I didn’t realize when I fell asleep; when I wake up I look at the clock on one of the dressers. 9 o’clock I slide out of bed go into the bathroom and open a tooth brush in a box and a tooth paste and then brush my teeth. I slide a pair of jeans on and am about to head to the kitchen when Kevin knocks on the door while opening the door at the same time. Kevin peaks his head through the door a little.

“Can I come in?” he asks me, I chuckle and nod

“You’re pretty much already in aren’t you?” he grins and shrugs

“I guess I am aren’t I?”

“What is it? Is something wrong?”

“Nope I just wanted to see how you are and to tell you that I figured out that the girls name is Susie, she wouldn’t talk because she was afraid”

“Afraid of…?”

“Of us and what could happen” I stare at him for a little it 

“Maybe you should talk to her since your both girls maybe you’ll understand each other better, I tried but I don’t know what I could do to make her trust us” I stay quiet for a moment

“Sure why not, Kiseop said he’s taking us shopping so I could take an opportunity to talk to her then” and maybe you should tell Eli too, he’s really good at helping others I say. Eli smiles “Will do” he says.

          We leave the room and I close the door behind me.

“What were you two doing in there alone?” Says a voice, I jump and turn and see Eli, my face burns bright red and I stutter.

“No…no… it’s not what you think Kevin was just-“

“Was just what?!” Eli interrupts me sharply before I can even finish.

“I was just telling her about Susie and how she won’t talk to us because she doesn’t trust us and is afraid. I was telling Claire that she should talk to Susie since there both girls and maybe they can understand each other better” I watch Eli why am I so worried? It’s just Eli, and why is he even making such a big deal about this it’s like if he was jealous I think to myself.

“Oh…” Says Eli his face bright red “I’m sorry, I don’t know what came over me, anyways Kiseop and Susie are waiting for us down stairs to eat breakfast and leave” I look at Kevin and then at Eli, Eli smiles at little when he sees that I’m looking at him.

“It’s alright” I finally say after a short while, Eli’s smile grows even bigger.

“Thank you” he says and at that we start heading down the stairs to the kitchen where Kiseop and Susie are.

          After breakfast we get into Kiseop’s car and head to the mall, the mall is huge I had never seen anything like it! When we get inside there is more people that what I have ever seen in my whole life in one single place. Kiseop pokes my shoulder “Everything alright? You look surprised.” he asks me, I smile at him “Yes! Look Eli isn’t this amazing” I say looking back at Eli, Eli doesn’t hear me he is even more amazed than I am.

“Well… les get at it” Says Eli handing us all squared see trough cards with blue numbers that look like little lights Susie, Eli, Kevin and I exchange looks and then we all look at Kiseop confused.

“What is this?” Asks Susie, we all gasp in amazement at her talking. Kiseop chuckles and takes out another card that looks exactly like us except with lines going through it.

“Those are copies of my credit card, with this I can make copies of my card and give it to as many people as I want” he says taking out a small squared object with a type of stick in it.

“What is a credit card?” I ask him, Kiseop looks at us like were weird for not knowing what a credit card is.

“Well… a credit card is something you use to pay for objects, before we used to use green dollars and coins, but now the government has decided to save trees and to just use credit cards” Explains Kiseop to us

“Ooooh.” we all say in amusement

“How do you pay for things where you come from?” asks Kiseop now curious

“We exchange things for other things.” says Susie, Kiseop nods

“Ah, I see” he says “Well when you go into the store the cashiers will teach you how to use it so don’t worry too much about it, now go have fun and shop!, if we get split up too much remember this is our exit alright?”   

“Ok.” we all respond nodding at the same time.

“Do you want to come with me Susie?” I ask her, she looks at me and shrugs.

“Sure why not.” she says, we walk into a store called ‘Love it or Love it’ the store is filled with cute short and long dresses, there is loud music and the lightning is bright.

“I’m sorry about the other day I hadn’t realized what you were going through, I know how it feels to lose your family, I lost mine too, and all I have left is Eli.” I tell her she smiles and walks around the clothes rack to stand next to me.

“It’s alright; I’m guessing Kevin told you everything right?”

“Yes but don’t get upset at him, he’s just trying to help you on feeling more comfortable around us.”

“It’s not that I’m not comfortable, it’s that I don’t want to care about someone and then end up losing them like I lost my parents, especially since we’re all in the same situation.”

“Ooh I see I understand now.” I take a dress out of a clothes rack and put it in front of me. “What do you think?” I ask Susie, Susie smiles and puts her thumb up.

“It’s gorgeous! It will look beautiful on you.” she says as she grabs a pair of shorts and a see trough t-shirt.

“Oh that will look so cute on you, I think I might take a pair of shorts like those too.” a sales lady comes up behind us and asks if we want to try on the clothes we had on.

