Red Herring ✔️

18. Midnight Prospects

15 Days to Halloween

"Cookies!"

Mazie sprung up in bed. "This is why I come over."

Mrs. Ellison, Amelia's mother, waltzed into Amelia's room carrying a tray of piping hot cookies straight out of the oven. "I wish I could claim these as mine, but they're just the Halloween Pillsbury ones."

Far less enthused than Mazie, Serena reclined on the fluffy mountain of white pillows on Amelia's bed in her glamorous room. "The ghost or pumpkin ones?"

Eagerly reaching for the cookies, Mrs. Ellison gladly handed over the tray of cookies. "Both!" She exclaimed.

Despite the warm temperature, Mazie shoved a cookie in her mouth. "I'm not picky. A cookie is a cookies."

"Well, I'll let you girls get back to it!" Mrs. Ellison's eyes widened as she soaked int he tornado that trashed Amelia's room. "Whatever this is..."

Serena and Mazie laughed at Amelia's expense.

"Mom! I have nothing to wear!" Amelia yelled from the dark scary depths of her closet where S and Mazie frequently had to make sure she was still alive. Of course, they had to fight the avalanche of shoes to even get there.

Mrs. Ellison checked out her daughter's room, obviously distressed by the clutter. "Well, dear, that's because all of your clothes are on the floor."

"Not helping!" came Amelia's muffled voice.

Mazie snicker with a mouthful of Pillsbury sugar cookies.

"No crumbs on my bed!" Amelia shouted.

"How does she know?" Mazie whispered to Serena who lounged beside her. She brushed a few spare crumbs on the ground.

"You have too many clothes for this issue," Mrs. Ellison stated and tsked as she planted her hands on her full hips and kicked pants, blouses, and dresses out of her traffic path to the doorway.

Briefly, and looking rather frazzled, Amelia reappeared from her closet in a tight black peplum skirt, no shirt, and a blue lacy bra. "Mom...this is very important. It's Ross the Hockey Player."

"I just don't want you to put so much pressure on yourself. Not all first dates work out. You have your hopes set so high!" Mrs. Ellison brushed her shoulder length dark hair out of her eyes.

Momentarily, Mazie averted her gaze from mother and daughter to catch up on the beginning of the next episode of New Girl. Ever since her mother travelled East for a new life, Mazie didn't have much patience for their familial antics as hilarious as it was.

"I'm just trying to find something to wear! I want this to be the perfect first date! I really like him!"

Mrs. Ellison sighed while Mazie and S shared a look. "That's what I said about your father and our first date was absolutely TERRIBLE!"

Amelia scoffed and unzipped her skirt hastily. "Uh okay...I don't see the correlation!"

Mrs. Ellison rubbed her temples, probably regretting her fresh cookie delivery. She got sucked into the vortex. "Honey, I just mean..."

Amelia cut her off, gesturing to her outfit. "Should I just go like this?!" Nearly busting out of her expensive bra and showing the edge of her matching panties from the gap in the waist of her skirt, she looked a wreck, on the verge of mania, with wet recently washed hair wrapped up in a white cotton towel and not a speck of makeup on her youthful face.

"Well..." Mazie started.

Amelia quickly froze Mazie mid sentence with an icy glare meant to freeze her soul. Mazie cowered with her plate of cookies and hid behind Serena's open magazine.