YAY! Two chapters in one day! I've never been able to do that. Haha.
Anyway, this chapter turned up six pages on word, I haven't been able to type a chapter more than 1500 words in forever. And now I have one that's over 2500 words. That makes me happy.
Another shout out to CherriBee216 and The-Gray-Ninja for reviewing the last chapter. Thank you guys. You get Soul plushies for reviewing every chapter since you started reading. /hands plushies/
Okay, now, onto the chapter!

~Angel

Chapter Four

Shopping for the dresses.

Time for a history lesson?

Miranda's POV

I looked up at the clock on the far side of the room, pencil tapping idly against the pad of paper in front of me. The teacher was writing something on the board, and I knew I had to take it down as a note, but if she didn't get out of the way before the bell rang I wouldn't be able too. Sighing, I looked down at the three pages of notes I had already written. Then again, I know that Tori would be looking to copy them because she looked preoccupied with… just gazing out a window. Ah, well, that was my sister in a subject she didn't care about. Just gaze away like she was day dreaming.

Finally the teacher stepped out of the way – I really did need to learn her name – and I was able to jot down the notes in shorthand right before the bell rang. With that, I quickly put my notebook in my bag and snapped it shut before standing. "Tori, come on," I said, poking her lightly to get her out of her daze.

She looked up at me before sighing and shaking her head, standing and putting her school supplies away quickly. "Sorry, guess I spaced," she apologized, and I only smiled at her.

"It's alright Tori," I said, heading down the steps and standing on the floor. "Now come on, I want to drop this stuff off at home!" I felt more than saw her eye roll before she was on the ground next to me and we headed out the door. It was a quick walk out of the school and down the stairs, or at least it was for me, Tori was lagging behind again. I walked over to my bike and unlocked it, swinging a leg over. "Race you home?" I suggested, looking at her with a smile.

Tori grinned at me then. "Anytime, and you know I'll win," she said before unlocking her bike and getting on it.

I laughed at that. "Ha! You only wish you'd be able to win," I taunted before pressing down on the pedal. "Go!" I called over my shoulder, laughing as she struggled to get her bike going after the shock of me leaving that fast. I smiled and kept pedaling, heading back to the apartment. It was nice to be going this fast, the wind hitting my face and pushing my bangs out of my face.

At one point Tori had been going faster than me, and sped around a corner, but I caught up easily and for the rest of the trip home we were pretty much even. We stopped at the front of the apartment and hopped off the bikes, and I smiled. "Beat you," I pointed out to her, and she only pouted.

"Did not, we were tied," she said, locking up her bike before heading to the front door.

I laughed at that and locked up as well before following her, shifting my bag on my shoulder before I was able to walk in the door. I tossed my bag onto the couch before stretching slightly. "Neh, Tori…?" I asked, turning to look at my sister.

She gave me a wary look, slowly putting her bag on the ground. "Yes Miranda?" she asked.

"Can we go shopping? Please?" I asked, lacing my hands in front of me and giving her an innocent look. "Pretty please?"

"You're already making me go to a party I really don't want to go to in the first place, now why exactly am I supposed to cave and go shopping?" she asked, crossing her arms in front of her chest.

I pouted lightly, knowing fully well that it was hard for her to resist letting me do what I wanted too. "Please? We need dresses for the party, we don't have any suitable ones here," I said.

She sighed slightly and turned away from me, and I knew in that moment I had won. "Fine, but we're getting inexpensive dresses to save money until we can get jobs," she said, and I let out a cheer before tackling her onto the couch.

"Thank you thank you thank you~" I cried, hugging her tightly before bouncing back onto my feet and running to my room to get my wallet. "Get your wallet! We're going to have to walk there! I don't want to risk the dresses getting ruined by being in a bag on a bike!" I called to her, quickly running a brush through my hair and putting a head band in it to hold my bangs out of my face.

I bounced back out of my room with my wallet tucked into my pants pocket and smiled, waiting for Tori to come back out of her room. She came out soon enough – wearing a headband also and her wallet was attached to a chain in her pocket like usual – and I grabbed her hand, dragging her out of the apartment after locking the door.

Apparently it wasn't that far of a walk, because in… approximately twenty minutes, we were standing in front of the mall. I felt Tori sigh from beside me. "Alright, let's go," she said, walking into the giant building that housed probably more than fifteen stores. I followed in behind her, looking around and smiling before I grabbed her hand and pulled her into the nearest dress shop.

I promptly started going through the racks, looking for something that would look good and wasn't too expensive. Talk about hard, everything thing here was top of the line and expensive. I gave up on that store after a while and pulled Tori back out, sighing. "Oh well, fourteen more stores to hit!"

She looked at me like I'd grown two heads. "Fourteen? Oh no, we don't have time for that."

I pouted again but gave in this time. "Fine, we'll only hit five," I said before turning and going to find a directory or something. If I only got five stores, I wanted to make sure I hit the right five. I finally found a directory and grinned, walking over to it, but then I saw a very familiar group of four girls; which of course consisted of Liz, Patti, Maka, and Tsubaki.

Maka was the first to notice us and waved, so I waved back with a small smile. "Hey Miranda, Tori!" she called. I felt Tori's confusion before she realized who it was and I chuckled slightly, earning an elbow in my side from her. "What're you guys doing here?" Maka asked as we got closer to them.

"We're out shopping for dresses for the party," I responded, "what about you guys?"

"Oh, we're here for the same reason," Tsubaki said, smiling at all of us.

Liz grinned at us. "We can all shop together! We were just looking for the best store to go shopping at," she said, and I found myself nodding with the rest of the group – minus Tori of course.

