Chapter Text
******
The rain was dripping outside, the wind blowing and Selina was watching the girl look around in what was obviously ill concealed awe.
Most likely the youngster wasn’t even aware of the face she was making- she would probably screech in embarrassment if she knew- and it was all the more, entertaining because of it. Mari was an highly emotional individual and still, sometimes it was taking her a few tries to get to her close enough to break those mental walls, she built around herself like a prison. Selina didn’t mind in the slightest, as she knew to value a slow-going process, the bits of pleasurable success handed over as time passed, over a quick and shallow kind of satisfaction, that came from immediate victory.
Stealing conquests, that were longed and sweated for quite longer, tasted particularly sweeter on her palate and she found that the same philosophy could be applied with the orphan as well.
Mari was like a trophy, she was drooling to win over, and she knew that as Mari was difficultly stubborn in her persona and didn’t seem to trust her in the slightest for now, she will have the delight of walking the long and delicious path of enjoyment that will have her lick her lips after the goal more than she can probably imagine.
When she had walked off, leaving her to choose, she hadn’t been sure if Mari would even follow after her- if she would accept the deal-, and then imagine her adlubescence when the girl walked right into the guest bedroom only minutes after, looking tense and closed off in everything but her anger. She had wanted to actually squeal in delight, but as she knew Mari wouldn’t appreciate her glee, thinking of it more suspicious, she didn’t but merely smiled instead, saying how she was glad that she had agreed, to what the girl had only half-frowned, half-fumed before only saying, sure.
Now however when the girl was taking her time to pretend to glare at her new, personal room, (when she was actually silently appreciating, ravaging it with her eyes), she allowed herself a little fist pump of satisfaction and bit her lips to keep them from twitching into an even bigger grin than there already was.
Oh, dear, this will be so much fun, she thought giddily and switched her face back into her mask of smooth and formal passiveness, that she had carefully sculpted over years of practice and had therefore brought to perfection, when Mari spun to look at her again after her long and throughout inspection. She had a brow raised pointedly and her hair, dark with a blueish touch, mused up from sleep, cradled her head, making it look significantly more gigantic.
She laughed, but only briefly and airily, producing almost no sound at all. How she was planning to have this girl being a perfect thief and passing actress, she had no clue, but she was undoubtedly looking forward to it anyway.
******
Mari would rather die than admit it, but she was stunned from impression.
The room, her room apparently now (mind you, not she ever would call it hers out loud), had been in itself anything six-year-old Mari would have ever dreamed off late at night.
There was a big, spacey bed with lots and lots of blue cushions, that looked like it was practically made for a Queen, rather than a mere girl and the wardrobe, made from some kind of wood that was actually shining?, was big enough to probably fit in a whole H&M store.
A desk, wide and broad enough to probably fit six dogs on top, stood in one corner, next to the wall and beside the door to an incredibly spacious bathroom, white and offering in it’s existence and she honestly didn’t stare at it for too long, maybe only two or three minutes before she shook herself out of it.
The sparks of light, sprinkled all over the chamber, she had discovered after looking up, came from a lamp shining at a fancy chandelier, hanging from the ceiling slightly askew, and the carpet atop the floor looked white, fluffy and clean enough that she actually felt lightly ashamed for stepping onto it with her mud crusted shoes. She had breathed a quiet sigh of relief when thank god, there didn’t remain any brown imprints of her shoes sizes and afterwards just had tried to avoiding coming close to it in general.
Selina hadn’t acknowledged her behavior, even if she probably noticed since she saw for some reason fucking everything that happened, and she was rather relieved for it. At least, Selina, lots of mad irks and quirks she had, had apparently enough pity for a poor orphaned girl to not to mention it. She wondered if this was a rare thing of compassion, or if she could actually try to use that to her advantage and act more and more uneasy, just so that Selina would stop talking to her at every turn and chance and stop mocking her with her posh high-class-iness.
It would certainly be nice.
Last but not least, she rested her gaze atop a row of three paintings on the wall across from the bed and closest to the huge window. They were colorful, mostly smudges of something dark and blue with grey and white splashes, and she frowned at them for a second, wondering if she had actually ever seen a painting from this close before now.
