Chapter Two

Ten minutes later, I arrived in Amberwood's student parking lot. As she had promised, Jill stood right by my car, Latte. Jill's smile faltered as she spotted me.

"What," I asked.

"Nothing," Jill replied. "It's just that, well, you didn't have to dress so nicely for a shopping trip to the local mall."

I looked down. I was wearing a blue cardigan paired with some nice black slacks.

"What's wrong with trying to look prim and proper," I asked.

"Nothing, but you should probably try wearing jeans once in a while, Sydney," Jill scolded. Jill's forehead creased as she got lost in thought. "Hmm, maybe we should buy you a whole new wardrobe while we're at it."

"No," I said, adamantly. "Just a new outfit for tonight. You dragged me shopping, remember. The least you can do is keep the shopping to a minimum."

"Fine," Jill said, sighing with disappointment.

"Good," I said, climbing into the driver's seat.

Jill followed me into the car, taking shotgun.

The trip to the mall was spent in silence. I used the sudden quiet to my advantage by taking the opportunity to imagine a romantic evening with Adrian. Candles on a table at a fancy restaurant paired with Adrian's emerald green eyes, us kissing in the moonlight ...

"Earth to Sydney," Jill said, waving her hand in front of my face.

"Er, yes," I asked, startled.

"We're here."

"What, really?"

"Yes! The car stopped. Honestly, Sydney. If I hadn't known better, I would have assumed you'd gone through the motions of getting to the mall while fantasizing about tonight."

Little did Jill know that I really WAS in that fantasy world and HAD gone through the motions of driving the car at the same time. Wow, I thought. Props to the girl who can drive and imagine a romantic evening at the same time.

"Okay," I said, getting out of the car. "Let's get this shopping trip over with."

"Yay," Jill said, clapping her hands yet again.

It turns out that the Palm Springs Shopping Center had three floors with each floor containing several department stores. Jill spent a good ten minutes surveying the mall's directory.

"I'm looking for the stores with a large dress selection," Jill explained. "Sydney, it's not easy to play the dress shopping game. You have to know what stores you need to go to first before you actually go shopping. Then, you must pick the best of the best stores, and start shopping. After that, shopping is just a matter of going down the line of stores you've chosen before you find an amazing dress."

I stood next to Jill, dumbfounded at how Jill knew so much about clothes and the process one took to purchase them. My methods of shopping for clothes were certainly not as in depth as Jill's were.

"Also," Jill continued "Sydney, you sure are lucky that we have all day to find a dress. Otherwise, I'm not sure if we would find one in time for your date."

"Really," I asked. "How many stores are you planning on going to, Jill?"

"Oh, not many," Jill answered. "We could go to, like, eight to ten stores, if you want."

"Eight to ten stores," I said, "is a LOT of shopping."

"Well, yeah," said Jill with a shrug. "A LOT of shopping is in order when you're trying to find a good dress."

"Are you serious," I asked.

"Yeah, why," asked Jill.

"Well, I thought you could just hit a few stores and find a cheap dress pretty easily."

"Oh, Sydney," Jill sighed. "You have a lot to learn about finding a good dress especially if you want to impress Adrian."

"I guess," I allowed "especially because Adrian LOVES dresses."

"Exactly," Jill said, snapping her fingers. "Now, come along."

Linking her arm through mine, Jill proceeded to drag me across the mall.

When Jill and I reached the first department store, Jill told me to scan the racks of dresses.

"Look for something that you might wear to impress a guy," Jill directed. "The dress should be pretty tight; be a good color; and also shouldn't be too short. Oh, also look for something with not too much of a plunging neckline. You need to look somewhat tasteful on your date. Don't make Adrian get the wrong idea."

"If I need to look tasteful, why don't I just wear one of my dresses from my closet," I asked, annoyed.

"Because Sydney," Jill explained, "Adrian has ar seen most of your closet. Plus, your idea of tasteful is business casual. You need to show Adrian that you're romantically interested in him, not ready for a business meeting."

"Fine," I huffed. "I'll go attempt to pick something out."

"Great," Jill said, clapping her hands. "I'll be outside the changing rooms. Meet me there when you're done combing through the racks."

"Okay," I agreed.

I looked around me, glancing at the racks of clothes. A lot of the dresses at this store were too short and had plunging necklines. Others looked like prom or bridal dresses and were really long. I smiled at Adrian's probable reactions to both kinds of dresses. The too short dresses would be bound to make Adrian ...'

Oh, no, I'm not going there, I chastised myself. The long gowns would make Adrian either laugh at their ridiculousness or drop down on one knee and proffer a ring.

Either way, I wasn't taking any chances.

Weaving my way to the last few rows of racks, I hand-picked a few dresses that I knew were not too far outside my ordinary wardrobe. Most were clingy, but their length wasn't too long or short either. The necklines were somewhat low, but wouldn't cause me to spill out of the dress. Grabbing my size in a few dresses and another dress that I thought was more tasteful, I headed towards the changing rooms.

