Lily still couldn't believe she'd actually gotten her mom to consent to letting her take everyone to the mall, but with seven teenage girls, perhaps even her mom had realized the futility in trying to watch over them all once they'd gotten inside. She hadn't counted on the rain, but a little water wasn't going to keep her from finding a cute dress. Sure, she had a few in her closet from past school formals, but going to homecoming was definitely not the same as going to a black-tie gala... thing... thrown more or less in their honor.
"We can check," she said, wiping her feet and giving her an umbrella a quick shake out the door to get rid of the excess water. "And Charlotte Russe, maybe? Department stores are good, too. They'll probably have a lot of their formal gowns on sale since all the schools are out and no one's buying prom dresses anymore."
Katie, for her part, had agreed to go mostly to keep up appearances of being social. She could've made a few calls and had a dress delivered that would be suitable, but it never hurt to engage in some 'female bonding' and see which way the wind was blowing. "Forever 21 and Charlotte Russe likely won't have anything good," she said, suppressing the urge to wrinkle her nose. "Black tie means floor-length formal or a really dressy cocktail dress, and they mostly just have party dresses. They're not quite the same thing." And by the time everyone else on the planet finished shopping there, all their clothes were wrinkled and filthy from all the handling.