And you're the prettiest lady in the whole wide world

Breakfast came to an end with little fanfare. Several difficult questions had been asked, but in the end, it became clear that only one course of action would be taken.

Whatever else that morning’s discussion had solicited, the fact remained that Emmy still needed new clothes. So the girls headed off to the boutique; most of them, anyway. The others parted ways with the group in the hallway outside.

“Sorry, Emmy, but Vivian’s already borrowed enough money from me as it is,” Rose said, glancing pointedly at the heiress. While she expected Vivian would definitely pay her back in time, she still didn’t want to lend out even more money on principle. “Besides, I have no desire to get between those two, so I’m gonna be sticking with Morgana today. I think she needs someone to test out her spells on again, anyway!”

“Err…” Morgana turned pale.

“Spells?” Emmy was stunned to hear that. Like, actual magic?

“Yeah, I don’t think you want to be anywhere near that,” Dani stated bluntly, shaking her head. She remembered how the slumber party had gone.

Morgana nodded frantically.

“Plus, Ella probably doesn’t want to get involved with that stuff either,” Rose said, jutting her thumb towards the quiet latina hanging off to the side.

Ella didn’t even look at Emmy. All this happy mother-daughter bonding was making her feel sick to her stomach. Or maybe that was the eleven plates of eggs she’d crammed down her gullet. Either way, she needed to find a toilet and throw up really soon.

“I don’t remember saying I wanted to hang out with you today,” she muttered sulkily, giving Rose a look that Cinder would have been proud of.

“True,” Rose admitted with a shrug. “But why are you still here then? You could have gone off and done your own thing without us, you know.”

Ella didn’t have an answer to that. Her face heated up and she looked down at her shoes.

Morgana held back her giggle and turned to Emmy. “Sorry we can’t help you shop for clothes,” she apologized. “But, uh… I’ll still give you some money, if you want!”

She quickly transferred the funds over to Carly. Because she trusted Carly more than she trusted Vivian, at least when it came to Emmy.

Morgana: 6800 BP – 800 BP = 6000 BP

Carly: 10500 BP + 800 BP = 11300 BP

It felt weird for Morgana to be giving BP to someone who had way more than her, even such a small amount. But it wasn’t for Carly anyway. It was for Emmy! A token of goodwill. Maybe they could even become friends!

Not that she wanted to use money to buy friends. That would be… weird. And definitely not something Morgana had considered back in high school when she was particularly **** for companionship or anything…

“Thanks, Morgana, but you didn’t have to give so much!” Carly said, surprised.

“I-I wanted to!” Morgana said, shaking her head and holding up her hands. “It’s just a little bit… you know, to get me to an even 6000! This way I can still maybe buy a Dream Alley date if I want to, and save some for a rainy day… not that it ever rains here… um… well, you guys have a good time!”

She rushed to join Rose and Ella as the two headed off.

“That was nice of her,” Emmy said, watching Morgana go with a smile on her face.

“Yeah, Morgana’s a nice girl,” Vivian said with a grin. “Kinda weird though, not that I’m one to talk!” She laughed. “I’m as weird as you can get.”

Emmy doubted the sincerity of Vivian’s words. She still didn’t understand this strange billionaire very well, or why Vivian seemed so determined to help her. It all seemed so… weird.

Is this what being in a harem means? Everyone’s working together to help each other… it’s kinda nice, I guess.

This was Emmy’s first ever chance to make friends. It was strange for her to be an adult and actually thinking about stuff like this, but if she was going to be living her life now, she would have to figure out how that life was going to be lived.

And thinking about stuff like this was way better than thinking about the conversation they’d just escaped from.

“So should we get going?” Sylvia asked, looking at the other girls. “We’ve got clothes to buy!”

“You said it, Sylvia!” Carly nodded in agreement, striking a pose that made the “S” on her chest stand out prominently. Just like her daughter, she would prefer to leave that difficult conversation behind in the past.

