In Love With A Ghost (*EDITING*)

Nineteen- Dolls and DONT's

"Fern..." Allison asked as she stared at me.

"Yeah?" I asked.

"What are you doing?" She quizzed.

I paused what I was doing.

Somehow, I had ended up dressing an American Girl doll belonging to Allison in Emily's room.

Leah was braiding another doll's hair, and Caitlyn was laying her doll to sleep. And Emily was having a tea party with two other American Girl dolls.

"Dressing Isabelle." I said, gesturing at the doll with pink accented hair in my hands.

"Be careful, she the specialest of them all." Allison said as she picked up a doll that I once owned when I was 5.

I laughed quietly as I thought about Alli's bad grammar skills. Specialest was her current big mistake in speaking.

"Look! I just finished a French braid on Mia!" Leah remarked as she held up the strawberry blonde doll, who was wearing a neat plait.

"Nice!" Caitlyn said as she tucked her doll away to bed.

"That doll is crippled just like Fern is." Emily piped as she pointed to a dirty blonde doll in a blue shirt and black skirt. The doll had plastic casts all over her body.

"Who did that!?" I said, dropping the pink haired doll I was playing with as I reached for the doll on the floor. I pulled her over to me and I picked her up so her eyes opened.

This doll looked a lot like me. Light brown eyes and the dirty blonde hair to match mine. She had a little bit of freckles on her nose like me, and her eyebrows seemed furry and unwaxed like mine. Her clothes didn't strike any memory. She was only wearing a blue plain shirt and a black Ruffled skirt. Nothing alarming.

"Who did this!?" I repeated, gaining the attention of my scared sisters.

"No one. That's not even our doll." Leah said.

"No, she's mine." Ada said.

She was standing in the doorway of Emily's room. All heads turned her way.

Ada stomped inside the room and ripped the doll out of my hands.

"Isn't she pretty?" Ada cooed and she bent the doll's arm way back. I heard a pop and suddenly the arm fell off the doll's body.

Allison gasped as she watched in horror as the arm fell to the ground.

"Oops!" Ada said, acting drunk. She nearly fell over as she picked up the detached limb from the ground.

"Since when did you have an American Girl doll that looks exactly like me?" I snapped as Ada put the arm back into the socket of the doll.

"Since I was 6. I stole her from you, remember?" Ada said as she swung the doll from side to side.

"That was you!? I thought I lost that doll!" I said.

Suddenly a memory flew back into my brain.

When I was 7, and when Ada was 6, I had four American Girl dolls. The one Ada was holding, which I had named Fern because she looked like me, Elizabeth, her friend Felicity and an old girl of the year named Kailey. Fern was my favorite. I lost her one day, presumably when I let Ada and baby Leah play with my dolls. Now, ten years later, I get the doll back.

"You're horrible." I said as I thought about the memory that just came back to me.

"Remember?" Ada asked.

"Actually, I do remember." I said.

Her face showed an expression of horror.

"H-how!? You're suffering from amnesia!" She said, throwing the doll at my face. I clutched my old favorite doll in my hands as I watched Ada blow up.

"I remembered that all of a sudden." I said.

"Do you remember anything else?" She asked.

"No." I said.

Ada exhaled.

"Good." She said as she left the room in a fury.

I looked back down at the doll. I did miss her.

"Well, you got your doll back!" Leah said happily.

I smiled and sat the mini version of me down in a plastic chair.

Then I combed Isabelle's pink hair, replaying the encounter with Ada in my head over and over again.