Hamilton Academy: He's Always Watching

Part Two ~ Chapter Eighteen

“I actually found it suiting for me, it covered just my eyes and nose, yet I couldn’t even recognize myself in it.”

-Amy

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            I stared into the windows of the store, an excited feeling welling up inside of me as I burst through the doors. A little bell dinged, signaling the arrival of my friends and I. Tomorrow was the masquerade dance, so I decided that it was high-time we all needed to get dresses and masks for the dance.

            It had been so long since I had come to the mall for shopping, because the mall was located so far away from Hamilton Academy, and I’d been really with school and, well, other things. But this was a time to enjoy life and just be with my friends, to take a moment away from the craziness that had become my life.

            I had come to the mall with Julia, Tanya, and two other girls. One was Crystal, who was quiet but really nice. The other way Cecelia, who was also extremely nice, but she was very outgoing and loud. Sort of like me at times.

            “What do you think of this?” Cecelia spun around, holding a pink dress in front of her and facing the mirror. “Or this? Or this!” She was taking dresses off every rack, obviously over-excited about dress shopping. I smiled and decided it was time to be free and join in on the fun.

            “Here.” I handed Crystal a baby green dress that would really help bring out her eyes, giving her blonde hair and pale skin. “Try this one on. Oh, and this.” I handed her another one that was teal, along with a necklace. She gave me a soft thank you and clutched the dresses and necklace in her hand.

            “Amy, this would be great on you!” Tanya held up a super long dress that looked like it came from, well, the ancient times when the dinosaurs roamed. I stuck out a tongue at her and sent her a ‘ha-ha, very funny’ look.

            “And this would be just perfect on you!” I sifted through a pile of dresses until I came upon one that came down to Tanya’s toes and looked something like picture-perfect out of a  ‘Little House on A Prairie’ books.

            “How about we all take a bunch and come out wearing our favorite ones?” Cecelia suggested. We all agreed and went flying to the racks to find the most colorful, sparkly, and unique dresses we could see. After taking what seemed like a million, and then only being allowed six into the dressing room, I carefully went to try each one on to make sure that I chose the perfect one.

            I spun around in each that I tried on, trying to get the perfect feel for them. As I looked at myself in the mirror, an image flashed back to the day I was looking at myself all dressed in black for Kathryn’s funeral. The dress I was currently wearing wasn’t black, it was in-fact a baby pink, but the way I looked was still the same.

            Dark circle were permanently formed under my eyes, my hair a little bit duller than before. My eyes were no longer full of life, and I could have sworn my smile would never be as bright. As I heard a knock on my dressing room door, I shook my head of all melancholy thoughts. I was supposed to be having fun, right? Why did that seem to become such an impossible thing to do these days?

            “Amy, you done?” I heard Julia’s voice from the other side of the wall. Instead of replying, I swung open the door to reveal my baby pink dress that brought a gasp from Julia. “Oh, I love it! It’s beautiful!”

            “Thanks,” I smiled at her as the five of us all crowded around a mirror to look at our dresses. “So who’s the lucky guy you all hope to dance with?” I asked with a cheeky grin. I realized the best way to lighten up the mood, or at least my unhappy mood, was to talk about romance. For once, that seemed to be one thing that hadn’t taken complete priority in my life after many deadly situations.