High Fashion...really?

[VICTORIA ROMENZ]

The more Victoria looked at the diamond encrusted headband in the window, the more it seemed to sparkle. She stared at it for 30 seconds before some unknown force pushed her through the door. I definitely wasn't the subtle girly that Victoria had been aiming for but she couldn't take her eyes off of it. Of course it wasn't real diamond but still, it sparkled so brilliantly she couldn't say no. Victoria picked it up off the rack and sighed. She didn't know what she was going to do with herself. Since when did she want sparkle and shine on anything less than her combat boots? What was she going to wear this with anyway. She had gotten a few strange looks from her friend for wearing a flower hair clip. This would be too much for them.

Still, she bought it.

Who the hell cares what they think anyway?

She walked into the next store and looked at herself in the full length mirror. Her shoes were kind of girly. She had finally graduated from tennis shoes to flats. The red ones looked nice. Her jeans were just well jeans and the rest of her was normal. She was so out of place with all this extravagant clothing but for some reason she felt right at home. Victoria grabbed a few dresses and waited in line for the dressing room. She wasn't going to buy them or anything. Just try them on. Her closet wasn't ready for anything more than that chest of dresses. She wasn't ready either.

outfit: here

[grumpy]

Bella's profits: $154.63

It was a stretch, since she had been saving for about six months the money she had managed to get from "clutter disposal" (which was half the profit, because quite frankly, Belladonna had been selling very nice clothes that had only been worn a few times in a desperate rush to keep up with the trends) and the awful job that paid for the rest of it.

Her excuse for missing out on several other shopping trips in the past? She was sick, she had a headache, she had to work overtime to pay for the various crap she bought and wore once only to sell to the secondhand shop the next month for half the price. It was a huge stretch, but anything to keep her afloat and her secret safe. Besides, as long as no one looked at her credit card bill, it would be obvious that Belladonna was rich. Besides, what she could afford to buy with cash, she did, but the rest of it went on her credit card. A clever idea, she had, but the debt had added up quickly. Still, she contributed a good amount of her pay to her bank account in order to (attempt to) climb out of her debt.

She wasn't going to be TOTALLY debt-free, but it didn't hurt to try.

Here she was, browsing for what was new for the season and checking to see what was nice that she could buy. Of course, Belladonna didn't imply that she had to choose carefully. She NEVER did. She always had to have the air that she could buy anything anywhere anytime she wanted. Because that was who she was. That was who she wanted to appear like, anyway. She didn't want to look like some bumpkin like...

Oh? Who was that over there? Someone she knew? Oh, hopefully not, because then they would notice that she was being REEEEALLLYYY choosy on what she wanted, and you couldn't be choosy when you could simply buy whatever you wanted with the super-duper-magical credit card...

Oh... it was Victoria Romenz. What was she doing here? Seriously, what was she doing here in the more expensive stores? Belladonna rushed out of the store to check the name... yep, it was the same store she had intended to go to. But why? Maybe Victoria was mistaken. Maybe she had gone to the wrong store by accident. It was understandable, since the poor girl didn't really have any idea about the latest trends in fashion (combat boots? Really? They were SO last Wednesday at six o'clock PM!). Yet despite the obvious answers to her questions, Belladonna decided to humor herself and approach Victoria from behind.

"Oh, Victoria," Belladonna cooed, tapping her friend on the shoulder. "It seems you've finally listened to my advice after all. Or, at least, that's what I'd like to think. But seriously, Doll, what brings you here to the marketplace of the rich and fabulous?"

Marketplace of the rich and fabulous? That was a nice wordplay. Belladonna made a decision: she must use that phrase more often. Besides, it came to her off the top of her head.

five hundred and twenty nine...WORDS!*
Victoria!...TAGS!*
Pretty awful for a first post, but it got better toward the end. ...NOTES!*
Gracias Becket for the template ...THANKS!*

[VICTORIA ROMENZ]

Victoria stepped out of the dressing room and twirled around in the short champagne dress. She felt so girly. Half of her wanted to be sick. She looked at herself in the mirror again and realized what she was doing. Why was she trying on a dress and buying diamond headbands? She looked a bit longer and sighed again. She felt slightly torn. Like there were two sides of her fighting against each other. The haunting tune played in the back of her head.

"Oh, Victoria,"

"Fuck!" she yelled clutching at her heart. She turned around to see her friend BellaDonna dressed in her best. At first the fashionista used to annoy the crud out of Victoria but somehow they found themselves becoming friends. Victoria blamed this on her weird new attraction to high fashion. She secretly watched an episode of America's Top Model but soon found the constant cat fights mind numbing. Plus the girls were dressed up so weirdly. Maybe she wasn't attracted to high fashion, maybe just dresses. Victoria looked up and caught some glares. The one time she doesn't cuss in Russian-

"It seems you've finally listened to my advice after all. Or, at least, that's what I'd like to think. But seriously, Doll, what brings you here to the marketplace of the rich and fabulous?"

Victoria shook her head quickly. She wasn't going to let BellaDonna think she's becoming a girly girl. Who knows what could happen after that. Time to make an excuse.

"I was just... shopping for a friend," she said trying to act causal. She looked down at her dress. Oh crap!
"Me and her are the same size."

Wow. Lame excuse. Time for a distraction. What would get the attention off Victoria? Ooh a BellaDonna fashion crisis!

