In Maya's eyes, the Angel Grove mall was the biggest mall out there. A moving line of people walked along the pathways in different directions just like it was in an airport. A shuttle bus was parked at the other side of parking lot ready to pick up and let off passengers. Food outlets were scattered all over the place instead of being in just one food court. At all entrances there were guides and maps.
Kelly adjusted her necklace when she saw Kimberly and Maya walk in. Maya was wearing her usual style of clothing which consisted of a pair of jeans, a blue tee shirt with thin white and pale purple stripes, and a white, blue, and purple plaid button down shirt. But Kimberly was all dressed up for the occasion. Kimberly was dressed in a carnation pink dress, which hit her below hers; very thin spaghetti straps were holding up her dress. She even had on a pair of matching high heel shoes "Mrs. Oliver, I hear your niece designed one of the bears," Kelly complemented when Kimberly and Maya took a seat at their table.
"She did," Kimberly smiled. "She's a really good artist for her age."
Maya put down her red crayon and stared at Kelly. From some reason she never liked this woman. Kelly was pretty woman, but she could be crabby and rude occasionally. She only wore either red, sliver, or black. Maya had heard Kelly tell Kimberly she went to the tanning beds a few times a weak. And she wore a strange looking neck with a red pendant. Maya noticed the pendant gave a weak glow and something sliver appeared in. She climbed out of her seat and made her way over to Kelly. "Can I see your necklace?" Maya hinted when she stood on her tip toes to look at the necklace and saw sliver zig zags floating around.
"I'm sorry, sweetie," Kelly apologized when grabbed the neckband of her dress and tucked the necklace way. "The chain is very delicate and it might break."
"I won't break it," Maya promised.
"I don't let anyone touch this!" Kelly hissed as she glared at Maya.
"Maya, why don't we go to the snack bar and get some ice cream?" Kimberly suggested when she walked over to Maya and gathered her in her arms. "I've been promising you that I'd take you to new Cold Stone outlet that just opened."
The ice-cream freezer was stacked with so many different choices to choose from. Maya pressed her hands on the cold glass at the other end of the freezer. She saw they had her favorite flavors, strawberry, cheese cake, and banana. But they also had unusual flavors like different flavors of coffee ice cream, cake batter, oat meal cookie batter, cotton candy, and even French toast. From out of nowhere, came a tall and slim lady. She had blondish brown medium length hair several inches below her shoulder blade; she was dressed in a red velvet long dress and long black dress boats. Around her neck was a pearl necklace and she had matching pearl ear rings. The lady appeared like she was in a hurry and she bumped into another customer. The large cup in her hand went flying through the air and her grape slushy soaked the front of Kimberly's new dress. "My dress!" Kimberly cried. The lady knocked Kimberly down on the floor when she cut in front of her and Maya. They heard a snap and Kimberly stumbled. She stared sadly at one of shoes which had a busted heel. "What am I going to do now? One of my heels is busted."
"It's not my problem!" grumbled the woman, as she turned to face the man behind the counter. "I'll take a scoop black cherry ice cream."
"I'm sorry," answered an employee. He appeared like he was in his early thirties. "We ran out of this flavor and we won't have any ready until late this afternoon. You can choose another-"
"I don't want another flavor," she screamed. The woman looked at the man's sliver name tag which read "Frank" and underneath his name it said store manager. "I want you and your workers to get off your lazy bottoms and make more now! This mall is nothing but full of lazy and stupid workers! I'm taking my business somewhere else!" She walked out of the outlet and head towards the exit at the end of the hall.
Maya turned to face her aunt. "Kimberly, what should I get? I can't choose between my favorite three."
"Why don't we share a large cup of ice cream with a small scoop of each," Kimberly suggested when stepped out of her out high heel shoe. "Those are my favorites too."
"Who was that lady?" Maya asked digging her spoon into the strawberry ice cream.
"That was my step mother and your grandmother," Kimberly explained. "My dad was cheating on my mom after they got married. He was an airplane pilot and was gone most of the time and was only home on weekends. But he was actually seeing Kelly who lived in New York. She got pregnant a few years before I was born. My mom found out when I was about four that he had been cheating on her. He left the computer on and she walked in and saw he was talking to Kelly in a chatroom. When she confronted him about, he said he was leaving because Kelly had threatened to leave him if he didn't marry her. She also said if he didn't marry her, he wasn't going to see Kermit anymore. My mother asked him who Kermit was and he revealed that it was his ten-year-old son."
"Really," Maya whispered when Kimberly lifted Maya into her lap. "Was that when you found out you had a brother?"
"Yes, it was and my parents divorced. My father pretty much cut me out of his life," she sighed wiping her eyes. "Kelly and Kermit moved to Angel Grove."
"How did Kermit meet my mom? I thought that she always lived in New York?"