Tori only sighed before giving a shrug. "Alright, if that's what you want Mira. But remember, cheap," she said.

I nodded. "I know, Tori," I said, smiling at her before looking back at the group. "So where were you guys planning on going first?" I asked.

Maka smiled at us. "Well I think we were going to go to Tirandel's Boutique," she said.

I smiled slightly. "Okay. You guys can just lead the way," I said, gesturing.

Liz smiled before taking the lead, heading in the direction I assumed the Boutique was in. As we walked, Tori and I found questions being pointed towards us.

"So where did you guys live before Death City?" Tsubaki asked softly.

I felt my twin stiffen and I put a hand on her arm to calm her slightly before answering. "We actually moved from England-"

"Then why don't you have a funny accent?" Patti cut in.

I smiled at her. "Because we were born and raised here in the U.S. We just came from England because we had taken a two year trip there to see the sights, among other things." Maka looked at us then, and I felt like a bug being examined… or maybe that snake that Professor Stein dissected today… What was going on in that head of hers?

"So why did the Professor call you two the Daniel Twins, even though you are twins… it sounded like a title rather than just your last name and relation," she said.

I managed to stop Tori from jumping down the girl's throat for an innocent question, my hand on her arm tightening to the point she winced and glared at me, and I just glared back. They had a right to know, they were our friends after all. She scoffed at me, as if to say 'you don't know that yet'. I rolled my eyes and then smiled faintly at Maka. "It is a title," I said cautiously, watching my twin to see if she was going to stop me or add in her own two cents. She did neither, merely staring at the ground as she walked like it would swallow her whole.

"It is a title," I said again with a small sigh. "We earned it through our life because of what we used to do. Think of us as… ex-hit men, in a way. Our… services… were able to be bought for a certain price, and then we would complete the mission. We aren't exactly proud of what we did, which is why we came here to restart," I said.

The girls looked at us for a moment but didn't ask anymore questions and I let out a sigh of relief. Though why did I get the feeling that we were going to be asked more questions at a later date…? Probably because we were… Ah, oh well. I resigned myself to the fact and let it go. It was then that we were at Tirandel's Boutique, and I walked in half expecting everything to be priced to the extremes. Therefore, I was pleasantly surprised to see that everything was actually decently priced.

"Elizabeth! Patricia! How nice to see you two!"

I turned to look at who was talking to the two sisters, blinking in surprise at the sight of the mocha colored woman with black hair that hung in a braid down to mid back. She had the most amazing pair of blue eyes, a deep blue that shone like the night sky, and I felt like I could instantly trust her.

Patti grinned and launched herself at the woman, clinging to her. "Tira Tira! Hi there!" she chirped, still grinning like a maniac.

The woman, whom I suppose is named Tira, patted the girl and pried her off to set her back on the ground. "I don't suppose you two are here to shop?" she asked, making it seem like they often time came in here just to talk to her.

Liz laughed. "We are actually," she said, "along with our friends. We're shopping for the party coming up at the DWMA."

Tira looked pleased and turned to the rest of us. "Well then, it's nice to see you all. Can I help you find anything specific for this party?"

"Cheap and formal," Maka said with chuckle, and I nodded with the others.

Tira grinned, gave us thumbs up and threw in a wink. "Leave it to me ladies, I have something for every one of you in here," she said, before laughing softly and looking at us all like she was trying to figure out who to start with. Finally she pointed at Tsubaki and gestured for her to follow. The black haired weapon followed the worker – or was she the owner? – and came back within ten minutes with a dress in her hands and a smile on her face.

It went like this for the rest of the group, Tira picking us one at a time and then each one coming back with a dress, happy about the choice and it fit our budgets. She picked Victoria before me, and she came back with a shocked yet happy look on her face. I peered over at her arms. "What did you get?" I asked.

Tori held out a gorgeous navy blue dress that was a sleeveless v-neck, a line cut. The V dipped a little farther than I thought she would be comfortable with, probably only two and a half inches before the end of her bust. Beneath that was a five inch wide beaded "belt" of sorts, and it flowed freely after that point. It really was a pretty dress, and Tori was going to look stunning in it.

Tira finally looked at me and gestured. "Come on, let's go then," she said, walking away. I followed behind her, suddenly feeling like a puppy at the heels of its master. She pushed me into a dressing room and then handed me a dress that she must have grabbed while we were walking… or maybe she already had it picked out. I don't know I didn't see her grab it. I took it and closed the door to the dressing room to try the dress on.

Once it was on and zipped in the back I had to look twice to be sure I was seeing things correctly. The teal color was set off against my hair and eyes, and it was an off-the-shoulder dress that had two straps coming back around under my arms to tie behind my neck and ensure that it stayed up. The dip for the neck line was modest, and stopped just before my bust. The fabric wrapped to the left, and there was a line of ruching that all of the fabric around my middle followed. The fabric dropped from the ruching line into elegant folds that grew bigger the further from the line they got. Turning around, I got a look at the fabric in the back that formed what was called a "fish-tail". All in all, it was a gorgeous dress.

I slipped back out of it and put the dress over my arm, checking the price tag. I was surprised when I saw that it was just under a hundred dollars. A dress that beautiful for less than a hundred? Well, my mind was made up about it then. I left the dressing room and thanked Tira, smiling brightly at her.

She waved a hand. "Don't worry about it, I've been doing this for years, I know what will look good," she said, smiling before escorting me back to where the others were. They all oo-ed and aw-ed over the dress as we went to pay for our collections. Soon after, we left the store and bid Tira a farewell.

Liz turned to us with a smile. "Well, who's up for shoe shopping next to go with the dresses?"

I could only smile; the rest of the afternoon was going to be lots of fun.