Chapter 33 - The Ultimate Shopping Trip

The Ultimate Shopping Trip



Friday arrived and it was time for the engagement party. Kaede enjoyed it although it wasn't her idea of fun to be dragged around a room and introduced to loads of people she's never met from Kaiba Corp. Then there'd been a speech from her grandfather saying how happy he was that his darling granddaughter had found someone she loved enough to spend the rest of her life with him. And then of course Kaede and forced Seto to have music good enough for herself and her friends to dance to.

Kaede and all of her friends had stayed the night at Seto's mansion and Kaede woke up the next day with a hangover. She made her way down to the kitchen, knocking into things because she was still half asleep, and made herself some extremely strong coffee, before sitting at the table and sipping it.

Her silent recovering was interrupted by Sakura stumbling into the kitchen, apparently feeling as awful as Kaede was feeling and, without saying a word of greeting, ran over to the still hot kettle and made some tea. She sat down opposite Kaede and took a huge sip of the tea and then sighed.

`That's better,' Sakura said, more to herself that to Kaede.

`Well, good morning yourself!' Kaede muttered into her mug. `Did you sleep well?'

Sakura waved her hand in an offhand sort of way. `You know, same as it always is.'

Kaede smiled and happily returned to their silence when Yuula, Tea, Yumiko, Joey, Ryou, Yami, Duke and Seto came trooping into the kitchen. Seto sat down next to Kaede and grabbed her mug and took a hug sip before getting a punch and having the mug wrenched from his grasp by an angry Kaede. The others, meanwhile, made their way to the kettle and began to fight over who got the hot water first.

`Don't fight in my kitchen!' Seto yelled at them, which was strangely ironic because it happened to be one of the few rooms in his house that he was hardly ever seen in.

`Since when has it ever been your kitchen?' Kaede said, shoving him slightly. `Don't yell in my ear. And anyway, if you haven't noticed, there is more than one kettle.'

They looked around and saw about five different kettles situated around the enormous kitchen. Each dived for a kettle, except Yuula, who merely sat down at the table and looked around at the fuss. She was the only one out of all of them who had showered and woken up properly, being the only one who hadn't drunken any alcohol the night before and thus didn't have a hangover.

`Honestly, some people!' she muttered, staring at them all as though they were all insane.

Kaede chose to ignore Yuula and got up from where she sat. She flung open various cupboards and pulled out several boxes of cereal, a dozen loaves of bread, butter and other toppings of bread and then several packets of bacon and boxes of eggs.

`Okay, grab what you want to eat and cook it if it need to be cooked,' she said to the people waiting next to the various kettles as she took a cereal box and poured some cereal into a box. She found some milk and poured that in as well and then located a spoon. She sat down and told Seto to go and make her some more coffee as he had managed to drink all of hers and then proceeded to eat. After ten minutes of noise everyone had located their perfect breakfast option and was chopping in silence.

Kaede stood up before everyone else and ran back to the room she shared with Seto. She had a quick shower in the en-suite bathroom and then quickly dressed into jeans and a black and white stripy top that hung off her shoulders. She pulled her hair back into a messy ponytail and was just looking for shoes when Seto came in.

`Oh,' his face fell when he saw her. `I thought you might not have gotten showered yet!'

Kaede laughed and hit him playfully. `Tough luck, mister. And I had to get dressed quickly because I'm going to the mall Sakura, Yuula, Yumiko and Tea.'

`I think you might have to remind them that,' Seto called from the bathroom. Kaede went back in and put the lid down on the toilet so she could sit in their as she talked to him.

`Why's that?'

`All of them were talking in the kitchen before I left, still in their pyjamas.'

Kaede sighed. `Yeah, I think you're right. Well, I'll go and hurry them up and then we'll be off.'

She stood up and walked towards the door, but then halted. She turned and grinned evilly, and quietly walked back over to the toilet. She flushed it and ran out of the room, Seto yelling curses after her as the water heated up, scalding him.

The grin remained on Kaede's face as she walked through the halls, occasionally bumping into her friends and telling them to hurry up.

`But I don't wanna!' Yumiko groaned when Kaede reminded her to hurry up as she passed her.

