Friday. The Party. April 23rd, 2010.

Friday had finally rolled around and the party Bailey had foolishly agreed to go to was an hour away. Scrambling through her newly purchased wardrobe for something presentable should've been fairly simple, but she hadn't shopped with a party in mind earlier in the week and her room showed the consequences of that mistake. Bailey's usual of jeans and a t-shirt, with some pajama pants were thrown on the floor, failing inspections. Before, she wouldn't have cared what she wore because technically, she wouldn't have been going. Things change.

"You made a commitment to at least try," she whispered as she ran her finger down the line of clothing. Not finding anything at first glance, she pushed the hangers of clothes until she spotted a stray piece of black material, shoved in the corner of the closet. She tilted her head, scowling at the sharp feel of the price tag jabbing her finger. A cute little black dress with spaghetti straps lined in a dark pink and a handkerchief styled skirt wasn't what she'd been expecting to see when she pulled it out.

It was the dress her mom had thrown in the cart on a whim. The dress Bailey had refused to try on. She would never wear it, at least, not under normal circumstances so Bailey hadn't seen the point of it. Taking a deep breath, she turned from the closet, holding it up to the light for a better glimpse at the pink, black, and subtle sparkling dust embedded into the material.

Her nose scrunched at the cute dark pink ribbon tied into a very small bow directly under the breast area. The ribbon circled around into a rather low back too. It was a little too much 'girl fluff' for Bailey, but she had a feeling, if the dress fit her, that it would look amazing.

Nodding, she threw the dress onto her bed and yanked at the hem of her gray t-shirt before reaching for the dress again. She slipped the silken material over her head. She swiveled, letting the movement ruffle the handkerchief styled skirt at her knees.

For the first time in forever she felt like a girl. She felt dainty, small, even cute, and she liked it. Bailey bit her lip and slid her hands down her sides, relishing the way the dress clung to her hips. The girly feeling didn't last long though. She scowled at the loose material surrounding her chest.

"Wouldn't you know it?" Bailey grumbled, hopping in front of her vanity mirror to confirm that what she was feeling was actually happening. She tried popping her chest out; didn't work. She adjusted; wasn't working. "Darn it."

There was no way she was stuffing. She'd read and seen way too many accidents with stuffing. She'd kill for a push up bra right now.

"Duct tape, huh?" Her shoulders slumped dramatically and she bowed her head with defeat as she remembered her mother's words earlier; the curse of having small breasts and wide hips. Gale swore by duct tape. Bailey had firmly shut her down. It wasn't like she wanted cleavage, she just wanted there to not be such a huge gap between the breast cups in the dress and her chest.

Bailey walked towards her door and opened it a little to shout down to Gale before going back to the mirror, "Mom? Did you buy that duct tape?"

Bailey contemplated as she turned left then right. She scrunched her lips to the side of her face and planted her hands on her hips. Wearing jeans and a t-shirt isn't the most horrible idea. When she heard socked feet shuffling up the stairs and the creak of her bedroom door Bailey lifted her head to stare at her mother, who was now leaning in the doorway with a knowing smirk.

Heaving a sigh, Bailey raised her shoulders in an over exaggerated shrug before dropping her hands to her side. "So how is this supposed to work?"

Gale gave a wide, teeth-showing grin as she pulled on the silver roll of tape in her hands. The ripping sound echoed in the room and made Bailey's left eye twitch. "If we wrap the tape on the lower part of your breasts it will push them up. It'll fill in the empty spaces give you some cleavage."

"Shouldn't you be discouraging me from showing cleavage? That's what a normal mother would do."

"Where did you get the idea that I was normal?"

Bailey's shoulders drooped and her bottom lip unintentionally popped out. Choosing to ignore her mother, Bailey slowly reached for the black silk spaghetti strap and slipped the upper part of the dress down her shoulders. With one arm, she covered her breasts as she walked towards Gale.

"I'm so proud!" Gale gushed reaching forward to pinch Bailey's cheek.

Bailey jerked away, rubbing her stinging cheek with her free hand. "Is this going to hurt?"

"Not putting it on."

"Taking it off?"

"That'll be unpleasant, but it'll be worth it. Maybe you'll even find a guy you like. Honestly, I don't even think I care if you drink, just don't leave it unattended, and only get your own."

Narrowing her eyes, Bailey searched Gale's face. "Do I need permission to drink a soda?"

Gale smirked at her daughter and walked around her. The cold tips of Gale's fingers against her back caused her to jolt. Two inches of the sticky tape clinging to her skin and the discomfort set in. She wiggled her shoulders trying to scratch an itch beneath the tape.

