"Ah, before I forget." Sophie takes something out of her pocket. It's the weird rectangle again, she showed a 'video' on it yesterday.

The front of it lights up, showing Sophie hugging a guy. Sophie swipes on the front and the front changes into a weird thing with little squares on it. Those little squares have even smaller squares in them.

Behind the squares is a young boy cheering at a cake with candles. I wonder who that is, and how they have really realistic art on the rectangles.

Sophie taps something, turning the front completely white. After that everything she does is so fast I can't follow it. This rectangle doesn't just show 'videos' apparently, what else can it do?

"And done, let's go." Sophie puts the rectangle back into her pocket. 

"Are you sure about this? Kidnapping a child in broad daylight?" One of the girls behind her asks.

"It's fine, I know her." Sophie laughs. 

"How can you even carry her? I know from experience that even newborn babies are heavier than they seem." The other girl says.

"No way, babies can't be heavy!" The first girl reacts surprised.

The second girl sighs. "As an only child, you wouldn't know."

"You were an only child for fourteen years, don't act as if you had siblings right away." The first girl points out while rolling her eyes.

Sophie laughs again. "They are heavy, and it's practice. You know I have a younger brother, he loves to be carried every time he sees me."

"I still don't believe they can be heavy. They are so small, it just won't work." The first girl says.

"You want to try?" Sophie holds me out to the first girl. Ehm, don't use me like that…

The second girl smiles. "Yeah, just try it, Kiera."

So her name is Kiera. Well nice to meet you and bye.

"How do you carry someone?" Kiera tilts her head.

"Just grab her under her arms for now, that's enough to see how heavy it is." Sophie guides her. Did I give permissions for this? You didn't even ask me before lifting me off the ground…

Kiera moves her long brown hair behind her ear, she seems hesitant.

"I'm here to prevent you dropping her, don't worry." Sophie smiles. Dropping me? That sounds painful, can we not? 

Slowly two hands reach out to me, holding me below my arms.

Let me run away, I don't want this. I might not react to it like I usually do, but that doesn't mean I like to be carried around.

"I'm going to let go now." Sophie announces. With that said, I abruptly drop down. Before I reach the ground Sophie already catches me.

"That's heavy, how?" Kiera stares with wide eyes.

"Four year olds, on average, weigh 20kg. You carry your 6kg school bag and complain about how heavy it is. You really should've expected this." Sophie laughs.

“Kids don’t look as heavy as bags…” Kiera sighs.

“I’m still wondering where you got that super power, are you going to break your back with that?” The second girl asks.

“I’ll be fine, I don’t have much choice anyway. If I’ll put her down she’ll run away, I’m sure of it.” Sophie moves me around, changing my position. “There we go, let’s go to the clothing store, she seems interested in that.”

“Oh yeah! We can buy a new summer outfit while we’re at it!” The second girl claps her hands.

“The summer is almost over, and you want a new outfit?” Kiera rolls her eyes.

Sophie smiles. “You know how Jessie is. How about you just look then? Be our judge.”

With a big sigh Kiera responds. “Fine. I expect payment.”

Sophie leads them towards the entrance. “They better have end of summer sales.”

“Oh, so you’re here for the sales?” Kiera laughs.

“Obviously, we’re broke students.” Jessie taps Kiera’s shoulder.

It’s hard to ignore them when I’m so close to them, Sophie won’t let go of me. I could try to escape, but that means she won’t be unharmed. April wouldn’t like that, and I might get punished for that. I just need one second where she’s distracted to get away.

Ugh. This is hard. I crash my head into Sophie’s neck, that way I can’t see anything even if I can’t keep my eyes closed. She smells sweet, is she wearing perfume? Not my problem, act as if she doesn’t exist.

If she wasn’t here I could look around myself, instead of being bored. Maybe I can look around just a bit, to entertain myself. No, no looking. Focus on your tasks. Do I have any right now? Not getting punished probably.

A peek won’t hurt, right? It’ll be fine. I see some shirts, that’s it. Some of them have nice images on them, but nothing else. How boring, back to not looking.

And just like that I fall asleep out of boredom.

---

After an unknown amount of time passed, I wake up. It’s uncomfortable, I think I’m sitting, and leaning against something hard.

I carefully open my eyes, no monsters for now. Sophie is standing in front of me, looking at some outfits hanging next to her.

“Good morning sunshine, had a nice nap?” Sophie smiles as she notices my movements. She doesn’t expect an answer back, which is clear from the fact she moved on after her smile.

It seems that we’re in a really small room, the door is behind Sophie. Behind me there’s a mirror, it makes the room look bigger than it is. If I were to stand up I would be way too close to Sophie, since there’s no room for two people at all.

So how can I reach that door? Although Sophie is in between me and the door, she isn’t defending it.

“I can see you staring. The door is locked, don’t bother.” Sophie doesn’t even look up from the clothes, how did she see me?

She finally picks something out, I don’t know how it can take so long. It’s a small dark blue dress, with white dots on it. On the back there’s something that looks like a bow tie, big and blue just like the dress.

It’s way too small for her, she should know that too. Why is she looking at me? I don’t trust this, can I break the door?

She puts the dress in front of all the other clothes, then turns around to face me. “Can you put your hands in the air?” No, why would I?

I think she expected that answer, since she smiles and grabs my arms with one hand. With the other hand she lifts my shirt off me. It’s the same thing my ‘parents’ did whenever they wanted to change my outfit, only with Sophie I don’t get disgusted or reminded of moustache man.

Sophie doesn’t look like moustache man at all, so that might be one of the reasons.

Since I don’t have a choice here, I’ll just let it happen. I know she won’t give up, so the fight is only going to be a waste of time.

