#ddcedna

Cradling one of her performance dresses to her, Esmeralda hurried across the grounds, waving at a few people as she passed them. This had been the dress she was meant to wear tonight, but the night before it had got ruined. She'd never got round to taking it off and had traipsed about in it; she should have known better by now than to do that. It was absolutely coated in mud at the bottom and a little torn in places. The hem had come undone, threads trailing. She had tried washing it out, but some just smeared in.

"Hello, anyone in?" Esmeralda called into the wardrobe department office. "There's been a disaster! Well, a minor one."

Penny ran down the train halls, pushing past any person in sight. She heard one or two people call her names, but at the moment she really didn't have any time to spare. She'd awoke this morning to be met with a harsh realization - none of her clothing fit. Her jeans were worn and ripped, hanging above the ankles, and her t-shirts were either stained, hole ridden, too tight, or in the case of her long sleeved flannels, too short. She hadn't noticed much before, she'd mostly just kept to herself. But something had changed - Penny was making friends.

All her childhood had been spent with mice and her teddy bear, not an audience that needed much to impress. As long as she had a good stock of cheese and attention to give, she never really had to bother. When she turned 18 all of that changed, as the circus stopped monitoring her so closely, and she was deemed an adult. No makeshift nanny always looking over, no conjured up parental figure trying to maintain some sort of authority over her. She was no longer in custody of whichever unlucky worker Scar managed to assign to her that week.

So she made friends.

People friends.

The thought of this was shocking, and the newness and stress of it all made the young brunette fixate on one thing - her clothes.

It was a matter of severe importance, and seemed almost direly problematic in the teens eyes. It didn't help that the train was on destination, and Penny couldn't step out and search for a new outfit. Even then though, she had no clue what she'd need, or want. In the past she'd just assumed the position of hand-me-down recipient and took what she got.

Naturally, she ran to the one room she thought might hold the key to fixing her problem.

As she burst through car room 17, only one thing was on her mind.