THIRTEEN (Evie's Perspective)

CHAPTER 2 - Hanging Out with Tracy

Today at school, Astrid and I introduced Tracy to everyone. She wore an even cuter outfit; a graphic tank top paired with a black jacket, her usual flare jeans and sunglasses.

Tracy quickly became a fave among my group after we told them of how cleverly she stole from that rich lady. Nothing compared to me, though.

After school, we stayed chatting with my group until Tracy's mom came to pick us up. Tracy grabbed me by the hand and we said our farewells before walking to her mom's car.

During the way, her two loser friends waved at her. She looked so embarrassed—I felt bad for her, so I looped arms with her and lead her away.

Her mother was leaning against her car, and oh my gosh, she looked so cool! Her fit was like, gorg!

"Evie, this is my mom," Tracy introduced, gesturing to her mother.

"No way, she's like the hot big sister," I complimented as we approached her mother.

Her mother smiled and asked, "What do you want me to do?"

"Can you take us to Melrose?" Trace asked. I turned to look at her, a little surprised at how bluntly she put the question. I thought she would try to trick her mom by saying we would go to the library or something.

"Let's go," her mom replied, and I was pleasantly surprised at how quickly she agreed. Brooke would never.

As we got in the car, I pondered over how lucky Tracy was to have such a cool and lenient mom. While we were riding, her mom introduced herself as "Melanie", or Mel for short. I decided to call her Mel, less formal that way.

While we were stopping, Mel started listing off things we could buy.

"We'll find some really cute platforms, or maybe some of that body glitter..."

Tracy glanced at me for a split second before turning back to her mom and saying, "No—no, mom, it's okay, you can just drop us off and go run an errand or something."

Tracy shot her a knowing look.

"Oh," Mel replied, turning around to look at Tracy in surprise. "Um, okay...I guess that'll be all right, maybe for an hour..."

I was, once again, stunned by how lenient her mom was. Damn, Tracy was so lucky.

"I'll have to talk to Evie's mom though," she added. Immediately, I tensed. I didn't really have what you could call a mom, and Brooke...well, let's just say Brooke had no idea I spent so much time in Melrose by myself.

"Brooke is just my guardian," I answered hesitantly, frowning slightly as I wrote down Brooke's number on a piece of paper before handing it to Mel.

"Great, thank you," Mel replied as she glanced down at the phone number.

Tracy and I started to get out of the car, when Mel said something. I pretended not to hear her and got out, walking to a safe distance where I could wait for Tracy and not have Mel call out for me.

I watched Mel and Tracy have a conversation in the car and prayed that Brooke would let me stay. Eventually, Trace got out and I asked her what was going on. She assured me everything was fine and we entered Red Balls.

We started looking for cute clothing and I picked out these pretty leopard jeans for Tracy. I showed them to her and she absolutely adored it.

I also found a couple of tops that I liked and we went to the dressing rooms to try them on.

We giggled and talked while dressing and Tracy was having trouble putting on her jeans.

"It's my ass that isn't fitting," she said and I laughed.