"let's get thrifty"

          "So, you're telling me that you have two days to find the perfect outfit to woo and instead choose to watch videos of people recreating some cardigan?" Nora muses from the doorway.

Heather hums in response, taking a quick note of the type of stitch the creator was using. She pauses the video and swivels to look at her sister.

"It's not my fault I've got a commission to crochet a Harry Styles inspired cardigan. Besides, if you take a look," she switches tabs to show Nora what the full cardigan is supposed to look like, "you can tell this is gonna be a difficult challenge. And I love challenges."

Nora grins at her, knowing that Heather was trying to wait until the last minute to choose an outfit. Talking about projects was what Nora thought was Heather trying to stall on something she should be doing, and Nora loved it.

"Also, it's really colorful and I'm so excited to start on it! I've found a couple people who explain how they made it. One of them was some monotone older sounding woman. She sounded like she didn't want to even be doing that project. But, but! I found this one person, Anna Kallajian, who made one and it's more -"

"Heather, you're avoiding the subject of an outfit for an online dating show. You know, something you'll be doing in front of hundreds of thousands of people." Nora cuts her off, bringing them back onto the conversation of an outfit.

Heather huffs in annoyance. She swivels back to the computer, pressing play on the video so she could take more notes. She also goes back to the photo of Harry in the cardigan, taking notes on the length of the item.

"So, they said they wanted the colors to be Matisse inspired, and he mainly works in the fauvism category. They also wanted the piece to be a full cardigan, which is making my heart jump with joy. So now I need to look at a few Matisse pieces and note the most prominent colors. Ooh, this is gonna be so much fun."

She knew exactly which painting she wanted to reference the colors from, which happened to be The Joy of Life. Or, as her former professor liked to call it: very saturated nudes.

She brings up a photo of the painting, noting down the more prominent colors. She loved the idea that the cardigan was gonna be bright, but noticed that some of the colors were a close match to the original.

"Nora, can I get some creative input from you?" Heather yet again turns around to look at the younger girl.

"Only if you get dressed and thrift an outfit for Friday."

Heather stares at the girl, who is now laid across her bed and scrolling on her phone.

"Fine. Come over here and take a look at this painting and tell me if you think these colors match the original Harry cardigan." Heather sighs.

She puts a photo of the painting next to the cardigan. Once Nora is hovering over her shoulder, she looks up at her.

"See what I mean?" Heather bats at a piece of Nora's pink hair, smiling when Nora tries to suppress a chuckle.

The room is silent for a few minutes while Nora studies the two images.

"The painting is more saturated than the colors. I'm sure you have some yarn that could match the colors. Which ones are you thinking of using?" Nora looks down at the redhead.

"Well, tell me what colors are most prominent."

Heather's testing Nora now, as she is aware of the one art class she's taking. And she knew for a fact that Professor Anderson had a knack for having her students study the painting then jot down the colors and explain why they help to make up the art movement.

"So, it's obvious there's tons of orange, some spots of blue, red and pink and a nice splash of yellow."

Satisfied with Nora's answer, Heather shoos the girl from her room so she could keep her end of the bargain. She strides to her closet and pulls out a colorful Christmas sweater and a pair of black jeans. She ties the festive outfit off with her favorite pair of black work boots and a few assorted skull rings.

After dressing, she throws her hair into a bun. She grabs her wallet and keys and meets Nora in the dark living room. Nora opens the front door, letting the light spill into the room to examine Heather.

"I love the cutesy soft girl with a hint of venom look you got going on there." She comments.

Heather rolls her eyes, walking to the car that the group had lovingly named Fucktard. The two squabble for a minute over who was driving. Heather gave in when Nora refused to toss her the keys.

Not only would Nora not let her drive, but she wouldn't tell Heather where they were going. All she had to go on was thrifting. And since it was for an outfit, she figured it would be a Goodwill or something.

Thinking it was Goodwill surprised her more when they pulled up to Lucy's Lounge.

"Oh Nora." She whispers, gazing at the colorful clothing set out in the display window.

Heather had always told her step sister she wanted to go to Lucy's Lounge - but only for a special occasion. And she guessed that Friday was more of a special day than possibly anything else at that moment.

"Come on, let's find you that outfit that'll make somebody fall for your nerdy ass." She lightly punches Heather's shoulder.

Heather ignores the statement. Instead, she steps from the car and slowly walks to the storefront. She admires the colorful vintage sweaters and begins to calculate ways to style them.

Nora has to gently pull Heather into the store because she's seemingly glued to the pavement. To Heather's immense delight, the interior is as colorful - if not more - than the display window. Not only were there the seasonal colors of red, green and gold, but there were seas of blues, oranges and possibly every color of the rainbow.

Heather grabs Nora's hand the way an awestruck toddler would do and lightly tugged her to a rack full of sweaters and button ups.

