The next day was the worst day of Natalie's life.
Apparently, Veronica Hastings was hosting a big welcome party for Natalie's family. She was inviting all of Rosewood to attend. It was going to be held at the Hastings' house that night.
Mrs. Ambrose took Natalie and Olivia shopping earlier that afternoon for formal dresses for the party and back to school clothes.
Mrs. Ambrose pulled into The King James Mall parking lot and led them into a fancy department store. Mrs. Ambrose started talking to teenage girl with shiny, chestnut brown hair pulled back into a sleek, ponytail, and told Natalie and Olivia to start looking for dresses. Olivia quickly ran off, leaving Natalie to roam around the store alone.
The store was called Nicole's, and smelled like Chanel perfume and vanilla laundry detergent. Natalie immediately found a cute, coral dress hanging on one of the racks, and lunged for it. But Natalie wasn't the only one who thought the dress was cute.
A tall girl, with dirty, blonde hair, and emerald green eyes grabbed the dress , with her french manicured fingers before Natalie could reach it. Natalie sighed, it was the last one in her size.
The girl smiled deviously. Natalie couldn't believe they were the same size. The girl was taller, and more filled in than Natalie was.
The girl checked the tag on the dress, and her face turned bright red. "Here, you can have it. It's not my size."
Natalie checked. It was a zero. The girl grabbed the next size up, a two.
"Sorry about that." The girl's cheeks were burning, and her face was pinched up.
"It's fine, don't worry about it." Natalie said. Natalie was embarrassed all the time at her old school. She knew what it felt like.
"I'm Spencer, Spencer Hastings." the girl said, turning back around.
Natalie gasped. Spencer probably needed the dress tonight too, for the party her mother was throwing. Natalie put the dress back on the rack. "I'm Natalie. Your mother is throwing a party for my family tonight."
Spencer nodded. "I know. My mom can't shut up about it, it's the only thing she talked about at dinner last night. The only reason I came to the mall today was to get away from her nagging. 'Spencer, clean your room, we're having guests over tonight.' 'Make sure to mop the living room three times, we want it to look good for the guests.' I mean, it's just so annoying."
"I'm here to buy a dress for the party tonight. I don't even need one, I have tons at home." Natalie said, staring at a loose thread on Spencer's kelly green cardigan. "I don't even want to really go tonight."
Spencer rolled her eyes. "Me neither, my mom's making me. It's crazy."
"Yeah." Natalie thought back to what happened with Emily at the coffee shop yesterday. She didn't want that to happen with everyone she met. Spencer seemed cool, though. Maybe she would stick by her the whole time. Natalie smiled at the thought of it.
Spencer checked her watch. "Anyways, it was nice meeting you. I hope you have luck finding a dress."
Natalie smiled. "I'll see you at the party tonight."
Spencer grinned, and turned around, walking through Nicole's double doors. Spencer turned back to the store, but wasn't looking at Natalie. She was staring at something in the distance. Spencer narrowed her eyes, frowned, and shook her head. Natalie wondered what Spencer saw. She turned to the direction Spencer was staring, but all she could see were racks and racks of clothes.
In between the racks was a girl with long, blonde hair, clear, blue eyes, and glowing skin. She was sorting through racks of t-shirts. She turned to Natalie and gave her a wink, turned around and walked through the doors, going the opposite direction as Spencer.
Natalie blinked a few times. Was that…no it couldn't be. Natalie hadn't see her in years. The last time Natalie saw her was the last day of second grade, and then the family just, disappeared. Was't that the point of leaving her old life behind? Her school, her friends, her home. All of it. Because of her.
Natalie shook her head violently, trying to block out the memory, but it wouldn't leave. It was too imprinted in her head. Natalie grabbed a strapless, lavender cocktail dress from the various racks of dresses and met her mother at the register. Mrs. Ambrose had a tight smile as she paid for the dresses, her gray eyes hiding a sick secret, that only Natalie's family knew about.
And they intended to keep it that way.