Hello Dolly

Chapter One

"Now you both need to be back before noon so we can all take out the cake and blow out the candles, okay honey." Our mom said as she picked up Lori and kissed her all over her cheek.

"How old's my baby girl now?" She asked her.

"I'm seven!" Lori exclaimed, holding up exactly seven fingers.

"Oh my goodness! You're getting so big my little cutie pie!" She exclaimed, smiling at her.

I groaned and rolled my eyes, annoyed with them. I wasn't particularly too happy that I had to spend my Saturday morning walking with my sister downtown to see what she wanted to buy with the fifteen dollars that our parents had given her for her birthday. I had plans prior to that. Plans to go shopping at the mall and watch a movie later with my best friend, Emily. But, sadly I ended up having to cancel those plans when our parents told me that I was going to have to take Lori out to pick out her birthday present.

"Lori, come on!" I said, tapping my foot on the ground. Mom frowned at me and set Lori down.

"Now hurry! Go with your sister and pick out your birthday present. We'll see you both soon."

"Okay mommy!" Lori squealed with excitement, running towards me, standing at the doorway waiting on her.

"See you girls soon!" Our mother called out to us as we walked out the house.

"See you mommy!" Lori called back.

She rushed down the steps after me, trying to catch up cause I was already walking on the sidewalk. Lori finally caught up with me and held my hand.

We live in the town of High Point, Maine. The town was small, but beautiful. Everyone in town practically grew up with one another and knew each other. Here, news travels fast. We moved here from Alabama when I was just a baby. Within an hour, everyone knew about the new family in town and just about everybody showed up at the house with welcome gifts, dishes, and treats.

The town really is a nice place to live but I just couldn't wait to get out of High Point. I couldn't stand having everyone know everyone's business, especially mine. I have plans to go to college in Bakersville, a city hundreds of miles away from High Point, to study Fashion and Design. I knew that there no one would know who I was and no one would know my business, just how I like it.

"Which store do you want to go to?" I asked Lori as we walked downtown. 

"I really don't know." Lori said, looking around, her blonde corkscrew curls bounced as she turned her head.

For the next two hours, we walked around downtown, going into shops and looking around. Nothing seemed to Lori's liking. We stopped every now and then to talk to neighbors and friends that would come up to us. Afterwards, we went to the ice cream store and bought ice cream to satisfy our sweet tooths.

"I only have ten dollars left, Daisy." Lori said, looking up from her strawberry cone at me.

"And?" I asked, finishing up my chocolate cone.

"What if I don't have enough for what I want to buy?"

"You should've thought of that before you bought your ice cream." I commented. "You should've known that walnuts and strawberry slices were going to be extra before you paid for them to put it on there."

"Well I didn't know they'd be that much extra." Lori whined.

"Neither did I."

After a little while, we finished up our ice cream cones and headed out into the street.