Everyone gathered around Kelsey. “It is beautiful on her,” said Mimi.

“Well,” said Aunt Melissa. “If you don’t mind me just buying this from you, then we’ll have two girls with dresses for the Fling.”

“Two down!” cried Mimi. “And two to go. Casey and Molly, do you see anything you want to try?”

Casey looked at her mom.

“Go ahead,” Mrs. Peters said. “If the dress store comes to you, why go to the dress store?”

Casey took the pink dress off the rack. “I know you didn’t love this,” she said. “But I do. Can I try it?”

I grabbed her hand and pulled her toward the dressing room. “We’ll be right out!”

The dress had looked nice on me, but it looked amazing on Casey. Casey’s mom pulled it up a little and smoothed down the skirt.

“Oh, I love that on you!” said Mrs. Peters.

“All right, Molly,” I said. “Do you see anything you like?”

Molly smiled. “Well, I kind of like the soccer-field dress,” she said.

We all started laughing. “So try it on!” said Mimi. “Don’t let Sky be your fashion police!”

Molly came out in the dress. She stopped, did a spin, and put her hand on her hip.

“Dahling, I think this might be just fabulous!” she said, and we all laughed.

“You know, it really suits you,” said Aunt Melissa, smiling.

“Let me fix your hair,” said Jenna, pulling Molly’s hair up off her neck.

The green dress looked nothing like a soccer field on Molly; it looked perfect.

“You all need to put on your dresses so we can take a picture!” said Lily.

So we all scrambled into our dresses as Nans scolded us to watch out for all the pins she’d put in them. I was in a blue dress, Casey in pink, Kelsey in silver, and Molly in green.

“It’s a rainbow of pretty!” said Aunt Sabrina. “Get in close so I can fit the whole dress into the shot!”

We stood together, arms around each other, smiling.

“Everyone say, ‘Fall Fling’!” said Aunt Sabrina.

“Fall Fling!” we all yelled, and held still for about a second.

“Dance party!” cried Jenna, and she put on some music.

We were dancing around while Nans and Mimi shouted at us to be careful with the dresses. But we didn’t care. We all grabbed hands and danced, laughing and twirling.

Chapter Eleven Post-Party Chat

Later that night, my dress was hanging on the back of my door and I could see the outline of it in the dark as I pulled up the covers in bed.

Sky had thrown a fit about going to sleep, and through the wall I could hear Dad reading to him to try to soothe him, even though it was late.