I take a bite of my lunch before turning to Chris and whispering softly, "How are you and Megan?" I ask and we both briefly look up at her.

"We're both doing better than usual." He responds and I can see what he means. You'd expect, after a breakup, for them to hold some kind of resentment for each other when neither of them actually do. If you didn't even know they were dating before, you wouldn't suggest it now.

I smile and pat his arm. "At least." I say and he chuckles before raising an eyebrow at me.

"What?" I ask.

"Why were you late this morning?" He asks me and I give him a sheepish smile. If I was being totally honest I would say that I read a lot longer than I thought last night and I ended up oversleeping. I don't tell him that though and rather respond with, "Wouldn't you like to know" and a wink.  He laughs before shaking his head at me.

"Sophie, we're going dress shopping today." Courtney tells me from the other side of our lunch table. Her statement doesn't leave much room for negotiation and I can tell she's not asking me to come, she's demanding it. However, I find myself speaking up anyway.

"I can only go tomorrow, Courtney." I say and she cocks her head to the side with a sarcastically raised eyebrow.

"And why is that?" She asks, making the rest of our table turn to look at me. I look at all of them who are staring at me expectantly. I have the urge to smack her.

"I'm working remember? Or have you forgotten?" I say in annoyance although I know I'm pushing my luck answering her like this.

She gives me a sweet smile, one that's fake obviously. "Didn't you say it wouldn't get in the way of going to Ty's party?"

I nod, trying to keep my irritation and exasperation off my face. "Yeah, his party, not the shopping part."

"You should have still thought about that." Courtney snaps at me and I purse my lips. She sighs before folding her hands and looking at Megan, Kelcy and Ashleigh. "Are you all alright with meeting up tomorrow straight after school?" She asks and they all nod. Courtney then turns back to me with an all too familiar dangerous smile.

"Great. Then we'll be doing this tomorrow despite it being such last minute." She chirps although I can sense her anger.

"Thanks Courtney." I mumble but she cuts me off straight after the words leave my mouth.

"You just better hope I find a dress." She says as she takes a sip of her water, her eyes not even looking in my direction. I sigh softly and pick up my lunch again, internally hoping that she does find a dress tomorrow.

Because if she doesn't, she'll never let this go.

****

I check my watch for the hundredth time and Sarah still doesn't show up. It's not that I mind looking after the kids alone but rather that I don't particularly like having to deal with Alex alone. We don't talk to each other much but that only leaves the room with awkward tension and when he does say something, it's only to pass a snarky remark. Why did this have to happen to me? I just wanted to work in peace. Is that too hard to ask for?

"Okay guys!" I say and all the kids perk up. "You can can grab your tub of play dough and start making something."

They all grab their tubs before sitting back at the table and beginning to play with it. A little boy, Henry, struggles to open his and I make my way over to him, crouching down beside his table.

"Do you need help?" I ask him and he nods with a wide grin. I pop the lid open and hand it back to him.

"Thank you." He says quickly before pulling out the blue substance and playing with it. I stand back up and decide that Sarah isn't pitching up to work today.

"Is Sarah usually this late?" I decide to ask Alex anyway.

"Yep. Not everyone is always on time like you Princess." Alex quips and I roll my eyes.

Great, not only do I have to work with a guy who hates my guts but also a partner who's never on time.

"What? Annoyed that you have to do all the work on your own now?" He pouts sarcastically at me and I feel like punching him in the face. Why does he have to make such rude assumptions?

"No." I scowl at him. "I'm quite fine with doing all the work thank you. I was just curious."

He rolls his eyes. "Sure. Now that she's upset you, are you going to send some humiliating video of her around the school?"

My heart drops and I sigh with a shake of my head. "Whatever Alex." I grumble and he laughs at me.

Does he get some sick, twisted satisfaction from annoying me? Or better yet, offending me?

Alex looks back at me again. "Aw, Cooper, don't be mad. I was just kidding." He says and I give him a sarcastic smile.

"I know and it was absolutely hilarious!" I jeer and his eyes light up in amusement.

"I'm glad you found it as hilarious as I did."

I roll my eyes again before eyeing him from my peripheral vision. His back is facing me which means I can look at him without worrying about being spotted. I notice that he's wearing a dark grey shirt today and a pair of grey converse on his feet. He dresses really nice for a guy.

Like really nice.

I look away quickly before I let my mind compliment him anymore.

I then take a seat on a chair and pull out a book from my bag, opening it up to where I last left off when Alex suddenly asks me "You read?"

I frown at him. "Yeah. Why?" I ask, noticing surprise light up his features.

