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Calintha stared at the piece of parchment in her hands. It was lovely, really. Beautifully decorated, scrolling words, and concise information. Really, Calintha couldn't stop staring at it. However, part of her amazement was what this piece of parchment meant for her. It was an invitation to Jada's debutant ball. It had been sitting in her 'to open' mail pile for about a month now, and it had somehow managed to slip back behind the basket and she'd just opened it now. Thankfully, she was still within the deadline for RSVPing for the event, but it was cutting it close to being prepared for said event.

She filled out the RSVP card immediately, and put it on the counter to be mailed off the next day. This, however, left one teensy tiny semi-huge problem that has plagued all women since the dawn of man.

What on earth was she going to wear?

Clearly this was something way, WAY beyond her capabilities of shopping. And Calintha only knew one person who was actually capable of handling such a situation and thankfully for her Fallon's number was safely listed within her cell phone.

She paged through her phone list before finding the number and pressing send. It only rang a few times before the other girl picked up. "Hey! Hi Fallon. I really need your help on something..."

Calintha hung up the phone a few minutes later with a smile on her face. The prospect of dress shopping had just gotten a whole lot better now that the blonde knew she was going to have help navigating the world of formal fashion.

Thankfully the previous night Calintha had remembered to set an alarm. Not so thankfully though, was the fact that she managed to sleep straight past the beeping of her cellphone alarm, so long that it simply turned itself off. She woke to the overly cheery and obnoxious ringtone of her secondary alarm. This one had been set as a obviously needed precaution, giving her just enough time to make things work. And make them work she had.

Calintha knew that Fallon hated when she was late, which she so often was. Normally she didn't particularly care that she was late, as long as it wasn't too long past the appointed deadline. But since she had asked Fallon to help her, the blonde really didn't want to get her grumpy. Without looking at her cellphone, she knew she had about 10 minutes to make it to the boutique district.

She had ran to the bus, thankfully just catching it as it was about to leave. The boutique district wasn't too far from her house, and the bus dropped her just a few blocks from the shop that Fallon had texted her to meet at. She ran the few blocks, stopping in front of the cinnamon haired girl a little out of breath, but just barely scraping by- Calintha had managed to get there just a mere 10 seconds before she would have been 'officially' late.

She took a few deep breaths, smiling at the other girl. "Hey Fallon!" The girl looked really good, happier than Calintha had seen in a while. "Thanks again for meeting me today." The blonde herself looked better than she had in a while as well. There were no dark circles under her eyes, and she seemed more refreshed and awake; a telltale sign of a good nights sleep. Her hair and cloths were slightly disheveled, but nothing embarrassingly messy. The blonde beamed at Fallon, taking a look around. It wasn't often that she found herself in the fashion district, and she found it interesting (though, parts of it were a little stuck up for her tastes, not to mention expensive).

Calintha looked around the store upon entering. It was definitely the nicest secondhand shop she'd ever been in- apparently it was true what Fallon was saying; it was a benefit to go to one in a nice area. She looked at the sweater the other girl had grabbed, it was nice enough, but the girl doubted she would pay $80 for it. The wealthy seemed to spend their money on the weirdest stuff sometimes.

The blonde girl followed behind the other a little like a lost puppy. She'd come into this knowing that Fallon was going to manage the trip, and was completely alright with that. Most likely, Calintha would have walked through the store several times before just deciding to try something on and then leaving after it wasn't right. She'd never really thought about just trying on different dresses to find her style.

Holding out her arms, Calintha received three piles of silk and beadwork, nodding a bit vacantly. "Alright." She smiled, happy again that Fallon was here. She clicked the dressing room door shut and made short work of her current clothing. She'd had enough foresight to wear a strapless bra and non-showing underwear, so it wouldn't interfere with seeing the dresses.

Reaching out for a dress at random, she grabbed the greenish blue one. It took her a little longer to figure out the straps, but it was fairly easy to slip into after that. Many summers of outdoor gardening had given her a fairly nice body. After looking at herself for a second, Calintha stepped out of the dressing room and twirled for Fallon. The dress was alright, but something didn't quite work with it; it hung strangely off of her hips. "What do you think?"

