Three teenagers who appeared to the unknowing eye to be just normal, average young women of varying age, race, and height strolled through the mall, swinging their bags and chattering away, until one suddenly stopped. Her blue eyes widened, and her mouth dropped open in surprise. "Yo! Check it out -- Frostie's actually shopping at the mall!"
Monet looked up curiously, her almond eyes following her younger team mate's gaze. "Odd. I always thought she thought the mall to be beneath her."
"Are y'all kiddin'?" Paige asked, following their gaze where Emma stood, carefully surveying what looked to be a bunch of necklaces. "She practically lives at Victoria's Secret!"
"Yes, but that is through their catalogs, not through the mall."
Jubilee let her gum pop, then wondered aloud, "What's she checkin' out any way?"
The three teens watched as their headmistress picked up first one and then another of the necklaces, examining each one with a carefully scrutinizing eye and running her fingertips delicately along their surfaces. When she finally held one up to her neck, all three girls' mouths dropped open in pure shock. She wasn't checking out necklaces -- she was checking out collars!
Paige was the first to speak after a long while. "What in the world could she want with a collah?"
Monet shrugged, but Jubilee felt she knew the answer. "Look, Paige, trust me, ya don't wanna know."
"Why? What do ya think it is?"
Jubilee sighed and shook her head. "Why doesn't any one ever listen when somebody tells them they don't want to know something?"
"Because such a statement piques their curiosity, Jubilation. Now what is it? What do you think Miss Frost is planning on using the collar for?"
Jubilee turned her eyes away from both Emma and her friends. They roamed the mall -- the other shoppers, the stores, the ceiling, the floor, the potted plants, anywhere and anything other than her friends. She just couldn't face them as she answered, "Cassidy."
"WHAT?!" both girls shrieked simultaneously.
Jubilee could already feel her face going red. "Hey, I don't like the idea any more than you guys do, but trust me, people do some really insane things in their bedrooms!"
"But . . . But Mistah Cassidy and Miss Frost aren't togethah!"
"Puh-leaze, Hayseed! Wake up already! Ya see the way they look at each other! They've got something goin' on; they just don't want us to know it!"
"Jubilation, you are merely fifteen years old. How in the world could you possibly --?"
"Know what I know about what goes down in people's bedrooms?" Jubilee finished, cutting Monet off. "Look, M, you try livin' in a mansion with rabbits like Jean an' Scott an' Warren an' Betts, and then you come and tell me you don't know anything about it."
Paige paled. "Ah don't think Ah want ta hear any more o' this!"
Monet glanced back up at the store where they had saw Emma just in time to see their headmistress turn and begin to walk out of the pet store, her purchase in hand. "Quick! Duck! If what Jubilee says is right, we don't want her to know we saw her!" The trio quickly dove into a nearby store but continued watching as Emma walked away, their eyes still wide in astonishment and disbelief at what they had just witnessed.
To Be Continued . . .