A/N: Sorry it's so short.
Chapter 27
Liz was right, as usual. There was so much stuff I had no idea how they managed to buy it all in such a short amount of time. There were new wardrobes for all of us. The new wardrobes that Bex and I had were very similar in style, dark colors in dark shades. There were leather things and ripped things and yet everything still managed to look cute. Liz had a lot of pastel colors in all degrees of brightness. Macey had a perfect mix of both.
The worst part of the new wardrobes was the amount of things they bought. Normal people go shopping and buy a few things at a time then go back and buy more when they need it. Not Macey, Macey buys everything she could ever possibly need at once and only goes back if she forgot something. So in that day's shopping trip alone she managed to buy a few dozen shirts, two dozen pairs of pants, and a dozen skirts with another dozen and a half dresses. For each person. And shoes. And accessories.
When I say accessories I don't just mean necklaces and earrings, oh no. I mean necklaces, earrings, bracelets, rings, anklets, ear cuffs (which are not the same things are earrings), hair clips, decorative bobby pins, headbands, scarves, hats, gloves (yes, they're an accessory), purses, wallets, bags, satchels, and beanies. Believe it or not, they are all different things. So not only did we have to sort through dozens of items of clothing, we had to sort through (and organize) all the accessories as well. Not to mention the shoes.
Macey is particular about her shoes. She only buys high quality shoes but that in no way means she doesn't buy dozens of pairs. It just means we have to be extremely careful about how we put the shoes away, and how we wear them, and how we clean them, and how we take the shoes out to wear them. Shoes take a very long time to organize.
Now all of this is not mention all the things Macey bought specifically for the fancy photoshoot. There were more ridiculously overpriced dresses for all of us(that were admittedly, very cute) as well as shoes, accessories, hair care products, makeup, perfumes, and underclothing that were specifically for the photoshoot and had to be sorted separately.
So as you can see, we had our work cut out for us. I had no idea going into this how long it would take but Liz did.
"I estimate it will take us until around 4:30 AM if we start now and work non stop." Liz told us while Macey plugged in the speaker.
My eyes bugged out of my head but Macey was not deterred.
"Well then we better get to work." Macey said calmly as she turned to face the chaos before her. A fire lit in her eyes, she would organize the chaos before the night was out.
We got to work. Macey set us each to do individual tasks in the hopes of getting it done quickly. Bex was in charge of outfits. She would separate the clothing and set the items on the corresponding beds. Liz was in charge of shoes, a task I was unsure of for Lizzie. She would go through the pairs of shoes and label the boxes and set them next to the person's bed. If she finished early she was to help Bex. I was in charge of accessories. Macey had decided that a majority of the accessories would be shared by all so I was in charge of locating all the accessories and organizing them in the back corner of the room where they were available for all of us to use. When I was done, I was going to help Bex and Liz. Macey herself was going to tackle makeup and hair care products. She would sort them by person and organize them in the bathroom.
We blasted the music through the dorm room and maneuvered around each other as we all tried to work as quickly as we could. I quickly located all the accessory bags and dragged them into the back corner to work. I thought I could get it done quickly but my hopes were dashed when I saw the numerous individual items inside each bag. It took my the better part of almost three hours to complete my task. I first had to separate each item then find a place for it then organize it by size or sometimes color or sometimes shape. I also had to make sure that each item was easily accessible. It took me an hour to do necklaces alone.
Liz breezed through her task and swiftly moved to helping Bex. With the two of them working it went by extremely quickly. The finished sorting all the clothes by throwing them onto certain beds (except for the stuff for the photoshoot, we all had strict instructions not to touch that stuff) when I finished with accessories and Macey appeared from the bathroom. She took one look at the progress then we moved onto stage two.
Stage two was a little better. Now we had to go through the mountains of clothing on our beds and put them away. Shirts, dresses, and skirts had to be hung. Shorts, pants, underclothing, and pajamas had to be folded carefully then organized into separate drawers in the dresser. We also had to go through and sort through our shoes, deciding which ones we were willing to share with others and place those at the back of the room for everyone's access. This part wasn't very difficult, just very time consuming. I spent a good chunk of time gaping at what they had bought me. None of it was unwearable unfortunately but a lot of us was definitely more risky than what I usually wear. That's what I get for letting my friends shop for me.
