(A/N – Okay everybody! Guess what time it is? Little kids: 'It's Howdy Doody Time!' LoL… sorry, on a bit of a sugar rush, short on time, and a million other things to do! Lots of school work as usual but I'm still procrastinating and refusing to do it until I get an update to you guys! See, I love you!)
Reviewers, reviewers, reviewers, oh my!
.: Hehe… Wizard of Oz… Gotta love it… :.
CLE – "Switch" by Will SmithDisclaimers galore…
But we love Claimers more!
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CHAPTER FOUR: "Hurry up!"
All the way up to the mall we were uncomfortably crammed inside of my little Sunfire, but to pass the forty-minute ride, we sang. And no, not to the radio, though we pretended we were.
"Yo ho, yo ho! A pirate's life for me!" we all yelled.
"Turn it up!" Lindsay laughed as we pulled into the Food Court parking lot at the back of the Westmoreland Mall. So we sang louder as I pulled into a spot close to the entrance. It was mildly busy, but go figure… sixteen shopping days left til Christmas (not counting Christmas)!
We piled out of the car and walked onto the sidewalk and into the mall's jam-packed Food Court. We ran over to an empty spot and discussed our plan of action.
"Well, we have four hours ladies and gents," I said, looking at my cellphone. "It's almost two now and we need to leave at six. In this allotted amount of time, we must find attire for the Christmas Dance tomorrow night and buy Christmas gifts for each other. And eat General Tso's Chicken and Beef and Broccoli from that cheap but delicious-smelling Chinese stand." I said, pointing to the Chinese place behind Will and Elizabeth. The all looked at it then back at me. "Now, we will be splitting up at some point and returning to an appointed base to meet. Suggestions on the location of this base?"
Stewie raised her hand, jumping up and down.
"Admiral Stewart," I acknowledged.
"Ooo! The Chinese Place!" she said excitedly. "Tables right in front of it!"
"Great," I said. "We split up and rendezvous back here at 17:00 hours for a one-hour dinner break. Any questions?"
Jack raised his hand, and I almost laughed. But I held my General-like posture.
"Yes, Captain?"
"Why are ye talkin' all funny?"
"Next question!" I said.
Lindsay spoke up. "Don't we have to find dresses, too?"
Oh yeah.
"Okay, we'll meet at JC Penney's at 15:30 hours!" I said. "Next question!" But there wasn't any, so I continued on rambling. "Okay! We split up! One pirate elder per Little – but Paige gets to pick who she wants to go with."
"Ooo! You're with me!" Lindsay said, wrapping her arm around Will's. He gave her an unsure look before smiling finally.
"I get Jack!" Stewie yelled, pointing at him and running up to his side. I could tell Jack was absolutely thrilled about that one, but I think I was the only one who pretty much noticed.
- Lindsay's PoV -
Well I noticed it, too…
- Erica's PoV -
Well, okay. So maybe I wasn't the only one. Anyways, that left me with Elizabeth, and Paige to make a decision.
"Well, who's it gonna be?" I asked.
"I think I'll come with you two," she said, walking over to me and Liz.
"Okay," I said. "Cellphones on, peeps?"
Lindsay and Stewie both held theirs up, and I did too in the same fashion. In unison we pocketed them after turning them on.
"All right!" I said. "Systems are go, rendezvous at JC Penney's for clothes shopping at 15:30, and then back here at the Chinese Place at 17:00 hours for dinner. Any more questions?"
"Do you take requests?" Stewie asked.
"What?" I asked, dropping my General act.
"Stop with the military time and let's go!" she shouted with a laugh. I smiled, too, and then looked around at everyone. Hmm… seems to be a mind reading conspiracy… they all looked like they were happy that she had said something. Oh well. Fine. Who needs 'em?
"Okay, fine. Shove off!"
We all sped off in different directions, doom upon us…
- Lindsay's PoV -
What doom? Haha…
Anyways, me! Yay!
Will and I had fun in Hot Topic for about twenty minutes (and I bought all but one of my presents there) before crossing the path of Spencer's Gifts. I had to go in. So I did. I dragged Will to the back of the store where it was all dark and they had all the black lights and glow in the dark crap goin' on. Awesome place. Go there. They play Linkin Park and System of a Down! You better go there! I'm tellin' ya-!
Okay, I had a dilemma. And it was a big one.
I had everyone else's gifts except Paige's in the two Hot Topic bags in my hands. But what do you get for a teenager in the seventeenth century?
Hmm…
Ooo! Strobe light!
"Perfect…"
I picked it up off of the shelf and looked back at Will who was staring at a lightning disc next to the UFO light and the green and blue fire neon light. He then looked at all the glow in the dark stars around us until he saw me.
"Oh, hello," he said, shoving his hands in his pockets. "Ready?" I looked at him and could tell he felt uncomfortable. I almost laughed but decided that would be mean. Well, normally I'd do it, but this was Will.