She honestly couldn’t recall one time, but she must have. Paintings weren’t really all that fancy or infrequent, lots of people have them as decorations in their houses. Images of cats and flowers were the most common, she recalled, they were hanged everywhere. So yeah, probably she had at least once seen a painting of a cute cat or a vase with blossoms in her life, but couldn’t remember as it was nothing important to keep in memory. That must be it.
She turned away from the wall to adress to Selina, who immediately with her facing her, laughed to her face. She smoothed over the frown, as it was really rude, and exhaled hastily instead. No need to blow up over something this silly; she was better than to react to a little mean mockery her way.
She had honestly survived worse and she wasn’t even physically assaulted at this point, so that’s fine.
,,The room seems good enough to me, can we go now?,”
Selina stopped being an ass to nod seriously. ,,Yes, of course. Follow me, please,”
They went down the corridor, passed several doors that spiked her interest with how luringly closed they all were, and halted at a plain, white door, that was opened to reveal a wardrobe? big coat rack? inside. Selina grabbed a long, black coat and put it on, before she spun to lay a ranking eye on Mari, that felt intense and already too familiar to even startle her anymore. After a few contemplating blinks, she then dug into the variety of clothes, hanging neatly beside each other and took out a thick, red jacket, that looked like it was originally made from melted, bright red rain boots.
Mari couldn’t help but blink at it.
Selina rolled her eyes and took out a fitting blood-red scarf as well to put down both into her arms. ,,Put that on, Mari. It’s freezing outside and I won’t have you die of a cold, before I even get to start teaching you,”
,,I-alright,” she stuttered, still a little unsettled with the whole situation and complied. She felt uncomfortably stiff and was unable to move her arms really in the jacket. She sighed only quietly. Well, fighting she certainly won’t be able to in this. She would even be surprised if she will be capable of walking still.
Selina smiled at her, round and bright red like a stop sign, and nodded approvingly. ,,You look great, Mari,”
,,I feel like a canon ball,” she informed her, blandly.
Selina nodded again. ,,A beautiful canon ball,”
,,Can I have something else?,” she asked. ,,Something less.. heavy?”
,,Mm, no, that’s the only thing small enough to fit you, as you’re rather thin for your age,”
She snorted quietly, unamused still. ,,I wonder why,”
Selina didn’t answer, but nodded thoughtfully instead.
********
They were riding in a cab, that Selina had called once they had left the building- over the fire escape astonishingly enough- and they weren’t talking, just staring at the houses and streets passing by. Not a word uttered. Not even a whisper spoken and it was driving her mad.
Normally, she wouldn’t bother over the silence, thinking of it unworthy of her time and she didn’t obviously like Selina enough anyway to just chat with her, but now?
This whole situation could just turn out to be a lot fat waste of time and the thing was, she wouldn’t even know until it was too late.
Truly, Selina had tripped her rather well and knew suspiciously much about where people’s possessions lay, but then she could just be daily visiting a martial arts club or something and therefore was not bad at fighting, and her hiding spot’s knowledge could be easily excused by her own practice in hiding her stuff maybe.
She tapped her fingers to the seat impatiently. She had no idea who this woman actually was, other than a description of her job and a name, and perhaps she was just losing precious time, that could be spent with pickpocketing someone and returning to the orphanage to save her daily rations and roof over her head.
She was no step closer maybe to improving her burglary skills, and that was no pleasing thought.
Not at all.
And Mari was nobody to let herself be fooled. No; If Selina wanted her to stay, she would have to make it worth her time. Prove that she could teach her something valuable, and obviously, this won’t do by itself if they just so happen to just be sitting there in silence, doing nothing productive.
She needed, no demanded, proof.
She was a young and aspiring girl, that needed solid proof and she wanted it soon.
...Rather now actually preferably.
,,Tell me something about how to steal,”
The words were oddly loud over the quiet drone of the car, cutting through the peaceful atmosphere startlingly and even the cab driver, a man near his forties with pierced ears, looked up to stare at her over the mirror. Selina didn’t do as much as hum uninterestedly.
,,What do you want to know?,” she asked softly.
