? Oh, no, no, no. I don’t think so.”
“Really? That’s funny, ‘cause I could have sworn I heard a rumor about him smoochin’ the new librarian up on the third floor a couple weeks ago… which got her fired.”
For the first time in her life, Ileana was glad she’d been dead for a century, because if not, she would have been beet red. As it was, she blanched a little. “Who told you that?”
“Ah hah! Not a denial! So what’s the scoop?”
Ileana started to cover her face with her hands, but Lily stuck her with a needle again.
“Hold still! And tell me, what’s going on between you two?”
“Absolutely nothing.”
“So you just make out with anybody looking through the literature?”
“We did not make out!”
“But you did smooch.”
Ileana sighed heavily. “Yes, he kissed me, but it wasn’t like that.”
“Umm… he’s not in the drama club, so I won’t believe you were practicing for a play.”
“He was possessed. The spirit in him kissed me, not Jean.”
“Possessed… is that what they’re calling it these days?”
“I’m serious! There’s a spirit in that library.”
“Seriously?”
“Yes, and it isn’t very fond of me now.”
“Dissed it, huh?”
“Dissed?”
“Yeah… you know… rejected?”
Ileana thought for a moment. “Dismissed? Yes, and it wasn’t pleased with the fact. If you’re going to speak English, you really should speak it.”
“Whatever. So is that why you ran screaming out of there?”
“Where do you hear these things?”
“Come on! The new librarian runs screaming out of the library after a football player kisses her, and you think I wouldn’t have heard that?”
“I see your point.”
“Don’t worry. I don’t think anyone knows that the librarian is now the French teacher… and they won’t… as long as you hold still!” She stepped back once more to look at her work.
“No way… this is far too revealing!”
The hem of the dress was half-way up her thigh on the right, and fell almost to her knee on the left. Lily had gotten rid of the sleeves for straps, and the back was almost to Ileana’s waist. The neckline plunged to reveal a healthy amount of cleavage, and a sash wrapped around the waist towards the left.
“Maybe, but you look hot, and I am totally making this for myself. So did y’all talk about it?”
“What?”
“You and Jean… the spirit thing. Did you talk about him kissing you?”
“Why on earth would we?”
“God, you’re dense. He’s hot and he kissed you. Possessed or not, that’s an in!”
“I can’t believe Caroleena raised you.”
“Yeah, right. Like you were innocent at my age. I’ve heard stories.”
“What stories?”
“Mom said you were just like me until something weird happened. Said you were even seeing a gaje.”
“I was not!”
Lily raised an eyebrow at her aunt, obviously not believing her.
“I was not… seeing him. At least not in the context you’re thinking. Besides, he was at least Romanian.”
“Well, that does happen in Romania. Mom said you were a wild child, and that no one could tell you what to do. You wouldn’t study, and you wouldn’t follow the old ways.”
“That isn’t true. I followed the old ways… but I didn’t study. I wish I had.”
“Why?”
“Because someone died for my ignorance.”
Lily’s face fell. That wasn’t what she’d expected to hear.
“If I’d studied when my grandmother had tried to teach me, he’d be alive, and I… I would be better off. A lot of people would be.”
“Is that why you spend all your time with books now?”
“I suppose so.”
Lily thought for a moment and shrugged. “Well, that’s a lousy excuse to hermit away your life like you do. I know you’re miserable alone like this. You need a man… or a woman, you know… whatever you’re into.”
Ileana shook her head. “You drive me nuts.”
“So… do you like chicks? ‘Cause I’m cool with that if you do. I know this cheerleader–”
“No, I like men. I just…”
“You’re scared. I get it. Get over it. What’s the worse that can happen? You get rejected?”
The vampire bit her tongue.
“You just move on.” She picked up her Polaroid and snapped a picture of her creation, waving it in the air to try to speed the process. “So, you never answered my question.”
“What question?”
“About you and Jean! What’s going on between you two?”
“Nothing!”
“Then why is he asking about you?”
Ileana was stunned. “What… what’s he asking?”
Lily shrugged a little. “He and Mic were sitting together the other day eating lunch, and I plopped down with ‘em. He asked me a little more about you.”
“He was trying to make conversation, I’m certain.”
Another shrug followed. “I suppose. You’re better off anyway. He’s way too stupid for you.”
“He is not stupid! He’s a little rash, but he’s far from stupid!”
Lily giggled. “Not interested in ‘em, huh?”
Ileana blanched a little again. How could she have fallen for that? What a rookie mistake! “Lily… even if I were interested in him, it’s not something that could ever happen.”
“Yeah right… not after I show him this,” she answered, handing Ileana the picture.
“Oh God… I look…”
“Fabulous!”
“Like a whore! Lily! You can’t show this to anyone!”
“Relax, I’ll just use it for my assignment. So why couldn’t it happen?”
“He’s a student at the school I’m teaching at. At the very least, I’d get fired.”
“Since when did you care about keeping a job?”
“Since…” She stopped… since she’d met him actually. “Since I’m stuck here in this town until you graduate or go elsewhere.”
“Mmm…”
“You should make sure my face isn’t in the photo. Your fashion professor and I got into it a little bit. If she found out we’re relatives—“
“Yeah yeah, you told me. I’ll take another of the finished product. This is just a design phase.”
Ileana nodded. “So can I get out of this?”
“Yeah, no problem. I know what I’m doing now. So… if Jean asks me if you might be interested?”
“Oh hush!” Ileana said, grabbing a pillow from a chair next to her and throwing it at her niece.
Lily laughed and grabbed another one off the bed, and a pillow fight ensued.