"Yup," I said, starting to make my way to the cash register. I could tell Will really wanted to get out of here… he was walking so fast that he was stepping on my heels every few steps, but he apologized. I just laughed. He must really be creeped out.
I walked up to the register and sat my blue strobe light on the counter for the guy to check me out, and oh… my… god…
He is so hot!
And man, I sure was checking him out! Shwoo…
Chad… I love that name!
Nametags are da bomb…
"Would you like to purchase a Spencer's Gift Card?" he asked in a bored voice after scanning the strobe light. "It's a great way to let that twisted someone you know that you're thinking of them this holiday season."
Man that was so rehearsed.
Must be mandatory.
"Uh, sure!" I said, grabbing four off of the little stand on the counter. "Thanks Will!"
"What'd I do?" he asked in confusion.
"You just bought me, Paige, Stewie, and Erica twenty bucks worth the gift cars each for Christmas! You're so sweet!"
"I don't have money!" he said incredulously.
"Okay then, you owe my eighty dollars."
"Huh?"
I laughed as I pulled out my wallet, but then I died. I only had sixty on me. Just as he bagged up the cards and strobe light, I had an idea.
"Thanks, Chad," I said, leaning over the counter and coming inches from his face. He looked pretty shocked. I still wanted to laugh. He opened his mouth to say something as he looked away for a minute, but then he said, "Can I call you later?"
I smiled. It was working!
I pulled out a scrap thing of paper from my hoodie and he gave me a Sharpie, so I wrote it down real fast. I handed it to him slowly.
"There you go, babe," I said. I took my bag and leaned away from the counter now as he looked at it. "Call me later. Maybe we can… hook up." As I left the store with Will, I looked back and waved at him with a suggestive look. His eyes got big, and he looked at my number again.
Haha… yes. Success!
- Erica's PoV – 30 min later -
Elizabeth, Paige, and I had just finished enjoying a pretzel and slushy each from Aunt Annie's soft pretzel counter since we didn't really bother to eat that much at Bigham's. We were walking down the right side of the mall towards the Sears department store that went on both levels of the mall. We got on the escalator going downstairs to Border's Express so I could look in it for a bit.
"Bookstore, huh?" Elizabeth asked as we threw our stuff away outside of the store and walked in. "The bookstore in Port Royal isn't even half this size!"
"You've been in the bookstore in Port Royal?" Paige said.
"There's a bookstore in Port Royal?" I asked.
"Yes, there's a book store, and yes, I've been in it," Elizabeth laughed as we walked back to the fiction section that was across from the cookbooks. "Only recently, though; after Will and I got married I was actually able to walk around the town without an escort or a care."
"Cool," I said. "Well, look around a bit. See if you can find anything that looks good."
"What about this?" Elizabeth asked, looking at a copy of A Tale Of Two Cities. I just stared at her a moment before walking up to her side slowly.
"Um, let's try something else," I said. "Like this." I picked up Four Past Midnight by Stephen King and placed it in her hands, taking the dreaded Charles Dickens away. And yes I handed her the copy with Johnny Depp on it! What other copy is there? Haha…
"Are you sure?" she asked.
"Yeah!" I said. "Mystery galore and psychological thrilling! You can't possibly pass this one up."
"We, if you insist," she said, walking away and flipping through it.
"Oh, I insist," I said, nodding to myself.
Paige was looking through a few Meg Cabot books as I slipped on down and around the shelf to the other side to find the new Harry Potter book for Lindsay. She would love it. I grabbed the nicest-looking copy and browsed about a bit for anything good, and I ended up picking up a book or two for myself that looked interesting. About twenty minutes later, I rounded up Paige and Liz.
"Want anything?" I asked Paige with a laugh seeing six of seven books in her arms. She laughed, too, sitting in a nearby chair.
"Just a few," she giggled. "They all looked so good! Some of them sound very strange but exciting, and I don't know when half of then take place, but especially like these two that take place during my century," she said, showing me them. I laughed.
"Figures."
- Jessica's PoV – 1 hour later –
Jack and I had such an awesome time! I bought all of my gifts from those cool little island store carts all over the mall in the hallways, plus I had my Hot Topic stuff! I always get stuff from that store! Anyways, Jack and I were getting ready to meet the others upstairs. We got looks all day, including from the family that we were sharing the elevator in the middle of the mall's fountain with. Sheeze, what are peoples' problems?
I stepped out of the elevator first when it stopped on the upper floor with my five bags. I waited for Jack to come out after the family, but –
Hey! Wait! Five bags? I had six! And that was my Hot Topic bag with the Happy Bunny shirt in it! Oh no! I'm screwed! That was my new favorite shirt! I kept recounting my bags just to make sure I was missing it or being delirious as Jack walked up beside me.
