School Shopping: Part I

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School Shopping

Part I

An R.L. Mathewson Chronicle

“Yeah, I’m not going,” Mikey said, shaking her head firmly, because this wasn’t happening.

“Mikey,” her mom said, sighing her name heavily with a sad shake of her head as she gestured for Mikey to get in the car.

“Not happening,” Mikey said, because she absolutely refused to get in that car.

It wasn’t happening.

It just wasn’t.

“You need school clothes,” her mother explained as though that was going to somehow be enough to convince her to do this.

“School doesn’t start for two more months,” she pointed out before adding with a gesture towards Sebastian, “And he doesn’t even go to school.”

“Which is why I’m not going,” Sebastian, her best friend for life, said with a shrug as he turned around to leave, but unfortunately for him, well, mostly her, he didn’t move fast enough.

“You’re going,” her father said as he picked Sebastian up and tossed him to Uncle Trevor, who caught him only to toss him in the car.

When he turned to grab her, she decided that perhaps it would be for the best if they continued this conversation in the car. Sending her father a sheepish smile, she quickly made her way to the car, jumped in before Uncle Trevor could help her, and leveled a glare on her ex-best friend, who was glaring right back at her.

“We are no longer speaking,” she informed him as she fastened her safety belt before she grabbed the baseball that she left in here and began rolling in between her hands.

“I’m not the reason that we’re stuck in this mess,” Sebastian informed her.

“You really are,” she said with a sniff as she pointedly looked away only to release a choked whimper when her father and Uncle Trevor climbed in the front.

“What are you doing?” she asked hollowly as she looked over to where her mother had been standing only to find her walking away.

“Taking you school shopping,” her father said as though it wasn’t a big deal.

It was a very big deal!

Licking her suddenly dry lips, she asked, “Is Aunt Zoe meeting us there?”

“No, it’s just us,” Uncle Trevor said, already sounding bored while she sat there, shifting nervously in her seat as she tried to think of something, anything, to get out of this.

“I’m hungry. Are you hungry? Because I could really go for something to eat,” she said, trying not to panic.

“You’re not getting out of this,” her dad said, as he continued driving them towards the mall.

“Let’s just get this over with,” Sebastian said with a resigned sigh that really wasn’t helping.

Not. At. All.

“But, there’s that buffet on Wilmington!”

“We’re already banned,” Uncle Trevor said.

“How about the one on Hickory?” she asked, trying to remember how to breathe when she spotted the first sign for the mall.

“Banned.”

“I think I’m going to be sick,” she said weakly as her stomach turned with every passing sign.

“Still not getting out of this,” Uncle Trevor said.

“It’ll be fine,” Sebastian said, because he didn’t understand.

None of them did.

Shaking her head, she said, “I really think mom should take me.”

“Why?” her dad said as he pulled into the parking lot.

“Because I’m going to need a bra.”

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