Lucas And The Time-Traveling Fog Party Animals
Chapter 9 The New Mall Rat Pt. One

Now that you know all the girls’ names and quirks, let me tell you, I found them extremely annoying at times or just plain immature from the start, and these girls say all guys act like that. One thing I hate about being in this group is privacy… or lack of it. Privacy is just another word with little to no meaning. Sure, they leave me alone when I’m studying, among other things, but I can barely do the simplest of things without one of them tagging along, like going to the bathroom, for instance. One of them always has to follow me like I’m the president. But being in this girl group wasn’t all bad. I did learn a thing or two about girls… more than I could in any other way.

Like who knew girls love to share almost everything with each other, from makeup to secrets with little to no fuss, and I would know because it happened to me all the time. Also, I learned what clothing is so in and what isn’t on a daily basis, keeping up with the constant girl drama and gossip around campus while focusing on school in the process. These girls never had it easy, and I must be no different because, for whatever reason, I was given this responsibility to be this shoulder for Liz’s friends to cry on and vent all of their problems to me whenever they have a bad day, which to me seems like every day.

There was always something that went wrong in their lives, and they turned to me and asked for the answers like I was some fortune teller. ME! I listened to what they had to say, word for word, agreed with whatever they had said and inspired them to make them feel better. As I was giving them advice, that got me thinking. Who do I cry to when I have a bad day? My friends back at home in my time? No...if I would do that, they would probably not understand and just laugh or call me names. My folks? Perhaps, but they are never at home when that happens to me. Anyway, I don’t understand how anyone can handle this and treat it like it’s no big deal. So, I don’t know what I’ll do when I go shopping with a bunch of teenage girls tomorrow. But with my horrible luck lately, something bad is bound to happen.

Saturday morning arrived, whether I liked it or not, and I had the pleasure to sleep in a little, which was nice because I was up till almost two o’clock in the morning working on a college research project. I don’t even know how I’m doing well in every one of her classes so far anyway, considering I never graduated high school. But being in college blows, I had to sit in a library almost alone reading some book that was luckily not checked out, but I had to wait to use the printer to print just one page of my research that I typed up the other day, having no Starbucks coffee in my system to keep me awake and only had Liz’s Walkman with her songs to keep me entertained. But my good sleep was ruined when someone had the nerve to tell me to “wake up” in my ear and shook me till I woke up.

It was not just any voice in my ear that was saying this. I swear I heard my adult mother’s voice, and she said with a faint whisper, “Luu--cas, Luu--cas..time to wake up” to me.

“Mom?” I asked. But once I opened one eye to see if it really was her, I saw a teenage version of my mom giggling instead. I knew it was too good to be true. Anyway, she said to me, “No, guess again. It’s your roomie. Now, get dressed; we got a lot of stuff to do.”

With a hint of anger, I grunted at her, changed my position in bed, and shooed her away. When I did that, she said, “Sorry to wake you, Sleeping Beauty, but your sleep has to wait, especially what we’ll be doing, so get up. You overslept. Thank goodness I double-checked, or else you would have slept through the entire day.”

Rats! I was hoping that would happen, and….woahhhh! What in the world does she think she’s doing? I saw her grab my legs one at a time and left them dangling on the side of my bed. Then somehow, she gained this superhuman strength to grab both my arms, lifted them up with ease, and before you know it, I was sitting upright at the edge of my bed, staring at her and her bed.

My mom stated, “You better start getting dressed like now because we got friends waiting. Do you want to be the one that let them down today?” I sat on the edge of my bed in shock, thinking to myself, Man , how’d she get so strong.

“Nooo...I’ll get up,” I said in defeat. I had no choice now but to get up and start getting dressed and ready for the day, all the while Margaret was impatiently watching.

After I finished getting ready, she handed me my purse and left, but before we did, I had to be the one to lock up because “I was the one that had put our girls’ day in total jeopardy.” Whatever that means. Anyway, we headed to the cafeteria table where the rest of the girls should be waiting, and there they were, casually sitting at our usual table that is right smack dab in the middle of the cafeteria for everyone to see talking amongst themselves. Before we sat down and talked with them like we usually do before grabbing breakfast, the girls wanted us to grab breakfast first before talking to them. Seems like my mom isn’t the only one that can hold a grudge. I didn’t even bother to complain. After all, I just woke up.

But when we were done eating, these so-called friends of ours, without my knowledge, decided that they had enough waiting for one day and dragged our butts outside the cafeteria, where we were then told to head to our cars. Anna, Courtney, and Tiff followed me; Kim with Jo headed to hers while Melissa followed Margaret to her car. The moment I grabbed my car keys from my purse, I heard Anna saying, “I call Shotgun,” before running straight for my car while Court and Tiff sighed in defeat, grumbled to themselves, followed me, sat in the backseat once I unlocked all the doors and got in.

Just as we closed and locked the doors, I started my car and asked, “Hey, before we get going, does anybody have a good playlist to start us off?”

Tiff from the backseat says, “ A play---what?” Gosh, darn it! I thought. I was doing so good keeping my whole past behind me, but it had to happen sometime, I guess. I tried to play it cool by simply saying, “You know, a Mixtape.”

Anna said to me, “Oh, why didn’t you say so? But Liz, we know you don’t have a cassette player in your car, so we didn’t even bother to bring ours.”

Wait… what? I looked in my car where the cassette player should be, and it only had a radio. Oh my gosh, I got so distracted by all this girl stuff that I even forgot that she had no cassette player in her car. Why doesn’t she have one? Every car should have one. Great, now I have to save myself again, so I said, “Oh yeah, I forgot about that I-I-I don’t know why but I was thinking we were in my dad’s car for a second.”

