Ruins Raiders
Chapter Three, Shopping, Police and Pizza
By Relm
Lina grimaced as she put on the first dress. It was too loose on the top and the bottom wasn't much better either. If it was a tighter fit it might have worked only the dark shade of orange clashed with her hair and blended too much with her skin. It looked hideous.
"Miss Lina how are you doing? Have you got one on?" Sylphiel asked from the other side of the changing room.
"Fine. I have one of them on." Lina's voice wasn't too enthusiastic.
"Show me."
Lina let out a sigh. "Alright." Lina inched herself out of the fitting room.
Waiting customers snickered as Lina got out. Lina glared at them.
Sylphiel frowned. "The only thing good about it is the length. Maybe you should go for a different size?" Sylphiel asked more talking to herself then Lina. "Well we'll see how the other ones are first. Different brands fit differently."
Lina groaned and went back to the sanctuary of the fitting room. 'If I'm going to have people laughing at me with every dress I try on then somebody is going to lose some teeth.' Lina thought grimly. This was one of the reasons why she hated shopping.
The next dress wasn't much better. It fit a little better but the color still wasn't right.
"Alright let me see what else Alaya picked out for you." Sylphiel requested holding her hand out.
Lina handed her a large clump of clothing.
Sylphiel held each dress one by one against Lina's skin and her hair. Most of them either clashed or wouldn't suit Lina.
By the end of it Sylphiel picked four of the remaining ten dresses. The rest she handed back to Alaya. "Here Miss Lina, just try those four on."
Lina sighed again and went back to the fitting room.
The first one was definitely a good color choice. It was an emerald green that made her eyes sparkle. But it also made her look like a flat board. A sheet would have been more form fitting.
The second dress was an icy blue. It was nice was it was far too short for Lina's height.
The third was black and it bunched too much round the stomach. It was just the type of fabric it was, it wouldn't stay the way you want it to no matter how much fussing with it. So it was obviously out.
Lina walked out wearing the last one. Even she had to admit, this one was very nice.
"It's perfect!" Sylphiel exclaimed. "Turn around."
Lina did as she was told.
Sylphiel's smile broadened. "This is the one."
The other customers who had been snickering at Lina before were now grumbling. They were obviously jealous.
"So that's it then? No more shopping?" Lina's smile was a hopeful one.
"Oh no, we still have to do some shoe shopping. Hurry up and get dressed so we can get the dress." Sylphiel ordered already walking towards the register.
Lina groaned. "Can't I just wear a pair of running shoes? The dress is long enough, no one will notice." Lina yelled while getting changed in record time.
"You can't be serious Miss Lina! Your shoes have to match your dress! What if you dance? They see your shoes."
"Dance? Sylphiel I'm there to raid their library, not socialize!" Lina said dryly handing the dress for Alaya to ring up.
"You have to socialize a little. Don't forget they might have invited you but that doesn't mean they will be expecting you to show up. They're going to watch you like a hawk. So you're going to have to pretend like you are there for the party."
"But do I have to dance?" Lina whined. She hated dancing. The only guys who ever asked her to dance were always stupid and stepped on her feet.
"Probably. You don't need to ask anyone to dance, but if you're asked by someone you should at least dance a few times. Besides maybe we can find a pair of shoes that will make you appear taller."
"Taller? Are you calling me short?" Lina glared at Sylphiel while handing Alaya the money. Nice dresses were never cheap.
"Heavens no. But high heels would make you look like your legs were longer. Plus it shows that you're really trying to dress up for this party." Sylphiel expertly dodged the question.
"High heels? How the heck am I supposed to sneak into their library with high heels?" Lina grabbed the bag from Alaya containing the dress.
"Thank you and have a nice day!" Alaya was way too cheery.
"I don't know Miss Lina. You're creative I'm sure you'll find a way. Now we've got a job ahead of us. It's going to be hard to find a shoe that matches that dress so we're going to have to hit all the shoe shops in the area and maybe some over town. What size shoe are you?" Sylphiel asked in a cheerful voice as they left Suzy's Boutique.
Lina groaned.
...
Several hours later Lina dragged herself back her apartment. Sylphiel had dropped her off only minutes ago and had left to go home.
Lina was exhausted. She was still tried from the jet lag but the shopping wore her out completely. 'How does Sylphiel get the energy for all that?' Lina sighed walking into her apartment.
Lina had always thought that shopping for the dress rather than the shoes was the harder of the two. But it proved to be the other way around. Lina was lucky that she found the dress at the first store she went to but she wasn't so lucky with the shoes. They tried store after store after store looking for shoes. They had found a few places with shoes that matched the dress color but they didn't have Lina's size. The shoe stores seemed to have been hit harder than the dress shops for the party.
It had been such a crazy ordeal looking for the shoes that they didn't end up finding the shoes they wanted until they hit the shops over town. And they ended up being more expensive then the dress!
'This day can't get any worse.' Lina thought yawning. But then she looked around her apartment again. She had forgotten that it had been ransacked. Lina groaned picking up the phone. She dialled the number for the police.
"Hello Greater Rixx Police Station how may I help you?"
"Hi I'd like to report a break in. My place was ransacked and I don't know who did it."
"Was there anything stolen?"
"Not that I know of. I haven't really checked the place thoroughly yet."
"Did you check to see if you're missing any valuables like jewellery?"
"I checked my jewellery box, or what's left of it. It's all there and it's pretty expensive too."
"How long ago was it that you found your place like this?"
"A couple of hours ago."
"A couple of hours ago? And you're just reporting it now?"
"I had to go shopping for a stupid dress so I didn't have a chance. For all I know they could have been done days ago."
"Days?"
"Yeah I've been out of town for the past week and a half."
(silence)
"Hello are you still there?"
"Yes I am. Tell me, what's your address?"
"#3-227 Greyson Avenue."
The lady on the phone sighed. "You're Lina Inverse aren't you?"
"Yes I am."
"Miss Inverse this is the fourth break in you've reported this month!"
"So? Are you going to send someone over here or not? Otherwise I'm going to bed."
"A police officer will be there shortly."
"Thank you." Lina hung up the phone. 'What the hell am I going to do now?' Lina thought looking around her apartment. She wanted to sleep but she needed to stay up till the officer got to her home. 'I should have reported this tomorrow.'
Lina walked over to her kitchen in the hopes that there was still food she could eat. But her intruders had cleaned out the refrigerator as well. Everything that been in the refrigerator were now spilled all over the floor, and the refrigerator door had been left open. 'Great this is going to be a nice addition to my electrical bill for the month.' Lina crinkled her nose. The smell wasn't too pleasant.
The cupboards were much in the same condition as her refrigerator. Everything was all over the place. "What the hell could they have been looking for that could have been with my food? I mean come on! And they ruined so much stuff. If they come back tonight I'm really going to beat the crap out of them!" Lina screamed out for no apparent reason. But she got no answer, not that she was expecting one.
Back to the phone Lina went to do what she normally did in a situation like this, order pizza. Thirty of them to be exact. And each one was different. Given the volume she couldn't just get all of them at one place either. So Lina had to order them from six different places.
'Now let's see which one gets here first.' Lina grinned and then shook her head. 'This is what I do at home for fun… I'm pathetic.' But she didn't linger on that thought for long, she picked up an unopened bag of chips and sat herself down on her couch to watch TV till either the police man or the food came.