Dressed Up

The next day, after school, Emily decided to check out the thrift stores in town. Emily always liked visiting thrift stores. They always had interesting things. But when it came to shopping for clothes, that was always the hard part. Emily had a diminutive height of exactly five feet and most clothes were too big for her. Well, she was just going to have to make do with what she would find.

At one thrift store, Emily saw three different kinds of wedding dresses, but they were all too big for her. So she decided to look at the regular dresses. There was one silver dress that piqued her interest. The dress went past her feet, but that was easy to fix. The sleeves were long, which was what she wanted. Yes, with a few touches here and there, it would be perfect. So she decided to buy the dress.

After that, she headed over to Max's estate. Though she was only standing at the front door, she knew Max was home, because she could sense her Cobalt Star shards. And Emily also knows Max never removes the shards from around her neck – except, of course, when she's bathing or sleeping.

Before Emily could knock on the door, Max had already opened it. "Hi, Emily."

"Hi, Max," she returned. "Um, I need your help." And she showed her the dress in her arms.

Max looked at the dress and invited Emily inside. "I figured you would come asking for my help," she said as she led the blonde to one of her rooms. "It so happens I'm aware of your situation."

"You are?" the blonde asked.

She was. "I overheard you and the others talking about how Rafael wanted a wedding themed birthday party. And when I heard you mention needing a wedding dress, I had a feeling you would come asking me for help."

"Why didn't you say anything?"

"Well, I know Rafael doesn't like me very much," Max admitted. "Frankly, I don't care."

Emily stopped walking. "Does that mean you won't help?"

"I didn't say I wouldn't help," said Max. She stopped walking as well. "Though I am curious; why are you doing this? I mean, I know you don't like him."

"No, it's not that I don't like him," the blonde interrupted. "I do like Rafael, but I'm just not in love with him the same way he's in love with me. But he's still my friend and I do care about him." It was also because Emily was also aware of how Rafael would always get sad around the time of his birthday. He would get sad because it was the same day he was taken from his family. Emily was the same way. Since her mom died, she often got sad around the time of her birthday as well. It was because Emily understood Rafael's feelings and because she cared that she decided she wanted to do something to make him happy.

Now Max understood Emily's reasons. She had to admit, Emily was sweet for doing this.

Max brought Emily to a room where she could work with her designers. Emily got out of her clothes and got dressed into the silver dress. Max then had her stand on a stool. Emily told Max about her ideas on how she wanted the dress to look and Max told the blonde to leave everything to her.

It took nearly two hours for the alterations to be made. Once finished, Emily studied herself in the mirror. The ends of the sleeves had been trimmed to look like flower petals, revealing her wrists. The shoulders had see-through fabric over them, making them broad. The waist area was surrounded with white fabric, but was split in the front. There was also a frilly white collar around the neck.

"So, do you like yourself?" Max asked her.

"It's lovely," the blonde said. "How much?"

"Nothing," Max insisted. "Consider it a favor for a friend." She smiled and added, "Besides, it wouldn't be fair of me to demand money from you when I'm already richer than you." And they both laughed.

"Well, thank you," Emily said gratefully."

"Sure," Max replied. "I'll see you at school tomorrow."

"See you," Emily returned, and Renamon decided to show her out.