Keys To The Hearts

Chapter Sixteen

"This seems nice," Renee commented as she picked a brown dress off the hanger and placed it in front of her daughter. Both, Keyara and Faith grimaced at the dust brown, off-shoulder dress with sleeves that ended below her elbows. Sprinkled with dried leaves that didn't look somehow attractive to any of the girls, Renee noted their reactions and placed back the dress. "Okay, maybe not this one. This seem, a little off for the party."

Keyara was thinking back why she agreed going shopping with them. She glanced dowm at the little who never paid any attention to anything around her. Instead, her eyes were fixed on the drawing magazine she forced her mom to by from a book store nearby.

"Keyara, have you found your dress?" Renee glanced away from the white dreds she was frowning down at.

Dress? Was it really necessary to wear a dress to the party?

Renee seemed to understand what was brewing in the redhead's mind. Therefore, she shrugged and swiped a hand through some hanging dress and said, "Maybe not dress. But try to find something comfortable for both, yourself and the gathering."

Keyara walked down the second aisle, where she saw some suitable outfits for the gathering. Something that wasn't revealing and something that wasn't making her uncomfortable by looking at it.

She wasn't going to wear any dress.

As she slowly walked along the shelves, she stopped at one point. She didn't want to raise her poor taste by looking at these expensive clothes. She didn't want to waste their money either.

There was a lot of clothes and she felt her pocket hurting. The clothes left in her room was enough for a one timing gathering and she didn't need new clothes for something like that.

Then she remembered Mrs. Blythe's voice, floating through her head like a constant reminder of her warning, saying she could never get out of the mall empty handed.

Therefore, she picked the least expensive sweater, a dawn gray turtleneck sweater. She vaguely remembered the black jeans she had in her bag which she never dared to use. Maybe she can use that and pair it up along with the deep gray coat of hers.

Great, that was a nice shopping. Just for one sweater. It was that kind of shopping Keyara wished for herself and this was her chance.

When she was walking back to the aisle she last saw Renee and Mrs. Blythe were wandering around, a burst of laughters from some children made her pause. She didn't know why but she was a little curious about those little kids. As she turned, murmurs and snickers came from that one particular lane.

Lifting her eyes, Keyara read the helpful signed which said it was the way for restrooms.

Slowly, a frown formed. A group of kids, barely ten, without any kind of parental guidance.

Keyara shook her head with a sigh and her left foot started to move forward when a ringtone erupted from the same lane.

Keyara's eyes lifted up, blinking. She knew that ringtone.

This time, without a second thought, she turned and walked directly towards the lane. The moment she was a foot away from the turn, five little boys scattered out, laughing and high-fiving one another. A boy with curly brown hair made a sputtering sound with his lips and all of them laughed once again.

"Fuller, did you see her lips, like," another boy with cropped hair and pale skin said and paused to imitate something that looked like quivering lips but all Keyara saw was some fish gasping for air. "Seriously, she's a coward."

All of them erupted into laughters again. Keyara curled her fist to stop herself from cracking their bones.

Fuller, the brown haired boy snorted and smirked. Literally, smirked. "She just called, Mama."