Loyalty

Chapter 6: Border Breech

I woke up to silence. I looked out of my window and saw it was saw it was still dark. I turned and looked at my clock, it read 5:32. I was way too awake to even think of going back to bed so I headed down to the kitchen to have breakfast. I walked into the kitchen and saw a note on the table. It simply read

Gone for a walk. I'll be back at

6:00. Keep an eye on Gem.

Love from Dad.

Well at least he knew me enough to tell me where he had gone. I threw the note in the bin and poured myself a bowl of Reese's cereal. I turned on the radio and sat down in the silent, dark kitchen. The radio was playing 'Mama Said' my favorite song, so while I cleared up I was dancing around like a loony.

At dead on 6:00 my dad walked in. he looked at me surprised to see me up cleaning the kitchen counters. I grinned at him and carried on cleaning to the beat of the music.

"You're up early." I heard him say.

"Yeah I slept very well, so I woke up early and decided to clean." I laughed as I said and I heard my dad chuckle. "You really should rest Dad. It's your shift tonight."

"I'm fine." He said as he sat down to his scones and cream.

I carried on cleaning 'till 8:00, until the whole house was sparkling, Mum would be pleased to come home to not have to do anything. I went up to my room to relax. I headed to my wardrobe to check my calendar, just to make sure I was totally free to do what I wanted, because if I was I was going to kick back and relax all day. I skimmed through all the days to get to today, September 8th, I looked at the day and Monday and sucked in a breath of surprise. Today was the day before the school summer dance, and I had nothing to wear. I owned no dresses, I owned no high heels. I didn't even own a skirt. All I owned were t-shirts, shorts, trousers and trainers. I groaned and pulled on some jeans and the new top Gem had bought me.

"I'm going shopping with Tammy and the girls." I called to my dad.

"How come?" He replied his voice full over shock and horror.

"Big dance tomorrow and I have nothing to wear." I moaned and headed for the door.

"Take my card, but don't spend more than three hundred, ok?" he replied.

"Thanks Dad." I gave him a hug and ran from the house.

I turned up at Tammy's house at 8:45 without even texting and she opened the door and invited me in without question. She knew exactly why I was there; she was the same, no skirts, no dresses, no shoes. We text Jess and Darcy to see if they were in, and they were. Darcy owned one dress and that was because she was a brides-maid at her mum's wedding. We headed to the shops at 9:00 at got there at 9:30 so by now all the shops were open. We headed straight to Next where we found some beautiful jewellery cheap. I bought a silver necklace that had my birthstone in it, a diamond for April, and earrings and a ring to match. Jess found a gold bracelet that had 'Believe in yourself and you can do anything.' imprinted in it and a pair of gold earrings that were shaped as stars. Darcy bought a set of silver bangles and hooped earrings and Tammy found a necklace that had a birdcage with a bird in it and a pair of dove earrings.

Next we headed to a professional dress shop for the dresses, obviously, I wanted to make Selena's dress look like a bin bag. I headed straight for the mermaid dresses, since I thought they were the most stunning. I looked around for a while until I picked out the three most eye catching ones. An elegant, black mermaid dress that was full length. It was completely clear of any pattern except the black lace trim as an illusion neck line and the frill on the very bottom of the skirt and it had an open back. It was a sleeveless dress and would go perfect with the jewellery. The second was a sorter dress that just reached my knee, the top was completely covered in diamante's, and was an off-shoulder neckline. The bottom was a net like material, with an under skirt, that puffed out in aqua blue waves. The last one was another full length dress, it was a deep red, almost burgundy colour, and it floated around my legs and was a halter-strap. It would match my jewellery but would be hard to find shoes for. I took them to the changing room. The others were already there. Tammy had a blue version of my mermaid dress and a knee length fitted dress that had a cream top with a Grecian neckline and a black skirt. Darcy had a puffy pink dress that reached to her ankles that had a halter neckline and a blue version of my burgundy dress. Jess had a very sporty looking dress, it was a fitted dress down to her knees with white lines going up each side with a jewel neckline, and was made from the same material my track suit bottoms were. We went to the changing rooms to try them on. We judged each other's dresses and finally chose. I went with the black mermaid dress, Tammy went with her knee length dress, Darcy went with her blue dress and Jess, well of course she went for the sports dress. We payed and thanked the cashier.