Sorry it took me a bit longer to write this chapter. I'll try to be better next time, but I'm not giving any promises. :)
Thalia's POV:
"Remind me how you convinced me to do this again?" I asked Rachel, Piper and Annabeth, standing outside the mall at 9am on Saturday morning when I would usually be sleeping in. Grantville let's us come to town once a month. They had let us come today and tomorrow because of the dance. Oh joy.
"Umm, technically we didn't convince you. We...uh...we might have, uh, drugged you and brought you to the mall and then given you the antidote?" replied Rachel hesitantly, her reply sounding more like a question.
"And why would your supposedly best friends do that?" I asked sweetly. They looked at each other.
"Well, we do have your best interests at heart," Annabeth stated, "I mean, we want you to get together with Luke and well, we have to make you look good for the dance..." I blushed a bit at the comment about Luke.
"That's right," agreed Piper and Rachel. I shook my head. Great, a day at the mall. Shopping. For a dance. What fun! NOT!
"Fine, but I get to choose the colour of my dress and I get the final decision," I said, making sure that I set the rules before we entered the mall.
"Whatever," said Piper.
Piper was going to be the fashion guide, etc.
"Did Silena set you up for this?" I groaned, as we entered the first shop, Prom Dresses Emporium. (I'm making these shops up) Annabeth and Rachel looked at Piper waiting for her answer.
Piper sighed, "You know me, I would normally never do this, but yes she did because I owe her a favour." I grinned. Better Piper than Silena. No offense to Silena, of course. It's just that she would overreact and stuff like that.
Inside the shop, the dresses were all over the place. It will be so easy to find a black dress in here (can you hear the sarcasm). I can only see one or two. Hopefully they are ones that I like so I can get out of this bloody mall.
"So what colour is everyone looking for?" asked Piper, "So I know what colour dress to give you."
"I think I'm gonna look for white dress," Annabeth answered.
"I don't care. Any colour for me," Rachel said.
"Black," I said. Piper nodded.
I drifted towards the first black dress I had seen. It was a strapless, thigh-length silk dress. It had a sweetheart neckline and these ruffles spread across the dress. I immediately put it back. It wasn't really my style.
The second dress was a black lace dress. It was floor length and had half-sleeves. The lace was just the sleeves and covering the top part of the chest. The one thing that I didn't like were the sleeves. They were kind of puffy, but I didn't mind this dress.
"Oooh, Thalia, that dress is nice," Rachel exclaimed, seeing my dress.
"Yeah, Thals, try it on," Annabeth suggested.
"Does the expert like it?" I asked Piper, sarcastically.
"Yep," Piper said, "It's good enough, but the question is, do you like it?" I was taken aback by the question. I honestly thought that I wouldn't have had much of a choice.
"I guess, but the sleeves aren't really my style," I said.
Piper frowned, "I like the dress, but if you don't, don't try it on." I nodded. It's best to listen to Piper when she's being the fashion expert.
After a few more minutes of looking at dresses in the shop, Rachel found her dress. It was a black, one-shoulder, floor-length dress. One side was held up so that the dress had a bit of the rumpled look. The dress split from mid-thigh to the floor. (If you want to see what the girls' dress's look like, go to my profile page)
"That's perfect!" Piper exclaimed, "I bet Nico won't let any other boy look at you."
Annabeth, Piper and I weren't able to find our perfect dress in the next shop either. It was called Perfect Dresses for Perfect Occasions. Yeah right, there was no perfect dress for me. Well, actually, Annabeth found a dress, but they didn't have her size.
Next shop, Formal, Evening and Prom Dresses, which by the way had such an imaginative name, was where Annabeth found her perfect dress. It was a white, floor-length dress, same as Rachel's. It was a halter dress and the bottom half was in layers. Just under the bust there were sequins. I really liked it.
"Hey, Annie, that's gonna blow my cousin away," I commented, when she stepped out of the dressing room, wearing the dress.
"Don't call me Annie. And thanks," Annabeth grinned.
"Okay, so Thalia and I still have to find our dress's and we all have to find purses, shoes and if needed, accessories," Piper said, reading off her list that Silena had given her. Oh fudge. We've already been in the mall for 2 hours and we can stay here till 9pm. I'm so glad that the mall is always open for so long. (Did you hear the sarcasm?)
"Okay, then, Piper, where next?" asked Rachel, exhausted. I felt her pain.
"Um, Silena said that we should go to..." Piper looked at her list, "Des Robes de Bal."
"That's Prom Dresses in French," Annabeth said. The rest of us nodded. Great, a fancy shop. How did I know this? Only fancy shops would have a French name.
