Just your average trip to the mall

Sitting in the backseat as Candi drove, Bailey had hooked his phone to the back of the driver's seat with the forward facing camera on so he could look at himself as he finished his makeup. He had his hair pulled back into a high ponytail, allowing him to easily see his earrings that looked like white daisies. “Can you like drive more carefully?” Bailey called up to the front as he almost poked himself in the eye with his mascara wand.” Amanda looked in the backseat at her daughter, watching as she fanned and enhanced her already long curly lashes. Moving her head from side to side as she fluttered them, to make sure the look was just right. She was wearing the pink lace off the shoulder top that was worn to the park that first day, it felt like it was forever ago with how much had been going on. To go with it she was wearing her black button up denim skirt and the pink heels she had gotten when she stayed with Megan. To accessorize her outfit she wore her earrings white daisy earrings that never did make it back to her jewelry box after the first time Bailey had worn them. A black lace choker and the engraved dog tag style necklace she had given both the girls for an early birthday present. Amanda couldn’t imagine walking around the mall in those tall heels, and it made her think about how Bailey only had two pairs of shoes that weren’t high heels. The wedges didn’t count, and one of her pairs of sneakers were wedge sneakers, so they didn’t count either. That left the pink converse shoes that Bailey had traded Candi for that first day at the park. “You really do love wearing heels everywhere.” Bailey looked over to his pretend Mommy, pulling his hand away from his eyes with the brush he was using to apply the light pink eyeshadow. “Like of course, I always have to look my best and like you love them too. Like mother, like daughter.” Not like I have a lot of choices, your feet are bigger than mine so I can’t borrow some of your flats and that leaves me with exactly zero option other than to wear them. Amanda looked down at Bailey’s feet again, the Barbie pink heels were cute and she did enjoy heels, but she didn’t always wear them. She made a mental note to order some flats for Bailey online today to see if she would choose them over the heels.

When they pulled up to the front of the large office building Amanda started to say her goodbyes as she grabbed her purse and laptop bag and stopped herself just before shutting the door. “Wait here girls, I have Bailey’s birth certificate upstairs, if you have your social card you can go try to take the test again today. Candi do you mind playing chauffeur today for your little sister?” First the comment about ex boyfriend this morning, he knew that was the story, but still it hurt. But Mommy kept playing into this little sister thing more and more and it bugged him. “I’m like older than Candi!” Candi snickering in the front seat to his protest was a bit emasculating, Bailey thought. “Really? Show me your ID, I bet it says you are only seventeen.” Adjusting the strap on her shoulder Amanda pointed at Candi. “Try not to tease her too much, and do me a favor and make sure she checks that they fix that mistake this time. Oh and I almost forgot. Bailey, your Aunt Megan also sent some money over to Candi. Make sure to send me a photo after you get your hair done, enjoy the mani pedi and if you need or want anything else ask your big sister.” That time she had teased Bailey on purpose, she liked to whine about it, but referred to Candi as such when they talked. Amanda waved goodbye to them after coming back down to give them the birth certificate. Bailey seemed to be happy, saying they would go back home after the mall to pick up her social security card so she can show that test who was the boss. Part of her expected to see Bailey with the same head of hair later, or Candi with the same style. Insisting they needed to look like twins and if the excitable teen did it would invalidate the test. Turning back to the building Amanda looked at the Mega Corp name above the door and couldn’t wait for her work day to be over. Tonight Derrick was coming back into town and she was looking forward to seeing him. The anticipation made her smile as she made her way into the building and wished she had already started to pack for the weekend trip. It was unlike her, but she had been so busy with the girls she hadn’t even thought about it.

Looking at himself in the mirror, Bailey sat in the salon chair with the pink came around his neck, blocking the view of his body. His hair was still the same platinum blonde, and it was trimmed so it came to just below his shoulders. The front of his hair seemed to curl in slightly toward his neck at the bottom and now he had bangs. The left and right side of his bangs came down just past his eyes, while the middle came just past his eyebrows. The haircut was something he expected to see on a young teen, it absolutely made him look younger. It wasn’t nearly as bad as what he had experienced before, but this time he would have to deal with it much longer. Worse was the fact he was being treated like a kid with his supposed big sister paying for everything. If he was going to be stuck like this for the summer, he did need to open a bank account. The combination of the haircut and how he was being treated brought a light blush to his cheeks as he looked at himself in the mirror. Slowly he reached up to touch his hair but stopped when he heard Candi talking next to him. “Wow I love it, I don’t know if I like the shorter hair, but I do look super cute.” In the chair next to him was Candi, she had said if Bailey was going to try something new, then so was she. “Bailey, Bailey!” Candi called out to her friend seeing her finished style for herself for the first time. Both of their stylists were up at the front picking up some of the hair products they were happy they were able to talk the two girls into getting. “You love it, you love it! I can tell!” Candi said, seeing the blush on Bailey’s face. “Mom was sooo right about trying new things, I do like really, really like my hair, but at the same time I like don’t know. What do you think?” Her hairstyle brought her platinum hair down past her ears and to the nape of her neck, much shorter than it was previously and looking at her it felt like a drastic change and made her look more mature. Bailey always liked longer hair on women and that still held true now, especially with one of their haircuts making them look more childlike and the other doing the opposite. “I think you should totally be asking Ryan.” He really didn’t want to tell her that he didn’t like it. “That… is a great idea! We can take some selfies and oh yeah! I saw a photo booth, we can totally do that too.