Kim was both surprised and not surprised to see the group of six women walk into her boutique, with Emmy in the center of the pack.

“Hey there,” she said, waving at the girls. “Had a feeling you’d be dropping by today.”

“Of course you did,” Vivian said, skipping over to the counter with a grin on her lips. “Kim and I here are tight! We spent hours yesterday planning this out, didn’t we, Kim?”

Kim refused to play along as a matter of principle. She fastened her lips into a tight, professional smile, and just stared at Vivian until she backed off.

Vivian stepped back and cleared her throat. “Anyway, we weren’t able to find many investors into the ‘buy Emmy clothes’ fund, but we’ve got enough BP between the five of us to scrounge up at least a couple outfits to wear!”

“Well, four,” Marley clarified, not having any actual BP herself to spend on her niece, even though she’d like to.

“Sure, works for me,” Kim said, nodding. “Of course, if money’s tight, well… I don’t like to advertise this, but-”

Dani held up her hand. “If you’re thinking of suggesting a photo shoot, I’m gonna stop you right there,” she said, cutting Kim off. She shook her head. “We’ve already been down that road. No thank you, Emmy’s not interested.”

Kim blinked. “Well… yeah, I figured she wouldn’t be,” the clerk admitted, glancing at Emmy. The young lady looked like a sweet girl, but Kim couldn’t imagine someone who had been reborn literally yesterday to be willing to dress up for a bunch of strangers across the multiverse.

It just seemed like a little much to ask of someone even as outgoing as Emmy.

“…Actually, what I was planning to suggest is that you guys figure out how much you’re willing to spend, and I’ll match it,” Kim pointed out. “I’d like Emmy to get some clothes too, you know. And I mean, if I’m paying half, it’s not like I’m actually losing money.”

Thanks to her transformation, Kim received 50% of all commissions made when she was on the clock. So if she put 50% of the price forward herself, in the end she wouldn’t lose a single Bonus Point in the transaction.

She wouldn’t make any profit, either, of course, but she didn’t care about that. She already had a ton of BP to her name.

Carly looked at Kim in amazement. “You’d really do something like that?” She asked incredulously. “For Emmy’s sake? Aww, Kim!”

“That’s so sweet!” Sylvia gushed.

“Leave it to Kim to come up with something like that!” Vivian said, crossing her arms and nodding in approval. “She’s such a sweetheart, isn’t she?”

Kim rolled her eyes. “Sure, sure,” she scoffed. “Whatever you say.”

Truth be told, it did feel nice getting praised like that, even though she hadn’t made the offer to get praised. She really did just want to help out.

“I think that’s a better arrangement than the fashion show myself,” Marley noted. “I know I don’t like posing around in those clothes all the time.”

“You never buy anything anyway,” Kim pointed out.

Oof. Low blow there.

“Well… maybe I would, if I had any Bonus Points!” Marley replied, blushing. But still, probably not. She had an extensive enough wardrobe thanks to the generosity of others, just like they were trying to do for Emmy.

…Oh, and a sweater from Rose that she needed to return at some point.

“I thought it was a good idea myself,” Sylvia mumbled, getting a little huffy. “The fashion show, I mean. Getting a discount on clothes? For free!”

“It’s not a bad idea,” Dani agreed as Carly and Marley led Emmy to go pick out some outfits that she wanted. “Still though, you’ve gotta admit, it’s pretty exploitable.”

Kim nodded. “I like the way you were thinking, you know, as someone who used to not be able to afford many clothes myself growing up,” she assured Sylvia. Even if she wasn’t a fan of the implementation, she had enough painful memories of clothing drives to last a lifetime. “Still. It feels pretty awful to have my own income source at odds with my morals, you know?”

