Chapter 5- Shopping with a Pixie
I was sitting in my room, enjoying the peace and quiet after a long day of studying, curled up in a blanket and reading one of my favorite books, "Pride and Prejudice".
I had just reached the part where Elizabeth was being proposed to by none other than Mr. Darcy when suddenly a loud noise interrupted the silence.
"It's time, It's time, It's time!" Alice yelled loudly. Thankfully, the dorms where almost completely empty since most students had a social life and unlike me, thought that reading wasn't the perfect way to spend time.
"Just hold on a second I want to finish this first," I said. Big mistake.
"Come on! We need to go now if you want a whole new wardrobe! And we'll have to go by foot, so there's no time to waste." Alice continued yelling, effictively killing many cells in my poor, poor ear which by now I was surprised wasn't completely deaf.
"Fine!" I yelled back. "I'm coming, calm down already!"
A woman poked her head into our room and I recognized her as the girl's dorm manager. "Excuse me girls, would you please quiet down, some of us would like to be able to hear each other and not your screaming." She said in a polite way, yet in a rather harsh tone.
I blushed lightly and muttered "sorry", gesturing to Alice to do the same.
"Yeah, yeah we're realllly sorry." She said, then turned back to me. "Well? Are you ready yet? We need to goooo!" She said, dragging out the last word far too much.
I scrunched up my face in annoyance. "Yes, I believe you said that already."
"Then it must be true," she said smugly.
"Whatever." I sighed, "let's get this over with."
"So where are we shopping anyway?" I asked, after having walked for the past half hour across what seemed like the entire campus. Alice hadn't stopped talking the entire time telling me exactly which shops we should try and what her favorite labels were, though she didn't mention even once where we were actually going to find the place.
"You mean you don't already know?" She asked, shooting me a disbelieving look.
"Why else would I ask?" I replied rhetorically.
"Well, I just assumed you knew since I had told you already when I was showing you around yesterday, so either you have a seriously bad memory or you didn't bother to listen to me at all. I personally really hope it isn't the latter because if it is I'm deeply offended," she said in a playful tone.
I chuckled. "I'm guessing it's neither, I probably just started tuning you out the moment you said shopping."
Alice sent me another disbelieving look. "Do you really hate clothes and shopping so much? It just seems a bit unnatural, you know? I mean, you are a teenage girl, you're supposed tolove shopping. And clothes. And boys..." She teased, trailing off suggestively.
"Never claimed to be normal, Alice dear," I answered in the same playful tone.
"Yeah well, I still can't imagine hating shopping," she said. "Too awful."
"Yeah right." I snickered.
"Anyway," she said, trying to change the subject. "Since you apparently don't remember anything of importanceyou'll just have to wait 'till we get there to find out where we're going."
"Aww, that's not fair." I whined.
"Seeing as we've already arrived without you even noticing, I'd hardly say that's unfair."
"Wait, what?" I asked surprised, stopping in my steps and actually registering our surroundings for the first time.
We were standing in front of a huge building that had paths like ours leading to it from different directions. Surrounding it were many trees which were blending in with the building and were probably the reason I hadn't seen it in the first place.
"This is a mall?" I asked incredulously.
"Yep," Alice replied cheerfully. "Best I've ever known, and probably half the reason I enrolled in this school."
Now it was my turn to look at her disbelievingly. "Are you serious?" I asked, feeling I already knew the answer.
"Totally." She said, not even noticing the astonished look on my face. "Now come on, unless you came all the way out here to stare at the place from the outside..." She trailed off.
"'Course not." I elbowed her and took off, deciding to tease her a little. "Well? Are you coming?"
She laughed and ran after me.
More or less a hundred shops later (I'm not exaggerating I swear!) Alice finally agreed with me on something- It was time for a break.
We had spent the past four hours going through every shop and label known to man and I was reaching my breaking point. Even though it was fun hanging out with the little pixie, I knew it was just a matter of time before I would finally collapse; there was only so much of Alice one could endure.
Besides, I knew Alice was also going more over the top than was normal for her. Just because I didn't necessarily appreciate my parent's wealth didn't mean she didn't.
I knew my wardrobe was a bit better stocked than was required for a normal teenage girl, but Alice wouldn't hear any of it. She had told me to "let her have her fun" as she put it, and who was I to deny her her fun?
"Well, that was a good start. We still have to go get a few more things but we won't be rushing anymore." Alice said as she plopped down in the chair next to mine, holding an iced cappuccino.
"You mean there's more?" I asked her incredulously.
She looked at me as if I were crazy. "Of course there's more! We just got you your casual wardrobe, we haven't even got you a dress yet!"
"Why on earth would I need a dress? I asked, I was starting to feel Alice was getting a bit out of hand, we were in Washington for crying out loud! I couldn't exactly wear dresses in the nearly constant rain.
"Why would you need a dress? Why would you need a dress?! Are you kidding me? Do you ever listen to me? I'm starting to think you tune me out more than actually listen to me Bella!" She ranted.
"What are you talking about?" I asked, growing irritated.
"I'm talking about why you would need a dress Bella. It seems that everything just escapes your mind, because I already told you yesterday while we were going to dinner about a certain event that would require a dress."
I frowned, trying to remember what Alice might have said yesterday on our way to dinner. I vaguely recalled Alice going on about some kind of event, but I had been too nervous about meeting her friends that I barely registered what she had said.
Seeing I wasn't getting anywhere with her hints, Alice suddenly exclaimed, "The "Back to School Ball", Bella! I know I told you about this!"
"Oh." I said, suddenly remembering Alice's words from yesterday.
"Oh and of course there's the "Back to School Ball" this Saturday. We're definetely going, it's like tradition at this school. We have a big dance on the first week back, and everybody's there it would be social suicide not to go, and I have a reputation to keep! We'll need to get dresses too since everyone is always dressed formal for it."
I remembered chuckling at her rush of words. "Breathe, Alice" I'd said.
"Alright, I remember! I remember! No need to get all mad." I said, now trying to calm down one rather pissed off Alice.
"Yeah well, it took you long enough," she grumbled.
I smiled, suddenly thinking of a way to appease Alice. "Hey, Alice, how about I pay for both our dresses, that way we could go shop in better stores!"
"Trying to buy my forgiveness now, why don't you?" She said, still grumbling but upon seeing my now sullen expression she started laughing.
"I'm kidding, jeesh! Stop taking stuff so seriously! You'll wrinkle at a young age if you keep that up. I already forgave you by the time you remembered, although if my acting skills were good enough to get me a free dress, I might just use them more often..."
"Whatever, let's just shop till I drop." I said, trying to change the subject.
"Don't you mean shop till we drop?" Alice asked.
"Oh no, trust me, it's definitely shop till I drop, you'll just be waiting to ask me if I'm ready to move on to the next store."
Alice just laughed and lead me on our way.