"Lose something, darling?" Jack asked. I looked back at him quickly and he held up my missing Hot Topic bag on the end of his finger. I smiled, clapped my hands, and took it from him.
"That's the one!" I said happily, taking my bag and throwing it into my other hand with the other five. I sighed. "Well, now I think we better get going to Penney's… we've got about ten minutes."
"Wait," Jack said, grabbing my upper arm before I could start walking. "Isn't that Jane and William?" He pointed over to a bench next to the fountain where sure enough, the two of them sat tossing pennies into it and at each other. They had lots of bags around them, and they had food, too…
"Come on, Jack!" I grabbed his shirt and started pulling him up the steps to the bench where they sat. They noticed we were there finally as I started at the chocolate-covered coffee beans in Lindsay's lap.
"What?" she asked while her mouth was full of them. I practically gasped at that, and she laughed as I grabbed a handful.
"So what have you two been doing?" Will asked.
"Shopping," I said, throwing all the beans in my mouth.
"We've been wreaking havoc," Lindsay laughed in a mischievous voice. "Will and I left Spencer's without paying after I hit on the cashier and it's been crazy trying to hide his good looks from the female population."
"Fangirls, huh?" I asked, taking more coffee beans. "Icky."
"Super icky," Will said. "I've had countless girls throwing me looks and asking for my number and giving me money saying that they'll see me tonight! Elizabeth would kill me!"
Lindsay and I burst into laughter as Jack screwed up his face. In the middle of our laugh-fest in which Will felt like scum of the earth, a girl with pretty long blonde hair came up to us snapping her gum with a big smile. We finally became aware of her.
"Hello, miss," Jack said. "Can we help ye?'
"Oh yeah!" she said, waving quickly. "Hi! Uh, my name is Danielle, and I wanted to speak to him." She pointed to Will quickly. She had the voice of an annoying person. One I'd like to punch. She just annoyed me. Thoroughly.
"Me?" Will asked, sitting up on the bench.
"Yeah."
Will rolled his eyes. "What?" he asked impatiently.
"Well, um, my friend Stacy over there," - she turned around and we saw two girls standing by the column, one with dark hair and the other with lighter brown – "well, she wanted to know if she could have your phone number."
The three of us looked at Will expecting him to flip out. He looked at her a moment biting his lip with anger, but then he let it go, raised his eyebrows, and sat back into the bench.
"Okay, sure," he said.
The Danielle girl smiled really big as she took out a small tablet and pen. We stared at him in shock. Then the annoying girl that I was moments from punching handed the little paper tablet to him and he scribbled on it real quick before handing it back to her with a smile.
"Thanks," she said, taking it back looking absolutely thrilled. "She'll call you tonight, okay?"
"Sure, great," Will said. "Tell her I'll talk to her then."
The girl went back to her friends practically skipping, and we rounded Will again. Lindsay and I wanted to pounce on him!
"Have you been doing that all day?" I asked incredulously.
"No. I just decided to do it this once," Will said.
"Whose number did you give her?" Lindsay asked.
"Mine," Will said.
"You don't have a phone number!" I said hysterically.
"You're right," he said. "But he does." He pointed the Verizon guy cardboard cutout standing next to the Reebok store holding a phone with a speech balloon that said: 'Call Today! 1-800-Verizon and be good.'
Man, that's cheesy…
But effective!
"Hey guys." I turned around and came face to face with Paige, almost smacking her in the face when I did. We laughed, now noticing Erica and Elizabeth coming up the stairs to the fountain platform.
"Ready to go dress hunting?" Erica asked.
"Yup!" Lindsay said. "Come on, Will!"
- Erica's PoV – 5:30 PM -
We had such a blast dress shopping for the Christmas dance… you would not believe it, but we found four of the exact same dresses in different colors! They were plain and simple; spaghetti straps on a dress that came just above the knee. Cool, huh? Lindsay took the red one, Stewie claimed the black one, Paige liked the white, and so I got the green. It was really sweet.
But none so sweeter than that of Beef and Broccoli at the Chinese Place at the Food Court afterwards! Huzzah!
Oh. Liz got a dress, too. It was a black halter with a skirt that was wavy at her knees and had little red and green accents all over it. It was stylish! Haha... And we got Will a green sweater and black dress-up pants. Jack was uncooperative as usual, but go figure that one…
So anyways, we grabbed one thing of beef and broccoli at the Chinese Place before we went, so portions were small amongst the seven of us. Had we gone to Double Dragon, one plate could feed us all and some! What a rip off…
But! We had time to make it to Divito Park and meet up with Holly. So after trying to shove unimaginable amounts of bags in the trunk and in the car, we were on our way to Divito… a place where disaster only awaited…
DUN DUN DUN…
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Yay! I hope you all liked that! So follow the yellow brick road and…
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