It all started five years ago…

The school year was nearing its end, and my sophomore class was preparing for the beginning of summer. My friends and I were all excited, since our birthdays were all during summer break, which meant the start of summer jobs and not having to rely on our parents for money.

The main part of May's end that no one would stop talking about was the Spring Dance. Most everyone had bought their outfits for it, but I hadn't, and neither had my friends. Zoe and Annabelle, my best friends who happened to be cousins, didn't have much interest in the dance. Delia, the eldest of us and our resident fashion expert, was the only one of us who really wanted to go. We were mainly her entourage, and she was she shining star.

Suffice to say, when Delia picked us up in her mother's Jetta, she was the only one wearing a smile. Her chestnut brown hair was piled into a messy bun on her head, and she wore an all white outfit. I sighed inwardly as I prepared myself for a long day at the mall.


"Remind me why we are doing this again?" Annabelle asked, squished into the smallest corner she could find. Her long black ponytail rested over one shoulder, and Zoe sat crouched on the floor next to her, scowling.

I sighed. "Delia didn't give us much of a choice. It's not like we can all conveniently fall sick on the night of the dance."

"True, but I've been asking around school, all the tickets have been sold. So let's just rip ours up. Simple as that." Zoe smirked for the first time that day. With her mop of honey blonde hair and baby blue eyes, she looked like a pixie, or an imp.

Annabelle snorted. "Delia is on the committee, remember? She has our names written down, so even if we got rid of the tickets, she would find another way to get three more."

"Not to mention she won't even give us the tickets until the night of the dance." I grumbled.

At that moment, Delia came running towards us, two bottles of nail polish in her hand. "I found the most absolutely perfect nail polish ever!" She held them out closer for us to look. It was an apricot shade, and had iridescent sparkles dispersed throughout it.

"I don't get it, Delia. Why's this color so special?" I asked.

"Ugh, you all have no fashion sense! It's perfect for spring and summer! I could make so many outfits to match this nail polish and I don't even have to buy anything! Mango Mermaid is the perfect polish."

"Mango Mermaid?" Zoe quipped, rising up from her crouched position and stretching.

"Well, I'll admit the name is kind of stupid, but I'm not buying it for the name. Anyways, we need to get going if we want to find outfits for the dance!" Delia turned back towards the registers, and I sighed.

"I think she meant if she wants to find an outfit for the dance." Zoe practically growled.

"Let's just get this over with." Annabelle said.


"You guys know what I love about the mall?"

The four of us were walking past a bunch of kiosks, Delia with her head held high and the rest of us trailing behind her. None of us graced her with a response to her question. When Delia realized this, she let out a loud breathy sigh, and continued on.

"Well, I love the possibilities that the mall has. Like when I found that Mango Mermaid nail polish. Oooh, or these earrings!"

Delia lifted up a pair of blue topaz earrings and tried them on. The dark blue went well with her all white number, but knowing Delia, she'd probably pair them off with a baby blue combo.

"But Delia", I started, "I thought your favorite gem was peridot. That's blue topaz."

"I never said I had to limit myself to one gem, Bay. You're allowed to have more than one favorite. Besides, these aren't blue topaz, they're-"

"Lapis lazuli." My heart stopped, and I turned around to see my crush, Kane Lawson standing behind me.

"K-kane! H-hi." I mumbled.

"Hi. You're Hayley from geometry, right?" His blue-green eyes seemed to sparkle, and I found myself lost in him. He was the God of Eye Candy. When he moved to our town last year, he somehow shot up to the top of the popularity chain like it was nothing.

I'd almost forgotten he'd asked me a question, and I pushed a strand of not blonde, not brown hair out of my eyes. "B-bailey. World history. H-hi."

"Fancy meeting you here Kane. How did you know about these earrings?" Delia flashed him a smile, tossing the saleswoman at the kiosk a five as well as the earrings.

He smiled, and shook his sandy blonde hair out of his face. "I work at my mother's jewelry store on the weekends. She's got a lot of lapis works on display."

Delia and Kane chatted some more, and I shrank back towards Annabelle and Zoe. I envied Delia's ability to conversate with the male sex and not trip on her words every five seconds.

"Come on, guys." I turned away from them, beckoning towards A-belle and Zoe. "Let's go find something we want."

For the first time that day, the two of them smiled.


"Hey, Bailey?"

I turned towards Annabelle, who had a questioning look on her face. "Yeah?"

"Why didn't you ask Kane to the dance?"

I snorted. "Why didn't I ask Kane to the dance that I don't even want to go to? I'd have to get over my annoying inability to form coherent sentences around him before I'd even think of asking him on a date."

"I know, but he's going to the dance and he doesn't have a date."

I sighed. "I know A-Belle. But I'm not going. Even if I did ask Kane to the dance, I doubt I'd have any actual fun." If I was honest with myself, my reasons for liking Kane were mostly superficial. I didn't know anything special about him until the moment he'd identified the earrings Delia had picked up.

"You think it's because you only like him for his looks?" Annabelle's question was piercing. She could always read me so well.

"I guess. I just wish that- Oof!"

I'd bumped into a kiosk, gotten a drawer handle stuck in my belt loop, and toppled to the floor with the grace of a ballerina with her ankles tied together. A bunch of accessories now rested on my barely-there chest, as well as jewelry adorning my now tangled hair.

"Oww." I whined as I picked earrings and bracelets out of my hair.

