“Ready as I’ll ever be.” Luna knew today was going to be rough for her, but knowing that she was going to have Laurissa there will make it easier on her. As Laurissa came out of her room, ready to go. She kissed Sammy goodbye as she headed to the car. They decided it would be best to take Laurissa’s car because Luna’s dad had Paige’s car seat tangled in the back.
Laurissa didn’t want any more problems to happen during the shopping session. As they got into Laurissa’s car, Luna felt like she was shaking. She had to act like everything was fine until she could be alone with her thoughts.
They got into Laurissa’s car. Laurissa put on the radio so they could all sing and not talk about the uncomfortable feeling there was in the car ride. Luna was singing her heart out to see if that would help with her shakes. It helped, but not as much as she hoped. As they got to this odd mall, she didn’t recognize any of the stores. She was used to going to malls with her mom, but this wasn’t a normal mall in her eyes. Everything was outside.
Laurissa could tell that she was confused, so she said, “this is a strip mall.”
“Ohhh, that makes sense. Why is it called a strip mall, though?”
“Maybe because they are all separate stores that were built right next to each other like neighbors. Maybe, I don’t know.”
“I had neighbors that lived under me, so does that mean that there are stores under these stores?”
“I don’t think so, but that would be an interesting idea for a strip mall in the future. Do you know what kind of dress you want, Luna?” Luna had been thinking of this question for a while. She wanted to look gorgeous, but not too adult like, but she wanted to look like a princess. There were too many ideas that she wanted to go with, and she didn’t even know where she wanted to start.
“Not really. Let’s look around and see if any of it catches my eye.”
“Okay, Blake, choose the first store to check out.” Her dad didn’t look happy to be doing this, yet he offered to do this. If money is tight, why offer to pay for her dress and shoes? Luna’s mom could have easily taken her dress shopping and probably would have made her feel less stressed about the situation. Her dad went into a store that said “department store,” she couldn’t read the name of the actual store because he was rushing in. Luna looked around. She could see rows of stuff, from clothes to purses to jewelry. Luna didn’t know where to start or even how to look for the perfect dress. She went toward the kids' section. That was the starting location as Luna walked slowly down the aisle of clothes until she found two dresses in that section. Laurissa was curious about what the two dresses were. Luna had two polar opposite dresses, but both symbolize her personality.
The first one. The dress was a pink fluffy dress with little pink flowers within the sheer pink tinsel. The second one, the dress was a deep red slim dress that would show off all of Luna’s nonexistent curves. She loved both of the dresses, but it showed that she wanted to be cute and girlie but also very mature for her age. She wanted Oliver to look at her and immediately think that he was the luckiest guy in the world to have her in his life. She wanted Oliver to be her end game.
When Luna showed Laurissa the dresses, Laurissa could tell that Luna was trying to impress Oliver. “Wow, these are two different outfits. Let’s go try them both on and see what happens. Okay?” Luna was excited to try them both on. Even if they were two different sides of her, she loved them both to choose just one.
“Okay!” Luna looks around for her dad to tell him they would go to the dressing room, but he was nowhere to be found. She looked around. She knew that there would be no point in trying to find him because he would ruin her fun and make her change her choices because they were “too sexy” for a young girl. Luna and Laurissa head toward the dressing room.
Luna could breathe again. She could control her shaking. She slowed down her breath to get herself to get the shaking to stop from the intense morning she endured. It felt like her mind and body were finally being fused together. Luna couldn’t help but felt relieved knowing that her dad wasn’t hovering over her.
She started with the slim red dress because she wanted to see how it would look on her body. She wasn’t always confident in her body. She was a bit on the “larger” side for a young girl, but she wanted to feel beautiful in her skin. As she was attempting to slide into the dress, there was a bit of an issue. She could barely breathe in the dress. It was her reminder that she couldn’t fit into everything she likes. Luna was looking at herself in the mirror. She felt horrible about herself. Luna hated when she went shopping because it reminded her she can’t wear all the pretty clothes in her life. She knocked on the door to let Laurissa in. Laurissa could just see the disappointment on Luna’s face. She wanted the dress, but knew she couldn’t. Laurissa unzipped the dress from the back to help Luna get out of it, and all Luna could feel was disappointment.
As she took off the red dress, she threw it on top of the door to give it back to Laurissa to put it back on the racks. When she knew she was alone, all Luna could do was cry a little from all the disappointment of herself. She wanted to feel beautiful, but she couldn’t feel that way in her body. Luna looked at the second dress and hoped that it would at least fit her. She looked at the dress one more time to make sure she knew what she wanted. As she slid into the pink dress, it was too easy for her. She was shocked, but she still didn’t have hope for it to fit.
The moment of truth. She looked for the zipper and slowly zipped it up. The dress fit. The pretty pink princess dress was going to be going home with Luna. No hesitation about it. Now the thought that was popping into Luna’s head was: what shoes should be worn? She had to think about how she knew she was going to be standing for the chorus, singing, and walking back and forth on stage. She knocked on the door to show Laurissa what she looked like in the dress. She opened the door to her dad. He looked at her with a look she couldn’t recognize. She couldn’t tell if he liked the dress or if he hated it. Laurissa came back to the dressing room to see me wearing the dress.
“Well, don’t you look cute. Doesn’t she look cute, Blake?”
“She looks amazing, but she always did. What do you think of this dress, honey?” Luna walked to a place where there were several mirrors to see every angle. As she looked at herself in the mirror, she was seeing a scene in her head as everything around her faded to darkness.
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