All the girls laughed to themselves, and to make me feel better, Courtney said, “Oh, Lizzie, you’re so funny, you know that.” Then she laughed some more before saying, “Just you wait till we tell the rest...this.” The rest? Oh no, anything but that! I think no, I know what they’re going to do to me, but just to be sure, I asked: “But until then, you will never let me hear the end of this, right?”

Tiff answered, “No, duh...gosh, you know us so well already.” I sighed and drove my car out of campus and tailed behind Margaret. It was then that I had to endure the most excruciating THIRTY-minute car ride of my life, and it all started before we even got to the edge of campus.

These girls could not shut their little traps about certain boys from their classes. How I’m so lucky to go on a date with one so soon, did you happen to see Teen Wolf in theaters by any chance? It’s like they didn’t have a mute button. I was so desperate for some peace and quiet that I decided to turn the radio on and raise the volume a “tad bit” so I won’t have to hear the girls anymore for the sake of my sanity.

So, without really putting too much thought into this, I raised the volume while Tiff, of all people, was busy rambling about her crazy encounter with some boy. She noticed right away, stopped for a second to shout “Hey!” before someone had the nerve to kick the back of my seat while I was busy driving. I almost face-planted on the steering wheel, but I stopped myself just in the nick of time.

I then looked at my rearview mirror to see who it was that kicked me. Surprise, surprise, it was Tiff who I clearly saw smoke coming out of her ears and heard her say, “I was talking over here, didn’t you...you?” Suddenly her attitude changed when she heard We Got The Beat by the Go-Go’s start playing on the radio. Well, that song just so happens to be hers and Courtney’s favorite song of all time. In a matter of seconds, everyone but me was jumping up and down in their seats, singing along. It only took a few seconds for me to be swept up by their energy and started singing along too.

After the song was over, we all laughed, and the girls slowly went back to talking amongst themselves. Once we were within viewing distance of the mall, the girls were so happy that they just squealed with joy. But when I took a good look at the place, I just squealed with pure misery on the inside, thinking if these clothes don’t kill me, then surely these girls will.

Instead of letting my thoughts and emotions get the best of me, I just played along the best I could by hiding my sorrow and putting on this little act of smiling like no tomorrow to please the girls. With that out of the way, I tailed behind Margaret all the way to the parking garage. That’s when I saw her replace an open spot and parked right in. Soon as I drove past her, I noticed that there was a free spot right next to hers. Well, that’s lucky. So, I parked my car, and as soon as I unlocked the doors, I turned my car off.

All the girls got out but not before Anna kindly handed me my purse. Once I got out with what’s left of my dignity, all of us walked from the parking garage straight to the mall. While we were inside, Melissa decided to announce to all of us. “Hey, I don’t know if any of you know this but do you realize where we are? We are in the biggest mall in all of Chicago! So, which store do you think we should go to first ...Tiff?”

The girls, starting with Tiff, began to suggest some names of clothing stores that I hadn’t heard in a long time or even knew existed, like The Gap, Fashion Bug, and countless others. Before it was my turn to suggest something, I panicked and looked everywhere for a store that sounded or at least looked like a clothing store that they hadn’t repeated so I could sound like I know my stores. There was one store in particular on the second floor that caught my eye, and there was this nice big round sign that said “Merry Go Round.”

At first glance, the store looked cool and seemed like it had some clothes in there. I found the store just in time, too, as it was my turn to say something.

“H-H-Hey, what about the Merry Go Round store on the second floor, which is right over there?” I asked, pointing to the store. “Should we go there?” All of the girls suddenly whipped their heads 180 degrees towards me and shouted, “Yesss!”

Melissa replied, “Oh my gosh, you are a total lifesaver. I can’t believe none of us thought of going there first. Must be your store then, huh.”

All of the girls laughed. Melissa continued, “Well, what are we waiting for? Let’s get a move on before the sale rack gets picked over!” So, we all rushed over to the escalator leading to the second floor, where the girls just chatted away about what kind of outfits Merry Go Round would have in store for us. But most of all... the girls couldn’t wait to see what Margaret and I would choose to try on. The moment we stepped off the escalator, I knew my fate was sealed, and I would have no choice now but to try on dozens of outfits before replaceing the one that the group would approve of.

Inside the store, I couldn’t help but say out loud, “Oh...my...gosh,” while looking completely starstruck because never in my life had I seen this huge variety of women’s clotheslines before, especially with the countless colors to choose from. I thought I would be here all day. Luckily, Lizzie’s group of friends got that covered for me and made it quick because girls do what girls do best—shopping.

They went at it so fast that I had trouble keeping up with them for a while, and it got to the point where one of the girls had to drag me to point out one outfit from some aisle to another just to see what I had to say about it. I was at a loss for words that entire time, and before you know it, Margaret and I ended up carrying like ten different outfits. I only managed to put on a smile and didn’t complain one bit because this totally beats me looking at an outfit for myself.

All the credit should go to the girls. I didn’t expect them to really go all out on this one. I mean, it’s just some date. Seems to me the girls didn’t think that way as they acted like bloodhounds the way they searched the aisle for the right size and color outfit for me the more I think of it. I was in total awe the entire time, especially by how the girls would grab a shirt, shorts, you name it, and compare that to me, then to Margaret, back to me and hand me that outfit. When we somehow got to the very last aisle, all of the girls felt satisfied with their replaceings. They sent Margaret and I to go into the fitting room so we could show them how the new outfits looked on us. That’s when our girl fun really got started.