First thing they did was go to IHOP for brunch. They got sat to a booth table, Shirley and Annie sat on one side while Britta and Rose sat on the other. The server walked to their table.
"Hello my name is Wyatt and I'll be taking care of you today. Can I get you started with drinks?"
"Coffee for me," Annie said.
"Water please," Shirley said.
"Coffee," Britta said.
Rose pointed to Britta.
"You want coffee?" Wyatt asked.
She nodded. Wyatt took down the drink orders and left.
"You ordered coffee Rose? I didn't know you were a coffee girl, I expected you to be a tea girl," Annie said.
Rose wrote on her board: "I just want to try it, I want to be more grown up."
"Ah...well, you're in college and a legal adult, you can say that you are an adult."
They got their drinks. Rose sipped the cup of plain black coffee.
"Ehh," she made a disgusted face.
They laughed.
"Try some cream or sugar, it'll sweeten it up," Britta said.
Rose put a packet of cream in the cup and stirred it. She tasted it, no. She put another packet in, not really. Another packet, she tried it, smiled and nodded.
"Just right, see, I knew the sweeter coffee would appeal to you."
They ordered their pancakes, Rose ended up getting her usual chocolate chip pancakes.
After eating, they were at the mall, in a clothing store. They went to the women's section, they saw dresses and started to try them on. Turn It On Again by Genesis came on the background music as they were in the fitting room.
"Whoever is controlling the music has great taste," Britta said.
"I think they have it on a mix," Annie replied.
"This dress looked much better on the rack," Shirley said.
"These dresses are all ugly...like clothes my grandma would wear."
"I saw some beautiful dresses, they're not all ugly."
Shirley started singing along to the song.
"I can show you, I can show you, some of the people in my life."
Rose let out a hum then a giggle.
"You like my singing?"
She nodded. Rose's last dress she tried on was a long green dress. Britta gasped.
"Oh Rosie...this is it, this is the dress, it looks beautiful on you, it brings out your eyes."
Rose looked in the mirror.
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"It's very rare for a redhead to have green eyes," Annie said.
"That is gorgeous," Shirley said.
"What she thinks of it is what matters, what do you think?" Britta asked.
Rose wrote on her board: "It makes me feel beautiful."
"You're beautiful with or without that dress. This is your dress, this is the dress for you."
They left with their dresses.
They walked in the apartment to find Shayne watching TV.
"We're back!" Shirley said in sing-song.
"She's got a beautiful dress but she wants to surprise you on the day of the dance," Britta said.
Shayne noticed her niece being kinda jittery.
"Sweetheart are you ok?"
Rose nodded. At that moment, Vanilla started jumping on her, they both got the zoomies.
"What did she eat and drink today?" She asked them sternly.
"She had a plate of chocolate chip pancakes," Britta said.
"Her usual. What else?"
"I guess what I'm about to reveal will explain why she's got the zoomies with her dog. She tried coffee for the first time."
"Coffee, you let her have coffee!?"
"It's what she wanted, she wrote that she wanted to feel more grown up."
"How many did she have?"
"Two...and a half."
"Are you serious, one would've gotten her winded! What gave her the idea of drinking coffee!?"
"It was all her Shayne," Annie said.
"I bet it was Craig!"
"How? He doesn't need coffee to be hyper! Look Shayne, she wanted coffee to drink at IHOP today, if she wanted sweet tea, she would've got it!"
Rose sat on the couch breathing heavily before Vanilla jumped up next to her.
"Get down, Vanilla, get down!"
The dog got down. Rose hummed in disappointment.
"I'm sorry, she's not allowed on the furniture! Rose, don't you ever, ever, drink coffee again, do you hear me!?"
Rose didn't respond but tears were welling up.
"I'm sorry but you're not grown up, you're 18 but you won't be grown anytime soon! If your Uncle Craig would've got you, he would've let you do what ever the Hell you wanted! Autism or not, you need structure, you need discipline! If your mother were still alive, you would've been taken by social services anyway because you'd be stinking up your school! You should be lucky I'm taking care of you!"
Rose walked to her to hug her in tears.
"Shayne, you didn't have to yell at her like that," Britta said calmly.
"She needed to hear it Britta, I get why she ordered coffee, she was curious but I know what caffeine does to her, I never let her have soda unless it was caffeine free."
"There's decaf coffee, when she tried it black, she didn't like it but when she put some cream in it, she loved it so much she wanted some more. She likes the taste more than the feeling of the jitters," Shirley said.
"Ok...if I see Folgers decaf, I'll get it for her. I like the taste more since I'm retired so what the Hell."
"She'll be a coffee girl in no time," Britta said.
They laughed. Rose walked to her aunt and hugged her.
"Aww, hon, listen, I'll let you have coffee as long as it's decaf ok."
She nodded.
"Alright. Would like to say something to your girlfriends?"
