Chapter Seven: Girls' Day Out

(The Mall Rats, Pt. 3)

***

The bus doors opened with a jerky hiss. Cami, Max and El got up from their seats, shuffling behind the people already at the front. Tugging on her scrunchie, Cami noticed El looked nervous. Moving to the super-powered girl, she murmured, "Hey. It's gonna be okay. Me and Max aren't gonna leave your side all day."

El gave her a tiny smile as now she, Cami and Max stepped out of the bus. El stared at Starcourt, her eyes huge as Max and Cami grinned.

"So. What do you think?" Max asked with a grin.

"It's pretty amazing, right? And the air conditioning is even more awesome," Cami said, also grinning.

However, the grins fell on both of their faces at noticing El looked nervous.

"Hey, what's wrong?" Max asked, holding El's arm.

"You okay, El?" Cami questioned, holding her shoulder.

"Too many people. Against the rules," El told them.

Max blinked as Cami stared at her, before Max grinned and said, "Seriously? You have superpowers. What's the worst that can happen?"

"Max's right. It might be overwhelming, but it will be okay. Nothing's gonna happen," Cami assured, squeezing El's shoulder.

She smiled, but still looked hesitant.

"Come on," Max said, as she and Cami grabbed El's hands and they ran into the mall.

Cold air buffeted Cami's face along with the smell of the food court as they rushed into the centre of it and stopped. Cami grinned as she saw El stare at the shops around her, the other girl obviously never having seen anything like this. Which was odd to Cami—in New York, malls were almost always constant, so this was nothing new to her. But to El, it must be like a whole other world, dazzled by the smells of the food court, the noise of the shoppers and what was playing from the speakers, the bright neon lights from the shops.

"So, what do we do  first?" Max questioned El.

El didn't say anything, her expression saying everything.

"You've never been shopping before, have you?" Max guessed. When El shook her head, Max and Cami looked at each other as Max said, "Well, I guess we'll have to try everything. Right, Cami?"

"Absolutely, Max," Cami agreed as she linked her arm through El's. Max linked her arm through El's other arm, the redhead looking at the stores before she found one.

"Ooo, come on!" she said, and together, arm-in-arm, the girls ran off to the Gap, darting inside and startling a few window shoppers. They let go to browse through the bright and colourful clothes on sale, Cami's interest piqued by a couple—including a really cute skirt—her and Max grinning as they followed after El, who stared at the different clothes and touched them in wonder before she stopped in front of a shirt with a loud and colourful pattern on it, apparently mesmerised by it. Cami grinned, seeing the spark of finding your style in El's eyes.

Max noticed it too, as she asked El, "Do you like that?"

"How do I know what I like?" El questioned, looking unsure.

"You just try on things until you find like something that feels like... you," Max told her, Cami nodding in agreement as she added on, "Or maybe something you see and you just... instantly fall in love with it, and that shapes a style that feels like you."

"Like... me?" El queried.

"Yeah," Max affirmed. "Not Hopper. Not Mike."

"Not Al," Cami added on.

"You," they finished in unison,  as El stared back at the shirt, smiling, at the idea of finding her own style without those influences.

That spurred El into finding clothes just like the one she saw—bright, bold and loud with its patterns—until she had a veritable heap along with some jeans and colourful suspenders, Cami and Max helping. Once she did, she immediately began trying them on, starting first off with the blue patterned shirt she'd seen, paired with yellow trousers and suspenders. Max grinned and Cami clapped when El jumped out to reveal it, as she stared at her reflection in the mirror. Striding up to it, she put the yellow beret on that Max had found, Max adjusting it so it sat right on El's head, as she then stretched the suspenders out before they snapped back, the three of them laughing.

Next was a shirt and skirt with lines all across the white fabric, which Cami approved with a thumbs up as Max held up two belts—red or yellow. El picked the yellow and Cami and Max twirled her around, before she got dizzy and fell, the three of them laughing. As El changed in another outfit, Max tried on sunglasses while Cami perused the shirts section, and immediately fell in love with a vertical-rainbow-striped shirt that knotted at the front. Grabbing it, Cami tried it on, felt gladness fill her that it was her size, and immediately raced to the checkout to buy it with the money her mom gave her before returning to the changing rooms and shimmied out of her pale blue shirt into the striped one. When she walked back out, she saw El was in a black jumpsuit with a colourful pattern, and Cami didn't need to hear El say it—she'd found the one.

