"Like, do you need some help or something?"
Startled from her contemplations, Dana turned at looked at the girl.
"Oh, no thank you. I'm sure I can figure this out."
The girl, Cadence by her name tag, lifted her pierced eyebrow, and slipped her phone into a pocked of her tight jeans. She walked out from behind the counter and came to stand near Dana.
"Figure what out?"
Pink colored Dana's cheeks. "What size I wear."
Cadence looked at her like she'd just sprouted a second head, then actually took the time to school her features as she realized that the person in front of her was not American.
"Ok, well no problem." She took a step back and gave Dana a very good once over. "You're shorter than me, and you look about two sizes smaller. I wear a four or a six depending on the designer. So you probably wear like a zero or a two."
The girl smiled at Dana and went over to the racks. "Do you have like a color preference or were you like just looking for something new?
Dana wondered briefly why the girl kept saying like in places it didn't belong. She shrugged at the girl and smiled a bit. "I'm looking to...Americanize my wardrobe."
"Cool." Then the girl smiled a huge smile that Dana could not interpret. It was as though she'd been given a large piece of candy or a ticket to her favorite band. She couldn't figure out what had made the girl so happy.
"I'm going to be like your personal shopper today." She all but rubbed her hands in glee. "Let's go put you in a dressing room."
She herded Dana into one of the little rooms with a glossy black door. "Ok, what's you name?"
Feeling overwhelmed by this girl and the situation, Dana wasn't thinking as clearly as she was supposed to. "Dana."
"Cool, how do you spell it?"
She blinked several times then spelled her name. Cadence wrote it on the little silver plate on the front of the door, then all but pushed Dana inside the room. "This is going to be so much fun."
She darted off and Dana was left to try and catch her breath. It wasn't long until clothes were suddenly flung over the top of the stall door. "Ok try these on, I started with zeros, we can get a bigger size if you like something and it doesn't fit. But you're like really tiny, so these should all fit. If you have on a bra like take it off, because some of these will look weird with your straps showing."
Dana shook her head. It could be worse, she tried to rationalize, the girl could have laughed at her. She spent the next hour trying on and taking off clothes. She'd not specified that she wanted only dresses, and the girl brought her nearly half the store, explaining that like some of the stuff wouldn't look good on her body type.
By the end of this whirlwind, another girl had come into the shop and was watching from behind the safety of the counter. Dana ended up with four dresses, three tops, two skirts, a bikini, and her first pair of blue jeans. She wasn't sure she'd ever wear the jeans, but they had been moderately comfortable and she didn't want to disappoint the eager girl.
"So like guess what."
Dana stared at the girl, was she supposed to answer? "What?" It was obviously the correct response as the girl's face lit up
"I'm like off now, and if you want, I can like take you to some other stores and help you find shoes and more clothes and like bras and stuff to go with some of those dresses."
That was not going to work, at least Dana didn't think it would. She wasn't sure if she could spend more time in this frenetic child's company. She smiled gently as she put her credit card back in the small purse she carried.
"That's very kind of you Cadence, but I'm afraid, you've exhausted me." She chuckled softly."I've never shopped like this before. I think perhaps I'd like to try again another day."
The girl's face had fallen, until Dana finished her sentence and then it brightened once more. "I'm off on Thursday, want to meet me here then?"
Dana found herself confused, why was this girl set on taking her shopping? Did she look like a charity case or some one in need of this girl's personal guidance? "This might sound rude, but why?"
That seemed to take her off guard. "Oh, 'cause I like love to do make overs and it's always way more fun when someone else is spending the money and like you're really nice and let me like pick your clothes for you. I haven't ever had that much fun at work before."
Deciphering what the girl had said took a moment, because the words had come out in a rush, all smashed together as if they couldn't wait their turn.
"When you put it that way, alright." The girl smiled her giant smile again. "But, it will have to be around this same time, I have to work during the day."
Dana realized then that she wasn't afraid, perhaps this was a step in the right direction, or it could be that this girl's personality was just so overpowering, that Dana didn't have room in her head for her own. She prefered the first option.
"That's cool, 'cause I like have school all day and I think there's like a trig test or something Thursday."
Figuring the girl meant trigonometry, Dana wondered how she was passing the class if she didn't even know when the tests were. "I'll see you then, Cadence. Good luck on your test."
She took her bag, and with a wave left the store. With something akin to desperation, Dana walked swiftly through the mall, calling the driver as she went. She had to get out of this place.
"Take me somewhere with water, lots of water."
((ooc headed to the Preserve, lock up please.))
I wear a what? (open)
Overwhelmed, definitely, overwhelmed.
Dana had decided that she needed to go shopping. She'd discovered in her short time here that her clothing brought some unwanted attention when she went out into public. She was drawn to dresses that flowed about her body in soft waves of thin fabrics. It was ok for the Irish country-side, but in the big city it made her stand out and attention was the absolute last thing she wanted.
So after discussing the issue with one of the maids and looking up fashion on the internet, she ventured out to the Strip again, her driver taking her to something called a mall.
It was there she sat at a small table sipping something called a latte, not quite understanding the culture she'd just walked into. She watched the people mill about occasionally going into stores, then coming out empty handed. They chatted and laughed, pointed out things and laughed some more.
There were groups of people that looked to be in their teens that were loud and raucous, seemingly doing nothing but prowling the mall and making a nuisance of themselves. Some lone shoppers carried several bags, going into a store with a determined look, then leaving sometime later with another bag added to their hands.
It was these lone shoppers that Dana watched the most. It was they that seemed to be accomplishing what she'd set out to do this evening. With some small measure of determination of her own, Dana finished off the sweet creamy vaguely coffee drink, and made her way to the first store across from the food center thing.
A bored looking girl greeted her halfheartedly, then returned to the little silver phone in her hands, her thumbs moving furiously. Dana moved to the area of the store that displayed dresses. It was here she realized two things, modern hemlines were very short and she didn't know her American size.
Once more overwhelmed she stood looking at the clothes displayed on racks and mannequins before her.
Dana
15 years ago