DAYDREAMING

He hesitated. “Me too, to be honest,” he admitted with a sigh.

She smiled. "I mean, I try. That's worth something, right?"

"You don’t sound very sure."

"Well-- I get easily distracted. So I could see like a puppy in the next few minutes and not pay attention."

"I, uh - right. Okay."

"But I'm listening now... I mean, I think."

"Oh. Sorry, uh, doesn’t matter. I guess I’ll…"

"Sorry, I was day dreaming."

"Yeah. Humans should not wear them. Dresses are good though. A really cute new dress store opened up last week."

"No one should wear them," Anna laughed. "Dresses are amazing. I love dresses. Especially in light blue. That's my favorite color. Ohhh, dress shop!" She said and smiled.

"I think it’s a skort," Charlotte said, squinting a little bit at the object that the other girl was holding. "I didn’t know people still wore them."

Anna shuttered and put the skirt down. "I don't wear them. I don't think I've ever worn them. I wear dresses... and... dresses." She laughed. "This doesn't seem like my type of store. I have to admit."

Hearing a familiar voice, Diane turned. Upon seeing the girl, she smiled. “Annabeth, dear, we call that a stole. It’s fake, of course, but they used to be made of stuffed foxes.”

Anna put the item down, almost horrified. "Why would anyone sell something like that?" Even if it was fake, why would anyone sell something like that? she thought to herself. "That's terrible. Why would anyone wear real fur?"

Clarissa finally had the day off for once. The past several weeks had her scouting out her next assignment, following the man around. Today, she knew he would be meeting with several executives of his company, so Clarissa decided to go out shopping. Her eyebrow raised as she looked over the article of clothing the girl next to her was holding. “It looks like some type of corset top but…not.” 

It was nice finally being able to walk about the town. In Annabeth's mind, she finally felt powerful enough to walk around. The shooting had been a little tough on her, but now with the defense classes she was taking, she really felt empowered enough to walk about on her own. She wasn't nearly as vulnerable as she felt before. With a smile, she nodded. "Yeah, no, it's... I don't even know." She put it down. "I'm just gonna. This isn't... my type of store," she eyed the rest of the clothing. Anna liked dresses and floral patterns with spring colors.

"And then she had to go and kill one of the twins. Forget you, J.K. Rowling. The J. K. probably stands for ‘jerkface character killer’ or something."

"Oh don't remind me! It'll make me cry. She probably kills characters just to make us cry."

"What’s it about?"

"It's about a girl who starts to have premonitions about her roommate dying," she explained. "It sounds really dumb, but it's pretty intense."

Phoenix recognized the young woman, but he couldn’t say that he remembered her name. Still, he smiled at her offer to help and looked over at the little boy next to him. “See, we’re okay. She’s going to help us.” He then looked over at Annabeth. “His name’s Opie. He should still be on his leash, we just accidentally let go when he took off.” He explained a little more as he walked with her.

Anna smiled and couldn't help but want to find the dog. She looked around. "Well, I came from that direction," she said, pointing down the street. "And I didn't see a dog... So... maybe we should go that way?" she suggested. "Don't worry, we'll find him," she smiled to the small boy. "And then maybe we can get you some ice cream for dealing with such a traumatic event," she looked up at the man she was going to assume was his father. "Opie!" she called, looking down the street, searching for the dog. "What does he look like?"

Phoenix stopped in front of someone about to walk by. Next to him he held the hand of a little boy to stop him from walking away. “Have you by chance seen a three-legged dog run by?”

Despite having a job and her internship at the paper, Annabeth still found herself with plenty of time to wander the city. She honestly wasn't paying attention to her surroundings and when she heard a question she looked up. "A... dog? I can't say I have, but if you want me to help you look, I'm not doing anything!"

Bettie smiled as she nodded while listening to Annabeth. “I suppose that’s usually how it goes, huh? Siblings always have their own side. I was a terror as a child. Always climbing up things and trying to pretend I was Wonder Woman, thinking I could do everything she could.” Spoiler alert, she wasn’t and she’d earned many broken bones and lectures after her various attempts in doing so. “I was like that with my older sister Goldie. I looked at her like she was some sort of queen, I always wanted to be just like her. Elsa didn’t tell me any embarrassing stories though, but I swear I’ll get one out of either of you one day.” She chuckled. “I suppose we’ll have an adventure in trying to find it, then!”

"Well, yeah! I think that's how it always is." Anna asked, tilting her head to the side. She loved having her sister closer to her. They could make more memories and Anna was excited about that, even if it was a little bit weird still. "Oh man, I loved to have adventures. I would go around and do new things and then get in trouble for them. Did you ever try and fly?" She laughed at the question. "Siblings are fun. And sometimes not fun," Anna commented, "but mostly fun. I think I was like that with Elsa. I wanted to be just like her," she felt herself drifting off thinking of her childhood. "That's good, I'm sure she had plenty of those. Oh, I probably don't have any about Elsa," she shrugged. "Directions have never been a talent of mine. I kind of just wander around. Meandering about is so much more fun anyway!"

"Are you okay?"

Anna nodded. "This book is intense."