Mari bit her lip, thinking. Everything really to stop being the personification of a failure, but she couldn’t really say that now can she? It sounded self-conscious and not in the slightest how she wanted to portray herself to her maybe-possibly-to-be-teacher. She wanted to come over as strong and fearless. Confident and experienced. Nobody liked weak people. Those were always eaten by the bullies first and Mari had no intentions on being eaten in anywhere near the future.
So yeah, ask. She could ask how to be a better actress as she was apparently wickedly horrible at lying, but that was not really about stealing at all, was it? Asking an actress of acting had literally nothing to do with the proof, she wanted.
Of course, she could just straight-out ask of how to crack a safe, or, whatever, break a lock- even if she already could do that one-, but that was not really what stealing was about, was it? That was just breaking inside, burgling, and she groaned loud enough to startle the cab driver into staring at her, with wide eyes again, when her mind didn’t seem to fill with ideas at all.
,,I’m -I actually don’t know, okay, I mean how does one learn being a thief anyway?!,” she snapped, once she realized that she really didn’t know what to ask anyway. It wasn’t like there were just certain stages, you have to accomplish to become one really; it was just a decision and a will, wasn’t it? People who were desperate and willing enough to do it, just did it, didn’t they? There wasn’t any fucking process or history behind it, just plain fear and unwillingness to die and that’s just fucking it.
And then with those words said, Selina turned- actually turned to her- to look at her face and then suddenly burst out laughing, so genuine and loud enough that not only she did a double take, but the driver did as well over the mirror. She was bend over, crying rather than giggling really, and all that Mari could think of in this moment was: well done, dumbass, you just fucking broke your only possible teacher.
Selina laughing so freely, looked nothing like the woman, that had been so serious in her threats this morning. She didn’t look like the female that had offered her a Mutual Attachment either. This right now, was probably the same face that had been telling her of how she thought she had drunk too much and had then proudly proclaimed that she was a maniac in her cleanliness. And she registered only now that she didn’t realize how those faces had been so differing to each other, until she had seen the madly honest one again.
It was an extreme of a realization, obvious really, but still huge enough to startle her back into panic mode. She didn’t know what to do with it really, because apparently the actress was acting all the time.
She wanted to slap herself really, because obviously she did. If she would have the skills to lie- god, please be kind as to gift her-, she would probably only lie as well to everybody really, because well, why not? Nobody would be able to tell the difference anyway. She could just do whatever the fuck really would please her and enjoy herself and then just lie her way out of it.
Mari felt a different kind of appreciation rush over her, thick like honey and just as sweet, because honestly really, who needed to be a great thief, when she could be a great liar instead?
Go out into the street, string a pitiful story or two about having lost her parents in the city and sweet-talk someone into giving her money for a cab ride. Or sweet-talk them into unattentiveness and then pickpocket a few watches or two. Both very sweet options.
Her life could be so much easier.
She could lie to Miss Oliver and maybe fool her into believing that she hadn’t been gone to live with an actress, but got beaten up and couldn’t move before now to return. So many new possibilities really turn up in front of her. She could lie to children and befriend them to get into their houses, she would lie to old, rich women, talk with them friendlily and take a necklace or two with her on her way out.
Everything could be much easier really. So much less filled with the pain of hunger, and the only thing that was apparently left to do, was learn how to lie. Shouldn’t be too difficult. She only needed to hang on Selina’s every word and- -
Oh.
Oh.
She froze with the realization, her face collapsing into itself.
Oh fuck. She actually needed Selina, didn’t she? She needed her like a teacher, or a source of knowledge really. She was someone she could learn a lot from, and of course, bless her cursed mouth, she hadn’t made a great impression of herself.
She had actually made a really terrible impression of herself. Screaming and insulting her and all when she had been offered cake.
She cursed hella frustratedly. Of god, she had to change that. She needed Selina to like her, to keep her here and teach her everything she knew. She couldn’t risk getting taught only a little, only because she made a fool of herself and couldn’t hold her damn mouth for dear life, and lose such a rare opportunity.
Selina may still be a petty snot, but she was a valuable snot now to her. A snot, she had to befriend.
She never would have thought she would think that, but she needed to improve their relationship and that quickly. Her life quite literally depended on it. Her future depended on it. The world depended on it.
