"Hold still, dammet!" Maggie growled through her teeth at the tiny blonde menace bouncing around the store.
"Whaaaat?"
Dollface was sooooooo annoying! Maggie had been trying to get her to stay still since they had piled into Henry's minivan, but the skinny little brat zoomed around the fabric store like a wind-up toy, flapped her hands and rocked while grinning childishly.
"Whaddya think o'this, Mags?" Dollface held up a bright blue jersey knit. "It also comes in purple if we wanna go that route."
Maggie stomped over in Doc Martin's that were a few sizes too big and stuffed with socks to where Dollface stood. She stared at it, rubbing the bolt of cloth between her fingers. "No. I told you, I want satin! And stop callin' me 'Mags'."
"What 'bout cotton? It's easier t'wash an'cheaper."
"You ignorant slut, I told you I wanted sa-"
"Girls, are we sure we're going to need all this?" Henry inturrupted the beginnings of a knock-down, drag-out fight, watching Dollface trot away to find a new, more satisfactory set of fabrics for Maggie to approve.
"I wanna see all my options lined up." Maggie waved a hand over the cart full of notions like beads and zippers. She'd redo her black dollar store manicure later, preferably without the prying eyes of the lameass kids who kept showing up to say hi.
She was convinced one loser was trying to get a date.
Too bad for him, Maggie's heart was already set on Vinnie.
Vincinté Estaban Julió Ricardo Montoya de la Rosa Ramirez-Afton, who was tall, dark, and handsome, and even had a sexy little accent.
Not only that, but he was older by two years, (Sixteen! Squee!) and his step dad owned and operated one of the fastest growing entertainment companies in the country.
If that wasn't catnip to trailer-park Maggie, then who knew what was!
Problem was, everything about Vinnie was also catnip to just about every other backwaters, po-dunk girl the whole, goddamn middle of nowhere county that she'd landed in.
After valiantly fighting the queen bee, Missy Custer and all her annoying giggle-giggle-tease-tease-like-like-like friends, destroying competition with a few locals and sourly glaring at all the girls she hated because of how much time they spent around Vinnie, Maggie learned, much to her chagrin, that the least likely suspect to steal her prize right before her very own eyes, was Dolli Mae.
Dolli.
Freakin'.
Mae.
Dolli Mae Jensen, the only girl in the Jensen household dominated by boys.
Whose dad was a fat bailiff for the county courthouse, and whose mother was a nurse for a hospital two towns over.
Who had three older brothers and three younger brothers.
Dolli Mae, a congenatal dwarf with asthma.
Who woulda thought the bitch who looked squashed in most light and could barely climb the frst step of a staircase would be the apple of tall, dark, and handsome Vinnie's eyes.
Dolli Mae was the same bitch who had to wear a back brace and would spend most of next summer either dressed like a pirate, shooting paper targets in other, po-dunk, lameass towns for cheap trophies, or flat on her back in the hospital for corrective surgeries.
Maggie wouldn't make that mistake again if she ever had the chance.
Dollface, another bit of competition Maggie had immediately tried to squash under her boots, right after making sure Wolfie (the only other hispanic in the ENTIRE county) wouldn't get frisky, shouted from behind a rack of heavy brocades. "Would this be good fer Dolli Mae's coat?"
Maggie immediatly balled her fists at the name of her newest and greatest enemy, then forgot her rival at the thought of new matierial to work with.
"Oooh, perfect." Maggie roughly pushed her previous competition out of the way and lifted it up. Satisfied with the find, she placed it in the cart. Charlotte, just past three, burbled, and reached for the bolt from where she sat in the baby seat of the cart.
Rivalry or not, Maggie was still given a job to do!
Maybe, if she made the costumes just right, Vinnie would dump the chump and get with Maggie because she could make anyone look good.
Oooooooh, wouldn't that be just great?
Maggie found herself grinning at the thought.
"No no sweetie, Aunt Mags needs this clean." Maggie cooed to Charlotte, trying to place the bolt in the cart with the pile of satin. "Dollface, find something stripey for String Bean and Thorne's new uniforms!"
"I found some distressed denim, could that work for th'pants?"
"We're buyin' pants, don't need it." Maggie snapped, bouncing Charlie on her hip, "Now hurry your ass up!"
Maggie smiled and stuck out her tongue to get a sloppy, drooly giggle out of Charlie.