"Nice outfit. I think I have a shirt like that in my closet... It came from Target, right? I love that place!" she lied. Victoria prepared herself internally for the outburst. She knew BellaDonna would have a freak out about those words but whatever got the attention away from her being in this store. She never got her friend's hatred for Target or Kohl's. There clothes weren't too bad.

outfit: here

[grumpy]

"Fuck!"

"Yeah, you wish you did more often," Bella muttered, pursing her lips a little disapprovingly as she added, "So how have you been, Doll? And what led me to see this astonishing change in personality and flair before me?" She really was curious for an answer, for if she heard that she had helped to cause Victoria to have a change of heart about how much she cared for her clothes and how she should want only the best stores could sell and leave the rest for the ragamuffins, then her heart would be brightly aflame with pride and extreme self-conceit. Little old Bella had caused one of the most fashion-illiterate people at Baum (well, there were a lot of fashion-illiterate people at Baum, but Victoria was one of the lowest on the list of people she personally knew. There were people out there with worse fashion sense. She just didn't know them) to see the light in where her priorities and every thought should belong. That in itself was an amazing feat, and Bella felt she should have had her own personal plaque just for being the prophet of good taste, spreading the good news of the latest trends and why they're more important than anything else anyone could ever think of ever. But Bella's bubble was burst when Victoria replied.

"I was just... shopping for a friend,"

Belladonna frowned. So she was only shopping for one of her friends? Not herself. Even though Bella was prepared to accept the fact that Saint Belladonna had not converted Victoria to Fashionistaism (was that even a religion? She hadn't paid much attention in Science), she did see one flaw in Victoria's logic.

"But-"

"Me and her are the same size."

If Belladonna had raised her index finger to make her point, she slowly lowered it now, before curling her fingers into a nervous fist. So she had failed after all. Oh, well, there was always tomorrow. Or the next day. Or the next day. Or the next day. Or the next...

"Nice outfit. I think I have a shirt like that in my closet... It came from Target, right? I love that place!"

Orthenextdayorthenextdayorthenextdayorthenextdayorthenextdayorthenextdayor...

Belladonna began to hyperventilate. She panicked, frantically spinning around in a circle to see what the ticket on the back of her shirt read. When she had failed to see what it was and became dizzy enough not to care anymore, she turned back toward Victoria, now nervous and embarrassed. She was embarrassed because what Victoria didn't know was that she had gotten it at Target. She just saved it until that type of shirt was trendy. HOW DID SHE KNOW?!?!?!?!

"That's per-poster-us," Bella breathed quickly, scrambling to put the ticket down on the back of her shirt, the ticket she had upturned while she was attempting to read what it said. "I don't buy anything at Target. Nope. Not at all. Avert all suspicion. Nada. Nothing." She hesitated, before she bit her lip and exclaimed, "Why are we still on this topic?"

five hundred and eight...WORDS!*
Victoria! ...TAGS!*
BELLLAAAAA ...NOTES!*
Gracias Becket for the template ...THANKS!*

[VICTORIA ROMENZ]

Victoria rolled her eyes. She was pretty happy to crush the huge feeling of pride oozing out from BellaDonna like something really gross oozing out from another gross thing. (Victoria isn’t one for similes) Why did BellaDonna take full responsibility for her change? Not that Victoria had changed or anything. She was still the kick-ass tomboy she had been freshman year. Victoria looked down again. The kick-ass tomboy… in a dress that, despite her saying so, wasn’t for her friend. Victoria suddenly felt very uncomfortable. She wanted to be a tom-boy but also wearing dress and diamond headbands and all that other junk wasn’t too bad either. She snapped herself out of it just in time to see BellaDonna have a freakout about Victoria’s last comment. Her face went from it’s usual smug look to a look of pure terror. Victoria had to bite her lip to keep from laughing. Was BellaDonna actually checking the tag? You’d think she’d be certain that it wasn’t. Taking a deep breath before Bella turned back around, Victoria attempted to hide her soon-to-be explosive laughter. Of course, Bella continued to freak.

"That's per-poster-us."

Victoria was starting to regret her decision. Not that she really cared about the people staring but she kind of didn’t want her friend to pass out on the floor. All that breathing and everything couldn’t be for her. “Bella—,”

"I don't buy anything at Target. Nope. Not at all. Avert all suspicion. Nada. Nothing."

“Bella, I—,”

"Why are we still on this topic?"

“No idea,” Victoria breathed, already exhausted by the situation. “I’m going to go change.” She walked back into the dressing room and pulled off the dress like it was a piece of something gross. Quickly putting her clothes back on, she dashed out and didn’t let herself think about buying the thing.
“You do realize I was kidding right? I mean seriously. You didn’t have to go all freak-spaz on me. I mean, Ni figa sebe! Calm down,”

[/color]Victoria exclaimed, trying not to worry about her outfit. Apparently, her distraction had worked. Almost too well. Bella most likely won’t notice Victoria’s slightly girly appearance. She’ll probably punish Victoria by making her stay and go shopping with her. Maybe Victoria could escape and go home. There was supposed to be a Star Wars marathon. That’s just what she needed. A little Star Wars will get her mind off of all the girly stupidity she’d been subjecting herself to.
[/blockquote]

outfit: here