That was her main problem with the idea. That and the fact that she couldn’t actually benefit from free clothing either, since she was locked to her schoolgirl uniforms thanks to her transformation. Then again, the lingerie was nice…

“I get what you mean by exploitable,” Sylvia said with a laugh. “After all, when Vivian heard about it this morning, she was all ‘Wait, so I can just get whatever I want for free’? It was hilarious! Count on her to come by later and clean out your whole stock, my girl!” She threw back her head and chuckled.

Kim looked at Sylvia in confusion. “Heard about it… this morning?” She turned to Vivian and raised her eyebrow. “But-”

“Kim, talk to you for a second?” Before Kim could respond Vivian had already grabbed her by the arm and dragged her across the room, leaving Dani and Sylvia standing at the counter, confused.

“Let go,” Kim said once they were far enough away that the others couldn’t hear. She yanked her arm free and crossed both of them over her chest. “What’s going on here? We both know you’ve known about that little free deal since the first round you’ve been here, Vivian.”

“Yeah, I know, but don’t tell anyone, okay? Pretty please?” Vivian clasped her hands together in prayer and flashed a toothy grin at Kim.

Kim raised her eyebrow and looked suspiciously at the heiress. She regarded everything Vivian did with a baseline of doubt and suspicion, actually.

“…Why?” She asked, frowning. “What’s your game here?”

“No game!” Vivian shook her head. “…Look, it’s not a big deal.”

Kim didn’t buy that for a second. “Vivian…”

“Okay, well, medium-sized deal,” Vivian tried again. “See, this morning, tensions were getting pretty high, there was some… well, it’s personal, so I shouldn’t say. But some drama, you know? So I thought it’d be best to break the tension with a joke, is all! So I made a big show about how no one ever told me about this great deal for free clothes, trying to lighten the mood a bit before folks got all down in the dumps and serious, you feel me?”

“…I guess?” Kim couldn’t really make sense of what Vivian was saying given the lack of context, but she understood Vivian not wanting to go into specifics. “So basically… you lied.”

Vivian winced. “Ouch. That’s your takeaway? I mean yes, but-”

“No, it’s fine, I get it,” Kim interrupted her, shaking her head. “You lied to lighten the mood, so basically, it was for a good cause, right? …I guess that’s not so bad.”

Vivian’s face lit up. “Yeah! So you’re finally seeing me in a new light then, is that right?” She asked hopefully. “You think I’m a good person now?”

“…Aaaand it’s ruined,” Kim said, rolling her eyes. “…Look, it’s whatever. Thanks, I guess. If you were really doing a nice thing, that’s good. Not really a lie. Just try to keep from being overbearing and forcing your own way, okay? Let Emmy enjoy herself. Do that, and I won’t tell anybody that you’ve been in the know for this long.”

Vivian laughed. “That was always the plan. Thanks, Kim, you’re a doll!”

She turned and strolled back to the other girls with a smile on her face. She led Dani off to go join the others, leaving Sylvia hanging back by the counter.

Kim walked over to Sylvia, curious about why she wasn’t helping pick out clothes for Emmy.

“You’re not joining in?” She asked, trying to sound casual. “I thought this would be totally your thing, Sylvia.”

Sylvia looked at Kim and laughed. “Indeed it would, my girl,” she agreed. “But something tells me that Emmy would not be a big fan of my choice of accoutrement.”

She ended her sentence in an exaggerated french accent that would make Rose blush, and gestured to her own state of dress.

Kim winced. She could see where Sylvia was coming from. “Yeah… I think Carly’s going for a more modest look for her daughter.”

As modest as the boutique could do, anyway.

“Besides, I’m not the only one holding back really,” Sylvia pointed out. “See?”

She gestured to the other girls. Now that Kim was really looking, she saw that Vivian and Dani were separated from the other group. They were more picking things out for themselves, and in Vivian’s case, probably for a fashion show later since she was so low on BP. No, only Carly and Marley were really looking at things for Emmy, and even then, Marley was close to the edge of her 10-foot boundary with her sister, letting Carly take the lead in suggesting things for her daughter to wear.