She was an idiot.
,,Uhm, Selina?,” she asked, painfully polite.
Selina who steadily had calmed from her laughing fit and had been adjusting her hair already, looked up at her words.
,,Yes?,” A smooth drawl, slow and measured and confident, and oh Jesus, she wanted to learn to talk like that.
,,Could you teach me how to lie?,”
Selina’s brows rose and would have probably went on rising if she wouldn’t have went out of forehead. ,,That’s what I was planning to do, darling, teach you my ways,”
,,No, yes, but I mean, can you explain how you do it? How you make it look so untroubled. ..Did you attend an acting academy?,” she blurted, suddenly curious.
She smiled. Selina smiled at her and she bit down hard, to keep herself from grinning at her success. This was going far better then she could have dreamed to expect. ,,It’s mostly practice, dear, lots and lots of repetitions make it easier to slip into the roles,” she explained. ,,Don’t worry, I’ll show you one day,”
One day. Those words echoed in her ears and made the glee die like struck by a lightning. She’ll teach her one day, what basically was meant to say: in a few years or maybe, even never. She won’t get to lie early, no Selina had decided, because of her horrible first impressions to punish her and withhold the lesson.
She felt like screaming really.
She tried not to show. ,,Oh, yes. ‘Course, thanks,”
Okay, maybe Selina noticed her troubles anyway, because she smiled at her encouragingly and shook her head once, delicately.
Mari didn’t even pretend to have understood the gesture, but smiled back weakly anyway.
One day, huh. She had fucked up truly.
Her wallowing in self-pity was interrupted by the cab driver announcing that they were there, in the main city avenue and Selina paid him exactly thirty dollars and fifty two cent and answered with a thank you, good day sir, before she opened the door and told her to follow after her.
Mari followed without asking, and just walked and walked after Selina through the masses of people, trying not to feel too miserable about her life. Her feet were heavy, dragging over the ground, and the jacket, red and suffocating, made it impossible to move any freely really and she just tried not to frown at the colorfullness of everything. It was as if the people had decided to overcompensate for Gotham’s greyness by adding colour themselves and it was just startling how she didn’t notice it, until now, in this moment, really. Everything felt just so surreal and she didn’t want to believe it in the slightest, because if she had fucked up possibly the only chance, she had ever gotten in her hell of life, then she’d probably just cry really.
Her life would be finished.
That would be it.
,,Rule number one,” Selina whispered, suddenly right by her side, ,,Don’t talk about business in public places. Use code words or paraphrase situations, but don’t mention names, it’s a bad habit,”
She was gone, walking briskly, before Mari even fully processed what just had happened.
But then with the realization, she wanted to die.
Mari hurried after her, her face burning. ,,Wait, wait, wait, and you tell me this only after I basically outed us?,” she whisper-shouted, mindful of the people around them.
,,People don’t learn by getting said the rules, they have to see first to understand, Mari,” she chided, looking forward still. ,,You had to learn yourself and now after your ‘outing’ of us, quite obviously, you won’t make the same mistake again, I believe,” she glanced down at her embarrassed and red face and fought a smile.
She wanted to punch her so hard and snapped ,,You moron,”, before her brain started catching up with her words and she slapped her hands over her terribly lose mouth, horrified. Well, so much for being friendly.
,,Oh, shit, pretend I didn’t say that,” she begged.
Selina looked down at her again, fleetingly and humored and asked. ,,Why would I?,”
,,Uhm, for the mutual Understanding?” she squeaked and prayed her face wouldn’t betray her by glowing a brighter red.
Selina snorted. ,,Try something else,”
,,Oh, you, little-” she fumed, before catching the slippery control of herself again. ,,I’m trying to be more amicable here, if you hadn’t noticed, you.... ignorant person,”
Selina laughed at her lame insult as they entered into a building. ,,You want to exercise on your politeness?” she inquired curiously. ,,Then, darling, please do it on them,” her hand swept out and vaguely gestured to a woman in black dress, that just had noticed them and hurried over on heels. Mari was actually just waiting for her to twist an ankle or trip, but surprisingly neither happened. She was actually about to get to the bottom of her, being disappointed or relieved about that, but then Selina startled the shit out of her by putting a hand on her shoulder.
