Z-O-M-B-I-E-S

Chapter 8

          I wanted to stand out at homecoming. Everyone would be wearing pastels, and black and white. It was just so plain. Where would the fun be in choosing an outfit if everyone else wore almost the same thing as you? None of the shops in Seabrook sold anything other than those colors, so after school one day, my mom drove me to a nearby town. She was almost as excited as me to look at all the dress options. "What's the dress code at school, again?" she asked me.

          "Umm, I think I'm good as long as my bra doesn't show. After all, we're all for cheer. Most of us wear short skirts anyway, and when we do tricks, our midriffs show." I shrugged, not knowing what else to say.

          She pulled into the parking lot of a boutique. "I looked some places up, and this one has amazing reviews." We got out of the car, and she dragged me into Dana's Dresses. "Okay, just grab every dress you like and then you can try them all on an narrow them down."

Now normally this would be the wrong thing to say to your teenage daughter, because she'd go over the top and grab everything. She'd try on every single dress and use up a bunch of time. That is exactly what I did, but it wasn't an issue, because my mom was more excited about homecoming than I was. I didn't want to wear any type of pink or blue or green. That meant I'd ruled out my favorite colors, but this was my chance to make another statement. Red looks amazing on everyone though, right? 

My mom was one aisle down, so I peaked over the rack and told her, "Try to find something red with no straps or sleeves".

"I like how you think" She gave me a devilish grin and started giggling like a schoolgirl. Actually, she sounded a lot like me. Well, I guess I was almost a photocopy of her younger self. 

I wasn't even sure of what fit I wanted. Fit and flare? Mermaid? What material? How much sparkle? My appearance at the dance with Zed was going to be a jaw dropping moment. That meant the dress needed to be jaw dropping too. I didn't want Zed to see the dress until homecoming day, but it wouldn't hurt to see if he had a preference. I called him and after a few rings, he picked up. "Hey Y/N. What's so important that you had to call me instead of text?" he joked. 

"I'm looking for a dress right now. Should it be long or short?" I was half way through the first rack.

"It doesn't matter. You'll look beautiful wearing anything."

"Thanks , but you're not helping. There's just so much to choose from, so I was hoping you could narrow it down."

He sighed loudly. "All this pressure!" Zed was being dramatic just to mock me. "Well what color are you going for?"

"Red. Actual straight up red."

"Keep it simple. Don't let too many sequins or anything near the top distract from your eyes. Your eyes are gorgeous."

My mind immediately went to the whole 'crying in the club' meme. In my case, it was 'crying in a dress shop', but it was close enough. "Aww, you're the sweetest"

"I'm not trying to be. I was just giving helpful input. Oh, and I'll be sure to find a matching tie." 

"Is that your girlfriiiiieeeeend?" Damn, that girl was loud. I could hear Zoey teasing Zed, but I was sure she was on the opposite side of the room from him. Addison popped trough the shop door as Zoey finished her question, and I ushered her over and pointed at my phone. She stood right next to me and leaned so our faces were touching in order to hear the conversation. 

"Shh Zoey. There's no need to scream. I'm right here." 

"Oopsie, sorry. I just want to know if that's your girlfriend, Y/N" Addy covered her hand with her mouth.

"Y/N, just give me a minute." I could still hear the two of them speaking, but their voices were muffled, which meant Zed was covering the speaker. Addison and I strained to hear what they were saying. We could hear some words hear and there, but didn't make sense of it until we heard "... Embarrass me... stop... not... girlf-...yet" Addy and I looked over at each other giddily and restrained our squeals. About half a minute passed by before Zed spoke directly to me again. "I'm sorry about that. Okay, back to your dress. Choose something you're comfortable in, and it'll be great, okay?"

"Alrighty, I'll text you later. Addy finally arrived. Byeeee!" I hung up and let out my contained squeal. 

"Do you think he'll ask you out at homecoming?"

"I don't know. Maybe, but let's just worry about our dresses first."

"You might not know it, but I know it," she winked as she sauntered over to a different rack to search for her own dress. Addy may not have been plastic like the rest of the town, but she still preferred all the pastels and simplicity. It only took her about ten minutes to pick out a sky blue dress that looked like one that was already in her closet. The only difference was that this one had a thin pearl band around the waist.

I took a whole extra hour. My mom and Addison didn't mind though. Of course, they both love shopping. That's a given. Most people only like to shop for themselves, but those two like shopping even for other people, which meant I could be as picky as I wanted without feeling overbearing and whiny.

Eventually, I found a dress that I loved... Well, I loved a lot of the dresses, so I guess I'll rephrase that. I found the dress that I loved more than the rest. That meant, it was time to move on to shoes and accessories. That only took fifteen minutes for Addy and I. After finding the dresses, we knew how we wanted to add on to the look, so finding what else to buy was easy. 

When I got home, I carefully hung up the dress inside its bag in my closet and put everything else in the last empty bin at the bottom. I needed to finish my homework, but I was distracted by all the homecoming possibilities such as how good Zed would look in a suit. Luckily, I only had a little work left. If I'd had anymore than that, I never would've finished.