“Rose figured it out pretty quick,” Sylvia chuckled. “She’s quite perceptive, when she wants to be. Today… this is about Carly and Emmy.”

She leaned against the counter and gazed wistfully at the two of them.

“A mother and daughter shopping trip… isn’t it just the sweetest thing ever?” She murmured, and shook her head slowly.

Kim bit her lip. She recalled her own memories of being a little girl, her mother’s hand wrapped tightly around hers as they walked into the Goodwill. How she would meticulously look over every piece of clothing she could find, and show them off to Kim, talking them up and saying how cute she’d look in each piece.

It was a lie, of course- her mother had tried to make it seem like that was something every family did, that they were just clothes shopping like anyone else. But even back then Kim had known better. She saw the new clothes her classmates were wearing. They didn’t have mended holes or faded stains like hers. They didn’t have sleeves that were too long, or pants legs that needed to be turned up to keep from hanging over her socks and shoes.

All the other kids got to go to department stores and buy whatever they wanted. Kim had been stuck with what she could get.

But even then… mom really tried. She didn’t have much, but she tried her best, because she wanted to give me everything she could. Kim still remembered her mother’s smiling face. And the way she would smile back, going along with it, all so her mom wouldn’t think she had failed her as a parent.

Kim felt her eyes getting misty. That was probably the first time I started faking my smiles. Just to make her happy.

No wonder so many people said Kim’s best feature was her smile. She’d been practicing for a very long time.

And that’s how she could tell that the smile on Sylvia’s face was fake. Not completely fake, no- there was sincere, heartfelt emotion in there that anyone could see. She was genuinely happy for them, Kim could tell.

But that smile, sincere as it may have been, also masked the pain she was obviously feeling seeing Carly and Emmy going shopping together. Kim didn’t miss the way Sylvia’s eyes seemed to follow Emmy wherever she went.

“Sylvia… I’m sorry,” Kim said, placing her hand over the other girl’s.

Sylvia jumped, surprised. She tore her eyes away from Emmy and looked at Kim in confusion. “Sorry?” She raised her eyebrow. “For what, my girl?”

Kim didn’t say. She just shook her head. But she felt her heart churning in pain.

I was willing to let it go before. What Dakota said. I wasn’t sure what to do. That veiled threat she made, insinuating that if she wasn’t allowed to keep acting the way she did, that the producers would replace her with someone else… I was willing to give her a pass on that, because I didn’t know what to do about it myself.

Kim had been lost all morning after hearing that, going back and forth about whether she should bring things up with Nick on their date this afternoon after all and get him to take a more active role in keeping Dakota in line, given the potential consequences that might ensue.

She’d almost decided not to. Almost. She’d almost decided that the consequences weren’t worth the positive benefits.

But that was before she was reminded of the extent of Dakota’s sins.

Dakota… how could you? Sylvia may not be a good person, but everything she’s done… it’s because of how you raised her. And I use that term VERY loosely. You turned her into a tool for your own ego, and you stopped caring about her, if you ever did in the first place. You threw her away the second she became inconvenient.

Kim knew all too well what it felt like, being a daughter in that position.

“Sylvia… you deserved so much better than this,” she whispered, tightening her grip on Sylvia’s hand. She didn’t want to let the other girl go.

“What? Sorry… I didn’t hear that,” Sylvia said, shaking her head. She had kind of zoned out in regards to Kim. “Did you say something?”

Kim raised her head and gave Sylvia one of her own fake smiles. One she hoped did a far better job of masking her own feelings than Sylvia’s did.

“Just talking to myself, that’s all,” she said behind her mask of a smile. “I had a choice I had to make, and I was just figuring it out myself. But you helped me out a lot, Sylvia, so thank you.”

“Oh!” Sylvia brightened and nodded. “Sure thing! Anything I can do to help, my girl! You know me!” she chirped.

Kim smiled. It was nice to hear that. “I’m glad. You helped me more than you know.”