Chapter Seven: Yelling at Staff Members
“Tiger.”
“Dinosaur.”
“Frog.”
“Salamander.”
“Fish!”
“Okay, now you’re just shouting out random animal names,” I chuckled, turning my head to face Kurt, who was still staring intently at the ceiling trying to find blurbs that looked like animals.
“Turtle!” he exclaimed, pointing at the ceiling excitedly.
“Sure, Kurt.”
“You’re just jealous because this is the seventy-sixth game I’ve won. And how many have you won?” Kurt faced me with a haughty look, adding a very patronizing “Hmmm?” at the end.
“But you cheat,” I defended myself.
“How many?” he continued to rub salt in the wound.
“Five,” I lied. My real score was measly two and a half.
“Liar!”
“Whatever, this game is rigged, anyways.”
“Rage quitter,” Kurt sang as I got up from the cold floor.
“Please, you swept the whole chess board off after you realized that I was going to win. Compared to that, this is like trotting away happily on a pony,” I scoffed as I took a seat on the couch.
“I’m Rena and I think it’s cool to make fun of my brother,” he mocked me in a shrill, squeaky voice.
“Yup, that’s me,” I mocked his mock voice.
Kurt glared at me, still lying on the floor. “I’m borrred,” he declared a moment later, deciding that it was okay to climb on the couch and place his feet on my lap. “How’s life, baby sis?”
I looked at him weirdly for using the term ‘baby sis’, but let it slide. “Splendid,” I answered joylessly as I attempted to shove his feet off of my lap.
“Well, you don’t sound too happy about it.”
“Oh, I’m sorry,” I apologized insincerely. “My life is full of chocolate rainbows and butterflies,” I said with more enthusiasm.
“You know, that could be your audition for the part of Dorothy.”
“You’re stupid.”
“You’re face is stupid.”
“Shut up.”
“Okay,” Kurt agreed nonchalantly. “So what about Cashier Guy? What was he doing at our house?”
“Are your eyebrows itchy?” I asked, in response to his eyebrows that had apparently taken Five-Hour Energy and now jittering all over the place.
“No,” he replied, scowling as his eyebrows fell back into place. “But anyways, what about the guy? Is my misanthropic little sister starting to bloom into a colorful, social butterfly?”
“You’re doing it again.” His eyebrows had gone up about an inch.
“I really don’t care, Rena. This is the first time I’ve seen you talking to someone other than me, Dad, or Sherry.”
It was odd seeing Kurt like this. He was my odd, older brother, who teases me about the weirdest things and tends to dress like a hobo. He was definitely not all serious and constantly poking into my life.
“You mean Sam? Yeah, he’s awesome.”
“No, the other guy.”
“You mean the little boys across the street that I babysat that one time?”
“No, Uranus.” In his defense, Kurt tried to keep a straight face after saying Uranus’ name, but he ended up laughing softly about it as soon as the name left his lips.
I cracked a smile as well, before remembering yesterday clearly. “He’s Sam’s brother. What else do you want me to say?”
“Nothing. I was just wondering,” Kurt explained kind of . . . disappointedly?
“Why what’s wrong with that?” I asked suspiciously.
“Nothing,” he repeated. “I’m going to do some homework now,” Kurt said awkwardly as he stood up and walked up the stairs.
How peculiar.
:::x:::O:::x:::
“Hey, Serena,” a chirpy, bright voice greeted me as I dialed my combo on my lock.
“What?” Compared to Holly’s ecstatic tone, mine sounded like Freddy Krueger’s claws on a chalk board invading your dreams.
Holly’s smile faltered a bit and I grimaced on the inside.
“I was wondering if you wanted to go shopping today,” she said slowly and cautiously, as if she was scared that I would jump her at any given moment.
“Holly, if you want me off the team. All you have to do is say it. You don't need to buy me coffee or anything like that. I get it.”
“No!” Holly suddenly cried out. “It’s not like that at all! I swear!” She looked at me with frantic eyes, while I looked at her bewildered. Spazzy much?“You were amazing at that last game,” she added more serene this time.
“But I cost you the championship.”
“It’s fine. We’ll get them next year,” Holly said as she stared at the ceiling dreamingly.
I shut my locker door after I had grabbed all my class materials and started to walk, hoping to leave Holly, but unfortunately for me she followed.
“So, do you want to come?” she asked again, showing no sign to my attempt to ditch her.
“It’s a school night.” I really didn’t have the heart to reject her. She was the only person who willingly talked to me at school.
“Please, Serena? I really want you to come. It could be like an Arithmates bonding adventure!”
I sighed at her persistence. “Why are we going to the mall on a Monday?”