Charlie was adorable, and why anyone would try to get as far away from her as possible like Dollface had in the car was beyond her. Maggie was honored to be the babysitter of such a perfect child, regardless of the fact that she was trying to escape the endless noise of her mother's overstuffed trailer in LA.
She used to get paid double before Charlie's twin brother went missing at Fazbear's. That was the same day Vinnie's kid stepbrother Zachary was….
Nevermind, it didn't matter.
She was always trying to get William to let her babysit, but no, Vinnie was good enough, and worked for free. Before leaving, Maggie was trying to convince his stepsister that she wanted to be babysat by her as well.
Instead, Vinnie would scoop up Bianca and apologize, saying that Vinnie could handle it just fine and that no, Maggie couldn't come over with Charlie and watch a movie and would she let go of his hand? It was getting weird and girls were watching them.
Another complaint Maggie had was that as far as she was concerned, she was supposed to be the one who was supposed to be gettin' the babysitting money, not Princess and her ilk.
While relieved by finding out that Princess was a coochie-licker, and therefore, not competition, Maggie was quickly pissed off again by another cutting of funds.
That was supposed to be her money, not a fairly popular local business's.
The Firkus family had plenty of other little brats to deal with, and had loads more money than a fourteen year old who had to live with a cheapass foster dad like Henry could ever have.
"Hey Mags!"
Oooh, that was getting on Maggie's nerves. She couldn't stand being called Mags, especially by someone like Dollface. The only person she would put up with calling her that was Vinnie, but he barely even called her 'Maggie'.
Just 'Miss' or maybe, if she was especially lucky, 'Barkey'.
As in, "Margret Barkey".
"Mags?"
"Don't call me that!" She snapped at the Dollface and her homely overall skirt with hearts and star shaped buttons sewn onto it sitting at the catalogue desk.
"Well, sorry." Dollface said with a shrug, "look what I found!"
Dollface pointed at a bodysuit in a catalogue. "Just like yer concepts for Wolfie. Modest, too! Her parents would kill her if she was wearin' what ya drew, even if it looks cool."
How did she find that so fast? It would've taken Maggie forever to find that in such a big book. Dollface was already up and running over to the pattern racks and stating numbers aloud.
"3134... 3138, 3167, oh, here it is!" Dollface pulled out the pattern triumphantly, "This'll be perfect with that hexagon black stretch I found earlier! An'Gramma has some white at home we can use too!"
"Is it the right sizing?" Maggie asked with an air of carefully placed superiority, trying to keep her demeanor. She couldn't have some brat like Dollface ruining her chances of a career, so what if Maggie was only fourteen?
"Oh! You're right!" Dollface hunched back over and selected the correct sizing. Maggie tried not to take her glasses off to rub her eyes. Instead, she opted for running her fingers through her blonde curls that didn't like being tamed into cool scene girl haircuts like that cold bitch Wolfie could. Maggie glanced to the Hot Topic she'd seen when entering the mall.
Oh, how she wished she'd worn her fishnets and MCR teeshirt today…
At least she had her red thong that she wished Vinnie would see when she hiked them over her hip-bones when wearing low waisted cut-offs.
Fuck it, just being noticed by Vinnie in general would've been good enogh for her. Instead, he was chasing after a dwarf with a lopsided face and a funny accent.
"Oh! And here." Dollface shoved a pattern for different sleeves at Maggie. "Ya always need these!"
Maggie glared at Dollface's wide beaming face.
"OMG, can you not?" Maggie roughly snatched the envelopes from Dollface's hands.
"Hey, be nice." Henry said sternly from behind them. Maggie ignored him. She woke up with a headache, and she'd have one all the way home from the mall with the way Dollface was going.
"Look, I have twelve little brothers and sisters back home in L.A. with no fathers in sight or a mother who'll pay attention to them for more than five fucking minutes, I have Charlie to babysit, and Vinnie to watch."
"Why would ya wanna watch Vinnie and Dolli's date? It's just soda."
"No! You know what I mean!" Maggie pushed Dollface. Dollface had absolutely NO boundaries! "I have a headache now, thanks."
Maggie scowled.
Insufferable bitch.
Maggie grabbed an armful of heavy bolts. Dollface followed with hers.
"Okay, we'll need this much of each." Maggie began stacking a few bolts of color in one stack. "These satins will be great for the contrasting skirt panels, so I'd say about a yard and a half each."
