Transitions

Ugh, You Again

          "Hey kiddo how was dance practice today?" Ashton asked the second he saw Mackenzie.

"It was good, I learned a lot. I'm really excited for the competition. However, I have a question. Riley and I want to go shopping for clothes for Australia since the seasons are different, we aren't really prepared, and the shops here at Mohegan don't really benefit us. I was wondering if we could go to the outlets at the other casino that's about 20 minutes away. I think there is a city bus or a shuttle that goes over there."

Ashton looked at Michael for approval, "I would rather you two have supervision as well as reliable transportation, so I don't mind you going, but I'm going to have Michael go with you girls."

My sister and I groaned in disagreement but it was fair since casinos are big and full of different people, "Alright fine. I guess that is fair. Can we go now? Please, please!"

Michael stood up and laughed. He grabbed his coat from the back of his chair, sticking his long arms into it and pulling it on. I felt my heart skip a beat, and honestly, I have no idea where these feelings are coming from. My sister and I linked arms with Michael and walked out of the room pulling him in the direction of the elevator. We had to stop in the lobby to call a cab first. Luckily there were a few lined up in front of the doors. Michael led us outside and hailed one of the cabs.

"Hello sir, could you please take us to the Foxwoods Outlets?" I asked the driver.

He nodded as we climbed in the backseat and buckled our seatbelts. He drove off down 2A towards Foxwoods. The 20 minute drive flew by as we talked about our new life that was to come. Once we pulled up in front of the outlets, Michael paid the driver and we got out of the cab. My sister and I lead the way into the outlet mall. One of the first stores we stepped foot in was Rue 21. I poked around the lines upon lines of clothes in the store. I made my way back to the clearance rack in hopes of finding a few pairs of shorts. Digging through the racks I was able to find 5 pairs of shorts in my size. I grabbed a few different dresses, skirts, and shirts that I thought were cute and ran into the dressing room to try them on. I stood in front of the mirror with the different outfits I pulled from the rack and was ultimately satisfied. I needed to find a cute bathing suit, as well as some stuff for my new room. After deciding which clothes I wanted to purchase, I put my regular clothes back on and went back out to the main sales floor. I wandered over to where the swim suits were. I looked through the ones hanging up and decided there were not any that I liked. I picked out a few pairs of underwear and a few bras as I knew I needed some newer ones. I lugged the arm load of clothes and items I wanted over to the register where Michael was standing looking at the cologne. I nudged him to signal him I was ready to go.

"Hi love, you ready to go?" he asked, smiling at me sweetly.

"Yea, I just need to pay for these. Do you want any candy or anything? I'll buy." I said, while grabbing a box of their newest perfume, Neon Summer and adding it to my order.

"No, I'm good. Let me pay. You deserve the royal treatment for once."

I stepped aside so Michael could pay since he wouldn't allow me to. I watched as the cashier rang up every item of clothing, and the perfume. Eyeballing the card machine that showed the total, it was almost $70 by the time she finished. The girl bagged up everything and handed it to Michael. Either she did something, or Michael paid already when I wasn't paying attention. She signaled me to come closer, as if she had something to say. I stepped up to the counter and she leaned in and whispered in my ear.

"I know who he is, and I know what your situation is. I applied as many discounts as I could. You're so lucky. I'm covering the rest out of my pocket."

I thanked her and looked at Michael signaling him to go back into the main concourse.

"Why did you do that? You didn't have to." I asked.

"Eh, don't worry about it kid. You guys have a lot of change ahead of you."

I smiled at the girl, and walked outside to meet Michael and my sister. Mackenzie wanted to go into a few other stores so we wandered through the shops and watched all the different people go by. I skidded to a stop in front of the frozen yogurt shop that was inside Barnes and Noble.

"Who wants frozen yogurt!? My treat. Michael, shut up."

We ran inside the frozen yogurt shop and grabbed the biggest cup they had. I walked over to the machines and looked at all the flavors they had. The first two were strawberry banana and birthday cake. I absolutely had to have those. Walking down the line more, I ended up with vanilla, chocolate, coconut and pink lemonade in my bowl. As I made my way over to the lane with the toppings, I heard my sister whispering to Michael. Brushing it off, I started adding toppings to my bowl. I squealed in delight when I saw they had the fruit bubbles that you find in bubble tea. They burst with flavor when you bite into them. I scooped a large amount of each flavor into my bowl. After adding some brownie bites, gummy worms and other delicious creations, I let the warm chocolate sauce and raspberry sauce cover my bowl. Stepping up to the counter I waited for my sister and Michael to place their bowls on the scale with mine. Once all the bowls were on the scale, it weighed out to be about 20 ounces between all 3 bowls. The cashier told me the total and I handed her a 10 dollar bill and asked her to keep the change. We made our way over to the table and sat down enjoying our frozen treat. After eating, we decided to go through a few more stores before calling a cab to go back to our casino. Not really paying attention to the direction I was going in, I bumped into someone and landing on the ground.

"Ugh. It's you again. Why don't you go back to your little shelter where you came from, and do us all a favor and drop dead," a squeaky snobby voice yelled.