Despite the ease of the task, it took us another three and half hours to complete it. By this time we were all exhausted and staggering on our feet. However, we were still not done. We still had to go through all of the things for the fancy photoshoot and Macey wanted me to try on the dresses she bought me. The other outfits she knew would fit me.
First we separated clothing. We each had a handful of incredibly fancy dresses, a few more casual but still fancy outfits, as well as a couple completely casual outfits. We also had shoes, special makeup, hair care products, and accessories that matched. We quickly gathered the things that belonged to us and hung them up to breathe. I gasped when I saw what Macey had bought me.
They were all ball gowns. And strapless. One was a neutral color that had a sheer back with beading on it, it was stunning. Another was a pale pink that was ruffled and sort of reminded me of the dress I wore that night with Zach but it was cut differently and had a style that was less showy. The third was a blood red. It had a long train and velvet detail. The fourth was a light gold. It shined, but it wasn't metallic. The last was a pure white.
The girls all had dresses that were similar. Each of them had a neutral, a pink, a red one, a gold or silver, then a pure white. Each dress was incredibly different in style but they all went together. They were gorgeous and I'm sure Macey had something great in mind.
I tried each of them on hurriedly while the girls organized the accessories and special care products. We finished at exactly the time Liz approximated and fell into a deep sleep.
"Cammie, it's time to wake up." Zach voice was whispering in my ear. I groaned.
"Bex!" I called to her.
"What?" She replied just as sleepily.
"Make it stop." I begged.
"On it." Bex called back.
"Oomph." Zach fell to the ground. I guess Bex was still half asleep. "Bex, why did you throw a pillow at me."
"Shhhh." Bex replied.
"What if I don't want to?" Zach retorted. Bex climbed out of her bed. Poor Zach.
Bex slapped Zach around for a minute, him failing to defend and before I knew it, Zach was locked out of the room and Bex was climbing into bed next to me.
"Hey Cam?" She whispered in my ear.
"Hmm?" I replied.
"What time is it?" She asked drowsily.
"Sleeping time." We both quickly fell back asleep.
Now see most boys would be leave when their girlfriends best friends locked them out of their room. Not Zach. One of the downsides of having a spy boyfriend was that he was extremely capable of picking locks. And of bringing backup.
Zach broke into room again five minutes later and this time he had Grant, Jonas, and Preston accompanying him. They quickly opened the door and gathered around our beds.
Preston and Jonas both used their individual tactics to get Macey and Liz out of bed, but seeing as Bex and I were huddled together in the same bed Zach and Grant decided to team up.
"Caaaaam." Zach whispered in my ear. "Waaaake up."
"Beeeeeeex." Grant echoed. "It's day time."
"Go away." I groaned.
"It's time to wake up." Grant told us.
"It's time for you to go away. We're exhausted let us sleep." Bex moaned.
"You've slept long enough." Zach informed us.
"You've slept long enough." I corrected him. "We have not. Let us sleep."
"I can't believe we thought you guys cared about us." Bex said grumpily, but I could tell she was completely joking.
"Whoa how did you get that from us waking you up?" Zach asked
"I didn't mean it! I'm sorry! We'll leave!" Grant yelled at the same time.
"GUYS!" Macey yelled over them. She climbed out of her own bed and crossed to ours. "She's kidding."
Macey flopped down on top of Bex and I, joining our pile. We let her wiggle under the covers of us as well all attempted to sleep. Unfortunately, our boyfriends were against the idea.
"Come on guys, we're bored." Preston whined.
"It's been so long." Grant groaned.
"Please wake up? Pretty please?" Zach asked.
This continued for a full minute until Liz got sick of it and shot out of her own bed.
"Okay! We're up! I will get them out of bed, leave so we can get ready." She instructed.
The boys cheered at their success and left the room, Lizzie herding them out the door. As soon as they were clear of the door, she locked it and did something else (I didn't see what). She then came over to our pile and jumped on top. When she didn't scream at us to get up we assumed she wanted to sleep as well. We let her climb under the covers of us and while we were still precariously piled on my bed, we all fell back asleep.
