Oh, It's On

Chapter 3

“No. Gross. Please put that back.”

Rachel, Tina and Connie walk away with defeated looks on their faces. I go back to playing Tiny Wings on my iPod.

We’re at the mall shopping—well, they’re shopping—for shoes for October Fest. It’s been forever since we got here and it doesn’t look like we’ll be leaving anytime soon, mainly because they can’t pick a pair of shoes. Actually, it’s more like every pair of shoes they pick is indecent and I’m not about to let them walk around looking like fashion mishaps from the 80s.

Connie comes back with a pair of white peep-toes.

I survey them for a second, picturing how it would look with her light green and white dress.

“Fine, go try them on,” I tell her.

She runs off happily and I hear her yell “Hah!” to Rachel and Tina who’re walking back to me with 5 boxes of shoes each.

When Rachel sits down, she shoots me a grumpy look. “I still don’t know what was wrong with the shoes I picked before.”

I roll my eyes. “I told you already. They were too blue.”

“Too blue?!” she says in exasperation. “My dress is blue!”

“Yeah, baby blue. Those shoes are like the ugliest shade of blue ever, like the bottom of a lake. They don’t match.”

“You’re so critical!”

“Okay, you’re the one who asked me to come. It’s not like you’ve never gone shopping with me before. You know how I am. And honestly Rachel, if you’re aiming to look good, you might as well look good. No offence.”

It’s true. Rachel asked me right after school if I wanted to go with her, Tina and Connie to the mall to buy shoes for October Fest. I declined right away but Rachel convinced me to come, telling me that she needed my guidance and that she didn’t want to look like a wardrobe malfunction. It’s not like I didn’t warn her. You can’t just expect me to love everything you put on. What can I say? I’m not an easy girl to please.

“Fine,” she huffs, and continues trying on other pairs of shoes.

I cringe at the hideous emerald platform shoes that she pulls out of a box but I decide not to say anything. If I make Rachel too angry, she’ll completely blow up. You do not want to see Rachel blow up. I’ve only seen it once and I still have nightmares sometimes.

“How come you’re not looking for shoes?” Tina asks.

“I already got mine,” I reply.

The pair of light silver satin pumps I picked out last month sitting under my bed. It took me 3 six-hour trips to the mall to find them.

“Yeah and she took forever to find them,” Rachel says. She had come with me on one of the trips. After she experienced what shopping with me is like, she refused to go on the other two, which is funny because she still asks me to go shopping with her all the time.

“Really?” Tina says. “I never pictured you as a shopping girl. You never seem into that stuff.”

“You mean impressing guys?” I ask. It seems like everyone thinks that you have to look good just to impress guys.

Tina nods. “That and just about every other girl thing.”

“Tina, the only girl thing I don’t do is obsess over guys,” I point out.

Connie comes back with the white peep-toes that she picked out before wrapped in a box inside a bag.

“You know, I’ve always wondered why. I mean, it’s not like there aren’t any hot guys at our school. Actually, there’s plenty. Like Cameron…” she says dreamily.