“Did you just say ‘we’?” Holly grinned at me. “Yes! This is going to be amazing!”
I tried to interject, but she kept going on and on about how excited she was about this afternoon and the details.
“I know this really posh place with the cutest dresses,” she gushed. “Oh! And right before the dance we can get our nails done at the place next to it! They are so nice there. I wonder if they do hair as well.”
“Wait, what?” I asked warily, not paying to half the stuff she was saying before ‘dresses’ and ‘hair done’.
“Oh, I should have probably told you that we’re going dress shopping for the winter formal,” she explained sheepishly.
“Erm . . . I wasn’t planning on going to the formal,” I objected as gently as I could.
“You aren’t?! But formal is an all-time must go, next to prom!”
“I don’t have a date.”
“We’ll find you one.” I scoffed at her suggesting. I scared every guy off on the first day of school.
“I don’t have money for the dress.”
“I’ll pay.”
“I don’t like tacky themes.”
“We don’t have a theme this year.”
I stared at her blankly. Did she have an answer to everything? She’s like a stinking magic eight ball. I’m running low on excuses as well.
“Well . . . I guess I could—” I said sadly, defeated.
“Yay!” She cheered with yet another smile on her face. “I have to go to homeroom now.” Holly dashed off in the opposite direction, leaving me to blink after her.
What just happened?
:::x:::O:::x:::
“Why are you glaring at the clock?” Kurt asked as entered the kitchen to see me sitting at the dinner table with my hands folded on top of the table and glaring intensely at the digital clock above the oven.
“It’s hurting me.”
Kurt waved his hand through the air between my face and the clock. “I don’t feel anything.”
“I told someone I’d meet up with them at four.”
“And you’re ditching them?” Kurt looked at the clock again, which now read 4:05.
“That’s why it’s hurting me,” I said softly.
“Alright, let’s go,” Kurt commanded as he took hold of my wrist and dragged me to the garage. “Since you’re obviously fickle, I’ll make the decision for you. You’re going.”
“But we’re going shopping!” I complained as he opened the passenger door and not-so gently shoved me inside.
Kurt laughed at this as he got into the driver’s side. “It’s only been two weeks and my sister’s already more social and girlish. I really owe something to Uranus.”
My breath caught in my throat when I remembered our last conversation about my ‘social life’. “This is going to suck,” I said more to myself than Kurt as I sunk down in my seat.
After about fifteen minutes of odious, repetitive radio station music, Kurt parked in front of a mall.
“I’m getting a pretzel,” Kurt declared as we entered the large building.
Since it was a Monday, not many people were here. Most of which were staring at me with a strage look, as if to say ‘you don’t belong here’. I managed to glare at every single one of them. It’s not my fault stores refuse to sell plus-sized clothing and decide to alienate overweight people even more.
“Yeah, I’ll call you later,” I said glumly as I made my way to the dress shop Holly was yapping on about earlier.
My heart sunk when I saw Holly was actually still there. She didn’t look impatient or frustrated. She was just leaning on the wall with a tranquil expression. What possessed her to wait for me?
“I’m sorry,” I apologized as I walked up to her. “I lost track of time,” I lied.
“Oh, it’s okay.” She smiled that overused smile of hers. “I just got here as well.” Her eyes were looking at something behind than rather at me, a sign that she was lying. “Well, let’s get to it!”
“Yay,” I faked cheered for her sake..
“I think you should get an emerald dress,” Holly said as she studied me. “It would suit your hair and eyes.”
“I don’t think that they would have anything in my size, so let’s just worry about you today,” I suggested as I gave the store a sweep of my eyes. Wow, who knew that dresses that high can still be accepted by society.
“No, I’m sure we’ll find something,” the brunette said positively, even though she sounded quite doubtful herself. “We won’t leave until we do.”
We’re going to be here for eons.
“I think you should get a red dress,” I suggested, picking a random color.
“That’s my favorite color too! Great suggestion, Serena!”
I felt my eye twitch. How can anyone keep up with her liveliness? It’s like she stocked up on Five-Hour Energy and protein shakes.
“Hello, ladies, is there anything that I could help you with today?” a saleslady asked as we got closer to the checkout desk.
“Um, could you find me a dress in red and a green one for her?” Holly asked shyly, not daring to look at the lady in the eyes. Oh, sure. Now she’s shy.
“I think we ran out of green dresses yesterday,” she said slowly as she gave me a once-over.
“But there’s one hanging right there,” Holly argued before I could, pointing to a glimmering, silky dress one of the mannequins were wearing.