"I thought you guys said you would get ready?" Jonas' voice came an hour later.
"Actually what I said was ' I will get them out of bed, leave so we can get ready' I never said when." Liz told him.
There was a moment of silence.
"She's not wrong…" Grant said quietly.
"Well I still think that they have been in bed much too long. Let's do something today." Jonas suggested.
"We planned on planning our photoshoot today." Macey informed them.
They all groaned. "What are we supposed to do then?" Grant asked.
"I thought you guys were gonna go camping." Bex reminded them.
"Oh yeah...we could always do that." Jonas agreed.
"Well then let's go talk to Solomon!" Zach announced, jumping to his feet and running from the room.
"Why didn't you say that earlier? There's no way I'm going to be able to fall asleep now." Macey groaned. "Come on, we might as well get up and plan the shoot."
"Who's taking the pictures?" I asked.
"Your mom volunteered yesterday." Bex informed me.
"When are we doing this shoot?" I asked again.
"We're planning everything today and doing it tomorrow so plan on going to bed early tonight." Macey told me.
"Can we eat before we start planning?" Liz asked.
"We can eat while we start planning." Macey corrected as she climbed out of the pile, pushing us all onto the floor.
We all quickly threw on socks and jackets before heading for the kitchen to eat. Macey brought her phone, a notebook, and Liz's laptop so we decided to make the kitchen our home base. Macey already had dozens of pictures in mind that she wanted to take so all we really did was make a list of which pictures we were going to take first and in which areas of the school.
After we finished 'breakfast' (at four in the afternoon) and decided which pictures we were going to take we had to find hair and makeup styles. We first thought that we could find hair and makeup that would work with each of our dresses but that idea was quickly thrown out. We spent a good hour looking up hairstyles and makeup ideas. We had finished with our task the next time we saw the boys.
"Hey guys." Grant said as he ran into the kitchen, a backpack in hand.
"Hi Grant. What's up?" Bex asked.
"Solomon's taking us on a week long camping trip!" He told us excitedly.
"Wow, that long?" Macey asked.
"Yeah! He says he's gonna make it like a training exercise or something cool that will give us extra credit at Blackthorne. I'm psyched." He explained.
"Well I hope you guys have fun…" Liz said, trying to be nice.
"Oh yeah, we will." Grant said as he finished piling food into the backpack and raced from the room.
"Well at least we don't have to worry about the boys while we work on the photo shoot. Maybe your mom will let us go to a spa while they're on their camp out." Bex suggested.
"That would be so wonderful, I can't even tell you." I agreed.
"I know a great one not too far from here. I'll see if I can get us reservations." Macey added.
Liz hit the table with her fist like it was gavel.
"That does it, we're going to a spa." Liz told us all excitedly. "Let's go talk to mom."
We hurried up to mom's office to tell her our idea.
"Hello girls." She told us as we entered her office.
"Hi mom." We replied.
"What can I do for you?" Mom asked.
"Well we have this great idea, but we need your approval." I began.
"What is this great idea?" Mom asked.
"We want to go to a spa while the boys are on their camp out." Macey told her, jumping right into. "I know a great spa out of the way not too far from here. It would a blast."
"I think that sounds like an excellent idea. Can you make reservations for us?" Mom asked.
"Absolutely!" Macey told her as the rest of us cheered excitedly.
"Okay, okay. You girls had better go and get ready for tomorrow." Mom told us.
"We're practically ready." Bex told her. "We just need to check some of the locations."
"Well go ahead and do that. There are some movies in the common room if you run out of things to do." Mom reminded us.
"Oh don't worry, I don't think that's going to happen." Macey said as she dragged us from the office.
We hurried around the school and double checked all of the locations. We made sure they would work for what we had in mind before Macey dragged us back to our room and told us her plan for the night.
"Okay, if we're going to be taking pictures in here we need to clean it." Macey ordered.
"Ugh, do we have to?" Bex whined.