“Sounds great, but can we like stop by the MAC cosmetic store? There is like a few things I’m running out of.” That was a sentence Bailey never thought he would be uttering, can we go to a make up store. He had been wearing makeup almost constantly and with applying it and wiping it off and then doing it all over again to practice he had gone through it much faster than he would have expected. “Oh yeah, totally we can do that. We have like gobs of time before our nail appointment, do you know what you are going to get done?” Bailey looked at his long nailed fingers, the glossy pink finish wasn’t something he particularly wanted to see on himself. They really weren’t that long compared to how some girls got their nails, but they were longer than he liked and while he had gotten a lot better, he still found them getting in the way. “Maybe like going back to my real nails and just a clear coat.” Candi raised an eyebrow that could easily be read as “Really?” She looked down at her pink nails, she had seen Bailey with different colored nails almost every day, trimmed back and a clear coat was never going to happen. “Yeah right, you can’t go a week without painting your nails three times.” Bailey crossed his arms over his chest, but did so under the pink cape to hide his hands. It wasn’t his fault, Aunt Megan had said he needed to try and coordinate his nails with his outfit or his lipstick and today he had done both with the pink lipstick, top, nails and shoes. “Can too.” Bailey said, now looking away from Candi. “Yeah? Want to make a bet?” This ditzy girl wanted to make a second bet with him in one day. He hoped she wouldn’t pout and mope when she realized that Bailey was actually smart and can do simple math, while she struggled. And now all he had to do was not paint his nails, it would be easy. He would paint his nails a neutral color tonight or even get French tips and she would lose. “Same terms?” With a massive grin Candi nodded her head, she felt a little guilty for taking advantage of Bailey like this. She wasn’t always the sharpest tool in the shed, but her little sister was a step behind her, but it was only natural the big sister should win. She wasn’t sure if that is how it worked in normal households, but when she used to imagine having a little sister, she always followed her around, and Bailey often did. It was like they were made for each other.

The two had been at the mall longer than Bailey would have liked, but that was an easy hurdle to pass. They were standing outside the photo booth waiting for it to print the photos it took. The last time he had done one of these it was with Mommy and he knew she kept it at her desk, the very photo that started all of this. He could picture it now, him smiling with his mouth full of braces and holding onto the stuffed bear he had won her and was now somehow his. He fanned his fingers looking down at the colored claws on his fingers. Candi had ended up getting the look he wanted with the square cut French tips, she loved it. “Well I am totally getting that done, but youuuuuu cannot, it would invalid... Invalid. Invalidate the bet.” Bailey never thought, well he didn’t think Candi was stupid, but she would be considered intelligent like him and her forgetting the word invalidate only highlighted why she was going to lose. He still got the square cut nails, but instead of no polish and white tips he had somehow an even pinker set of nails then he started the day with. This one was called Pink or Swim and she made sure to buy a bottle for them to take home. “Can, we like go now? We got makeup, hair done and our nails.” The pedicure part was actually nice and really did feel like pampering. Pink toenails at the end weren’t a particularly good ending, but of all the not so nice things… Bailey stopped his thoughts like a train hitting its breaks. Not nice things? Really brain? You can’t even think the word shitty? “Someone is in a hurry to get to the DMV, well let's swing to see if Jeremy is at work and then we can go home.” Bailey nodded, touching the tips of his hair with his fingers, the machine printed one of the sets of photos and he tapped his foot feeling impatient. A driver's permit was a stupid thing for him to be in a hurry to get, but he had been denied it and hated that he failed.

“I’m sorry girls Jeremy isn’t working today, but I just know he loves that you two always stop in to see him.” The store didn’t have any other customers in it and it looked like Christine, Jeremie’s mom might be the only employee working the opening shift. “Say Jeremy said the two of you do youtube videos and he showed me a few of them. It is so cute the two of you working on each other's makeup and that one with your grandmother, so sweet. I don’t know much about those sorts of things, but I have been considering hiring someone to make my store a webpage. We do okay, but the way of the future is the internet and I was wondering. Well, would the two of you consider doing some of those unboxing videos. I really can’t afford to hire you at the same time I’m paying for a web site to be built. I had no idea how much people charge for those sort of things, but if you want something done right as they say.” Bailey was getting more and more uncomfortable with what she was saying, he was sure Candi was about to tell her they would do it for nothing just to try on all the shoes in her store. This place was like catnip to her or at least he was pretty sure it was. “Maybe you can like get the page done first.” Bailey said like it was obvious that you just don’t do both things at once. “I hadn’t even considered videos like this, but Jeremy showed me how many views people get and it would be wonderful if I could put a few up on the page so I don’t have to go back and pay the web designer again. Maybe instead of money I could offer store credit?” Candi clapped her hands together and started to bounce up and down. “Eeeeeee! Yes, like oh my god this is a dream come true. We would love, like LOVE to shoot some videos in your store, but like on one condition.” Christine wasn’t the type of person to get openly excited about things, she liked to be private, but couldn’t help smiling as she felt the girl's enthusiasm. “What conditions?” Candi brought her hands together again and brought them up to hide her smile for just a a second before she hopped up and down. “You totally have to be in one of the videos with us.” That wasn’t the type of condition she was expecting, and while she didn’t want to be in front of the camera, this was her store, and she was willing to bite the bullet. “I was worried the two of you would say no and I didn’t want to take advantage of Jeremie’s friends. Thank you so much.” She said, giving Candi and then Bailey a quick hug. Bailey didn’t come across as this shy in her videos and figured her sister probably coached her, and Candi was excitable, and she figured the two balanced each other out. Getting them together instead of just one was perfect. “This is just perfect.” Chrstine said. “Perfect.” Bailey said in a small voice, while Candi said the same in a much happier tone.