"She was actually from Angel Grove and they dated in high school. Katy was an actor and was offered to be in a movie and Kermit want to return home. They moved out there and she was stared in the movie. Later, she got pregnant and decided to direct plays since she had a degree in theater. Her plays were even on Broadway. One day Kermit left your mother. After they devoiced, Katy's parents were found in an alleyway here in Angel Grove. They had been attacked by an unknown source. About six or seven months ago, your mother's theater group was going to perform "The Phantom of the Opera." But it never happened because she was attacked by Rita and Zedd."
"What can you tell me about them?" Maya asked.
"I could tell you a lot about them," Kimberly whispered in Maya's ear. "But now we need to get back to build a bear."
Maya glanced down at the broken high heels on the floor and the front of Kimberly's dress. "We can't go back with you looking like that," Maya warned.
Kimberly looked down at her watch and saw it was 10:15. "Maya, we don't have time to run home," she sighed when she tossed their empty bowl away. "I'm going to have to buy a pair of shoes and a new outfit here."
After spending nearly half an hour of looking at pink clothing, Kimberly was able to find the prefect outfit, with Maya's help of course. This wasn't one of their usual fun shopping days, where they would try on several outfits for hours. Instead, Kimberly was forced to look at clothes for a few seconds before moving on to the next item. She paid for her clothes at JC Penny and went into the nearest bathroom to change. Kimberly stepped out of the stall a few seconds later. She was dressed in a sleeveless bubble gum pink knee length silk sheath dress and a pair of pink low heel sling-backs with a closed toe.
"You look beautiful!" Maya compliment as Kimberly stared into the mirror.
"Maya, this is prefect," thanked Kimberly. She kneeled down and gathered Maya in her arms.
Maya noticed half a pink heart necklace was hanging around Kimberly's neck. "You're still wearing the friendship necklace I gave you," she smiled.
"Of course," Kimberly beamed giving her niece a kiss on the cheek. "I haven't taken my half of the necklace off since you gave it to me."
Kim and Maya discuss the Kelly that she works explains Kelly is creating a villain's collection and no one has seen it yet. Kelly promises kids will love it.
"I hate the villains' collection!" shouted a little boy. "That bear looks like that scary red-looking monster on TV."
"Mommy, it shoots lasers out of its eyes!" screamed a little girl. "It even has his voice! Just like the Rita Repulsa bear!"
"Don't worry!" promised Markus Snyder. "I've recalled all of the Villains collection! We will not be selling it anymore!"
"You can't do that!" shouted Kelly.
"Kelly those toys are way too scary for kids!" answered Markus. "Why didn't you show them to me before now? We could have adjusted them and made them less scary!"
"They were meant to look that scary!" screamed Kelly. "I'm designed this for a friend! This is how they wanted it!"
"Kelly, you designed these for kids to enjoy, not to scare them. Why don't we recall them? We can redesign them and have them out at a later date!"
"Markus, I quit!" Kelly shouted. "I designed them this way for a reason and I'm not changing them!"
A woman with long auburn hair dress in red velvet dress and black dress boots walked out of Build a Bear. "What's going on?" Kimberly asked Tommy.
"Where's the villains' collection?" added Maya.
"After two of the workers kids saw them, they got taken off the shelves," Tommy informed when they watched Markus and other employees pack up the last of the villain collection. "But your power ranger collection is a huge hit!"
"Really!" Maya and Kimberly gasped.
"Seriously," Tommy replied. He led them into build a bear and there was a long line of kids waiting to get their hands on a power ranger bear.
"Mommy, I want a pink ranger bear!" stated a little girl.
"Daddy, I want a green ranger bear!" announced a little boy.
"What about the power rangers' costumes?" Maya asked as she got out art supplies.
"The costumes have done very well," informed Markus as he walked over to them. "But the power ranger bears have done so much better!"
"Are we going to get to see the villain's collection?" Maya requested when Markus took a seat at the table.
"I'm afraid not," he answered. "Kelly quit after I suggested that we redesigned them. I feel like she purposely designed those bears to be scary and upset children."
"That sounds like her," Maya remarked when she saw a ray of red light coming from the back room. "For some reason I didn't like her. She was always crabby and mean."
"Anyway, I've gotten requests for more bears to be designed," Markus informed as he quickly changed the subject. "Do you think you can design two more bear by Christmas."
"I think we could," Kimberly beamed.
While Kimberly was talking with Markus, Maya saw a bright light from outside. She got out of her chair and got as close to the door as she could. The woman with the auburn hair was looking around in all directions, as her necklace started glow. She went inside the photo booth. A few seconds later, the woman that she had met in the ice cream store stepped out. In her hand was the funny looking red necklace.
Author's note: I wasn't going to reveal that the two Kelly's were the same person. But, after a reviewer had left me a review telling me I had notes in the middle of the page I checked it out and saw I had ideas that I had thought of and made a note. So, Chapter one has been reposted.
What do you think was the source of the red light coming from the back room?