"Of course you don't need permission for soda. I was talking about alcohol, silly."

"I'm being silly? I'm underage."

"And?"

"It's illegal?"

"Would you live a little? Move your arm up a little sweetie."

"My mother is telling me to drink alcoholic beverages and find a guy. I think can live enough for the both of us."

"Arms up," Gale said, ignoring Bailey.

Two minutes later and Bailey felt like she'd been thoroughly attacked. The tape was too tight with too many layers, resulting in the dress going from too loose to too tight in the chest. Gale gave a strange giggle of enthusiasm and patted the swell of Bailey's startlingly white breasts.

"Not too bad, Bails, but I see a trip to a tanning booth it the near future."

"You know how I feel about tanning. Cancer in a box," was Bailey's way of declining.

Gale sighed, but smiled gently none the less. "Well, you know how I feel about it. I happen to enjoy it. You should give a try before judging it. How about some make-up at least? I have lip plumping gloss. It burns a little, but does the job and you have such long eyelashes-"

It was Bailey's first party so it didn't take long for her to give in. She did want to look nice... better than nice really and she was secretly hoping to catch some guy's eye. Bailey, ignoring her chastising thoughts, held up her index and thumb, "Just a little."

Gale smiled happily and reached forward to ruffle her hair before she left to go retrieve her make-up bag. "Are you trying to impress a boy or just impress in general?" Gale hollered from across the hall.

"What does that have to do with anything?" Bailey asked, curiously patting the top of her plump breasts in slight surprise before mumbling, "I can't believe it worked."

"Different colors," Bailey thought she heard.

"I'll pick which color I like thank you."

"So it's not a boy then?" Bailey could hear the disappointment in her mother's tone. The "damn," that followed only confirmed it.

An image of Damien flashed into Bailey's mind and she bit her lip at the burning sensation that filled the pit of her stomach. She squashed it like a bug. "No, no boy."

He was not only older, but most likely not interested. Plus he was Gwen's brother.

Gale practically threw the door open, a peach glossy bag in her hands stuffed so full the zipper wouldn't close. Gale looked rather pixie like with her bare feet in her blue shirt and khaki Capri's as she smiled brightly at Bailey. Her dark brown hair even managed to look windblown from the small run from Gale's room to Bailey's room.

"You're more excited about this than I am," Bailey said, shaking her head with mock disappointment.

Gale nodded with a mischievous look. The makeup session only consisted of a few color squabbles between the two. Bailey wanted peach, Gale wanted dark, very noticeable, pink. They'd settled on a peachy pink gloss, a little blush, a light black eye shadow that ended up looking smoky and black mascara. Bailey was definitely over the pink colored spectrum. She wasn't a fan of the color ten minutes ago, and the make-up wasn't helping any, but she didn't have the heart to tell her mother she didn't like it. She looked too weird...

"It's great, Mom. Thanks." Bailey said, smiling up at her.

Gale was too happy to see the traces of fake happiness.

Bailey clutched the Venetian colored drawer handle and pulled. Reaching for a simple black headband, she pushed it into her hair, which she'd curled into loose banana curls earlier. With one more glance in the mirror as she fluffed her hair, she nodded, deciding it wasn't so horrible.

Within twenty minutes she was downstairs allowing Gwen to examine her. When she didn't want to do something, time flew. It's funny how that works.

Gwen tapped her chin as she looked up and down once again, "It kind of works, in a cute, young girlish sort of way. You could totally fulfill that young school girl fantasy."

Bailey raised an eyebrow. "I am a young school girl."

"See, it fits!"

Snorting, Bailey took her turn to examine Gwen's elegant sweeping gold gown. It was so long it dragged on the floor. This was no dress. It was definitely a gown. "I didn't know it was going to be such a fancy party."

Gwen gave a sheepish smile, "Actually, it's not."

Bailey frowned, her eyebrows rising as she watched Gwen unzip the gold zipper of the too-expensive-dress. It dropped to floor as if it were no different than a dirty sweat suit. Gwen stepped out of the pooling gold material. The very short cut green dress worked well with Gwen's complexion. Better than the gold had. The dress made her eyes pop. She had the greenest eyes Bailey had ever seen.

Gwen chuckled at the look on Bailey's face. "My parents don't tolerate the kind of party we're going to. With them, it's all suits, proper dresses, champagne, proper etiquette, and stuff. This party is a party. I just didn't have time to take it off before I got here."

"Oh."

"Ready?"