"Why don't you go ahead, search and pull out some options and we'll do a little fashion show." Nora suggests, grinning at the awestruck girl.

Heather nods, starting the search on the racks. It takes her a bit, but at the end of the search, she has three different tops, a dress and a few bottoms. And when Heather presents her finds to Nora, she points the older girl to the changing room that the owner graciously opened for them in spite of a pandemic.

She changed into the first outfit, which consisted of a cute pair of autumn colored plaid pants and a rich red turtleneck she could crop to give it that cute look. She thought of the jewelry she could pair with it, along with the boots.

When she steps out, it's not only Nora and Lucy. Both Mimx and Ronan are standing there, with dry erase boards and broad grins.

Heather merely laughs at their antics and does a little spin for them. When she looks back, she notices the two have written their consecutive score - Minx with a nine and Ronan with a six. She looks to Nora, who gives her a grin and a thumbs up. Lucy has her head tilted to the side, as if to take in the way she presented the outfit.

"But wait, there's more." She grins, giving the group jazz hands as she backs into the room to change into the second picked outfit.

If she were to tell you at that moment, she would most definitely voice how it was one of her favorites.

This outfit was more muted than the first. She thought it had a muted winter color vibe with the multi colored stripe sweater and brown corduroy pants. She knew she could balance the blues and browns with a nice ochre yellow belt and socks, maybe even wear a muted red beanie when she ran errands in the cold.

She comes out of the room with a small flourish.

"That sweater really screams winter colors." Nora comments as she examines her sister. A chorus of agreements circle the small group as Ronan and Minx hold up their signs.

Ronan gave her an eight, writing a small note about how the blue in the sweater contrasts with the red of her hair makes her look a bit like a van Gogh painting if he had used muted colors. Minx's score is a ten, with no note on her whiteboard.

Heather looks to Lucy for any comment. The older woman gives her a once over.

"If you were to wear this out, what would be the choice of shoes you wear?" Lucy inquires, tilting her head.

Without a single thought, Heather answers her. "Brown hiking boots, as this would be more of a hiking outfit."

Lucy nods at the answer. At the nod, Heather turns on her heel to try on the last outfit.

She had yet another striped shirt that she tucked into a pair of mustard colored corduroy jeans. There was the thought of how she could pair some chunky sun earrings to complete the outfit. She also knew that this was not a boot outfit, and that she may end up cropping the top.

Satisfied with the look, she steps out of the dressing room for the last time. Everybody oohed the outfit, mainly due to the fact that Heather was one of the people who could pull off the mustard color.

She laughed when she heard the scratching of markers on a board. It only took a few seconds for the two to make their scoring decision. It was a unanimous five, with Ronan writing that he liked the second one so much better.

Heather could agree with him. The way the blue contrasted with both the brown and the red in her hair made her fall in love with it. As Ronan put, she looked like a muted van Gogh painting.

She went back into the room and quickly tried on the golden mid calf length dress she planned on wearing to a New Year's Eve party then changed back into her clothes.

When she came out, the three housemates were waiting with their questions.

"So, what are you planning on wearing?" Minx playfully punches Heather's arm.

Heather shakes her head at the question, not wanting to reveal the outfit until the night of the show. See, she liked the element of surprise - especially surprising the lot of them. They all did have fun reactions to surprises, after all.

"You'll see. However, I do have a New Year's Eve dress and I found some cute star hoop earrings. I'd like to express my desire to continue to look at the jewelry as Nora looked like she was gonna burst if I didn't give her a fashion show right then."

The group laughs at the quip about Nora. Minx and Ronan say their goodbyes as they both had some Christmas shopping to do. They only wanted to stop by and give Heather the fun support and merrily fuck around with the whiteboards.

They leave and Nora goes to do more conversing with the shop owner, leaving Heather alone to browse more of the jewelry. Before she checks out, she picks up a few new chunky rings and a cute chunky strawberry necklace she knew Niki would like.

The two girls head home after an eventful morning of thrifting. Nora holes herself up in the kitchen to start on the baking of Christmas cookies she and her sewing club were doing to donate to the first responders.

Heather heads to her room to put up her clothes, her thoughts lingering on her upcoming debut on Love or Host. She knew she's going to do great, but she was scared that nobody would like her.

Sure, she did have some followers from a few new, more popular creators - of whom may be the contestants - and has had some positive comments on her posts, but she was scared as hell. She wanted everyone to like her, which wasn't a good mindset to have.

Pushing those thoughts aside, she decides that she's going to unapologetically be herself Friday. And damned those who don't like her.

hi, hello! I actually really loved writing this chapter bc I'm a total sucker for color and fun style. I know this is gonna sound so stupid, but if you want little weird comments while I'm writing, you can follow me and keep an eye on the message board. 

so, which outfit do you think Heather's gonna choose?

also please don't be a silent reader! there's been quite a few who have been quite vocal and I wanna tell y'all that it warms my heart reading your comments!