Stay Courageous

Chapter 4

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Kat's POV
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"No no no no no no! Are you serious!" I shrieked. I shoved Stella out of the way and slammed the dressing room door, ripping the ruined dress off my body. My parents were going to kill me! Once I had my normal cloths back on, I picked up the dress again to examine the damage. Yep. It was completely ruined. There was a rip that went the way up the back. I took my phone out of my bag and held it nervously in my hand. I had to call my parents and tell them.

One ring, two rings, and on the third ring "Hello? Katherine?"

"Mom..."
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Stella's POV
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Oh my gosh, I feel really bad. I can hear Kat in the next dressing room calling her mom about the dress. I don't have enough money, Zoe doesn't have enough money, and the store won't let us leave until we pay for it. Our only hope is Kat's credit card that they only let her use for emergencies. This is not good.

I peeled off the dress that I was wearing and got back into my comfy black pants and favorite grey tank top. For a moment I panicked because I didn't remember where I laid my glasses down but they were just there in my purse, thank God. I heard Zoe and Kat come out of their dressing rooms so I did the same.

"Well, what'd your mama say?" Zoe asked Kat as we hung our dresses back on the racks. The sales lady was eyeing us carefully the whole time.

"She said to just use her credit card. Apparently I shouldn't be forcing on $1,000 dresses that don't fit and 'we'll have to talk about this when I get home'" Kat made air quotes and rolled her eyes. We  shuffled our feet on our way to the check out counter and Kat timidly pulled out her wallet. She reluctantly handed her credit card to the grinning sales lady who slipped the white dress into one of those plastic dress covers. Kat returned the card to her wallet and we began to strut out of the store to get away from that creepy lady as soon as possible.

"Thank you for shopping at Windsor! Ypu girls have a nice day," we heard her say cheerily to our backs. What have I done I thought. I knew Kat was going to be furious at me.

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Zoe's POV

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The three of us haven't been able to hang out much since Thursday's incident. Kat was grounded this weekend and frankly, Stella wasn't in much of a mood to do anything. Kat's parents warned her to be more responsible. I don't know why they're so hard on her. It was an honest mistake. But that doesn't even begin to compare to how hard Stella is on herself. She's convinced that Kat's being grounded is all her fault. I try to tell her it was no one's fault, that it was a complete accident, but she won't listen. And because Kat got her phone taken away and hasn't been able to text me or  Stella, Stella's convinced that come Monday, Kat will be furious with her.

At least my plan worked in some regard: Stella's completely distracted from her little California problem. That Sunday I was chilling out in my room, pondering my success, when I got a text from my friend Emily.

Emily: Hey. Wanna hang out today?

Zoe: Sure. Meet you at the mall in half an hour?

Emily: Sure. Sounds groovy. Needed to go to Hot Topic anyway. :)

Zoe:  Lol

That's Emily for you. "Sounds groovy." Ha. If I'm a little quirky, Emily is all out strange. But that's why I love her! Emily doesn't go to Sandhills Highschool with Stella, Kat and I. She goes to some fancy smart person school called the Academy for the Arts and Sciences. She's basically a genius. Anyway, it's nice to have a friend away from school in case of situations like this.