`I don't care!' Kaede said, pushing her towards her room. `You're coming and that's that!'

`No way!'

`Do I need to ring Ana?'

After Kaede said this Yumiko ran to her room and jumped into the shower so fast it was a though Kaede had jabbed her with a red hot poker.

Half an hour later all of them were in Sakura's kombi driving to the mall. Yuula was complaining already.

`You said meet at the mall at 11.30!'

`Yeah, but as you were all at Seto's I thought we could go slightly earlier,' Kaede said, pushing Yuula back into her seat. `Sit down and put your seatbelt on for Christ's sake!'

Muttering, Yuula sat and glared at Kaede until they reached the mall, when she jumped out and run to the nearest dress shop.

`Yay, pretty dresses!' Yuula said as soon as the others entered behind her. `I want that one!'

`Um, Yuula,' Sakura said, jabbing her in the back. `We're in the wrong shop.'

`No we're not!' Yuula said defensively. `This is the shop we usually go into first when Kaede is forcing us to help her look for dresses.'

`Well, this is the wrong shop THIS time,' Tea said, taking her arm and stirring her out of the shop.

`What do you mean?'

`Yuula, it's a wedding. Kaede's not going to go walking down the aisle in a prom dress, is she?' Yumiko laughed at Yuula.

They went into every bridal shop in the mall, taking down notes on the dresses they liked and all the accessories that had caught their eyes. When they went to a café for lunch they poured over they notes and discussed what would be the best dress for the day of Kaede's life that she would always remember.

Yuula suggested something pink with a lot of bows. Kaede flatly refused to wear pink as it would clash with her hair and she didn't want to walk down the aisle looking like a milkshake.

Tea suggested something that would really stand out, like orange, and at this Kaede had to hit her but said nothing, refusing to even discuss this idea, thinking that if she appeared wearing orange Seto would call the whole thing off.

Yumiko suggested green.

`Why green?' Kaede said furiously.

`Because it's a cool colour!' Yumiko said defensively.

`No way! I'm getting married in the Kaiba mansion gardens, I don't want to be lost in the shrubbery.'

After a lot of bickering Sakura finally settled it. `Um, Kaede, did you ever think of white?'

Kaede stopped for a minute. And then looked at her list. `I do have a couple of white dresses down in here.'

`So let's go check them out then!' Sakura said with an air of someone trying to converse with the very stupid. They paid and ran back to the shops with the white dresses and Kaede tried them all on, commenting on how they looked on (and off *grin*) and then found some accessories to go with them.

Sakura, the fashion expert and Kaede's number one shopper assistant, finally chose the dress for her. They ran back to the shop just before closing time to buy it.

`Wow!' Kaede said as they left the shop. `Wedding shopping is so much fun!'

`Yeah, and really expensive!' Yuula said, looking at the receipt.'

`You didn't have to BUY the dress,' Yumiko said, also looking at the receipt. `There was I sign saying that the dresses were also loanable.'

`I'm not just going to spend the happiest day of my life in a dress and then have to give it back!' Kaede said indignantly. `Of course I wanted to buy the dress!'

`How can you afford it?' Yuula demanded.

Kaede grinned. `Seto.'

Yuula snarled. `Trust you to marry the richest man you can find so that you can spend the rest of your life shopping!'

`As if I would marry someone for their money!' Kaede grinned. `I happen to think Seto is a very kind, caring and loving person who loves to be with me and will love me forever.'

Yuula mimed being sick in the mall fountain as they passed in.

`Well, it was certainty an effective way to waste a whole day,' Sakura said, glancing at her watch. `Are we going back to your house, Kay?'

`Yep!' Kaede grinned. `My grandmother would hate to miss an opportunity to complain about how us teenage girls aren't eating enough nowadays, how we're all skin and bone and then force us to eat her newly baked cookies!'

They piled into Sakura's kombi with all the bags of bridal stuff and arrived at Kaede's house. As soon as they walked through the front door Kaede's grandmother grabbed Kaede's hand and demanded to see the dress.

`Come on, it is extremely important that I know what you are going to look like.'