"Yes. This should be easy, we just need to pick up our stuff and put the cut bedspreads on the beds, and vacuum, and dust, and wash the curtains…" Macey trailed off. "Maybe it will be harder than I thought."
It ended up being much harder than Macey thought. First of all, we had to be extremely careful around all of the clothing that we were wearing the next day. Secondly there was so much cleaning to be done. Windows had to be washed. Blankets, towels, drapes, bed spreads, pillow cases, and basically all other visible fabric had to be washed. Everything underneath our beds had to be organized, as well as all the furniture in the room (apparently it wasn't artistic enough). We also had to reorganize everything in the bathroom and deep clean the bathroom as well because Macey had a genius idea for a photo opportunity.
By the time we finished cleaning, we were so exhausted we wanted nothing more than to sleep. Not really, we just didn't want to clean anymore so that's what we told Macey at around 1:30 in the morning. Macey was merciful and let us sleep. She set an alarm so we wouldn't wake up too late and we all quickly fell asleep.
Macey's wonderful alarm didn't have the opportunity to wake us up the next morning. Our wonderful boyfriends did.
"Cam." Zach said quietly as he shook my shoulder. My eyes popped open to look at him. "We're leaving."
I sat up to give him a hug. I wrapped my arms around his neck and he buried his face in the crook of my neck. We sat there for a little while and he periodically let his lips kiss my neck and I tried not to grin each time he did. I failed. Finally, after Grant, Jonas, and Preston had said their goodbye's the boys all quietly left our room and shut the door behind them. It would be a week before we saw them again.
"I'm going to miss them." Bex said quietly.
"Me too." I agreed.
"I can't go back to sleep now." Liz told us.
"Me either." Macey agreed running her hand through her hair. "I guess we should get ready."
"Hey Cam, what did Zach say to you?" Liz asked.
"Not much, why?" I replied.
"Well it just looked like your goodbye was pretty quiet." She responded.
"Yeah it was...Zach's not huge on words and neither am I so it was pretty quiet. It was kind of perfect." I told her with a smile and she grinned back at me.
"Liz, you're in the shower first." Macey called from the bathroom.
And so the day began. Liz showered then Macey, and Bex, then me. We slipped into the same shorts and shirts from the day we had our big dates with the boys and hurried to get our first set of hair and makeup done. Our white dresses were first and we all had complimentary curls and natural makeup. It didn't take us as long as I expected to get ready, we were kind of in a rush.
I had my strapless lace white gown while Macey had a similar lace gown but hers had capped sleeves and a longer train. Bex had a full ball gown that had a beautiful heart neckline. Liz had a straight long tulle gown that looked wonderful on her. We quickly slipped on the corresponding shoes just before mom came to find us. She grinned when she saw us all in white.
"You girls look beautiful. Let's go take some pictures." She told us and we hurried into the hall.
We first took a picture with all of us sitting on the grand staircase with our dresses spread out around us. Next we went to the ball room (*cough* grand hall without the tables *cough*) and mom had us all twirl while she tried to capture a picture with our dresses swirling out around us.
Liz ended up falling three times, there was a scare where we thought Bex ripped her dress, and we were laughing more than we should have been. It took us ages to figure out which way we had to spin and how fast so we could all be facing the camera at the same time.
Finally we got the spinning picture and we moved to the hallway. We all took off our shoes and lifted up our dresses with linked arms (quite the feat) and ran away from mom while she snapped the picture with our shoes arranged artistically at the bottom of the frame. The picture was going to be epic.
We took a few more pictures with us just standing in the grand entrance with the double doors open. We made cheesey smiles and normal smiles. We made kissy faces and jumped onto each other's backs. It was a ton of fun.
After an hour in our white dresses we switched to our pink ones. We took more dramatic pictures in our pink ones. We took pictures outside by the pond and in the trees. Macey had some cool editing ideas in mind for those ones. We didn't take very many inside in our pink dresses. When we were outside and by the pond, Liz slipped and fell into the pond in her dress and my mom caught the exact moment she fell. After making sure she was okay we all decided to do 'trash the dress' pictures and we all jumped into the pond.
