One week later Evy already felt better about the whole ordeal. Her three loves had helped her through the week, making schoollife just a bit more bearable. And maybe it wasn’t all that bad she figured. No more rules to follow that were not her own, no church, and she could dye her hair any color she wanted.

“What do you think about lilac?”

“Hm, like full? Or more like an accent color?”

What Liv said made Evy eager to experiment more with her hair.

“I think I could handle a few strands of lilac with pink as my base.”

Jamie watched the two girls as they discussed the endless possibilities of hairstyling. He sat at the low round table in their clubroom feeding Christmas chocolates to Evan. He had been pretty observant throughout the whole week and saw the girl slowly getting back up on her own two feet after life gave her crap. It was like watching her being reborn. He was looking forward to how pretty this caterpillar was going to become.

“Would you also like a new wardrobe?” Jamie suggested, “I think pink and purple hair also deserves some more outspoken clothing.”

“I know a shop that you might like.”

“Oh, the one hidden in the mall, Evan?”

Evy got confused. A hidden shop? “What do you mean by ‘hidden’?”

Liv chuckled and poured herself another cup of tea. “There’s a skateboard shop in the mall that has a kawaii fashion shop in the basement. It’s not advertised on the outside, so that’s why we call it a hidden shop. Only regulars really know about it.”

Jamie nodded in agreement. “I used to go there for my board all the time. And one day I saw they added a sign to one of the backdoors, it was all cute and pink,” He chuckled at the memory, “The story goes that the sister of the shop owner is an avid seamstress and makes all the clothes they stock there.”

“She’s a seamstess too?”

Evan nodded. “She’s really nice, I think you’ll like her.”

Evy really looked forward to it. It wasn’t every day that you discovered a shop of your dreams hidden in the middle of your local mall.

“Then it’s a date!”

* * * *

That Saturday the four of them headed for the skateboard shop and its secret sister shop. Evy had seen it before on her trips to the mall, but as it wasn’t quite her thing, she had never gotten inside.

It had a rather open layout, with the walls covered in skateboards of various sizes and colors. There were a few racks of clothes and several boxes with skates stacked on top of each other that filled the rest of the place.

Behind the counter there were two doors, of which on beared a pink plaquette with ‘Pop Pink’ written on it.

“Hey Jamie, I haven’t seen you for a while!”

A tall man with red dreads appeared behind the counter. The tunic he was wearing hung loose around his torso and Evy wondered if he wasn’t cold in this weather. He occupied himself by sliding a knife through the tape of several boxes like a pro.

“Ah, sorry Silvano, school and these three lovelies kept me quite busy.” He grinned as the shop owner glanced past him, noticing Evy, Liv and Evan.

“Woah you sly boy, last time I only counted two. Who’s that pretty girl?”

Evy blushed at the man’s flattery. People rarely called her pretty, only ever cute. She felt an arm being draped around her shoulders, Jamie pulling her close to him.

“This is Evy, and we are here for a new wardrobe for her. Is Michaella in today?”

“Yeah, she’s busy working on a new collection though. She’s been mumbling about not being able to choose between two trims all morning. Gets on my nerves...” Silvano grumbled and Evy couldn’t help but laugh.

“What?” The owner cocked his head, confused.

“”Evy sews too,” Jamie explained before the conversation could escalate, “She knows the trouble of designing.”

“Oh no, not two of you!”

Jamie led the group to the hidden shop. Behind the door was a staircase leading down, illuminated by pink and purple LED-lights. Evy thought she was descending into a fairy forest instead of a shop.

When they had arrived on the shop’s floor, they were met with racks of pastels, blacks and jewel-tone colors. Evy spotted bags shaped as bats, hearts, bunnies and even one in the shape of a hatbox and the pink wooden dressforms were donned in dresses covered in lace, girly suits made from pink tartans or elegant kimonos with kawaii prints.

“Michaella?”

A girl in her twenties got up from her desk, Evy spotted a sewing machine in Hello Kitty design behind her. She had her brown hair loosely braided, with a red and white dotted ribbon tied at the end. Her caramel eyes twinkled at the sight of her customers.

“Jamie! Liv! Evan!”

She gave them all a bone-crushing hug, causing them to gasp for air when she finally let go.

“Still strong as ever, Michaella,” Liv grinned, coughing inbetween.

“Someone needs to hammer those eyelets!” The seamstress smiled widely and then noticed Evy. “Oh hey! I haven’t seen you before! What’s your name? I’m Michaella, nice to meet you!”

Michaella’s word vomit overwelmed Evy a bit, but she quickly got her act together again.

“I’m Evy, nice to meet you too! I’ve heard great things about you!”

After obsessing over the many Japanese fabric samples Michaella had collected over the years, Evy and the others decided to browse the shop a bit. Maybe the dresses were a bit too much to start out with, so she picked some fun hoodies, shirts and skirts that were to her liking. The others aproved of her new wardrobe and soon enough they found themselves back in the buzzing mall, on their way to the hairdresser.