After her mom left Ahnali went to inspect the dresses. One was bright red with an asymmetrical off shoulder cross over top, there was a slit on the right side, about mid-thigh, bordered with drastic ruffles. It was a dress her mom had gotten her to wear at a Hispanic cultural museum gala. It was way too gaudy for a simple dinner. The next dress was a sea foam green dress, it was about knee length and very poofy. The sleeves were also poofy. Ahnali had bought this dress to attend a themed tea party, it was nice but not a mature look. She could tell her mom wanted her to wear the last dress, A dark blue short form fitted sweetheart dress with a belt connected to a sheer, lightly sparkled dark blue over skirt. There was also a sheer wrap that rested on the shoulders. She put away the other dresses, scooped up all the papers and dumped them in an empty box. She looked at the drawings for a moment and decided to place them in a plastic storage box. She slipped the box under the bed then collected some fresh undergarments, shoes, jewelry and a clutch.

Now that everything was ready she went into the bathroom to freshen up. She shaved, put on lotion, dried and curled her hair then twisted it up into a ponytail. She took part of it and wrapped it around the rest of the hair, letting the extra hang from the middle. She pulled to strands of bangs out and gave them a final curl. She quickly did a natural style makeup and as she finished her mom walked my calling out " Ahnali, be down stairs in 10 minutes." She quickly put on her undergarments and wiggled into her dress, contorting to zip it up in the back. She threw on the jewelry, shawl, and belt. Next she dumped her purse onto the bed grabbing her phone, cash, and bank cards. She shoved these into the clutch along with some powder, eye liner, mascara, makeup wipes and lipstick. She began to run out the room but stopped in the doorway and went back to grab her shoes. She hopped down the hallway trying to get her shoes on.

"3,2,1..."

"I'm here!!!" She said crashing into her mom at the base of the stairs.

"You look wonderful, let's go." She began to walk to the door.

"Uh, where's dad?" Ahnali looked around anxiously.

"Don't worry dear, he's pulling up now, let's go." She turned to a maid "Please lock up the house, we'll be back late." the maid nodded her head.

"yes ma'am."

"Bye bye Betty" Ahnali waved as she passed. The car was sitting in the driveway, the door held open by the chauffeur. They both thanked him as they slid into the short limo.

They were greeted by the sight of Ahnali's father talking on the phone. They both remained quiet as the car began heading to the restaurant. After about 20 minutes he finally ended his call and turned his cold gaze to them. "How are you both this evening?" Her mom replied first "Oh we're wonderful darling, I've been working on arrangements for the next company gatherings and parties. I also went out and bought a new rug for the hall, the old one was just too worn out. I hope you don't mind but I gave it to a local charity, I'm sure they'll have more use for it." He only slightly nodded his head giving her mom the green light to continue. "Oh, on that note, I would love to think about replacing that old run down shed near the woods in the back. I'm sure everyone would appreciate that eyesore being gone, do you think we could look into that and get some estimates, nothing extravagant but still nicer than what's there. What are your thoughts?" She paused again. He was typing something on his phone. When he finished he looked up "I don't mind, just make sure to run everything by me first." his gaze turned to Ahnali "What did you do today?" she could tell that he was going to be in boss mode the whole night and her excitement dwindled. "I went to the community clean up this morning, after I grabbed some lunch with Claire and Sarah at Mendo's, then I returned home and began to clean my room. After mom told me it was time to get ready for tonight's dinner." She was going to leave it at that but her mom spilled the beans. "Oh it was more than that, she basically packed up her room..." She instantly stopped talking the moment he put the phone to his ear. Ahnali looked out the window. She hated when he was like this, she hated 'the boss'. She knew she would have to watch what she said around him tonight. As she gazed out the window, her finger gently tapped the foggy glass and dragged it around, leaving a sad face in the fog.