Emma: Seventh Grade

Chapter 11: Sleepover

"Mom! Hurry up! I'm gonna be late!" Emma yelled. She was anxiously pacing back and forth in the entry way, with her Victoria's Secret bag slung over her shoulder, stuffed with all the essentials for a sleepover. She was wearing her favorite skinny jeans and a long sleeved navy blue top, which was low-cut in the front and lacy in the back.

In spite of their argument yesterday, Emma and Lizzie had made up last night and were still planning on going shopping together and sleeping over at Lizzie's house. Lizzie had called and apologized for acting out toward Emma because of her bad grades; she repeatedly blamed her ADHD for her hotheadedness and promised she would control herself better from now on. Emma forgave her, and offered to help her with her homework from now on if she needed it.

Emma also told Lizzie about getting paired up with Kendra and Alyssa for the group project in history class, and how they pulled down her pants and exposed the naked lower half of her body to the entire school. However, Emma deliberately left out the part when she cut herself. She wanted no one to find out about it, not even Lizzie. Hence why she was wearing long sleeves.

Even though she had washed and bandaged her forearms, Emma's self-inflicted cuts still hurt. She gently rubbed them with her hands to try and ease the pain while she waited for her mom to drive her to the mall to meet Lizzie.

"I'm coming, I'm coming!" Emma's mom cried as she appeared from upstairs. She grabbed her purse and keys, slipped on her shoes, and followed Emma to the car. Her hair looked disheveled like she had just woken up, and she was wearing an old T-shirt and her pajama pants.

"Were you at the bars with Craig again last night?" Emma questioned as she hopped in the front seat, throwing her bag on the floor. Her mom had never slept in this late before she met her new boyfriend. Now it seemed that every weekend, she and Craig were always at the bars until the wee hours of the morning.

"Yes, Emma, we were at the bars," her mom admitted as she started the car. "Not that it matters to you. Parents need time to relax too." Her voice had an annoyed tone to it.

"I know," Emma snapped, crossing her arms defensively. "I was just asking." She stared out the passenger window and watched the buildings and trees fly by as her mom drove, trying to ignore the awkward silence. Every day that passed, Emma felt like she and her mom had less in common. They were always fighting and almost never had a normal conversation about life in general.

As soon as the car pulled up in front of the mall, Emma said a quick goodbye to her mom, grabbed her bag, and hopped out of the car. With her bag slung over her shoulder, she entered the mall and found Lizzie sitting on a bench waiting for her. 

"Heyyyy!" Lizzie cried excitedly as she got up from the bench and greeted Emma with a hug. "How are you?" She had her plain green purse slung over her shoulder, and she was wearing a black and tan sweater dress with black leggings.

"I'm good," Emma replied, disregarding all the drama that had happened yesterday. She hoped that Lizzie would stay in a good mood today; the last thing she wanted was another argument with her friend. "How are you?"

"Good," Lizzie replied as she and Emma started walking the mall. "So my dad is gonna be gone tonight on a date, so we'll have the whole house to ourselves. I was thinking that we order Chinese for supper and then try out this new nail kit I got. What do you think?" "That sounds fun," replied Emma. "Wanna go into Rue 21?" she asked, pointing. Lizzie agreed, and the girls entered the store and started browsing the clothes racks. Emma loved Rue 21 because they always had such cute, sexy clothes. If money wasn't an obstacle, she would immediately buy all the clothes in that store in a heartbeat.

Emma and Lizzie picked out and tried on lots of clothes in the fitting rooms and showed them to each other to get the other's opinion. It was sometimes a challenge for Emma to find clothes that fit her; many things were too big and baggy on her because she was so thin. Most of her pants kept falling down during the course of the day, so Emma was constantly hiking them up. Her mom had offered to buy her kid's clothes once, but Emma instantly refused. She felt too grown up to do that, and she wanted to wear what everyone else her age was wearing.