As Jill had promised, she was sitting outside the dressing area. Nodding in Jill's direction, I opened one of the dressing rooms, and proceeded to model the dresses for Jill. Jill mostly responded with little shakes of the head or waves of her hand at my dress choices. None of the dresses, it seemed, satisfied Jill. God, she was picky.

When I tried on the more tasteful dress I'd picked out, Jill asked, "Is that a dress?"

"Yes," I said, annoyed. "Of course, it is a dress."

"No, that thing is definitely not a dress."

"How so," I asked.

"Well, for starters, it's lime green, a color that is NOT flattering on you. Second, the dress is billowy. It looks like you're wearing a sheet that blows in the wind. Thirdly, that dress has PUFF SLEEVES. Puff sleeves are SO NOT in these days," Jill stated matter-of-factly.

I ducked my head in shame when I understood Jill's point. How the heck had I previously deemed this dress tasteful?

"Ugh," Jill said. "Go take that thing off."

I complied, opening the dressing room's door. Since this dress was the last one I'd picked out, I made motions to take the dress off and get changed into my clothes. I tugged on the dress's zipper, anxious to get out of this store. I reached around to the front of the dress to pull it over my head. The dress didn's budge when I pulled. Why didn't the dress budge? I had just unzipped the back of the dress. Pulling on the front of the dress should allow me to slip the dress off, right? Unless, I thought, the zipper was stuck. No, the zipper couldn't be stuck.

I reached around to the back of the dress again and touched the zipper. The zipper was stuck, already.

Oh, no, I thought. God, no! I can't be stuck in a hideous dress. No!

"Jill," I called. "Can you come in here?"

"Sure, open the door," Jill called back.

I opened up the dressing room's door.

"Sydney, what do you need," Jill asked.

"The zipper's stuck. Can you help me," I asked.

"Yeah, sure."

Gripping the zipper in both hands, Jill tugged. The zipper didn't budge.

"Oh, God," Jill exclaimed. "You're really stuck!"

"Yeah," I said.

"Well, maybe I'm not strong enough to help," Jill reasoned.

Jill walked out of the dressing room.

"Jill, where are you going?"

"Hold on," Jill said. "I'll be right back."

Walking across the isle of dressing rooms, Jill approached the row of chairs that she had previously occupied. A woman was currently sitting in one of the chairs.

"Hi," Jill said. "Could you do me a favor?"

Oh, God no, I screamed internally. Jill's going to ask that woman to help me with the zipper.

As I heard their conversation progress, Jill did indeed explain my issue and ask the woman to help me with the zipper.

To my utter dismay, the woman agreed.

Jill strolled back to my dressing room.

"Sydney," Jill said, "This is Amanda. Amanda, Sydney."

"Hi," the woman, Amanda, greeted.

"Hello," I said.

Amanda smiled. "I'm good with zippers. Hopefully, I'll be able to help you out."

Amanda proceeded to tug on the zipper, and after a few minutes, the zipper moved.

"Thank you so much," I said, as relief flooded over me. "I thought I was never going to get the zipper to budge."

"No problem," Amanda said. "You two girls have a nice day."

"Thank you. We will," Jill said.

After Amanda walked away, I quickly shut the dressing room door, anxious to get out of this dress.

Once I had changed and put the dresses back, Jill and I headed out into the mall again.

"That whole ordeal was SO embarrassing," I told Jill. "Why did you have to ask that woman for help? She was a total stranger!"

"Calm down, Sydney," Jill said. "At least you got out of that stupid dress."

"I guess," I agreed.

The next few hours passed in a blur. Jill continued leading me to different department stores, making me try on dresses at each. Jill critiqued many of my dress choices just like she had at the first department store. The afternoon progressed as I continued to play dress-up for Jill.

Just as we were finally about to give up, Jill and I picked up a red dress at a small boutique in the mall. The dress was short, but not too short; low-cut, but didn't have too much of a plunging neckline; and it was clingy, but not too clingy.

"Perfect," Jill squealed. "Now, we have to find shoes to match!"

With those words, Jill dragged me to a shoe store where we found brown and red high heels that made me appear just a little shorter than Adrian.

Make-up was next on the agenda, and with Jill's keen eye, she was able to find me a make-up kit that matched my complexion perfectly. I enjoyed the new collection of make-up because it gave my face a subtle glow and didn't make my face appear clownish like that of the other types of kits we saw.

Before leaving the make-up counter, Jill picked up a tube of red nail polish.

"This nail polish will go well with the dress," Jill said, smiling.

After paying for the make-up and nail polish, Jill and I finally headed out of the mall.

All in all, I guess the shopping trip was a success. Jill and I had found what we needed, and I'd made Jill happy. Jill was so happy, in fact, that she couldn't stop gushing about our finds on the way back to Amberwood.

"Oh. My. God! That dress is going to look FANTASTIC on you! And those shoes, oh, they make your feet look SOOOO hot! And that make-up and nail polish ..."

I tuned Jill out because frankly, she was making my head spin. I loved Jill like a sister, but sometimes she drove me crazy.

After exchanging a few goodbyes, Jill and I parted ways. When I approached my dorm, I jiggled the lock and forced the door open. I needed to start getting ready for my date.