I am the Skeleton in the Closet

Church

Mom was pretty big into church, if that wasn't already apparent. Jo was the main person I would talk to when we were there. She always had something clever to say about my outfit and I'd always be wearing some sort of dress. Mom had gotten me a few soley for Sundays. I would usually wear a looser modest white dress that was spotted with big brown circles around it and had a V neck that would reach down to about four inches below my collarbone. It had a sewn in brown tie around the middle that I would always make into a big bow in the back.

"Hahahahaha!" Jo laughed as I walked into the gym area of the church and handed dad my coat to hang up in the racks to either side of the door.

"What?" I asked confused running over to her in my sleek black slip ons.

"You... hahaha... you look like a a a... hahaha.. You look like an inside out dalmation!!" She keeled over laughing so hard. Then she grabbed my glasses. "Let's see how different your prescription is from mine." She squeezed the right lense with her thumb and first finger getting a giant greasy print over the length of the lens. Then she handed them back to me keeping her thumb and finger about the same distance apart as she grabbed off her glasses to do the same. "Oh my gosh!"

"What?" I squinted at her trying to clean the lense off on my dress.

"You're blind!" She laughed out again. "Can you even see that dress you're wearing? That's why you're wearing it!" She continued. "Hey come 'ere!" She nodded over to one of the other children she knew there. "Look at this dress!" She started again.

"Shut up! I-I-I like this dress." I leaned forward with my hand grasping the tie in the middle getting annoyed.

"Oh my gosh you're right that does look like a reverse dalmatian! What's up Cruella?" They joked ignoring me.

"Alright I'm going over here." I walked away brushing their laughter off like Elmo taught me headed towards the breakfast table.

They always had a table set up with various goodies on it. Usually it was doughnuts or bagels in cheap plastic packaging. Sometimes they got pretty fancy with it layering out a plethora of different sweets on multi tiered charcuterie dishes. The table was always covered with a specifically made blue cloth that draped down the sides and brushed the floor. On top of that was a different colored cloth that laid diagonally over the table decoratively. I spent most of my time during church here, when I wasn't in actual church of course.

"I like your dress." Squeaked out a towering girl that had popped up next to me. She must have been a good foot and a half taller than me. She was wearing a plain T-shirt and jeans. Her short black hair was tucked away into a loose ponytail and she was looking down as if she wasn't sure if I wanted to talk to her, not just due to the height difference.

"Thanks, my mom got it for me." I stated as I grabbed a bagel and started frosting it with cream cheese. After a minute of just standing she walked away so I went back over to Jo to see if they were done making fun of my dress yet. "Hey guys."

"Ehhh! She's back!" Jo exclaimed, smiling. "Now we were wondering... How many dalmatians did you have to kill to get that dress?"

Instead of dignifying that with a response I turned around and went back to the table ignoring the laughter once again. "Hey!" I tried to catch the girls attention again as I finished my bagel. "Elise." I introduced as she turned around.

"Natalia." She mumbled hiding behind her dad clutching his arm in front of her. She obviously got her height from her dad, same relative proportionality, and hair color. That was where the ressemblance really ended. He had a round face that usually had a smirk across it. His nose jutted out a bit and his glasses had worn a notch in it.