She frowned up at her, trying to shrug the palm off, but it won’t budge. ,,What are you doing,” she hissed lowly, watching the heel-woman nearing.
A deep hum was the only answer, she got from Selina, before the woman on heels reached them. ,,How can I help you, ladies?,” she asked brightly, looking from Selina to Mari and back.
Mari mouthed ,ladies’ quietly to herself, amused, and Selina tightened her grip on her shoulder for a second, warningly as she spoke up. ,,I’m looking for a new Garderobe for my niece here,” she glanced down pointedly, at her head and continued. ,,Something seasonal please, as well as a few dresses and, preferably in a wide color scheme that’ll fit to her skin color,”
The woman- she had a high bun of blonde hair, that also oddly enough reminded her of cup noodles- analyzed Mari’s face critically and hummed as well. ,,Oh, yes, pale skin, very tricky. Sit down near the cabins and I’ll see what I can find for you, lovelies,” she grinned at Mari, who startledly tried to smile back as best as possible, and led them over to a set of green couches.
Mari felt the second that hand unclamped itself from her body and tried not to show how relieved she was, when she slumped back into the couch. Selina sat down next to her, stiffly with her back straight and posed, and she had honestly tried not to roll her eyes, but whatever.
She cleared her throat, and decided to start a conversation to strengthen their ‘mutual attachment’ more. Could never hurt to try more. ,,So apparently, I’m your niece then,” she said, pursing her lips. The obviously went unspoken.
Selina raised a brow at her. ,,You’d rather have me as your mother?,”
,,What-No,” she cleared up uncomfortably. ,,Just well, you could have warned me!”
,,I thought that it was obvious as you stay in my home and we’re not physically alike enough for a parental relation,” she informed, looking at a mannequin, that wore a long, blue dress.
Mari lowered her voice to normal standards. ,,Well sorry to tell, but it wasn’t,”
,,I apologize then for my foolish uncooperativeness,” Selina said and didn’t talk again, until the heel-woman returned with a colorful pile of clothes, on and off hangers both.
Mari tried not to show her surprise and pretended to rub her nose instead. That was a lot fat more than she had honestly expected. A lot, lot more than she could ever wear. She had actually no idea, how they were expecting her to wear all of that; really, one set would have been enough for another two years on her standards.
She always looked after her clothes, trying not to get them dirty and washing them occasionally as well. Only when she got into fights, she couldn’t keep them from getting full of mud and holes, as in fist fights it was either everything or nothing and as she always gave her everything, her clothes always afterwards looked accordingly wrecked.
,,Darling, please take off your jacket,” Selina said to her, smiling, and Mari complied, taking it off without protests and laying it down beside them. She felt strangely exposed now without it, and crossed her arms over her chest, pretending not to notice them both looking over her. She was rather used to the disgust already now; it didn’t bother her as much anymore.
Selina was the first to speak again. ,,Well, you certainly got yourself a little dirty from soccer, didn’t you?,” There was humor in her voice, and she looked up, trying to assess if it’s real or just another of her acts. She found she couldn’t really tell, but as she didn’t play any soccer and it was a blatant lie, she guessed it was the latter.
She put on a smile as fake as her first one. ,,Well, Auntie, that’s what makes it so great. You should try it for yourself some time as well, it’s really exciting, I tell you and I’ll show you how to do it right, if you’d like to,” she exclaimed with hand gestures, rapid and energetic to stress her passionate behavior.
Selina smirked for a millisecond, brief and devious, before spinning to the heel-woman. ,,What did you find?,”
The woman, having looked between them interestedly, snapped into action immediately. ,,Well,” she said. ,,I have a few tops and hoodies, that compliment to her eyes, as well as jeans, high waist jeans, capris, culottes, leggings, short and skirts. A few things really, we should look over each pair uniquely to decide, don’t you think?,”
Selina nodded her agreement. ,,That sounds like a plan,”
Mari looked at Selina, who nodded and took that as the signal to stand up and go to the changing cabins. It was slightly more dark inside, a long mirror at one side and a green curtain serving as a divider from eyes. She stood there indecisively for a moment, the thoughts of unclothing now entirely unpleasant, before suddenly a hand reached through the curtain and held a few hangers with clothes and a pair of shoes towards her.
