"PLEASE, Ella," I begged for what felt like the millionth time.
"No." she said brusquely, ushering me through the crowded mall. "You have to go to the party, and you have to wear a costume."
"But what if I really, really don't want to?" I replied, wrinkling my nose distastefully at the slutty costumes surrounding me on all sides.
"Too bad." She shot back. "Anyway, you had to accompany me here to get my costume anyway."
I hung my head, discouraged by her logic.
"Plus," she offered, "not all teen costumes are that bad."
I looked at her, nonplussed. "Such as..."
"Well, there's..." she stuttered, looking around frantically at all the different costumes in the Halloween shop that opened every October temporarily at the mall. Finally, she pointed at a costume triumphantly. "There!"
"I'm not going to dress up as a nun, Ella," I replied. "And I'm pretty sure that's a pre-teen costume."
I was right, of course. We had wandered over to the pre-teen section in our search.
Ella whirled around, returning to the four aisles marked 'YOUNG ADULT'. I followed her, shaking my head. I had no hopes that a good costume for me existed anywhere, let alone a run-down costume shop off 4-85.
She paused, flipping through the racks. "How about a...vampire?" she asked me. I shook my head. "No way will I ever be mistaken for a Twilight buff."
"What about a witch?" she suggested, holding up a particularly offending costume that seemed to be created solely out of glitter. She put it back on the rack immediately after seeing the look on my face.
"A devil?" she questioned, biting her lip. I shook my head, looking at her weirdly. "Over my dead body."
She threw her hands in the air, exasperated. "You're too hard to shop for!" she cried.
"You suggested a grand total of three things to me," I pointed out.
"Well...whatever." she replied. "That's a lot to me. Now it's my turn to look for a costume." She whirled around to face the racks again.
"You are just difficult." I informed her. She held up a Raggedy Ann and a bumblebee costume next to each other.
"Hmm...doll or bee?" She mused, ignoring me, and I rolled my eyes. "I could be a lot more difficult if I wanted to." I told her matter-of-factly.
"Bumblebee." she decided, draping it on her arm and replacing the doll costume on the rack. Sisters.
After looking around for a half-hour or so, Ella's arms were full of possible candidates, and I was empty-handed. She tsked at me, shaking her head hopelessly, then went to try hers on.
I lay down in the torn, scratched, overstuffed leather couch that served as a waiting area while she changed. Barely a moment later, Ella reappeared from behind the velveteen red curtain. "How's this?"
I looked her up and down, taking in the flimsy pirate outfit, complete with eye patch and hook. "Nah," I said finally. "Too short."
She nodded, looking herself in the mirror thoughtfully. "I suppose you're right," she said. "Plus, these boots are way too uncomfortable."
She returned to the curtain, this time reappearing as a witch. Coincidentally, it was the same gobs-of-glitter one that I had detested earlier. "No way," I said immediately. "Way too overdone."
After I had to suffer through a bumblebee, Minnie Mouse, and a schoolgirl (SCARRED FOR LIFE), Ella had nearly given up.
"Last one," she told me wearily. "I'll just be a moment." I rolled my eyes disbelievingly (which she pointedly ignored), and she returned behind the curtain.
When she came out, I smiled. "I like this one the best," I told her.
SHe looked at herself in the mirror, doing a little spin and grinning in self-pride. The acceptable-albeit short-teal skirt whirled, and her earrings and bracelet jangled.
"I do make a perfect gypsy," she said. "But what about you?"
I frowned, having been happier talking about Ella than myself. "Oh, another day." I told her dismissively. "We've got time."
Ella nodded uncertainly, then went to change back into her street clothes. God, I hoped she didn't figure out a way to force me into that god-forsaken fabric scrap of a witch costume.
"Let's check out," Ella said, emerging from the changing room and putting the unwanted misfit costumes on the rack. "But first, I want to see if there's any good costume jewelry." she added quickly. I groaned loudly, mentally inserting a couple swear words for good measure.
