How It All Seems

"It might be fun."

When Mallory got home from school, she jumped into the shower so she could begin getting ready to go to the fall festival with Carter and Tilly. When she stepped out of her shower she pulled a warm, white towel around her and ran to her room to find an outfit. Since it was September, and fall was quickly approaching, it was actually starting to get cooler outside. So, Mallory decided to dress in warmer clothes. She walked into her closet and grabbed a thick pair of black leggings, a white tank top, a cream colored oversized sweater, matching boot socks, and a pair of long, brown boots.

After she got dressed, she grabbed her phone and played her music while she went back into the bathroom to do her makeup and figure out what she wanted to do with her hair. She looked in the mirror at her dark brown locks of hair and brushed through the endless amount of tangles that there seemed to be. She plugged in the hair dryer and blew her hair out until it was manageable. She pulled it up into a ponytail and wrapped it into a bun on top of her head, then she combed through her bangs laying across her forehead and pulled some other wisps of hair out of the bun to help frame her face.

When she was done with that she dusted a few shades of brown eyeshadow on her eyelids and brushed some mascara over her eyelashes. Lastly, she grabbed a reddish-orange lipstick and applied it to her lips. Puckering at her reflection in the mirror, she decided that was all she wanted to do with her makeup.

The living room was cool in temperature. Mallory sat down on the long, black, leather couch for a second and looked around. She saw family pictures from when she was a child and just after Jamie was born. There were wall art pieces that her mother had chosen at the Home Goods store when they moved into the house when Mallory had turned 8-years old. There was a TV on the opposite end of the room with surround sound speakers on either side of it. In the center of the room, there sat a small, black metal and glass coffee table on top of a fluffy, white rug.

Mallory couldn't help but remember all of the movie nights her and her family had every weekend in that room. They planned on watching "The Iron Giant" this weekend, since Jamie's birthday was coming up so soon and that was his favorite movie. She smiled as she thought of all the candy he'd want. She could just picture him chomping down on gummy worms as his eyes were fixated on the television screen.

A knock at her door disrupted her thoughts and she walked over to answer it. She opened the door to Carter and Tilly on the other side.

"Hey." She greeted in a high-pitched friendly voice. She cleared her throat. "Sorry I got distracted. I just have to do a few things before we leave." Mallory said.

"No problem. Actually, do you have any perfume I could barrow, Mal?" Tilly asked. Mallory smiled.

"Of course." She led Tilly to her room and showed her the collection of perfume she had displayed on her dresser. "You can use any of these. But be careful; any of the ones in the front are extremely potent." She warned.

"Oh my gosh. Thank you, Mallory. I just forgot about it until Carter said something about my scent like the charming guy that he is." Tilly rolled her eyes and smiled as she thought of her boyfriend.

"How sweet." Mallory deadpanned and she laughed as she also picked a perfume to spritz on and then applied some deodorant. They left her room and Mallory grabbed her jacket off the coat rack and an umbrella.

"You ready?" Carter asked. The girls nodded in unison. "Thanks, Mal for the perfume. Tilly smelled weird." Mallory snorted and Carter received a gentle smack to the back of the head.

"No problem." Mallory replied, laughing. "Let's go."

***