And guess what? I was right. It had padded peach coloured walls and fancy chairs. It even had those special people who help us chose our dresses.
"They're called stylists," Annabeth muttered to me.
"Oh great, I hope they're not like Silena," I muttered back. We both laughed silently.
"Hello, ladies," said one of the stylists. He was a middle aged man with blonde hair.
"Hi Mr, um, Granter," I said.
"So, what are you shopping for today?" he asked in a sickly sweet voice.
"Um, we're shopping for dresses for our school's black and white dance," answered Piper.
"And you all need a dress?" he asked, giving a pointed look at the bags in Rachel and Annabeth's hands.
"Uh, no, just the two of us," replied Piper, pointing to me and herself. Mr Granter nodded and called over another stylist. I will never get over that word.
"This is Ms Fraser, she will be this young lady's stylist," explained Mr Granter, gesturing to Piper. Looks like I'm stuck with the sickly sweet man. Yay. NOT!
"Ok, so, umm..." Mr Granter trailed off waiting for my name.
"Thalia," I said.
"Ok, so, Thalia, what type of dress are you looking for?" he asked.
"Umm, something black and umm, not too short and kinda punk, I guess?" my answer sounding like a question.
"Ok," Mr Granter said, looking at my regular clothes, black skinny jeans, black shirt, leather jacket and combat boots. Today, my shirt said, "Green Day rules!" "I think that I know a dress that you might like."
Mr Granter directed me to the black range of clothing. There were some dresses that I thought I might like. He held up a dress. It was black goth dress. I am not a goth! Let's just get this straight: I am not a goth! I guess it was okay, but the bottom had ruffles and it ruined the dress. I mean, the dress was tight everywhere, except for bottom where the skirt flared out with ruffles.
I shook my head, "Not my type of dress." Mr Granter picked out another dress. This one was, in my opinion, too girly. It was a floor length silk gown, with small ruffles and flowers made out of a net material. It had a few sequined areas and spaghetti straps.
"It's nice..." Mr Granter's face it up, "...but it's not my style," I finished. His face fell. I felt kind of bad, even for a man with a sickly sweet voice.
IIIGrAnTvIlLe and bLaCkMoUnTIII
"Ok, tell me your perfect dress," he said, after I'd tried on a few more dresses.
"Umm, well my perfect dress would be a black dress, maybe with a bit of lace. Not too short, not too revealing, you know, stuff like that," I said, after thinking about it for a bit.
So, after trying on about 4 more dresses, Mr Granter gave up. "I give up," he cried, "You're too picky! There has never been a customer that I haven't been able to help, but you're different. You're too picky!"
"Yeah, you might have mentioned that already," I said under my breath.
Piper was the lucky one. She had found her dress already. She had chosen white to wear to the dance. As soon as she stepped out of the change room, every eye had turned to her. I swear I saw some men sitting outside the store drool. So to sum it up, Piper looked stunning.
"I'll warn my brother to tape his mouth closed," I said. When Annabeth sent me a questioning look, I just said, "So he won't drool." Rachel and Piper started laughing.
Piper's dress was a halter dress with a decorated beaded section just under the bust. It had a low neckline and looked like it was brought together in the middle of the dress. At around the mid-thigh area, the dress split, showing off Piper's perfect, tanned legs.
The next few shops we passed through quickly either because I didn't like any of the dresses that were there or because they simply didn't have any black dresses.
Finally we got to a store called The Black Boutique. It only had black clothes. I had actually never seen this store before, so I pulled my friends in. Inside was dark and it looked like my kind of place to shop.
"Hey, Thals," Rachel called, "Come over here, look at this dress!" She was holding up a short lace dress. It looked really nice. I couldn't really see it because of the lighting so I went over.
"Woah, I like this dress," I said, taking a closer look. It was a black, spaghetti strap dress. Nothing decorating it, it was plain. The only thing that made the dress prom/school dance worthy was the lace covering it. It came down to about my mid-thighs and had half-sleeves.
Piper smiled, "Finally, we found a dress for Miss Picky."
"I thought you liked shopping, Miss Fashionista," I teased.
Piper slapped me playfully. 'I'll keep trying," she said.
I paid for the dress and then we left to have lunch. After lunch, the four of us went looking for accessories, shoes and purses. We all found what we were looking for and finally left that dratted mall. YAY! (This time I didn't put in any sarcasm, did you hear that?)
So again I'll tell you: if you want to see what their dress's look like, go to my my profile page cos fan fiction takes half of the link away and I can't put it in my story. Hope you enjoyed this chapter and please REVIEW! I need feedback so I know what you like. So please tell me!
- Lizzy :)