We wove through all the people doing their last-minute Halloween stuff (Two days! I only had two freaking days!), vainly trying to get to the costume jewelry.
"Why would anyone want to dress up as a toilet?" I mused as we passed the section pronounced to be 'HUMOR'.
"I'm still a little confused about the purple penguin," she replied.
"And the banana," I added.
Finally, FINALLY we made it there. Ella lunged for a likely-looking jumble of tangled necklaces, while I hung around near the brooches. Next to me was a rack of masks, and I fingered one absentmindedly, wondering what Iggy, Nudge, Nick, and Tess would be.
Suddenly, Ella looked up. When her eyes fell on the mask I was holding, she gasped. "Ohmigawd, you're a genius!" she exclaimed, snatching it from my hands.
"Yes, I know, but why is that relevant to the present situation?" I replied, a little confused.
She held up the mask, and I looked at it closer. It was black, with strands strewn artfully around it, curling over where one's forehead would be. Above the left eye, what looked like a bird's head poked out. The only way to give away that this was a mask, and not some sort of elaborate piece of art, were two eye holes and a graceful slope that indicated where the nose went.
"Yeah, it's nice," I told her, "but I still don't get what it has to do with my being a genius."
She threw up her hands, exasperated. There seemed to be a lot of that today. "Don't you know what this is?" she exclaimed, holding it up into my face for a closer look. I shook my head slowly. "It's a masquerade mask!"
I snapped my fingers. "Oh, yeah!" I said. "They wear those things to masquerade balls, right?" She nodded, smiling. "So you're saying," I continued, it dawning on me, " is that I should dress up like I'm going to a masquerade ball?" I wrinkled my nose distastefully. "Don't you wear those ugly black-and-white checkered dresses to those?"
She shook her head quickly. "I was thinking," she explained, "that you could be a modern-day masquerade. A...Maxquerade, if you pardon the pun. Like, in a black-and-red dress. In fact, I think I have a perfect one for you at home."
"So," I replied, the idea growing on me, "we don't even have to keep looking in here any more? We just go home?"
"Well, you need the mask, and some jewelry," she confessed, "but for the most part, yes."
"Thank God," I breathed in relief. "I think the musty smell is getting to my head."
She nodded. "Staying in a place that's vacated 3/4 of the year'll do that to you," she replied sympathetically.
We ended up getting Ella a chunky, jingly bracelet and myself a very Victorian black choker made of black beads, along with earrings to match.
"You want to keep some of the aspects of your costume Victorian," Ella had explained when she chose it. "That way, the masquerade theme will be more easily recognized." I had nodded like I understood.
At the checkout counter, she had picked up a pack of what was called 'body tape'. Under questioning, she said that it was to keep my mask on my face, and was usually used to keep bikinis in place. And yes, I know that rhymes. I had commented that about it when she said it, which earned me a slap to the back of my head.
All things considered, I was feeling pretty optimistic.
PHEW! There's another chapter done.
I would like to thank RideTheSky for assisting me in the selection of the costumes four our characters (Though I did most the actual brainstorming. She ate pizza and broke my personalized snow globe.)
I know it was a filler, but I couldn't just randomly introduce their costumes on the day of the dance. Which, I suppose you would like to know, is next chapter.
I was going to do a detailed, thoughtful response to each of your reviews, but it got late and, consequently, I got lazy. So, I'll just list the reviewers, like last time:
TMI (seriously concerned about your sanity status, but hey, I'm not complaining)
Deathtobieber (btw, it's an 'organism whose cells contain complex structures enclosed within membranes'. Whatever that means.)
Yreva13 ( :) to you too)
Nightflyer18 (He's doing well, now he just has a squishy spot on his head that is rather odd to poke but, of course, you have to. AVPS is almost cooler; me and my friends quote it ALL THE TIME. Ms. Speight was quite confused when we all yelled, 'STOP TEXTING ME, UMBRIDGE!' in the middle of band. It's one of my prouder moments.)
R&R, bla bla bla. I'm too tired to come up with something creative. Deal with it.