"Nothing. Just that the Elite don't usually open up books willingly." He mutters and I glare at his back.

"Maybe you should get to know someone before you judge them." I answer and he smirks at me over his shoulder.

"I get to know people in other ways." He answers suggestively and my nose scrunches up in disgust before I ignore him and get to reading. He chuckles just as I am absorbed into the world of fantasy.

****

"There's absolutely nothing nice here." Courtney complains while looking at all the dresses in front of us in disgust. We all murmur our agreements. She sighs and turns to us with an exasperated smile.

"Let's just go to Betty's Boutique," she grumbles as we leave the store behind us. I don't even know why we check the other stores when majority of the time we end up at Betty's and find satisfying dresses. We walk into the red and white store, the air conditioning making me sigh in relief.

"Hi Liz." Courtney greets the cashier briefly, knowing her well from all the times we've bought from here. Elizabeth smiles at her, making her way around the counter to give Courtney two kisses on each cheek before smiling at all of us.

"What can I do for you girls today?" She asks and Courtney grins.

"We need the best dresses you have." She shrugs and Liz nods in understanding.

"Follow me," she instructs us and we oblige. She takes us to the more expensive section of the shop but nobody complains since Courtney always scores us discounts here due to her carrying the last name of 'Smith'. Even if she couldn't get us discounts though, they can all afford it anyway.

"These are the limited ranges. If you need anything just let me know." Liz smiles before walking away and leaving us with racks of dresses in all different styles and colours. We all slowly start looking through dresses although I don't find anything.

Megan gasps. "Isn't this one beautiful?" She asks us hopefully. If there was one thing I hated about shopping with the Elite it was that if they didn't like it, you couldn't buy it. Their opinion made the decision for you. I eye the v-neck red dress and I smile. I think it's pretty.

"Do you want to look stupid? The style of this dress would do nothing for you." Courtney scowls and Megan dejectedly puts its down before looking for another one.

"This would look perfect on you, Ashleigh. The blue would compliment your eyes." Courtney holds up a dress to Ashleigh. She eyes the dress and I can see she's not too fond of it however, since Courtney is, she pushes on a smile and looks up at all of us.

"I love it!" She gushes falsely although no one notices.

I continue looking for a dress when a cream coloured one catches my attention. I pull it off of the rack and hold it up to look at it properly. It's mid-thigh length, showing a little bit of skin by the stomach as it has two slits on the sides and it's sleeveless. All in all it's a simplistically beautiful dress. I show it to the girls in hopes of them agreeing to it. Courtney eyes the dress and breaks into a smile.

"It's beautiful. You should definitely get it." She grins and the girls all agree. I let out a sigh of relief before deciding to try the dress on. It fits me perfectly, accentuating my legs to make them seem longer while hugging my body in the right places, I grin before walking out with it slung over my arm. The tag catches my attention as I head back to the girls and when I read the price, I almost choke on my spit.

$1400!

I sigh, feeling relieved that I'll be getting it for at least half the price. When I reach the girls, they all have dresses slung over their arms, ready to try them on. Since I've already picked out a dress, I just sit and watch them try theirs on. An hour later and we all have a dress in a shopping bag and we're leaving the mall with aching feet.

I hug my goodbyes and as I do so with Courtney she whispers in my ear: "You're lucky I found a dress,"  but pulls back with a seemingly innocent smile. I push one onto my face as well so that the girls don't notice anything.

"See you guys at seven," I smile before climbing into my car. Kelcy tails me as we usually get ready for parties together and since tonight is Tyler's party, that's exactly what we're doing. We have two hours to doll up before the Elite are meeting at his house.

When we pull up outside of my house, I climb out of my car with Kelcy following my lead. I open the front door and chuck my car keys on the kitchen counter before padding up to my room.

"I wish we had done the shopping for our dresses yesterday. Now we're pressed for time." Kelcy complains, putting her bags down on my floor. I turn back to look for a pair of heels to wear and roll my eyes.

What part of work do they not understand?

"Yeah, well I couldn't. You guys could have gone without me you know." I mutter and Kelcy laughs.

"Courtney would never do that unless it was a dire situation."

Yeah, because she likes to make life difficult for us.

"I know." I reply as I pull out a pair of white strap heels. I turn around and show Kelcy them who is already preparing her hair. When she sees them she grins.

"Perfect." She responds and I smile before grabbing a towel.

"I'm going to have a quick shower and then you can jump in." I tell her and she leans back on my bed while she scrolls on her phone.

"Okay." She mumbles, preoccupied. I shake my head at her.

Time to get ready for the party...

Let's see what goes down at the party ;)

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