"You okay, Bailey?" Zoe asked. "I mean, I know you're clumsy and everything, but didn't you learn to walk when you were, like, one?"

I glared at Zoe, and reluctantly took the helping hand she'd offered. I placed all of the jewelry back into their drawer, and as I slid the drawer back into place, something on the ground caught my eyes. I snatched it up, and the rest of the world was wiped away in a blur. As a sunburst of colors exploded before my eyes, I heard two unearthly voices echoing in my head, one thick and sweet like honey, the other deep and low like dark chocolate.

Sídhe blue. Blood green.

I examined the object in my hands more closely. Temporary tattoos. I didn't know these were even still sold, at least not ones that looked as amazing as these. One was a star, or a sun maybe, with various intertwining wavy lines, the circle of the design a spiral. Another was a set of simple, yet elegant crescent moons. They overlapped, and it made me think of Annabelle's thankfully forgotten glasses she used to wear when she was five. The third looked like a weird butterfly that was missing the bottom halves of its wings. The wings themselves were overlapping over a single straight line. The last tattoo was the strangest. It was a combination triangles, octagons, and dots, and it vaguely resembled a crystal ball.

"You guys, I cannot believe you ditched me! Wait, what the heck are you all staring at? Guys, snap out of it!"

Delia's voice broke me out of my trance, and I gasped, falling forward and grasping the side of the kiosk. When I stood up, I saw that Annabelle and Zoe were looking at me strangely. No, they were looking at the tattoos strangely. Had they been in the same kind of trance I'd been?

Just what the heck was going on?!

"Ah, I see you're all together again."

All four of us jumped, and turned to look towards the kiosk. A woman with painfully bright blue eyes, long dark hair with a blue tint and a serene smile on her face looked back at us. She herself was adorned with many crystal bracelets and necklaces. Her whole outfit screamed I'm a phony psychic, give me all your money!

"Whoa, lady. First of all, you were not there five seconds ago. Second of all, what do you mean 'we're all together again'?" Zoe demanded.

"I simply mean that you're clearly in a group, as this young lady said." The woman gestured to Delia. "Is there anything I can help you with? I see you've taken an interest in the tattoos."

"N-no. We were just-" I began to speak, but Delia lightly shoved past me.

"We have a school dance coming up in a few days. Three, to be exact. I'm looking for something to make me look sexy and red-carpet ready. It has to be perfect."

The woman smiled, and handed Delia a black metal choker with a white bow on it. "It's sexy and cutting."

"Oooh, I like what you're selling, lady." Delia modeled the necklace in the mirror as the kiosk lady handed Zoe a purple crystal on a gold chain.

"You don't seem like the kind who likes flashy accessories, so this should suit you well."

Zoe didn't respond, instead reaching out for the crystal like she was in yet another trance.

"And you", the woman continued, "Something classic. Understated, practical."

Oh god, she has to be one of those fake psychics. Although, for a fake psychic, she was definitely reading us like she really could look into our minds. She handed Annabelle a dark silver circular barrette. Annabelle looked it over and smiled. "It's pretty. I like it." She said softly.

"Then it is yours." The woman said. Her painful eyes flitted to me, and my breath caught in my throat.

"It seems to me that you have already chosen your gift. If you wish it, it is yours."

I looked down at the tattoos again. They were really pretty, and the fact that not only were there four of them, but they were all the same blue-green color meant that each of my friends could have one. Even though three of us had no intentions of going to the dance, it'd still be fun if we all went to the beach with matching tattoos. Maybe one day Zoe would end up convincing us to get the real things. Nah, I would never.

"I'll take them. How much do I owe you?"

"Nothing at all, dear. These are your gifts to keep, forever and always."

"Oh, okay. Thanks." I saw that my friends had all grouped up outside of Escape, Delia's favorite store, and were patiently waiting for me. I walked up to them, glanced back at the kiosk, and saw that the woman had disappeared.

"O—kay, moving right along. A-belle, do you have scissors?"

Annabelle nodded, pulling red scissors out of her purse. "Why?"

I held up the tattoos. "Matching tatties for all of us!"

"So hot! Dibs on the swirly one!" Delia tried to reach forward and take them from me.

Feeling brave, I snatched my hand back. "Um, Delia. They're my tattoos. Shouldn't I get dibs?"

"Natch. Whatever you want, Bay."

I met eyes with Zoe and winked at her. "I want food. Mom is making pizza for lunch. I'm sure she's thrown together a salad for you Delia."

Delia raised an eyebrow. "We have a dance to shop for, Bailey. Besides, there's perfectly good pizza here."

"Mine is free. Plus, I'm beat. Right, girls?" Annabelle and Zoe both nodded.

"All I'm asking is five minutes for me to find four outfits for us, pleeeeease Bay?"

I sighed. "Five minutes, no modeling outfits, you have to pay for all of them, and you get last pick of the tattoos."

Delia huffed and crossed her arms. "Fine. Besides, your mom makes good salad." She turned around and ran straight for the dresses.

"And that is how you tame a dragon. Five points for Bailey." Zoe said, imitating a sports commentator.

I giggled, slipping comfortably back into my metaphorical shell. Honestly, it felt good standing up to Delia on her own turf. The three of us all walked into Escape, and watched as Delia, the Goddess of Fashion managed to pick out four really nice dresses. It made me almost feel bad that I wouldn't be wearing whichever one she picked out for me.

Just another Friday afternoon at the mall.

We should have known better.