They immediately bought everything El picked out plus the cute skirt Cami had seen and a floral-patterned shirt and the same jumpsuit El had as Max bought her own stuff plus the sunglasses she'd decided on that were now on her face, before striding out of the Gap, shopping bags in hand, arm-in-arm and smiling, as they ran into the next store—a photo studio.

There, they dressed in different shirts—Max, purple, Cami, blue, El, yellow—paired with lace gloves and frilly headbands and fake jewellery as they posed in front of the photographer—El and Max back to back while Cami was in the middle, hands under her chin and smiling—the photographer saying, "That's it, girls."

The click of the camera sounded, and they moved into another pose—El and Cami leaning on Max on opposite sides. As the camera clicked out the photo, the three of them couldn't resist laughing as the photographer cried with a grin, "Wardrobe change, please! Wardrobe change! Thank you."

They complied, channeling their inner Madonna as El wore a metallic gold jacket with fake pearls on the lapels, Max wore a denim jacket, and Cami wore a fake fur jacket, making weird facial expressions before wearing matching yellow jackets with feather boas and smiling as they cupped their faces before taking their last photo in the jackets again, with El leaning on a crouching Max as Cami leaned on El.

"Shake it. Shake it off for me," the photographer instructed and the three girls did, wearing the biggest grins ever.

After receiving their photos, the trio moved onto the perfume store, smelling and trying out perfumes they definitely didn't have enough money to buy before moving on to the shoe store. There, El's eye was instantly drawn to a pair of colourfully patterned heels, and after she was helped into them, Max and Cami held a hand each as they helped her walk in them, El wobbling more than not, before she fell with a laugh, giggling on the floor as Max and Cami crouched down to help her up.

El's laughter drew the attention of a group of a girls, whom Cami, Max and El noticed after she and Max helped El up. So they saw when the girls rolled their eyes and looked away, obviously judging.

But neither Cami, Max or El cared as they burst into laughter again, clinging on to each other.

However, Cami supposed they could have some revenge, as they slunk back down to the food court and saw the leader of the group—a girl with permed red hair—talking to a boy, obviously flirting as she grinned, looking at her from behind a pillar. El stared at the Orange Julius in the girl's hand before her head jerked up.

And with that movement, the drink exploded in the girl's hand, raining down not only on her, but on her friends and the boy she was flirting with.

Cami slapped a hand to her mouth, giggles slipping through.

Serves her right, she thought, especially when Cami now vaguely recognised her as Stacy, the girl who rejected Dustin at the Snow Ball. Revenge truly was sweet.

However, the culprits whirled around and ran away, grinning and laughing like madwomen, hand in hand, as Max said to El, "See? What did I tell you? There's more to life than stupid boys!"

"Way more to life!" Cami agreed as they ran, laughing their heads off, a bubbly happiness fizzing through Cami's veins, along with something else.

The feeling of a close friendship between the two girls running with her.

***

Eventually, hunger won out over shopping, so after El chose Imperial Panda—and Cami and Max watched her eyes widen and fan her mouth after trying Asian food, even if not truly authentic, for the first time and therefore trying spicy food for the first time, which had Cami want to know how her friend could take Puerto Rican cuisine—they decided to have some dessert to round out the day.

And there was no better place for dessert than Scoops Ahoy.

Looping her arm through Max's, the trio strolled into the nautical-themed ice cream shop, El's eyes instantly drawn to the rainbow that was the many different flavours of ice cream. However, Cami's eyes widened when she saw Rowan sitting on the window ledge, behind the counter, obviously talking to Steve.

Deciding not to question it, Cami instead smiled at her as Max greeted, "Hey Steve."

When she looked behind him, Max noticed Rowan and her face instantly brightened at seeing the older girl, who Cami knew Max looked up to and saw as a sister. "Oh! Hey, Rowan!"

"Hey, Max," Rowan greed back, smiling. "Hey Cami. El."

"Hey," they said in unison.

"Girls' day out?" Rowan asked.

They nodded as Max said, "Yeah. Cami and I are showing El that there's more to life than boys."

