Gingham girls' diary pages

Chapter1: Her parties are second to none

Oxford is a lovely city, the smell of freshly brewed coffee every morning down any street you walk on. The ever-clear skies and vines curling around every stone wall that you see. Everyone is so sophisticated as well, important phone calls during rush hour, the businesswomen's high heels click clacking while they fix up their blazers and the businessmen sat having breakfast shouting at the waiters for making their eggs wrong. Winter in Oxford is lovely too. The crisp dragon breath you give while walking down the street early morning, watching it slowly disappear before your eyes to reveal the beautiful scenery, the lovely tidy streets, filled with young people's dreams. Only the elite make it in Oxford however, no matter how much you look at the blooming flowers or listen to the laughter of the northerners having brunch, no matter how much you adore all the expensive and rare dog breeds you see. It is all face value, all the dreams brought into Oxford come with pollution, dreams are made only to ever be crushed. 

The porcelain peoples super store, it's a huge three storey shop in oxford that sells a range of goods. It's Christmas eve, the busiest day of the year, the shop is hectic and full of people doing their last-minute shopping at ten a.m. Anabelle parks her car and is ready to start her shift, her twin sister Lillian sat in the passenger seat. They begin to look in their compact mirrors and start to fix themselves up before they go in. 

Anabelle is 5'11 and has tanned skin from using the sunbeds. Her hair is long and dark brown, it flows and curls down her back ever so slightly revealing the lighter brown streaks. She applies her lip gloss and double checks her eyelashes look right; she stares in amazement at her delicate brown eyes. She tilts the compact to check her uniform is looking good too. The uniform is a black polo top with her name badge attached to it, it's tucked ever so loosely into a black skirt, matching nicely with her new shiny black heels. She tilts it just one more time to ensure she looks perfect "fuck" she growls as she starts picking off white dog hairs from her skirt. Lilian laughs while making sure she looks good too. Her and Anabelle are identical however Lillian wears her hair differently, it's the same length, colour and has the same streaks in yes however, Lillian straightens her hair rather than curls it. 

They step out of the car and make their way into the shop, upbeat music playing as they walk in and strut to the staffroom. All the male members of staff fawn over them when they walk in, they each wave hi to various staff members and then once they pass them, they look at one another and giggle. This happens every shift to them, the specific wave they do, putting one finger down at a time and their smile where they ever so slightly show teeth, it's all rehearsed, but no matter how many boys they manage to impress they will never compare to her.

Anabelle and Lillian enter the staffroom and open their lockers throwing in things such as: lip-gloss, car keys and whatever junk they had in their hands. Across the room is a girl they've never seen before fixing herself up in the mirror, Anabelle then remembers that there was a new girl supposed to be starting. Anabelle stands and gawks at her while she brushes her long black her. "Hi" the new girl turns and says to Anabelle in a confused tone, this startles Anabelle and she begins to scramble her words together "oh.. I, uh, um, haha, sorry-hi"

"I'm Sying" she replies to Anabelle

"That's pretty where are you from?" Anabelle asks

"China, but I've always lived in the UK" she replies, she sounds almost robotic while saying so. 

Sying struts out the staffroom in a true diva-like fashion, her arms swaying side to side. Lillian comes over to Anabelle "Brooke's got competition" Lillian says. Anabelle and Lillian fix themselves up in the mirror and head out into the staff corridor to check the rota for the day. Anabelle is rotad onto customer service for her first hour whereas Lillian is on the shop floor all day. The pair leave staff only zone and are engulfed by the sound of customers "catch ya later" Lillian says as she walks away. Anabelle struts to the customer service desk where there are a sea of angry customers, stressed customers and people gawking at her. Multiple people at a time try to get her attention and she begins to serve. 

Lillian starts to make her way over to their co-worker Liam, he's tall, muscular and has the cutest stubble ever, it's almost embarrassing that he even lets it grow. "Lee, have you seen Brooke?" she asks him 

"Stock prep area" he replies sharply.

Lillian winks at him and starts to walk in the direction of the stock preparation area, her long straight hair swishing side to side, she enters the area and there she is, classic Brooke surrounded by people. "So, you're all coming?" she asks the group, they all agree and then disperse. "Coming where?" Lillian asks as she begins to hug Brooke. "To the Christmas party, obviously. I've been organizing it all day, you're coming." Lillian laughs and nods. Shortly after Charlie walks in the prep area. He's Brookes childhood friend and they have done everything together. "I got more people coming" Charlie said while curling the end of his blonde mullet around his finger. "Okay" Brooke began "I'll give Anabelle the rundown, I need you two to invite everyone in sight." The three parted ways.

Brooke made her way over to customer service and barged through the crowd of customers, approaching Anabelle. She tapped her fingers on the desk one at a time "Ann, I need you to invite Liam to my party tonight, it's being held at the pub around the corner" Anabelle's heart dropped, she had liked Liam since the day she started working there but she always got nervous around him. "I can't" Anabelle replied 

"Well, you must. I need everyone there, ok." Before Anabelle could reply Brooke strutted off. 

The day went on, customers trashing shelves and panic buying everything in sight, how could they? Did they know that Brooke was trying to organize the best night of everybody's lives? The four met back in the prep area to discuss who they'd managed to get to attend. "Anabelle, Liam?" Brooke asked. Anabelle shook her head, she hadn't even asked him, she just could not bring herself to approach him. Brooke grabbed her hand and dragged her away from the other two. Her long wavy black hair bounced as they walked and with her other hand, she made sure her fringe was perfect. They found Liam not too far away re-organizing a toy shelf that had been mauled by customers. Brooke pushed Anabelle in front of her and Liam looked up at her, she was slightly taller than him which made her feel even more embarrassed in front of him. "Do you want to come to the party tonight? We're hosting it at the fox and deer, just round the corner." Anabelle asked in a quiet voice; she could feel her face getting red. "I dunno like" Liam replied in his Geordie accent, he had moved here from Newcastle a few years ago. "I'm organizing. Plus, everyone's going, do you really want to be the dork who sat at home?" Brooke teased. Liam began to smirk "Alright I'll come" he said. 

The four met up once again in the prep area, they stood talking about the party plans. "How come you're wanting a party Christmas eve anyway?" Charlie asked. "I just do. I've got everyone coming too, another easy day's work from moi" Brooke gloated while looking at her red nails. Two other girls they worked with passed by Autumn chamber and May Springett. Brooke hated these two with passion and used every chance she got to make sure it was known. "Can't wait to see you tonight girls, remember though, dress code isn't living room slobs" she said while smirking. The girls looked back at her glaring while Brooke just stood there with her arms crossed, like she was on top of the world. Even though the two hated her, you would be stupid to turn down an invitation from Brooke, in fact you simply couldn't, it was an unspoken rule. 

It was time for everyone to head home but Brooke and Anabelle held back a second. "I've got a little riddle for you, figure it out when we reopen after Christmas" Anabelle was confused, Brooke always did stuff like this and it was always so charming, like a type of allure. "I have a secret, but it's protected by diamonds" Brooke said with a smile on her face. Anabelle lowered her eyebrows, this had to be the most bizarre thing she had ever said. She didn't question it, everyone parted ways to go get ready for the party.

Another success for Brooke.