She would do the same for each three of the dresses, trying them on and coming out to show Fallon. The only one she kind've liked from the three was the blue dress, but it was a little princess-y for her tastes. The green one was just a little strange, and it showed in the way she held herself; Calintha wasn't comfortable in it.

Calintha was looking through the racks of dresses. A few of them where really, truly lovely...she just had doubts that they would still look really truly lovely on her. The blonde looked a little bit cross eyed trying to see what Fallon had plopped on her head, before seeing the little mirror on the counter. It was a vintage looking tiara, a little tarnished, but it added to its charm. It was charming in a retro sort of way, but not something she would wear. The girl carefully plopped it back up on its stand.

She went back to looking through the racks. She saw some normal clothes that look awesome and that she would have to come back and try sometime; no dresses were found however. "I do remember Audrey, blue hair right?" It was difficult to forget a girl with natural blue hair. She was fairly nice, Cali had run into her at school several times.

"Maybe something like this?" She held up the red dress for Fallon inspection. It was a little more sparkly than she would have normally dared, but Calintha like the color of it. She looked around her for a few more dresses to try, not really willing to go into the dressing room again with several more options. If she was going to be striping multiple times today only to put her clothes right back on, it was going to have to count.

Calintha nodded at Fallon. "Yea, I'd like to find another dress or two first though, so I don't have to keep striping down all the time." It was a little brash of a statement, but it was true. She shrugged and began looking through the racks again. They'd started moving into the back parts of the store now, things that had been there for some time.

She didn't quite know how to react to Fallon's situation. She was so estranged from her own mother that she couldn't relate. "I...don't know what to say, other than you can't leave! I would be showing up to Jada's ball in a sundress looking and feeling terribly out of place if you weren't helping me." She turned through some of the other racks, thumbing through dresses like pages in an old book. Calintha broke her concentration to look up at Fallon, locking eyes with the girl. "Hiding would probably only work in an extreme emergency, say if you happened to disappear around the time of a booked flight to France. And if you need a place to hide, you are certainly always welcome at my apartment." She knew Fallon had been joking about hiding out, but Calintha offered up her place in all serious. She wanted to be more supportive, she just didn't know what to say.

Calintha rounded the corner of a rack when something caught her eye. She turned around looking interested in the little scrap of fabric still out between two dresses. After some fishing, she pulled out a dress that someone had tried to hide by pushing it to the inside of the rack and covering it with large fluffy dresses. The dress was beautiful; airy and light, and not a gem tone or whatever Fallon had called it. She held it up silently for a yea or nay.

Calintha's eyes got a little wider at the Barren Pines joke. Though, she was happy to say that it didn't affect her as much as it once used too, which was a big improvement. It seemed Fallon wasn't the only one making breakthroughs. "I don't know what to tell you Fallon..." She let the sentence drift off, unsure of how to finish it.

"I think I'm ready to try on now." Two was an okay number, and the girl was itching to try on the two red dresses, which she found equally stunning. She led the way back to the dressing room this time, pulling the door shut with a little click. It didn't take her very long to put on the mermaid cut dress, walking out of the door decisively.

"I like it!" It was a pretty dress on her, and it hugged her small amount of curves in the right places. Had she not brought another dress to try on, Calintha probably would have just changed and bought that dress without a second thought. "I might as well try on the other one though."

She walked back into the changing room and slipped on the other dress. It showed a little more leg than she was used to, but otherwise...it was perfect. She stepped out of the fitting room, and it was apparent in her posture and face. Something about Cali just glowed in that dress, for no apparent reason. "I...I think I found what I wanted." She twirled around, letting Fallon see the whole thing. It was pretty, fit her well, and didn't have any visible damage. Whoever had hidden it in the rack was going to be very, very sad.

She looked the price tag at the back, also happy about the price. It sat perfectly in the middle of her budget, which would leave her enough to be shoes. She smiled happily at Fallon, though she was still a little sad to hear that her friend might be forced back to France.