She accepted all of it unwillingly, feeling out of place and angry to be here first.
Uncomfortably, she started taking off her jacket and shirt, stopping when her arms were laid free for a second. Had her forearms always looked this skinny and pale? She couldn’t really tell, but somehow they now did. Looked skinny and pale.
She exhaled and went on.
The pants were dealt with quickly as where the boots and she embraced herself, just in underwear, feeling vulnerable, but relieved to be hiding behind a curtain. At least, nobody could see her right now; talk about consolation prizes. She snorted and lifted the new clothes to look at them, more closely. In her hands, they felt heavy and more firm than her clothes, less thin, and with a sigh, she started dressing again, only this time, into the clothes, that weren’t hers.
Her hands were a little shaky, and she couldn’t use them for dear god to button closed the blouse, so she left the lower part open and pulled on the jeans, that ended somewhere above her navel and fit extremely well. At last, the flats, in a color something between white and cream with pearls strung on top, were stripped onto her bare feet and as she tried to stretch her toes, she found them stiff and unmoving.
She sighed again. Figured.
Quickly, she put the little, blue bag in a similar shape to a common purse around herself and then pushed open the curtains to get this over with.
Selina was sitting at the same green couch, now sipping on a cup of.. something, maybe tea or coffee, and looked up when she waddled outside the cabin and onto the free space in front of it.
There was ...something in her eyes, she thought could be something happy or satisfied maybe, but as it came she didn’t got to analyze the look any further as the heel-woman stood up from where she was seated across from Selina, with a bright grin. ,,Look at you, lovely,” she gasped and came closer to tug carefully on each piece of clothing. ,,Nothing’s too tight? Uncomfortable? Itching? No?,” Mari shook her head every time, because as uneasy she was feeling in these clothes, it had nothing to do with them really, but with her. ,,Great,” the woman said finally and stepped away to inspect her from afar.
,,Beautiful, -of course, somebody’s got to tame that hair-, but all in all,” the woman spun to look at Selina. ,,Great, isn’t it?,”
Selina nodded and smiled faintly. ,,It’s perfect,”
The woman’s grin widened at the praise and she ushered Mari back inside the cabin, giving her a new pile of clothes and shoes and closing the curtain behind of her.
Alone again, Mari changed out of these clothes and into the new ones. A white, short, and she meant really short top with that, which ended above her navel and showed off quite a lot of her collar; striped in blue and red pants and a matching in pattern jacket, that was probably supposed to be left open as it had no zip or buttons. To the end, she stripped on the white sneakers, that looked suspiciously like they would get dirty after only one walk somewhere generally outside, and lifted the sunglasses- also in white- to her face to first stare at them incredulously, and then, just lay them onto her nose and ears.
Why anybody would wear fucking sunglasses in Gotham of all places, she had no idea, but well, she wasn’t here to complain, was she? She was here to learn lying and this was only to test her.
She will stay through this with pride and then become the greatest liar, mankind had ever known in it’s ever long existence.
Amen.
The moment, she stepped through the curtain however, the heel-woman squealed out in delight and she started regretting her decision. Hands touched her arms, her waist, patted her over stomach and she endured them, trying to remain breathing calmly, and calling herself into mind why she was doing this and why exactly it would be a bad idea to run away and hide behind a dumpster.
Selina watched at first passively over her cup, but then cleared her throat and bundled the attention onto herself. Mari had been ready to hug her really- maybe if she would be less of a snot and they would know each other longer than two days- but as that wasn’t reality, she didn’t but nodded at her in gratitude instead.
,,Evelyn, could you please bring us a glass of water? My niece looks a little pale to me, don’t you think?” Selina said, and frowned worriedly.
Evelyn- was her name apparently- snapped her head around to look at her face and whatever she must have seen (gratitude and a lot of horror maybe), convinced her to apologize hastily and run off to get them their water.
With Evelyn for now gone, Mari turned to Selina, who was looking through a fancy-looking catalogue.