Cami firmly nodded in agreement, and El copied the movement.

Their answer had Rowan grin. "As you should! Trust me, El, life has way more to offer than boys and their stupidity."

"You know I'm standing right here," Steve said from where he was still by the register.

"I know," Rowan replied, a sickly sweet smile on her face.

El frowned, and she asked, "Rowan, do you have a job here?"

"Nah. I just come here to give Steve the pleasure of my company," Rowan explained with a wink, while Steve rolled his eyes and snarked, "Yeah, that's the opposite."

"Steve! how can you say such a thing?" Rowan exclaimed dramatically, but her grin obliterated the dramatics.

Steve ignored her, and instead turned back to Cami, El and Max and asked them, "What are you getting?"

Cami and Max immediately rattled off their orders, while El was more hesitant, unsure of what to have. Steve waited patiently as Cami, Max and Rowan offered up their favourites, but again reminding her it was her choice to pick, and that she shouldn't have to choose their favourites but the one that looked the one she wanted the most. After some time thinking over it, El decided, looking at Steve as she asked, "Can I have vanilla with sprinkles and extra whipped cream, please?"

"Sure. Coming right up," Steve told her, scooping all three of their ice creams. Cami, El and Max watched, grins on their faces, Cami's mouth already drooling at having the frosty confection.

But just as Steve was about to hand them over, there was a rap on the window before it was slid open, Rowan scooting away, as a girl Cami recognised as Robin Buckley—Rowan's friend and Steve's and Valerie's co-worker, along with being Valerie's crush—leaned out and announced, "We got our first sentence."

Cami frowned, looking at an equally-confused Max and El as Rowan said, "You did? That's awesome!"

"Oh seriously?" Steve asked her, heading over to her as he held Max's and El's ice creams.

Robin nodded as Rowan queried, "What is it, Buckley?"

"The week is long," Robin said in what sounded like a Russian accent. That had Cami's confusion rise higher.

"Well, that's thrilling," Steve deadpanned.

"I know, but progress," Robin replied, before she closed the window and Steve turned around, handing out the ice creams to Max, Cami and El, saying as he did, "Okay, here you go, you got a strawberry, a mint chocolate chip with sprinkles, and then a vanilla with sprinkles, extra whipped cream."

"Thanks," Cami, Max and El said in unison, licking their ice creams. Cami smiled, enjoying the taste of the cold ice cream and the mint chocolate chip flavour, the slight crunch of the sprinkles. Sprinkles made everything better, in her opinion.

"Wait a second. Are you even allowed to be out here?" Steve asked El.

That only had El, Cami and Max look at each other before grinning and running out of the store, ice creams in hand.

Making a beeline for the entrance, shopping bags in their hands and on their arms, Cami happily licked at her ice cream as Max turned to El and asked, "Wanna trade?"

El accepted, and as they licked their ice creams, Cami thought she heard... Mike?

Cami turned, and her eyes widened as she saw Mike, Lucas, Will and Alistair there, Mike looking grumpier than usual as they wrangled their bikes out of the bike rack. Especially when he was supposed to be seeing his sick grandma, according to El when she and Max told her the other reason why they were hanging out—and that Mike had lied instead to El. Looking at Mike now, Cami was certain that Mike had indeed lied to El.

"Oh you got to be shitting me," Max said as she looked at them, before she gave Cami and El a look and they headed over to the boys, Max calling out, "Isn't this a nice surprise?"

That had the four boys notice them as Mike's bike dropped out of his hands from pure shock.

"What are you doing here?" he demanded at El, pointing at her.

"Shopping," El answered.

"This is her new style. What do you think?" Max said, eyebrows raised as if to challenge Mike. And if she was being honest, Cami wanted to do the same,

"It suits her pretty well, don't you think?" Cami mused out loud innocently, even as her smirk broke it, licking her ice cream.

"What is wrong with you two?" Mike hissed. "You know she's not allowed to be here."

Cami scoffed, not believing what she just heard, as Max retorted, "What is she, your little pet?"

"Yeah. Am I your pet?" El demanded.

"What? No!" Mike exclaimed.

