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This was silly.

This was downright silly.

She didn't even have a date ! And technically she even had a dress ! But there she was, staring at the store front, watching her dad wander off with a smile on his face, clearly proud of himself.

Did she really look stressed enough that she needed shopping therapy ?!

...Yes. Yes she did.

'Just go and pick yourself something nice.' Hector Desmond had sad to his much shorter daughter, amused by the expression on her face. 'Even if you don't wear it for prom, there's your uncle's marriage this summer....'

And now, credit card in hand, Ashley entered the store, and wasn't quite sure where to even begin.

French? Oh! Yes, she HAD had a class with her- but the poor girl had been out sick so often it was hard to remember her face. She'd seemed alright the few times Guen had noticed her- and if she had been a little distant, who could blame her? After all, she'd been out the majority of the semester.

"French, yeah, I think so. I hope you're feeling better," and she added belatedly, "Fallon. I'm Guen. I think I sat on the other side of the class..."

The shop was quickly filling up - it looked like everyone had had time to make it over after school let out. Subconciously she moved a little away from the tension permeating between the girl at the blue dress rack, and the one who had joined the boy at the front of the store. Without the school uniforms, Guen would pretty much be hopeless at recognizing fellow classmates, but from the furtive glances the guy- Jamie? was making, something had run afoul between the two.

She hardly noticed though, now interested in the ivory gown the other girl was wearing. "It looks lovely on you," she said admiringly. Guen wondered idly if she could pull off that color. Probably not. Toothpaste hair.

Fallon had spent the majority of her life living in France and had been fluent since an early age. Her choice to take the language as a course was a practical one; her grades were hitting rock bottom and she needed to pad them with something. Between hospitalizations, distractions, and all her lies about traveling to France for family emergencies, Fallon had missed most of the lessons, but still managed to come out with a B+. She didn't remember terribly much from the time she spent in class, except Guen apparently.

Lily's voice behind her caught Fallon's ear. Ever since the girl had joined the Blood Moon Court, the troubles in their friendship had been eased over. It had been hard when Fallon couldn't tell Lily why she seemed so disconnected with reality. Now that Lily knew she was both Fallon and Ares, things had gotten much simpler. She gave the girl a smile and then turned back to regard Guen. She had no idea that Bell was also Bellatrix, and similarly was utterly unaware of her attitude toward the actions of the BMC during Operation Rota. As far as she knew, they were just both two normal girls shopping in the same store.

Someone else entered the store, but Fallon didn't notice.

"Good to meet you formally, Guen," Fallon said, slipping into her typical politeness. "I've been doing better, yes." The lies around her absences were stacked to the ceiling. Sometimes it was hard for Fallon to keep track of them all. She was happy just to breeze right by it and move onto other topics.

Her hands smoothed the fabric of the dress. "I think I look like I'm getting married in it," she said, shaking her head. "I'm all for subtle colors, but ivory is a little too... wedding bells. I liked her suggestion," she gestured toward Tate, "for the green. Are you prom shopping too? I'm still on the fence about going, but it never hurts to try on a dress." Fallon still had her dress from last year in her closet. Too bad prom had been cancelled. There was no telling what might happen this year.

When Lily approached, Fallon stepped to the side to open up their circle. "Hi, Lily -- have you met Guen? Guen, Lily." She turned toward Tate, but the girl had headed off in another direction.

Ashley had taken a few steps in when she was accosted by a taller, brown haired girl. After a brief moment of damn, that's really hot, she managed to pull herself back to reality.

Bad idea, Ashley. Bad idea.

"Yeah." Well. Kind-of. Maybe. The girl looked annoyed enough that she overlooked the details. Did she work here ? That didn't look like a work uniform at all.

"Hm, im just not too sure where to even start. Or if I can even take a step without smacking into someone." Damn there were a lot of people here.

Lily smiled as Fallon greeted her, yes she knew the girl was Ares, but she was still having trouble putting the two together. It did allow Lily to know why Fallon was so different, but then wasn't everyone. She always forgot that little fact, she was different too.

