High School Troubles

It was a beautiful, sunny Saturday. Birds were chirping outside, and the sun was gleaming into my bedroom. And how was I going to spend this glorious day? At the mall, getting my worst enemy fired from her first job.

I woke from my deep sleep, stifling a yawn. I bade my good morning to Pookie, who lay lazily in his soft and warm bed. He stared at me while I walked to my bedroom door.

Making my way down the staircase, I heard the sizzling and popping of bacon.

"Good morning," I said, beaming at my mother. She looked over her pink-robed shoulder at me and smiled. Even she was in a good mood today!

"Hi, honey. Want some bacon and eggs? They're almost done."

Plopping down onto a seat at the kitchen table, I replied, "Sure!" My mother slid the crispy brown bacon onto a plate and slid it over to me. I grabbed some and turned to my mother again, "Mom? Can I go to the mall again today?" When my mother gave me a questioning look, I quickly said, "Oh, yeah, it's just, you know, Jen wants to meet me again there." My mother continued to stare at me. I replied, "Sale. At, uh... Claire's." I couldn't help but smile.

"Uh, yeah. I guess." There was a long silence, and then she spoke again, "You really like Jen, don't you? I mean, you both are inseparable now."

"Yeah, I guess we are," I replied. "Nice day out, huh?" My mother nodded as we continued to eat our breakfast.

At half past ten, the phone rang. I was up in my bedroom reading when I answered it. "Hello?"

"Guess who?" I recognized Jen's voice. But before she even gave me time to answer, she continued, "Can you be at the mall by 11:30ish?"

Being caught off guard by this question, I stuttered, "Uh, y-yeah. I, uh, I guess. Yeah."

"Sweet! See ya then. Oh, and don't forget to wear our, uh, outfits. Wink, Wink." She laughed.

"Okay, alright, alright. See you then," I said. I hung up the phone and headed downstairs to where my mother was gardening outside. "Hey mom! Can you drop me off at the mall in a hour or so?"

"Umm," she said, wiping dirt from her face with her forearm and taking off her gloves. "Yeah, okay. Let me just... freshen up, and..." Her voice trailed off as I walked inside. I went upstairs and chose a regular outfit to wear to the mall until I could change there.

"Ready to go?" my mother called from downstairs. I had been curling my hair just then when I called down, "Yep. Coming!" I ran downstairs, grabbing my purse, with my second outfit stashed in it, along the way.

When at the mall, I saw Jen in a different outfit, too; obviously she felt it necessary to change here, too. I waved at her as I pulled up. "Bye, Mom." I ran up to Jen with excitement rushing throughout me. "Ready to go?" I asked her anxiously.

"What?" she looked startled. "No! I'm not ready, and neither are you! We need to go over everything and make sure this plan is foolproof." So we went over what we were going to do in extreme detail. "Okay," she said after all was said, "now we are almost ready. We still have to change." We walked to the movie theater and snuck into the bathroom that was right by the entrance. We each took a stall, and I started to pull my sweatshirt over my dress and put my hat on. I pulled on the jeans over my dress. I tried to hide my face as much as possible. I changed my heels to sneakers, and walked out of the stall, where I was shortly joined with Jen.

"Looking snazzy," I said, smiling.

"You don't look too bad yourself," Jen replied. "Okay, let's get out of here before anyone else comes in." We scurried out of the movie theater and back outside. I felt so ridiculous wearing those clothes, even though it seemed Jen didn't have a problem with it.

"Okay, so remember the plan," Jen reminded me as we neared Claire's. Through the windows, we could see Kassie standing at the counter texting someone.

"Always," I replied. We walked in together; I walked towards the earrings to look at them while Jen went over and looked at body piercings. I felt so dumb wearing that outfit while looking at Claire's. Well, as long as it's for the plan, I thought to myself.

Then I heard a slight cough. That was the signal.

The plan was a go.