She coughed obviously and Selina slowly craned her head to stare at her expectantly. Somehow she was reminded of a turtle of all things really and had to cough again to cover her snorting.
,,Thank you,” she spoke earnestly, sans the coughing, and she meant it.
Selina smiled flickeringly, like she couldn’t decide to go for it fully, and leaned her head. ,,It was my pleasure,”
They reveled in the silence, short and sweet and filled with promises, before Evelyn returned and brought a tray? with water bottles (plural, what the fuck) and forced her to drink at least one half of bottle, fore they could continue. She stood through the cooing stubbornly and didn’t even twitch when Evelyn pat her shoulder, asking if she felt better. She only nodded and said, yes, thank you Evelyn, to what the woman smiled brightly and asked if she would be ready to continue or if she would rather sit.
She wanted to continue and said as much, what was how she found herself in the cabin again, staring at a dress horrifiedly and questioning her life choices.
It wasn’t really that it was ugly or anything- she didn’t think that she had enough experience with fashion to judge rather any decision here-, but it actually didn’t look like she could get inside. Like she couldn’t figure out how she was supposed to worm herself into this piece of clothing, that looked like it had devoured a sheep or two in it’s life without ripping it apart. It was puffy and looked rich and she had no idea where to stick her head inside to fucking wear it.
She needed help, but didn’t want to ask for it. It would embarrass her to death to have a foreign woman, helping her into a dress. She would rather die than have that. Like maybe not literally, she was not suicidal, but metaphorically. Metaphorically she wanted to die preferably to accepting the help in dressing from a foreign woman.
Thank god however, and she did actually thank him out loud for that, she found the way to wedge herself into the dress- a painful way really as she twisted her arm once or twice the wrong way, but a way - and brushed over the cloth to smooth it down after the maneuver.
She regarded herself in the mirror critically, her face scrunched up in scrutiny.
Well. A rosy cloud maybe, would be an appropriate description for her. Or candy floss on a stick, with her, playing the part of the stick. An attractive stick really, but a stick.
She walked around a little, watching how the puff shook and shivered with each step and decided that it couldn’t be any worse anyway and promptly opened the curtain to reveal herself to the hungry lions.
Evelyn screamed in glee, running to check for uncomfortableness; Selina took one look at the dress, at her unamused face and burst out laughing.
Her mood went from unamused to murder in a finger snap.
Evelyn, unfazed by her murderous glare, tugged on the dress, adjusted puff and asked if she felt any uneasiness with the clothing. She breathed out hotly, burying whatever anger she could find under blocks of determination, and answered with the evenest voice that she could manage, I don’t really like the dress and I feel and look ridiculous.
Selina had snorted again, but cunningly hid it behind her catalogue this time.
Evelyn had actually looked devastated that someone didn’t like this puffy trap and she had felt almost sorry, but then she remembered that if they would buy this then she would have to actually wear it and that just wouldn’t go.
So in the end, the dress was brought away and replaced with a lot of other ones. Mari didn’t feel reassured at the sight of the pile. Evelyn had recovered from the devastation and was happily telling her to try on the other dresses as she had found something that might fit more to her expectations. Selina had just drunk her second coffee meanwhile, watching them silently, like the traitor she was.
Ushered behind the curtain again, she tried on dress after dress. Some were longer than the others, some more colorful, and others were just impossible to understand really with how many loops and bows were placed on them. Sometimes, she liked a dress, as it was actually comfortable and practical to move in, but then Selina had shook her head and told her to get it off. Evelyn had always argued against in the weirdest way possible, agreeing with Selina’s opinion, but also saying how pretty it looked on her and promptly, they had gotten those odd sorts of arguments, that surpringly didn’t involve any raising of voice.
It was like a battle really, with two fronts. Evelyn, passionate saleswoman, vs. Selina, merciless actress. Mari was mostly just standing there watching them clash and fight once they were deep enough inside their arguments to forget about her.
It was entertaining actually, she thought somewhat surprised, watching them shot their facts about colors and styles. Not that she understood one word really of what they were talking about, but the passion was still there. Blazing and hot, and she could practically feel their emotions in the air as they sparked and died.