They went up to Kaede's room, partly because Kaede didn't want to take it out downstairs where her grandfather was (not wanting him to see what she was going to wear) and partly because her grandmother complained that the kitchen was far too dirty.

Once they were inside Kaede took the dress out of the bag and held it against her for her grandmother to see. Her grandmother clapped her hands to her mouth and beamed with happiness as Kaede stood in front of the mirror. Tea and Yumiko were already laying out all of the other things they had brought: the veil, the gloves, the shoes, the tiara, the hair clips, the jewellery, the make up and even the underwear. Her grandmother beamed as all of this was taken out of the bags and hugged Kaede.

`You'll look beautiful, my darling,' she said happily as she hugged Kaede. She took the dress and hung it up carefully in Kaede's wardrobe and lay the other items in an empty draw.

Kaede and her friends sat in her room after her grandmother had tried to explain the whole wedding thing to Kaede and then left to make them lots of nutritional food. The five of them discussed wedding plans and then what each of them would be wearing. They all had their own ideas in their head and were all discussing them when Kaede interrupted.

`Um dudes, you're all gonna be my bridesmaids anyway, so you'll all be wearing the same thing.'

There was another instant uproar at this. Yuula demanded to wear pink and Yumiko flatly refused to wear pink. The two of them began a huge bickering session when Sakura suggested wearing red and Tea said wearing blue and so they began to argue. Kaede just stood up and went to her chest of draws and pulled out dozens of bridal magazines. She threw them down to where her friends sat and then said loudly enough for them to hear. `There, make up your minds!'

She sat on her bed then and pulled out was about to say something about them not wearing yellow or anything pastel when her mobile rang.

`AH!' she yelled, desperately looking for where the sound of the phone was coming from. `Where are you, you stupid phone?!'

She turned her room upside down searching for it and eventually found it in one of her going out bags. She flicked it open and put it to her ear.

`Hello?'

`How long did it take you to find your phone THIS time?' said Seto and Kaede could just tell that he was smirking in a knowing way.

`Shut up!' Kaede said huffily. `What do you want?'

`So I need a reason to call my fiancée now, do I?' said Seto.

`No, I just want to know if you have a reason for calling me,' she said idly whilst flicking through one of the magazines not being read by her friends.

`I wanted to know if you succeeded in finding a dress.'

`Well, I did.'

`What's it like?'

`I'm not telling you that!'

`Why not?'

`Because you're not supposed to know until the day!'

`What? Since when was that a wedding rule?!'

`I don't know, but it just is.'

`Fine, what colour is it?'

Kaede sighed. `White, if you must know.'

`Good good, I was hoping it would be a sensible colour.'

`What do you mean by that?'

`Well,' said Seto and he sounded as though he was choosing his words carefully as he said this. `I know that Tea is rather fond of very bright colours and I was really worried you would take her advice.'

`I thought you might be, that's why I hit her when she suggested that my dress be orange.'

`Hey!' said Tea from behind her magazine. `I sincerely hope you aren't talking about me!'

`Well who else would I be talking about?' Kaede removed the phone from her hear to talk to Tea. `Everyone else in this room has style.'

`Oy, you'd better watch out or I'll refuse to come to the wedding, let alone be your-'

`Shut it, Tea!' Yumiko and Sakura said together.

`Thanks dudes,' Kaede said, returning to her conversation with Seto. `Well, haven't you brought anything yet?'

`No, I was waiting for the all clear from you. But now you've got something and I know that I still have some money left I'll go out and get something as soon as possible.'

`Hey, I don't spend that much!'

`Was I implying that?'

`Yes, and you know you were!'

`Whatever. I'll see you tomorrow.'

`WHAT? When was that arranged?'

`It wasn't. Bye,' Seto said and hung up.

Kaede stared at the phone for a couple of seconds, her insides boiling.

`Something wrong?' Sakura asked, looking up from her magazine.

`Seriously, sometimes I could kill him!'

`Well, what did you expect?' she said, returning to her magazine. `After all, it is Kaiba we're talking about here.'

Kaede put the phone done and picked up a magazine. She barely looked at the pages as she flicked through it; in fact she was unconsciously turning the pages, her mind a blur, not really thinking about anything. She closed her eyes for a second and fell asleep.

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