If Normal Was a Thing

Dresses Shopping

I woke the next morning with a smile on my face. A quick shower and I was dressed and ready to go in a teal tanktop, with a grey cardigan that nearly touched the floor, and some light blue jeans. Oakley was still asleep, but mom was in the living room reading the paper.

"Where's dad?" I asked, pulling down a bowl from the cupboard and filling it up with fruity pebbles.

Mom smiled at me, "He's over seeing some business, he'll be back in a few days, and then we have some sort of party to attend. It's formal so I think you and Oakley should go out in search of dresses today?"

I looked at her while grabbing the milk out of the fridge, "Formal?" I let the refrigerator door fall shut, and filled up my bowl before returning it to the fridge.

Mom nodded and sat back, "Yeah, it's in, oh, let me see.. three days?"

I sat down at the table and took a bite of my food, chewing slowly before replying, "Sure, I'll wait until she wakes up on her own before telling her, and then we can go see what we can find," I took another bite.

She gave a nod of acknowledgement, and turned back to her paper, sipping her tea happily. I focused on my breakfast, and as I was rinsing out my bowl to set it in the dishwasher, Oakley came down with her hair curly from the braid, and dressed in a cute skirt with a tanktop and some strappy sandals.

She made her way into the kitchen and got a bowl of coco pebbles, smiling at her mom as she sat down.

I informed her of the formal dance party thing in a few days, and that today we were to find some nice dresses to attend. Oakley looked happy at the idea.

"Wait, we've been here like two days, how are we already invited to some fancy-smancy party?" she said, waving her spoon around before dipping it back into her bowl and taking a big bite of cereal. She looked to her mother for the answer.

"It's just some people your father and I used to attend school with," she smiled and laughed, "A sort-of ruinion."

She flipped the page of the paper, winking at us over the top of it. This wasn't actually something that was a weird occurrence. Oakley and I had just never really been invited to one of the parties, or well, I hadn't. Oakley had attended a few, but always complained to me that they were dreadfully boring.

I wasn't sure if it was for my benefit, or because it was actually true. Either way I never really asked her about them, other than what she wore and what they served as food. She always showed me what she wore, and reassured me that the food, while it was heavenly, was by far the most interesting thing at the party. And after the first party, she always made sure to bring me back some kind of dessert.

One time I actually tried to save the dessert for a bad day, pick-me-up, but my sister, Marie, had found it and got into it. I never did bring any desserts home after that.

I finished putting my stuff in the dishwasher and walked into the living room, letting my mind settle on Marie, who had gotten the short end of the stick in the whole ordeal. She had not only lost her mother, but also her father. Dad went to jail, and her mom went to a mental institution, as she was deemed unfit for jail. If she was ever released from the mental institution, then she was to have ten years of jail time, not minusing any time she spent in the institution.

Marie had been put into foster care, a ward of the state. We didn't have any family, and Marie didn't have an Oakley on her side. Oakley's family's adoption of me had been really quick. I didn't actually go to any of the court dates, and neither did Maire. I was left out of all of it, and spared the fate of traveling from home to home, with uncertainties of how long I'd be staying.