-Abby’s POV-

It’s Thursday, one day before the masquerade dance. Instead of being lazy at home like I wanted to be, Andrea was dragging me from store to store at the plaza. She isn’t very girly, but she was ecstatic for the dance. At least I don’t have my backpack on! We were shopping for about an hour and I hadn’t tried anything on yet. I was only giving my opinion on the dresses Andrea tried on.

“Aren’t you going to try anything on?” Andrea asked. She was trying on a dark red, knee-length dress. It fit her well, but she wasn’t very satisfied with it.

I shrugged. “Nothing has caught my eye yet.”

Andrea sighed. “You’re so hard to please!” she smiled playfully, “You haven’t tried any on!”

I chuckled. “When one catches my eye, I’ll try it on. I promise!” I said, holding out my pinky finger.

Andrea rolled her eyes at the childish gesture, but held out her pinky finger as well.

After Andrea had taken off the dress, we walked around the plaza, looking around for another shop to enter.

“So Andrea,” I stopped looking around and turned to face her. “what did Kai tell you during lunch a few days ago that made you blush?”

A blush threatened to creep across her face. “Nothing” she responded, a little too quickly.

I smirked. Time to make fun of her! “OOH DID HE ASK YOU OUT OR SOMETHING?” I poked her stomach repeatedly, making her squeal.

She swatted my hands away and shook her head fiercely. “Of course not. He said something else.”

“Well tell me!” I said, impatient.

She played around with her hair. “He said that he was glad of two things. One: that I was going to the dance. And two: I wasn’t going with anyone so he could be with me and no one else."

My eyes widened. Andrea quickly covered my mouth before I could squeal like a maniac.

“It probably doesn’t mean anything anyways!”

I ripped her hands off of my mouth. “How could that not mean anything? What if he likes you?!”

She looked at me. “He probably doesn’t. I mean why would he?”

“Cause you’re amazing maybe?” She laughed.

“So what happened to you before school on the same day? You looked deep in thought about something.”

It was my turn to blush. All the memories of the events that happened rushed back into my head. I felt my cheeks burn. Andrea, of course, noticed.

“What happened?!” She shouted.

“Shhh! People will stare at you like you’re weird!”

“I don’t care! Tell me!”

I sighed. I told her what happened and she squealed loudly when I finished.

“He so likes you! I can tell!” She started jumping up and down, like a little kid.

“Of course not! I’m not pretty enough for him..” She stopped jumping and shook my shoulders.

“You’re pretty no matter what you think.” I lowered my head, not responding.

“Someday you’ll have to accept it! Now let’s keep on looking for shops!”

I looked around and I spotted a small shop surrounded by big shops. I would’ve missed it if I hadn’t looked closely.

I steered Andrea in the direction of the shop. There was a sign with pink, cursive letters that read “Cotton Candy”.

“Do you want to go in here?” Andrea asked. I nodded. I’m usually not attracted to enter into these kind of girly looking shops, but this shop felt different somehow.

The walls were painted light pink, covered with sky blue polka dots. There were beautiful dresses hung around the store.

An old lady of about sixty years of age approached us. “Why hello young ladies! Can I help you find anything in particular?”

Andrea spoke up. “We’re looking for something to match a masquerade theme at our school.”

The old lady smiled warmly. “I have just the thing! Follow me.” She walked to the back of the store and we followed. There was a glass case with beautiful masquerade masks of all the colors of the rainbow and more. Andrea and I looked in awe.

“Here they are.” She gestured to a rack holding even more beautiful dresses than the ones in the front, if that was possible. I walked up to them and immediately my eyes looked at a dress that was sky blue trimmed with gold. It felt like velvet when I touched it. Next to me, Andrea looked fascinated with a black dress that looked like from the medieval age. It was black and red.

The old lady chuckled. “The dressing rooms are right here,” She gestured to a few stalls. I entered the stall and changed into the dress. I came out and looked at myself in the mirror next to the stalls. Andrea also came out. I had never felt so beautiful in a dress.

Andrea looked amazed at her reflection. “Wow the dresses are amazing.” All I could do was nod. The shop keeper came back and handed us a mask each, they matched colors with the dresses.

“The masks are free for you guys.” I looked at her in confusion. She only returned me a motherly smile.

“So will you be taking the dresses?”

I looked at myself in the mirror and Andrea and I said in unison: “We’ll take them!”