The Echoes of Rivalry & Ruin (The Acamancy Series I)

Chapter 10: The Academy Shops

The drive is short. Campus is large, but we met as close to the roads as we could. These stretches of road are more like an extended parking lot than an actual stretch of road. The area directly surrounding Acamancy is very small. The freeway pulls you past it in a blink of an eye, if you don't know where to look you will dismiss it as just a river and some trees. The school is built to be slightly hidden in that way. The only things around the school are the few professor homes, and "The Shops" as everyone calls them. It's a small family restaurant that is owned by the sister of one of the professors, a clothing shop that makes our uniforms, as well as some casual and formal society clothing. There's also a bookstore, tiny movie theater, and the shop that supplies the campus stores with toiletries, linens, bedding, and all other essentials.

We head straight over to the clothing shop and start trying things on. There are only two dressing room stalls, and only two mirrors, that are on the outside of the dressing room doors. So, we decided to go in twos. Callie and Bee volunteer to go first. It's no surprise when Callie walks into the dressing room with arms full of dresses all in different shades of yellow. She tries on short and fluffy cupcake styles, tight and floor length dresses of satin, and even a large ball gown that makes her look like a princess with her brown curls and poofy yellow dress. But she settles on a silk high-low style, it is pale yellow in color with some sunshine yellow beading on the belt around her waist.

Bee waddled into the dressing room with over ten dresses, all shades of pinks and purples, and a combination of the two. She tries on dress after dress. Rejecting the hot pink cupcake style, the violet mermaid dress, the bright pink ball gown with layers of purple tulle underneath, and all of the other dresses we missed when we were watching Callie instead. She is taking so long to decide that Mal takes Callie's dressing room over, with a few options in hand. She settles on a burnt orange colored tea length dress with a bit of lace that is showing underneath the length and peeking out of the top of the sweetheart neckline.

As Summer takes Mal's spot in the open room, and Lylah begins browsing for dresses, Bee finally walks out in "a viable option," as she put it. This one is a pale ballet pink color. The top is tulle and wraps all around her chest and waist like a mummy's wraps. It cinches in her petite waist and just above the hips it turns to a silky baby pink floor length skirt. The skirt is covered in pink and purple blossoms and features a slit on one side that goes up to her mid-thigh and shows off the tall, rhinestones, strappy pink heels she put on to go with the dress. The tulle straps fall off of the shoulder, and the dress is held up by the tight corset that keeps her from flashing her chest with the deep V plunge neckline.

"I love it!" Summer squeals as she steps out of the dressing room in a "viable option," of her own.

"You look great Brynn, Summer, that's the one," Lylah says as she rejoins the group with two dresses in hand.

Summer is wearing a dress with a similar cut as Bee. it has a plunge neckline as well, just not as deep. The dress is held on her by thin and strappy spaghetti sleeves. It is a satin floor length gown, with a slit up the thigh just like Brynn's choice. The dress appears to be cream colored in base, but you cannot tell for sure because the entire dress is covered in golden glitter. It is almost blinding under the store lights, but nothing can dull the natural light that radiates from Summer. Lylah is right, it is perfect on her.

I miss Summer and Bee's final decision, while I go and browse the racks with Winona, but I am pretty sure I know that they both have decided. When I come back, with a few options in my arms, I see that Lylah is standing in a black dress, pretty similar to the one Summer had on. It has the same slit up the side but only goes up to the knee. It has the same v plunge neckline but is covered in a very thin layer of transparent material that covers her chest and goes all the way up into a high neckline, and all the way down her arms into nearly transparent long sleeves. The illusion neckline, and long sleeves would be invisible if it wasn't for the shadow casted over her warm skin, the dark colored thick material at the top of the neck, and around her wrists, and for the fact that this dress, like the one Summer wore, is completely covered in glitter. The glitter on the black gown that Lylah has on, shines purple, green, or blue depending on the light and the angle. And the deep plunging back of this dress is perfect on her slight frame.