Lily shook her head to indicate she had not met Guen, "Hello, its nice to meet you." She extended her hand to shake the blue haired girls, but her head turned to the brown haired girl who was carting Jaimie off.

"Good luck, Jaimie," she mouthed, but made no move to follow, "catch you later she continued."

She looked back to Guen and then to Fallon, "So its seems everyone is dress shopping today, which is good. I really need help," she said blushing. Admitting to a guy you were an awful shopper was easy, but admitting to a girl the same was much more embarrassing, though Lily did not know why. Her sister seemed to think it was odd, so maybe thats why she was embarrassed.

"I know sort of what I would like, but not entirely."

Claudia looked up from the rack of dresses she had been perusing, watching people form groups. Were you supposed to go dress shopping with other people? She didn't know, she'd never done it on her own. Usually her Grandmother would order in dresses to the house and Claudia would try them on for her and they'd pick whatever looked nice.

Looking back to the dresses she paused, maybe dress shopping on her own was a stupid idea. She didn't want to bother her Grandmother though, she was getting older and the bluenette felt bad because she hadn't been to see her recently. Going to see her just to try on dresses made her feel like she was using the old lady.

After another moment of indecision she reached into her tote, pulling out her phone. She'd just text Gently, and hope the other girl had time for her. She turned the phone on it's side, fingers tapping against the touch screen.

'Gently, I'm @ Destiny Dresses. Come shop with me? My treat.'

The text was short and not very eloquent, and also contained a bribe but that was Claudia, awkward when it came to friendships because she didn't have many. Her phone was slid back into her tote and she went back to the confusing land of dresses. Maybe she should have just stuck with shoes.

Gently was enjoying a quiet day in. Not needed at the news room, and no productions at the theatre needing any kind of attention of volunteering, she was taking some time to herself. Nursing bruises, cuts, burns and other injuries incurred recently. Most were hidden or well on the road to healing with some help from stolen energy, but the bruise on her face and the cut on the side of her head were stubborn and had to be hidden with make up.

Which she wasn't wearing at the moment, because she was doing the day off thing.

Sitting on her sofa, she was surprised when her phone buzzed, the remote control in her hand taking a suicidal leap from her palm and clattering on the ground as she scrambled to grab the phone off the coffee table it was rattling loudly on. Glancing down, she noticed the name on the text, then read the message and smiled broadly.

Shopping with Claudia? True enough, Gently was not the best shopper out there, and was mostly dense when it came to all things fashion, but she certainly couldn't say no to hanging out with her friend!

'Be there in ten.'

Text sent, she scrambled to get herself ready, covering up what she could of the bruising on her face, then grabbed her glasses, trusty pencil and notebook, bag and she pulled her shoes on at the door. She had a bit of trouble finding the store, though soon enough she entered the place, looking around and noticing it was quite busy. What had she been dragged to, she had to wonder. Was there some ulterior motive here? A grin on her face, reflecting her amusement at the suspicion, she pulled her phone out again.

'Where are you? I'm at the door."

She had never been very good at chat or text speak.

Her phone was chiming from inside her tote seconds after she put it away. Smiling she pulled it out, reading the message. Oh, yay! She wasn't too busy to hang out, or too disinterested. That was what Claudia had really been worried about. Her phone was set back in its pocket in her tote and she went back to looking at dresses while she waited.

It wasn't too long before her phone was going off again. Pulling it out she read the message and couldn't help but laugh. They were both short so it was impossible to see each other through the dress racks and groups of people. Instead of texting back, Claudia just made her way to the front door, her heels clicking against the floor as she walked.

Stopping next to her she smiled widely. "I'm so glad you could come!" For a moment she stood awkwardly, but then remembered Gently was a hugger, so they should hug right? A bit awkwardly she reached out hugging the other girl, she'd get used to physical contact eventually.

Pulling away she smiled, having to look down a little at her because of her heels. "I'm trying to pick out a dress for prom, but I'm not very good at it. So, I was hoping you could help me! And then we could get you a dress and maybe some shoes too, you'd look pretty in heels." Still smiling she took Gently's wrist, pulling her over to racks of blue dresses. "There's just so many, I don't know where to start."