Shadyside Mall was as good a place to start shopping because it had three levels and enough stores to keep them occupied the whole morning or at least most of it. That was the plan, mall in the morning and then we'd hit the streets in the afternoon.
As soon as we got there, I immediately noticed it. Everyone or almost evryone rather was whispering and staring discreetly in our direction and I was wondering why. I whispered it to Jamie when we went into Foot Locker which was our first destination." This is nothing compared to the reception. Everyone was openly staring at us and whispering and I was kinda jumpy.I wonder why?" she whispered back.
As I had figured, we were in the mall till 11:30 ,two and a half hours and we scoured every single store.Against our better judgement, even Jacinth and I got into the shopping deal when AJ asked me why I didn't buy a silver necklace I was admiring. He brushed aside all my protests about not shopping while escorting guests and threatened to buy it for me if I didn't buy it for myself. I relented and bought it. From then on JC and me shopped too though we were not quite as exuberant as they were and we had to make two trips back to the van because everyone's hand were getting full.
The only thing that prevented it from being a really great morning was the constant attetion we were getting from people. It was unsettling but I soon got to ignore it as best I could.We mentioned it to them but they said we were just being paranoid.
Thet stuff they bought was pretty intriguing too. AJ bought God knows how many pairs of shades and Nick bought a whole collection of video games, everything from Playstation cartridges to hand-helds, and so did Aaron.Howie bought a lot of really classy clothes plus a lot of gifts for his family which he said Pollyanna who was his sister would take home for him.
Mindi seemed to be in a mood for jeans. We happened upon the same jeans at the same time and we discovered we wore the same size and eventually a friendly argument started over who saw them first.the fact that we both bought a pair had nothing to do with it. In fact I think she has my jeans because when we were changing back we gave the jeans to AJ who saw a cool pair of shades and he threw both over his shoulder and couldn't remember which was which.
By the time we left the mall everyone was really relaxed because when we had first gotten there the guys were a bit reticent because they thought that we would be all business and we thought they would be pretty snooty despite the fact that they acted pretty normal (hello!these guys are paying for someone to take them shopping).
Even though it was getting close to noon, nobody was hungry yet so we decided to step up and hit the streets for more fun and games.