Mollie + Chester

Chapter Fourteen

Mrs Mocomile's hand slipped and the clear plastic bowel of expensive peas dropped upside down on the tiles. The green peas rolled out of the bowel across the slippery surface as Mum bent down trying to grab them.
Chester sniffed one of the peas that came to a stop in front of him but didn't eat it like he normally would eat food that dropped. Mollie laughed.
"See Mum, even Chester doesn't eat the expensive peas, why do we need them?" She scooped Chester up and hugged him close to her chest.
"Because Mollie, every society meeting needs peas and I can't just serve them the cheap kind! What will they think of me?"
"How will they know the difference? They both taste horrible anyways, and who would eat peas at a party?"
Mrs Mocomile straightened up off the ground and tipped the peas from her hand into the bin then, seeing the clock, started to bustle around again.
"Oh, Mollie, please for the last time; go get dressed!" She sounded exasperated.
"But I am dressed," Mollie let go of Chester with one hand and gestured to her old t-shirt and leggings.
"Go into your room now and do not come back until you are in a dress." Mrs Mocomile turned the stove back on and put on fresh peas.
Mollie rolled her eyes and stomped up stairs with Chester still in her arms and burst into her room. She dropped the cat on the bed who sat and watched curiously as the little girl yanked hard at the cupboard doors.
"Seeeeeth!" She yelled when the doors wouldn't budge. Seconds later he stood panting at my door.
"What's wrong?" He asked looking worried.
"I can't get the cupboard doors open," she said smiling sweetly.
"God, Mollie. I thought the house was burning down or the sky was falling or..."
He didn't finish the sentence but everyone knew what he was going to say. He had thought something was wrong and she couldn't breathe. He thought she was going to die.
"Well, this is an emergency. I don't look like the perfect daughter," Mollie said and Seth tugged at the cupboard doors. Mounds of dresses spilled out onto the floor like a waterfall and Mollie groaned.
"I had hoped they would have disintegrated or something," she said.
Seth laughed. "How do you know what disintegrated is anyway? It's such a big word for a little girl."
"I'm not a child," she said picking at the pile of dresses. She held up an ugly poofy orange dress and rose her eyebrows. "Why did Mum even buy me this?"
"To make you look like an autumn leaf? Or an orange?"
Mollie threw the dress at Seth, narrowly missing Chester and dug out a plain denim dress, purple stockings and a matching shirt.
"Mum just wants to be normal, you know. She doesn't care about perfection or the fact that you're different, in fact, perfect is over rated."
"Turn around," Mollie instructed and Seth faced the wall, covering his eyes with his palms. "But I don't like being different, especially not in Perfectville Tamwood."
She pulled on the new outfit and groaned. Seth turned back to face me.
"At least the dress isn't poofy," he laughed.
Mollie ignored him and clipped a bow into her hair in attempt disguise the fact that it was much shorter than every other girls'. The little jagged piece of hair escaped from the clip and fell back over her eyes.
The doorbell rang downstairs and Mum called out Mollie's name before answering it.
"I had better go downstairs and smile and pretend to be perfect," Mollie said scooping Chester up off the bed. "Why don't you have to come socialise?" She added to Seth who laughed.
"Because I'm a guy, I do manly things, not go to tea parties and gossip," he replied as she left the room.
"But you have dolls in your room..." Mollie called back.
"They're not dolls, their figurines of super heroes!"
"Right..." Mollie yelled running down the stairs.
She nearly smacked into Mrs Scowd who was standing at the bottom with her grumpy baby on her hip. Her baby was chubby and his eyes were always squinting as if it were extremely sunny and he was dressed in a sailor costume complete with a funny hat.
"So Mollie sweet pea, how has school been?" She wore one of those fake smiles that made her look like a snake. Mrs Scowd really didn't wait for Mollie's answer, but instead took off her huge flower/feather hat shoving it into her arms on top of Chester. The cat jumped down onto the floor and meowed grumpily at the lady who scowled at him as if he were a nuisance ruining the perfect facade.
The doorbell rang again and Mollie raced off mumbling; "I'll get it," behind her.
Mrs Scowd placed her fat baby down on the ground and went off into the kitchen with Mollie's mother. The baby grabbed onto the cat's tail and Chester ran after Mollie, hissing when his tail was pulled.
Mollie was standing frozen at the open door staring at the lady and the girl who had just arrived. The girl had thin brown hair and a birthmark like an upside down tree on her neck. She wore a lacy dress and looked awkward in it like Mollie, not exactly standing up straight and proud like the big nosed ladies inside. The mother pushed past Mollie and disappeared into the kitchen, leaving the two girls standing at the door, not meeting each other's eyes.
After what seemed like forever, Mollie bent down and picked up Chester, and without saying anything, made a beeline for the kitchen, ignoring the stares of the ladies inside just like she was used to.