“I’m sorry, that dress isn’t meant for someone with her figure,” the saleslady explained. “But I could get one for you if you would like.” She gave Holly a polite smile.
“That’s a horrible thing to say!” Holly exclaimed. Her eyes glowered at the saleslady, who looked like she was getting impatient and scared. I was more shocked at her anger than angry myself, but I decided I would let Holly vent. Honestly, it was kind of amusing to watch.
“Why couldn’t you order bigger sizes? Was it too much of a hassle?” Holly mocked her. “And telling someone that something isn’t made for them based on their shape isn’t very nice. Let alone having a disgusted look on your face while doing so,” she seethed madly. “I demand to see your manager.”
“Holly, it’s okay,” I told her as I placed a hand on her shoulder as a lame attempt to try to get her to calm down.
“No, it’s not. I hate it when people are treated based on the way they look,” she said more calmly to me, but she was still glaring at the saleslady, who was going into a room, talking to her boss, I assumed.
“I'm used to it.” I shrugged it off.
“That’s the thing.” Holly pulled out from her angry gaze to look at me with concerned eyes. “You shouldn’t be.”
I gritted my teeth. There was no way I could keep trying to avoid her. She was just so nice and sweet. All she wanted was for me to have a friend.
“Thank you,” I muttered as I released a breath I hadn’t realized I was holding in.
“For what?” She asked with a puzzled look on her face.
“For yelling at the saleslady,” I covered up my sentimental gratitude, giving her a genuine smile.
“No need,” she grinned back. “That was actually kind of fun.”
“You did what?!” We heard a man yell from the back room. It was followed by shuffling and soon a bald man wearing a suit came out the door with the saleslady trailing behind him. “I apologize on behalf of my buffoon of a worker. I shall check for you in our inventory.”
I thanked him, trying my hardest to not laugh at his ‘buffoon’ comment. Holly didn’t bother to stifle it and started cracking up, “She’s so fired,” Holly whispered in my ear.
The saleslady heard her and glared at both of us. “I didn’t need this job anyways,” she said defensively as she went back behind the counter and started to do something, which oddly looked like packing up.
Revenge is sweet.
“Here, you go, young lady,” the manager came back with a green dress in his hand.
“Thanks.”
“No problem. And Jessica, could you call Rachel to come in to fill in for you?” Ouch.
“Come on.” Holly grabbed my wrist and led me to the dressing room area. “You go try it on. I’ll go look at dresses for myself.”
“Okay,” I agreed, trying to abide by my new rule of not being rude to Holly.
I stepped in the dressing room cubicle and stripped. The silky green dress slid onto my fat suit quite easily. That hard part was that the suit allowed very limited flexibility, so I stood in there for God knows how long, stretching my arms behind my back, searching for the zipper.
By the time I found it, I was panting from all the moving I had done.
“Serena?” Holly’s voice called, startling me.
So, I being the flinch person I am, jumped at the sound of her voice, causing me to bump into a wall and falling to the floor with a loud crash.
“Are you alright?”
“I fell,” I replied, struggling to get back up. This was the turtle thing all over again. “But I’m fine,” I assured her.
“Are you sure?” Holly asked, concern in her voice.
“Positive,” I replied, attempting to get up, but ending up hitting my head on another wall.
“That sounded like it hurt.”
“I’m fine.” I managed to grab onto the supplied mini-seat, but as I tried to stand, I slipped on my flip flops and landed with another crash.
“I’m coming in,” Holly stated. I heard her starting to approach the door.
“Wait, don’t!” I shouted frantically, but it was too late. Holly opened the door and offered me a hand. “Thanks,” I said calmly as I took it even though my heart was pounding at million beats per second.
As she pulled me up, I made sure to pull extra hard to make it seem that I weighed like I looked and to hide my backside from her.
“No prob—” Holly eyes went wide as she stared at something behind me.
I turned my head and groaned. This was not good.
“Why do you have a zipper attached to your back?” Holly asked bewilderingly, looking back and forth from my face to the mirror with her mouth agape.
:::x:::O:::x:::
Hey, guys! Sorry this is a day late.
OMIGOSH! HOLLY KNOOOOWS NOW! What’s Serena going to do now? Dun DUN DUUUUNNN.
So I realized something. Three of my characters’ name are in Glee--- Holly (Holly Holiday), Sam, Kurt, and I think I named someone ‘Rachel’ in this one. It’s really spooky. I wasn’t thinking about the show when I thought of these names.
Hmmm… Cashier Guy isn’t in this chapter, but it was still dramatic, eh?
It’s question time:
Anymore guesses on the while fat suit business?
Do you like Holly?
Suggestions on how to improve my writing?