How Green Becomes Wood

"You being less in the way is why she'd bring you," Sloan pointed out, "At that age, you want your chaperone to be someone who will basically just follow after you while you do your own thing with your friends."
 
"She'll be delighted," Sloan chuckled.

Claire, meanwhile, was pulling a surprisingly few number of dresses, and every time she took one she thought might work, she stared at it intensely before usually putting it back. Clearly, she had no interest in having Sloan try on just anything.
 
Xander was about to say something and then forgot all about what he was going to say when he saw a dress. He glanced over to make sure Sloan was distracted before slipping it off and hiding it under the first dress. There. He'd picked two.

Alec was not quite as careful as Claire, but he did pass up a lot of dresses with barely a glance, recognizing they were not right for her. Others he held up and had to try to guess if they'd even fit. In the end, he had three more dresses than Claire, but he felt he'd restrained himself reasonably well. He wouldn't be hurt if Sloan laughed and refused to even try it on.

Xander was watching the time as it got close, and he held up his phone as the timer went off. That earned him a few odd looks from a couple of other shoppers, but it was worth it for Alec's groan of dismay.
 
Once they all gathered with each other again, Sloan stared at the many dresses her friends had gathered. She herself had only found one she liked, and looking at her friends she said, "This might've been a mistake."
 
"Yep," Xander said simply. "That's why I gave them a time limit. Better get at it."

"Don't worry. I don't think we're expecting you to try on all of them," Alec giggled. "I don't see you in dresses much, so I was having a hard time deciding on style. Why don't you try on the one you found and a couple of Claire's first?"
 
"If you insist," Sloan chuckled while Claire handed her a seafoam green dress and a dark purple sparkly dress. Shifting the purple fabric around, she said, "I didn't think I'd go for sparkles, but this fabric is really pretty. It kind of shifts colour a little bit, doesn't it?"

"I know, isn't it so cool?" Claire asked, "It's like a night sky or something!"
 
"I will," Sloan said, going into the dressing room. The first one she tried on was the one she had chosen. It was a simple, satin gown in a burnt orange colour. She likes the drapery on it, and she liked that the arms were bare, but when she stepped out wearing it, she said, "I feel like my mother."
 
Alec tipped his head from side to side, studying it. "It's a good color for you, I think, and it's got a nice swank to it."

"You do look like your mom," Xander agreed.

Alec smacked him. "You do not! Well, maybe elements... but that's what happens when people share genetics."
 
"It's a bit..." Claire paused, trying to think of the right word, "Mature."

"It's matronly," Sloan said, going back into the dressing room to change.

"I do like the colour though!" Claire called out.
 
"The color is gorgeous!" Alec told her. "Mature, sure, but pretty color." He took a moment to quickly weed out a couple he'd picked for Sloan that had a similar style and cut.
 
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