Dollface nodded vigorously.
"Cool it, your head might go flying." Maggie snorted, holding back laughter at the speed of which Dollface attempted to sit still, "Okay, this'll be yours, so two yards. You're small. And from her measurements, three yards of yellow for Izzalia."
"Izzy'll love it!"
Maggie swallowed down a growl, and an, 'I don't care'. She continued through, trying to ignore the comments of Dollface as Henry took careful note in his pocket sized notepad of the amounts needed of each.
Once at the counter, Maggie explained to the lady how much she needed, and Dollface eyed Charlie uncomfortably.
"Guess it's back to the tailor shop girls."
"What? I haven't been here for months! Besides, I have an idea!" Dollface grabbed Maggie by the wrist and pulled her out of the storefront down the mallway. Past the tiny fountains at a dragging sprint and to...
"Hey! NO!" Maggie protested. As far as she was concerned, Hot Topic and Jo-Anne's were the only good places to go in a mall, definitely not wherever Dollface was dragging her.
"Girls, wait!" Henry tried to give chase, but was weighed down by the bags of cloth.
"Here!" Dollface pulled into the Party City.
"Noooo..." Maggie whined, fighting to pull away, only to find that Dollface had surprisingly strong fingers.
"Look Mags!" Next to a rack, Dollface clipped a tiny top hat into her hair. She looked into the gaudily framed mirror, and giggled. "We could add some ribbon from Gramma's stash fer a hat band!"
Maggie stared goggle-eyed at how much stuff there was in this one aisle. Not even like, good stuff, just stuff.
She shifted in her black turtleneck. Fashion was more important than beating this miserably moist heat.
Dollface was already zooming past Maggie, hat on head. She knelt and waved a hand, signaling Maggie to join her on the floor.
"Look Mags! Fantasy fishnets in every color possible! And cheaper than what we'd get at Hot Topic too!" Dollface stood and reached after shoving the little nylon wrapped cardboard pieces into Maggie's face, pulling a yellow feather boa down from the shelf above. "We can chop this up too! It would be perfect for Izzy's trim. Or even scrunchies!"
Practically breaking into the fourth dimension from sheer exuberance, Dollface wrapped it around Maggie's neck. Before Maggie could say anything, the bitch had gotten up and bounced to a wall display of headbands.
"Would you quit with 'Mags'? And get outta here, this blo-!"
"Ooh, ooh! I have some dye at home fer these! Princess'll love 'em!" Dollface shoved a pair of white bunny ears in Maggie's face. She pushed them away in annoyance, trying not to drop the selected tights but failing anyway.
Oh well, who was counting anyways?
Not Maggie, that was for sure. It would be easier to order them online, too, and she wouldn't have to hang around this hellhole with the tasmanian devil all day.
Dollface then ran past and into another section as Maggie hurried to pick up the packs of tights Scowling, Maggie chased after her. She couldn't lose Dollface, she was as bad as Vinnie on a good day.
"I can't stand you!" Maggie had finally cornered her. "Stay still for five minutes and stop acting like a child!"
She ripped the yellow boa from her neck and angrily threw them at Dollface. "I don't know WHAT you are on, but act your age!"
"So I should act more like you?"
Maggie grabbed Dollface by the shoulders. Oooh, if she could just...!
Dollface started to crumple, lip quivering like when Charlie wanted something really badly. She reached being her and grabbed a pair of heart shaped novelty sunglasses. She smiled widely.
Maggie resisted the urge to gag.
She let go.
Maggie was convinced.
There was no stopping Dollface.
Dollface was a force of nature.
It would be a long ride home, wouldn't it?
She stopped, seeing that Dollface's face was mostly covered by the glasses and her hair.
Maggie's shoulders relaxed. It looked natural, the way her face was obscured. Like that was how it should be.
Maggie snatched the glasses from Dollface's square face, and placed the Sweet Lolita nightmare back to its proper place. Dollface glared at her and grabbed them, sauntering past Maggie and towards the check out lines. They brought the items up front, grabbing a white mask and an eyepatch on their way, showing all items to Henry for approval, then checked out.
"I hope we ain't overspendin' sir."
"Ah, don't worry kiddo, it's a tax write off for me."
Dollface stared up at Henry in surprise.
"Yeah, filed as a business expense." Henry laughed, "You girls ready to go home?"
"I'm ready fer Freddy!"