"Mike has a fair point, actually," Alistair said as he now jumped in, looking at Cami and Max as he went on, "Look, the whole reason we didn't know El was alive last year was because she had government after her, and they could still be after her until it's certain its safe that she won't be used as a lab rat again or killed!"

"One day out isn't gonna hurt her, Al," Max said as she rolled her eyes, but Cami kept quiet, guilt flashing through her. She'd forgotten that, unlike her and Max, El wasn't a normal girl, that she'd been kidnapped and experimented on for nearly her whole life, that as much as it felt gratifying to let El know what it was like to have a girls' day, maybe it wasn't that safe for her.

Alistair narrowed his eyes at Max, and said lowly, "You don't know for certain it won't. You never do when the government wants you as their living weapon."

Again, Max rolled her eyes, but a flicker of guilt crossed her face as the guilt intensified in Cami, as she now remembered Rowan's and Alistair's pasts, their experience with the government regarding their powers, as Cami now eyed the people around her. She hoped none of them were spies—and she definitely hoped none of them saw El use her powers for revenge on Stacy.

Silence lingered until Cami decided to break it, saying, "Okay, maybe not a pet—"

"Thank you, Cami," Mike said.

"—but you still acted pretty shitty to her, earlier," Cami finished, giving Mike a hard glare as his smile dropped, as Alistair looked between him and Cami.

"Yeah, why do you treat me like garbage?" El demanded.

That prompted a confused, "What?" from Mike as he stared at her.

"You said Nana was sick," El revealed as Cami looked at Mike, wondering how he was gonna spin that.

"She is!" Mike exclaimed, turning to Lucas, Will and Alistair as he kept obviously lying, "She is. She is sick."

"Yeah, sick... she's sick," Lucas said, catching onto the lie first.

Will nodded. "She's sick."

Alistair only looked at Cami, and they rolled their eyes in disbelief. Honestly, Cami had been hoping Mike would tell El the reason why he lied in the first place.

"She's super sick," Lucas went on. "That's why we're here, actually."

"Yeah, we're shopping," Mike concurred, latching onto the lie. "Not for us, but for her, for Nana."

"For Nana!" Lucas echoed.

Cami just stared not believing what she was actually hearing.

"Also, we're here to get a gift for you," Mike revealed. "Just, we couldn't find anything that suited you and I only have, like, three dollars and fifty cents, so it's hard."

"Super hard," Lucas agreed as Alistair rolled his eyes.

"It's... it's expensive," Lucas finished off.

El was silent for a brief moment before she walked up to Mike, saying, "You lie. Why do you lie?"

Mike was quiet, looking at El. Cami watched, waiting for his answer as she again looked at Alistair, the both of them hoping he'd just tell the truth for why he lied in the first place, as she heard the bus pull open and it's doors open.

It was that moment El came to her decision and said with finality, "I dump your ass."

Shock rattled through Cami as she stared at El, shock that was felt through them all as Max's eyes widened and she grinned, before El turned and marched to the bus, Max right behind her. Before Cami could go after them, Alistair grabbed her and handed her a bag, saying, "Here. There's one for you, and some I thought El might like."

Cami looked at the bag, her eyes widening at seeing it was perfumes, with her favourite one inside. She looked back up, lips quirking up at the corner as she asked, "I assume you went the Aco way of getting them, right?"

Alistair grinned. "With a little bit of the Alistair way that is feeling guilty for the attendants and leaving a couple bills behind."

Cami smirked, before she said, "Thanks, Al."

Blowing him a kiss, she turned and hopped onto the bus right as the doors closed. Finding Max and El, she saw them grinning and high-fiving.

"May I join?" she asked, hand raised.

"Of course," Max said, and they had a three-way high five as the bus trundled down the road.

The day ending perfectly—and going to be even more perfect when Max suggested a sleepover at the Hopper cabin.

Cami couldn't wait.

***

AHHH, this was such a blast to write!

I loved writing Cami, El and Max! Their three-way friendship is honestly the best and their shopping day was honestly so fun to see. The power they hold 😌

The break-up scene... yeah, I changed it a little with Alistair pointing out how dangerous it was for El to be out, and Cami feeling guilty about it. But, the breakup still happened

And yes, the sleepover.... *grins*

Next chapter is back with Valerie!

Please read, comment and vote!