In between our pink and neutral dresses, we took pictures in our shirts and shorts of us getting ready in our room. We took pictures of us doing hair and makeup, of us looking at our dresses, hanging upside down on the beds, and we even took some of us jumping on the bed.
After we were done with that we switched into our neutral dresses and took pictures in the library and in the classrooms. We didn't take as many pictures in our neutral dresses, the best ones would be in our red dresses.
Before we could put on our red dresses though, we put on our silver and gold ones. By this time the sun had started setting so we took more pictures outside with Gallagher and the sunset in the background. They were going to look so cool. After we were done with the silver and gold ones we hurried to get into our red ones.
While we got into our red dresses and did our hair and makeup for the last time, my mom went outside and started a bonfire in the back of the school and and got the portable lights that we had found in the attic. We hurried outside into the freezing night and set up the lights so it was very dramatic. We took some really intense pictures by the fires and in front of the school then we went out to this big field behind the pond and took a bunch of cute pictures of us looking up at the stars and we took some really cool distance shots.
By the time we were done with this, we were tired and cranky and hungry but Macey wanted one more shot. She helped my mom set it up while Bex, Liz, and I chatted.
"Do you think the guys are having fun?" Liz asked.
"I hope so." I replied.
"Do you think they're warm enough?" Bex asked.
"I really hope so. It's freezing out here." I responded.
"I'm really glad they came out this summer." Liz said.
"Me too." Bex and I said in unison.
"Girls, come here." Macey called. We hurried to her side.
She sat us down in a circle around the fire and we gratefully leaned near its warmth.
"Today has been so fun." Macey commented.
"Yeah, I'm glad we did this." I agreed.
"We should do stuff like this more often. I'm so excited to see the pictures." Bex told her. "I want to see the one where Lizzie fell in the pond."
We all laughed at the memory. Liz really did have terrible balance.
"I'm so excited to go to the spa. This summer just keeps getting better and better. I kind of don't want to go home in a week." Liz commented.
"It's only for a month, then we'll be together again." Macey reminded her. She looked at mom. "Did you get it?"
"I sure did. Let's get inside, I'm sure you girls are freezing and it's supposed to rain tonight." Mom said as she reached for one of the portable lights.
We grabbed everything we needed and put the lights away before hurrying inside. My mom promised that we could look at the pictures the next day but we all needed to get to bed. We whined and complained about it but ultimately stopped fighting and quickly climbed into bed.
"Cam. Cammie can you hear me?" Bex was screaming.
"Yeah I can hear you. Stop yelling." I whined.
"Cam, I'm whispering." Bex told me. I opened my eyes widely and looked around.
Bex, Macey, and Liz were all surrounding me wearing their pajamas but it was early evening.
Wait. Early evening?
"What happened?" I asked quietly.
"You wouldn't wake up Cam. It was like Macey." Liz told me. "Dr. Fibbs doesn't know what happened, no one does. The serum he gave us earlier didn't work and apparently it's too dangerous to continue the trial. They're wiping our memories again and then they're going to try and return them."
"When?" I whispered.
"Now. As soon as you woke up was what they told us." Macey replied.
"How long until they get here?" I asked.
"A few minutes." Bex replied.
"We may only have a few more minutes of our memories of this summer." I realized.
"I don't want to forget!" Liz exclaimed. "I'm scared."
"It's going to be okay Lizzie." I grabbed her hand. "I promise."
Just that moment my Mom entered with Dr. Fibbs.
"Cammie sweetie I'm so glad you're awake." My mom exclaimed smoothing my hair. "Did...did the girls explain?"
I nodded.
"Girls, I'm sorry to rush you into this but I'm afraid we have to. I don't want to risk any permanent damage." Dr. Fibbs held out a small cup to each of us. "Bottoms up."
There was about an inch of liquid. It was red and smelled like gatorade. I sat up and swirled the liquid around in the cup. I looked at Bex, Macey, and Liz. We each made eye contact as we sat in a circle on our knees. I grabbed Bex's free hand and Liz grabbed Macey's.
"On three." I declared and they nodded.
"One…" We all took a deep breath in.
"Two…" Macey looked toward the ceiling as if she was praying.
"Three…" We threw the cups back and swallowed the liquid.
THE END
