4 (Still Emily)
Okay, so this Target was, like, HUGE. Jake and Fang and Iggy headed off to the guys section while Max, Ella and I headed off to the women's/teens/whatever section, and Dr. M, bless her, went to watch the little ones. Gazzy trailed along with Angel and Nudge and tried not to explode. Max, Ella and I had fun talking about the guys. Angel and Nudge drooled over clothes. The guys… I have no idea. Ha-ha.
Max did not like shopping, I knew that, so Ella and I forced her to try on some stuff that was actually cute. We got her in to a black dress once and snapped some pictures before she could get it off. Then we decided to sabotage.
"Hey Max, try on that black dress again. I wanna relish in the moment when you wear something other than jeans and combat boots," Ella joked, laughing. We were all in one giant dressing room. Ella and I were wearing black dresses, too, trying to convince her to put it on again so we could take a picture of all three of us in the dress that looked amazingly good on all of us.
But Max was not getting out of this one.
"Surprise!" I yelled, jumping around Max and coming up behind her with my hands cupped over her eyes as Ella grabbed her around the waist. She didn't fight us the way she would have Erasers, but she did get a little mad.
"Let me go! This is so not fair! Public humiliation by dress is NOT COOL!" she was screaming as shoppers turned to stare at us and dismissed us as stupid teenagers. Finally we heard the guys laughing over by some jeans and told Max to shut up.
"If you make any noise, we will throw you into the guys bathroom and let them all stare at you after we tie you up with duct tape," I told her, and Ella cupped a hand over her mouth. I grabbed a shirt and tied it around her eyes, grabbing her mouth and hands as Ella led the way to the guys.
"Hey, guys," she said nonchalantly, pushing aside some clothes and walking up to them as Iggy's mouth dropped.
"OH NO YOU DON'T!" Max screamed as I pushed her, my hand barely muffling her. But it was too late. I untied the shirt, returning her sight, and pushed her at Fang, who caught her elbows as she stumbled into his chest and looked up to his face, her dress swooshing towards him as she sort of landed from being pushed. Yeah, that's me, miracle worker, getting Max into Fang's arms in a black dress.
"Well, somebody looks hot today," Fang joked, and I saw Max blush. Now that is something you don't see very often. But she was still pissed.
Then I saw Jake and decided to ignore everyone else.
"Hola," I said casually, forgetting I was wearing a dress too as he stared at me.
"Hey, hello in there, Emily speaking," I said, laughing at him and walking over to hug him. He wrapped his arms around my waist and kept staring at me.
"Well, you have got to warn me when you're gonna wear a dress, cuz I did not know it would have this effect on me," he said as I rested my head on his chest and laughed.
"Oh, I don't think it will be happening very often. And I think I like surprising you better," I said smiling, getting up on my tip-toes and kissing him. I pulled away and he smiled at me, and then I felt a little tug on my dress. Déjà vu.
"Hi, sweetie," I said, not even bothering to turn around before knowing who it was and picking her up. "What do you have there?" She was holding a pink and orange striped dress with a pocket on the front and a little purple flower on it.
"Can I get it mommy? Please?" I loved how she called me mommy when I was so clearly not her mommy. But I guess in a way I was. Now the dilemma: do I let her get it? It's not very practical…
She can buy one impractical thing. That's it, I thought, proud of myself for deciding.
"Sweetie, it's not very practical, because you can't fight in it or anything, but just this once," I told her, and she squealed with excitement and wrapped her arms around me.
"Can you buy one very impractical thing?" Jake asked, dodging Charlie and kissing me again. "I don't know, Jake, I can't fight in it or anything" I told him. Dork.
"But we're not fighting all the time. We're not fighting right now," he said, kissing me again.
"Okay, okay, fine, we can each get one impractical thing. And no more kissing today, jeez!" I joked, pushing him in the chest. He laughed loudly at that one and walked off with all the guys and everyone split into their groups again. We each gathered some clothes, then went off with our respective families for one last swipe around the store for anything needed as a family. We needed more than they did, Jake and I having just been on a mission and just acquired a third member of our according-to-Dr. Martinez growing Flock, capital F. We got random little snacks like granola bars that are good for the road, root beer (come on, Jake, cans are heavy), Cup O' Noodles type stuff (boiling water over a fire is, like, the easiest thing to do over a fire) and some fruit and stuff like that, in addition to a lot more dried fruit than fresh. We never knew when the next time was that we'd hit a store. Jake and I got new shoes and got some for Charlie, everyone got new backpacks (thank God, the old one was actually starting to hurt) and I got soap. Lots and lots of soap. And shampoo. And they're all gonna deal with the fact that I got stuff for them, too. Oh, and Pac-Man Band-Aids (yeah, they exist. AN: However, you cannot find them at Target, but you can find them at Bruce's, a candy store in Cannon Beach, Oregon). And one Beanie Baby (I caved, okay?).
And one black dress. Dang.
Finally, having spent way more of Dr. Martinez's money than I ever wanted to see on one of those little flashing screens, our Flock left with a lot more spent than Max's better prepared Flock. Go figure.
"It's okay, Emily, we're used to the number of people that we have, and it doesn't change," Angel said, answering my thoughts.
"Thanks, Ange," I said, ruffling her blond hair.
That's when things started going wrong.
5
Emily looked adorable, holding Charlie and talking to Angel and Gazzy while we waited in line. Fang caught me staring at her.
"Earth to Jake," he joked, waving his hand in front of my face. I honestly had not heard him talking to me. He was laughing.
"Wait, what?" I said, before I laughed at myself. Dang. Stay in the real world, Jake.
"It's okay, I get it. Max is… Max. There's nothing else I can say on that one," Fang said, trailing off and staring at Max. Iggy was standing with Ella, so we couldn't tease him yet. Later.
"Earth to Fang," I laughed, getting him back by waving my hand in his face. He slapped it out of his way and I punched him in the arm. Then Charlie got this look on her face that I cannot possibly describe. I have never seen a child scared like that, and think about where I grew up.
"Bad people," Charlie said simply. She hid in Emily's shoulder. Em turned around and looked at me, very, very alarmed, and I turned on my mind reading. I picked up on weird thoughts from Angel, since her's was a jumble of thoughts like mine. I tuned her out, then Em, and gradually the rest of us, knowing we were not the "bad people." Then Angel and I picked up on it at the same time. We'd paid and were at the car, anyway, but there were loads of people. This must have been the busiest Target in the country, not even kidding.
"Got 'em. Erasers, and a couple whitecoats. Not interested in killing. They want…"
Angel and I paused and looked at each other for confirmation that we were picking up on the same thing. Max and Emily shot into mommy-mode.
"What do they want, Jake," they both said at once.
"They want Charlie."