Selina had won in the end, in all fights- not that she was surprised as she seemed like the woman to bully everyone into doing what she wanted -and she got driven out into the cabin again, to try on another outfit, that had suspiciously much accessories coming along with it.
She put on a yellow top, a long one this time, with a neck that was trying to have her suffocating and wormed herself into some shorts, that didn’t even cover her knees. She felt stupid really, tired of changing clothes over clothes, but dressed herself with lots and lots of necklaces, black boots like hers, but only significantly more heavy, and a yellow hat, before she stepped out again and did a twirl and posed for her onlookers, that applauded and cheered, one more wild and frantic than the other.
Selina was smiling at her performance in amusement. Evelyn was just generally grinning at everything that was happening and walked closer for her inspection once again, giggling.
,,My, Mari, you look stunning,” she took her hand to lift it, to look beneath it, at her waist. ,,Does it fit?,”
She shook her head. ,,The boots don’t. They’re too small,”
Evelyn’s smile didn’t fade. ,,I’ll bring you a size larger. Anything else?,”
,,No,” she said. ,,Everything fits,”
,,Are you uncomfortable? Your top maybe?,” she tugged pointedly at said clothing and looked it over critically.
Mari shook her head ,no’ again.
Evelyn smiled at her sympathetically. ,,You’re almost done, you know. Your Aunt told me, if you like this one, then after this the next will be the last.” she explained. ,,Just one more and we can move to the checkout, lovely,”
Mari walked back into the cabin, feeling proud and satisfied with herself. ,,Just one more,” she mumbled to herself encouragingly, before exhaling deeply and unclothing herself again. Again a hand passed her the next outfit through the curtain and she put it on without having to think of it really. It came like breathing already with how many times, she had done it already.
Selina’s words echoed through her head, like a mantra.
It’s mostly practice, dear, lots and lots of repetitions make it easier to slip into the roles
Was she playing a role right now? The role of a niece, that loved to play soccer and liked her Aunt enough to offer her to teach her it. And she was rather good at it, wasn’t she? Evelyn didn’t seem suspicious of them and Selina didn’t seem to give her any signs too, so maybe she was winging it perfectly. She stood up straighter at the realization, proud, in the leather jacket and the red flowingly light dress. She had potential in acting, she felt so much relief and pride, she thought she might pass out from it.
There was a chance, she might survive in this world after all.
The curtain opened easily when she pulled it. She walked out, straight, proud, looking forward, and promptly, tripped on her feet. She cursed quietly, stumbling and just rescued herself from smacking into the floor with swinging arms. She giggled a little hysterically, still shocked from having almost made a fool of herself. No wait, she did make a fool of herself.
,,Idiot,” she muttered to herself and hit her fist to her forehead, without any force behind it. Oh god; She was a self-destructive disaster, that needed serious help.
,,Are you alright, Mari?,” Selina’s voice called out in the same second, that hands helped her up from her crouch. Evelyn brushed her over, a worried frown on her face. ,,You okay, lovely?,”
She nodded. ,,Yes, just tripped.”
Evelyn smiled immediately again, like a switch turned. ,,Oh, okay, do you want to sit?,”
She shook her head. ,,Nope, don’t worry, I’m fine,”
Mari stepped backwards to escape the iron grip of Evelyn and spun to Selina. ,,What do you think?,” she asked and readjusted the dress over her legs. ,,Top or Flop?,”
Selina stared at her, silently without reaction, a mask, and then spoke up, seriously. ,,Top,”
,,Ha,” she grinned. ,,I thought so too,”
Selina didn’t look to Evelyn, staring at Mari still, but when she spoke it was to the saleswoman. ,,We’ll take it,”
Evelyn smiled broader and clapped her hands excitedly. A picture of delight. ,,Follow me then please, ladies,”
Her Garderobe as Selina had called it, in the end, had costed seven hundred dollars and seventy eight cents and Selina had also left a spare of hundred dollars on top, for service, as she had explained later.
Selina as if reading her thoughts, had told her also that sometimes, it costed her much more for one piece only if she bought it from the most expensive boutiques, but still she didn’t know what to feel of it.
Because that much money, seven hundred dollars and seventy eight cents, she had never once even stolen from anybody.
********