“That would be a good idea” says Susie, I nod in agreement and we head into a fitting room, we go into one together so we can give each other compliments. When were done shopping we go and pay and then we head out of the store and visit a couple more stores including a lingerie store me and Susie guessed that we would need under clothes especially something called a bra that all the women seemed to be wearing. 

          When we finish shopping we have ten bags of clothes all from different stores we stop by a coffee shop and get some coffee and then we head up to the exit where Kiseop told us to meet.

“So tell me what’s going on in between you and Eli?” Asks Susie, I look at her surprised at the question.

“Nothing we are just friends, why are you asking?”

“Oh, I’m just curious. “ I think about the other night and seeing her with Kevin.

“What about you and Kevin? I saw you guys hugging last night in your room.” She blushes

“Well honestly nothing, I’m sort of interested in Eli though, that’s why I was asking you about you and him” a weird feeling runs through my body, am I jealous? I ask myself surprised. We have reached the exit where we were supposed to meet, Kevin and Eli are already there waiting.

“Well you girls went on a shopping spree” Says Kevin; the guys hadn’t bought half of what we had.

“Yep, we sure did!” says Susie giggling   

“Where is Kiseop?” I ask the guys

“Oh he was here a bit ago he went to the bathroom, we were just waiting for you girls to get back so we could head back home” Susie and I sit next to the guys while we wait for Kiseop.

          Kiseop comes a couple minutes after and we all leave and head back to his house. When we get back to Kiseop’s Susie and I go up to our rooms and pick out an outfit for each other while Kiseop, Kevin, and Eli prepare dinner. I pick out a dress for Susie and Susie picks out a dress for me.         After I finish getting ready I step out onto the porch and look up into the sky, the wind blows making my dress sway and I get up on my tiptoes so I can look down over the railing better.

“Hey there you.” Says a voice, I turn around and see Eli.

“Hi, what do you think?” I say to him, blushing and doing little turn so he can see the dress, the dress is short the top is plain white and the bottom is pink with flowers designing it.

“You look beautiful.” he says giving me a big smile, Eli comes and stands next to me then grabs my hand in his.

“Are you okay?” I ask him; Eli’s face starts turning red as he nods.

“Yes I’m fine, there’s something I’ve been meaning to tell you but I haven’t found the right moment ever since the escape.” Eli slides a strand of my hair behind my ear and looks into my eyes “I’ve been wanting to tell you that…”  Eli gets cut off by Kiseop standing and knocking at the door.

“I just want to say that dinner is ready…” Says Kiseop his expression blank at the sight of him, he turns and walks away fast, I look up at Eli and nudge my hand away from his.

“Um… tell me later.” I say to Eli as I walk away after Kiseop.

“Kiseop wait! Are you ok?” I grab Kiseop by the shoulder and he turns to face me.

“I’m fine don’t worry about it” he smiles down at me and kisses my forehead and then heads down the stairs. Was he jealous? No it’s just your imagination Claire I think to myself, my legs had gone weak when Kiseop kissed me. I turn around and see Eli and Susie looking at me, I wonder how long they had been standing there. Eli stares at me and then heads down the stairs without saying a word to me or even giving me that smile he always gives me. Susie comes up to me and takes my hand, she’s grinning at me.

“What?” I tell her

“Don’t what me! I saw exactly what happened right there!” her grin grows even wider

“Um, what?” Susie giggles

“Don’t pretend you don’t know what I’m talking about, he totally likes you! I can tell by the way he looks at you” She says, I stare at her blankly not saying anything, what could I say? I’m speechless.

          When Susie and I get to the table no one says anything until a while later.

“Well the girls look beautiful, don’t they?” Says Kevin trying to break the awkward silence, no one says anything but Eli and Kiseop nod. Susie looks at me and we smile at each other happy at our picks of clothes. 

          After dinner we all go to our rooms and head to bed, I take off my dress, hang it up and then slide into my brand new pajamas I had gotten. I hear a knock at my door “Come in” I say, Kevin comes into the room and closes the door behind him. I walk into the bathroom to brush my teeth, Kevin fallows close behind.

“Can I tell you something?” Asks Kevin

“Sure what is it?”

“Well you know Susie and well…”  Kevin stays silent for a moment and I rinse my mouth then look at him.

“Yes? And…?” I think I know what he’s going to say but I don’t interrupt him.

“Well…” he starts nervously “I really, really like her” he says I smile at him.

“Well why don’t you tell her then?” he looks at me for a long time

“I don’t think she likes me, plus she’s sleeping right now” he explains I think back at when we were at the mall and how she told me she likes Eli.

“Well you’ll never know unless you try” I tell him and what that he smiles and stands up straight excitedly.

“Your right” he says starting to exit the room, he rests his hand on the door knob. “I’ll tell her tomorrow, thank you for listening!” he smiles and leaves the room closing the door behind him.