•••Chapter 7••• Gwen and Ally

5 0 0
                                    

I may have complained the whole drive there, because I was bored and wanted Vivian to be sitting next to me.

I get a lot of stares from others as we as we are walking in from the parking lot. I look over at a girl who looks to be around my age.

Her hair was in a braid, and she was wearing a light blue shirt and there were some rips in her jeans. She quickly looked away when she met my gaze.

We continue making our way to the front of the mall, but I keep my head down, avoiding the eyes of others. My mother was all smiles, but looked sad today.

We enter the first store, and I see racks of clothes everywhere. I turn to Ally and Lucy, seeing that her mouths are wide open, taking everything in.

My mother said to them, trying to act happy, "What would you girls like to get? And before you ask, I am completely sure. Now, go find something nice."

It was so overwhelming, staring at all of the clothes. And her mother had said that I could get anything. Lucy comes up to me and whispers, "Make sure to get something that isn't too expensive. We don't want to spend all of their money."

I nod my head, understanding. Lucy begins to walk throughout the store, so I do, too. The first thing that catches my eye is a beautiful dress. It was a light blue color, with a butterfly stitched onto it.

I am about to take it off of the rack when I remember to check the price. I find the tag, and quickly flip it over.

I stumble back in surprise. 278 dollars??!!! I walk away quickly to see Lucy with a really cute dress in her arms.

I look around the store, and see a lot of people clutching shoes. Oh! And there was the shoe section! I skip over there, careful to not step on anything.

I make it there and this really cute pair of shoes catches my eye. It was probably going to cost a lot, but I just had to see them.

I walk over to the pair, do the same thing that I did with the dress, but don't stumble backward in surprise. I stumble forward in surprise! 57 dollars!

I carefully bring the shoe box over to the awaiting parents of Gwen and Vivian. I show them the shoes and she takes them from me. Gwen's father was still reading the paper and Gwen's mother says to me, "Go find a dress, too dear." I open my mouth, but before I can speak, she says, "I am sure, dear."

I have a terrorizing thought that she can read my thoughts, but quickly push it away and go to find the perfect dress.

And there it was. The perfect dress. It was a teal color, with black sparkles all over. I look at the price, and it was 48 dollars! I realize that the price of the shoes is bigger than the price of the dress!

I hand the dress over to Gwen's father, since her mother was looking at the dress Lucy had. Gwen's father says to me, "The dress you have picked is beautiful. Would you like to check out?"

I reply, still looking at the dress Lucy picked, "Sure." I was beginning to wonder where Gwen went, but right as I am about to ask, Gwen comes running up to me.

She says, "I was in the restroom. What did I miss?" She catches sight of my dress and looks back to me. She looks down at her dress and mutters, "Beautiful, Ally."

When she looks up, she has tears in her eyes. "I've never worn this dress before, Ally. I hated it. Vivian always tried to get me to wear it, but I never did wear it. Now I wish that I did. But I don't know if I would have liked it." she says, looking away.

"It's okay, Gwen." I say, resting a hand on her shoulder. During our conversation, I guess her parents had been checking out the items, and it was time to go.

My father says to all of us, "We need to stop at the newspaper stand, I need to get the paper today." I look up to see him frowning. "I forgot that we weren't home to get it."

I nod, but don't look down again. I turn my head to the right to see people whispering about me and others staring at the newspaper, then looking up at me.

Before I know it, we are at the paper stand. The cashier stares at me, open-mouthed. He says, "Are you Vivian, the one who was in the horseback riding tournament?"

I look at my mother uneasily. She nods. "No..." I say and think about why he annunciated was. I don't think anyone knows about her falling off of the horse. "I am her sister, Gwen."

"Nice to meet you." he says quietly and puts his hand out for me to shake. With his other hand, he takes the money from my father's hand and hands him the newspaper. I look at my father and see shock register onto his upset face.

"Who. Advertised. This." he says slowly. The cashier looks at him, tightening the grip on my hand. My father holds up the paper, pointing a shaking finger at the very front page. "Who advertised this?!" he shouted.

"I-I d-don't know, sir." the cashier says quietly. He loosened the grip and leaves my hand alone, which I had thought I would lose the circulation of.

"Cool it!" my mother says, putting a gentle hand on his arms, trying to stop his quivering hands.

He takes a few deep breaths and looks at me. I give him a questioning look. He turns the newspaper so that I can see it.

There, right on the cover, was a picture of Vivian. The picture was black and white. The title says, 'Is Vivian still able to play in the Horseback Tournament?'

I don't take the time to read everything, I just flip the next page slowly. It was the same, but different. There was a picture, about Vivian's accident. But instead, the caption read, 'If Vivian is unable to play, will her sister take her place?'

There was a picture of me riding my horse at the top of the page. I begin to feel dizzy, so I walk over to a bench and close my eyes.

Turning Things AroundWhere stories live. Discover now