“Kalina!” Crisanta snapped finally, though she quickly calmed herself a little, remembering Camelia was there as well. And noticing the other shoppers around them turning towards her helped, also. “Mom told us to stay together,” she said, lowering her voice. “We’re just here for clothes.”
“It’ll be fine,” Kalina assured her. “I’ll be back before she is.”
“That’s not the point!” Crisanta protested, but her sister was already gone, off to the video game store next door. She could be so frustrating sometimes… It was hard to believe that she was the oldest, if only by twelve minutes.
“Let’s go look at some dresses,” she told Camelia with a sigh, leading her towards the toddler’s section. Camelia followed happily, though from the tugging on her hand just a few moments earlier, she knew that Camelia would rather have gone with Kalina. She would have liked to deny it, but she couldn’t help but feel a pang of jealousy – she was the one who usually watched Camelia and took care of her when mom and dad weren’t around, not Kalina. Kalina hardly paid any attention to her at all.
“Hurry up,” Crisanta caught herself saying as she tried to pull her little sister along faster than her little legs could go. She slowed back down, though she couldn’t quite find it in herself to voice an apology.
Camelia was easy to please when it came to clothes, so Crisanta didn’t feel too bad about finding what she thought was the cutest little lavender ruffled dress to help her try on. It fit perfectly, and she liked it, so Crisanta carefully put it back onto its hanger and carried it out, making sure to take a longer route over to the older girl’s section of the store, so Camelia wouldn’t catch sight of something else she wanted to try on.
That was the sort of thing that could lead to a seemingly endless cycle, and she wanted to at least have her and Camelia’s clothes picked out by the time her mom got back. It would have been nice to get Kalina’s done, too, but, of course, Kalina’d had to run off on her own. Not that it would likely take her long to decide – she was as easy to please as Camelia, but nowhere near as interested in the whole business. She’d probably just grab the nearest thing she could see that was anywhere close to her size and be done with it.
Crisanta, on the other hand, already knew exactly what she was looking for, if she was lucky enough that it was still there from the last time they’d been to the store. As they got closer, she could see a throng of girls hanging around that area, and sucked in her breath in alarm, but was able to release it calmly when she realized they were looking at something else.