After a bit of work Sophie changed me into the blue dress. With the conveniently placed mirror, I can see how it looks right away. I guess it looks cute, and it’s comfy. Clothes here are softer than what I’m used to, it always surprises me.

“You look amazing in that, isn’t it great?” Sophie proudly looks at me. Why are you proud?

She goes back to the clothes, searching for something else. I’m not here to play dress up, so please leave me alone.

Now that she isn’t looking and a bit more to the side, I have some room to stand. I can see the dress better now, sitting just shows my back.

I guess it makes sense now, why the people tried so hard to see if the clothes look great. The outfits here have way more detail than my old world, where only the rich could afford some extras on clothes. Here it seems everyone can have nice looking clothes.

My problem now is that I can’t see my back, it’s hard to see everything at once. Well, I guess I’ll have to turn around to see my back. With a slight turn my dress swings along, even that looks nice.

That turn bumps me into Sophie. Still got no room to move, that’s for sure. Luckily she doesn’t seem to care, where I came from people lost their heads if they bumped into someone. Or actually, that’s Lilianne’s memory, since I didn’t get to see the outside world.

Sophie picks another blue dress with white dots, this time it’s bigger than mine. It doesn’t have any sleeves, and no bow tie on the back either. The only extra is some wrinkles on the top of the dress.

Again she puts the dress in front of the rest, then takes off her own shirt and pants. Since I’m really close to her I can’t help but notice how pretty she is. And how awkward it is right now, I tried looking away, only to be greeted by the mirror.

Luckily, or sadly, depending on how you see it, she got her dress on quite fast.

“We’re matching now!” Sophie smiles. I guess she’s not aware of how I feel, and how aware I am about the little space in between us.

I never responded to her before, so she doesn’t expect any response now. That makes it easier for me, I don’t think I would be able to get a normal answer out right now.

She picks me up and unlocks the door. Or I think it’s unlocking, I don’t know how the locks work here. The locks I know are giant and visible, besides, unlocking them needs a key.

Once outside, we’re greeted by Kiera and Jessie. “Took you long enough.” Kiera sighs.

Sophie ignores her and spins around. “How do we look?”

“Amazing, just like every outfit before this.” Kiera rolls her eyes.

“Don’t listen to her, she has no style.” Jessie laughs. “Matching dresses, very cute. I’d give it a nine out of ten.”

“Because the ten out of ten is reserved for just you…” Kiera sighs.

Jessie smiles. “Exactly.”

“Great, let’s buy everything.” Sophie heads back to the small room. Here we go again.

Sophie closes the door and puts me down, keeping my arms up to take the dress off. She helps me put on my own clothes, although I don’t really need help with that. Not that I get a chance to prove that.

I know what’s going to happen, I just don’t know what to do. Apparently Lilianne always hated things like this, since looking at people while they are changing is awkward, but looking away makes it even more so. And apparently looking away causes them to be aware of it as well. I have to agree with her, but that doesn’t give me a solution.

What if I look at all the clothes hanging on the wall? Then it seems like I’m busy and not looking away or anything, right?

So, she has a red short skirt, a black big shirt, a white sleeveless shirt, a yellow dress and really short pants. The big shirt seems really warm and out of place for summer.

My eyes wander to her, I can’t control it. I mean, I saw her in the corner of my eye while looking at the clothes, it’s impossible to avoid. My mind goes blank as I stare at her.

It feels like time slows down, although I know that it didn’t take long. She grabs me and all the clothes before heading out.

“No, you’re not buying that black sweater. You got enough sweaters, stop hiding your figure in easy clothes like that.” Jessie snatches a black sweater from Sophie.

“I need comfy clothes like that, don’t you know how amazing sweaters are?” Sophie takes the sweater back.

Jessie rolls her eyes.

“Kiera, please buy this for me.” Sophie ignores the eye roll.

“Do it yourself.” Kiera shakes her head.

“My hands are full!” Sophie lifts me a bit higher as if she’s trying to show off.

“What an excuse… Where’s your card?” Kiera sighs.

Sophie smiles. “Thanks! It’s in my phone, which is in my back pocket.”

Kiera grabs the weird rectangle from behind Sophie, so I guess that’s a phone. I learn more everyday. After that she takes the clothes from Sophie and heads to a line of people. It’s a lot of people, why would they be standing there? Jessie follows her into the line, while Sophie stays here.

“That’s a lot of people there, right? Are you scared of them?” Sophie whispers in my ear. Is she expecting me to answer if she whispers to me? You won’t get anything from me, not even a nod.

“Don’t worry, I’m here. Those people won’t get anywhere near you, I’ll make sure of that.” Ehm thanks, if you would let me down I wouldn’t have that problem anyway.

“So, do you think Jessie and Kiera are scary?” Scary? No. Annoying? Yes.

“Am I scary?” What about you is supposed to be scary? You’re annoying, won’t let me run off or nap. Also you talk about a lot of magic, and talk a lot to me, knowing that I won’t answer. I guess you’re pretty too… I can’t get that out of my head.

She laughs at me. “Sorry for being annoying.” Is she a mind reader? I hope not. This place is weird enough with all their magic. If people can mind read, am I supposed to not have any thoughts or else it counts as communication?

While I’m distracted by thoughts, she pats my head, then brings her forehead to touch mine. I’m expecting her to start a soul contract or anything, but she doesn’t. All she does is stare at my face and pet my hair. “It’s alright, I’m here for you.”

I wanted to comment on what she said, but I’m too distracted by how close her face is.

“Sophie!” A voice makes her look up, I guess the other two are done with whatever they wanted to do.

She glances back at me, putting one hand on top of my hair. Then she comes even closer with her face, kissing my forehead. Her hand pets my hair one last time and then she heads towards her friends.