Self Improvement, chapter 14

Previous chapter: https://www.patreon.com/posts/self-improvement-89474920?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=postshare_creator&utm_content=join_link

Despite her recent development, Rachael was still a stranger to the art of dressing up, especially for events such as a party. This side of her was of course well known to Rebecca, who jumped on the opportunity to bring her bestie out to shop once more. This time, she dared to be a little more provocative with it, seeing how well her BFF had responded the last time around. Rebecca had certainly noticed and acknowledged the sudden shift in Rachael's priorities and comfort zone, but simply chalked it up to her finally blooming into the social butterfly she always had the potential to be.

On the day of the party, Rachael's wardrobe was almost unrecognizable. With her sweatpants and boring t-shirts shoved far, far, FAR into the back most part of her top shelf, the only articles that were displayed were part of her "new persona" as Rebecca playfully referred to it as. Not too far off the mark considering the complete one eighty the previously studious girl had made lately.
Clothes weren't the only new addition to Rachael's armory. Fresh collections of makeup and products adorned the parts of her desk which had previously been occupied by textbooks. Textbooks that weren't an actual part of curriculum, but rather ones Rachael had spent her time reading "for fun". They now found their new home being at the bottom of her bookshelf, which as of late had been seeing a lot less action.

One might begin to wonder if Rachael's grades were beginning to tank yet, given how little time she spent studying, not to mention how she rarely made it to class on time, if at all. While her perfect attendance had certainly taken a severe hit, her grades had not faltered. Not because she had some incredible trick to be more efficient with her studying or anything, it was more a testament to how ridiculously ahead in the curriculum she'd been. At the current pace in which she was neglecting her studies, she would most likely be noticing the effects sometime next semester. In the meantime, she could pretty much do whatever she wanted without any regard to consequence.

But as many know, good routines are worth their weight in gold. Now, I don't know how one would go about and weigh such an abstract concept as "good routines", but there's a point to be made here. A point which refers to the difficulties Rachael might have when first noticing how she's not acing her tests anymore. Will she be able to put a brake on her new lifestyle and go back to prioritizing her studies, or will she continue to spiral out of brilliance?
Either way, that's not something she has to worry about yet. Right now, the only worry on Rachael's mind is whether Fred would find her new outfit cute or not.

Further leaning into her developing obsession with the color pink, Rachael's outfit for the evening was just that. A tapestry of various tones of pink. A pink miniskirt, a pink halter top which allowed for an ample amount of cleavage. While Rebecca had practically begged Rachael on her knees to wear heels, the tallest ones the poor girl could manage to move around in comfortably were two inches. Still better than flats, Rachael made a mental note to incrementally increase the size of heel in which she was capable of functioning in. After all, how could she not? Rebecca had specifically said that "any woman who wants to seriously attract a man wears heels any chance she gets. The taller, the better!" The statement had made mincemeat out of Rachael's previous opinion on heels, which had been something along the lines of "objectifying women", and "unhealthy standards for how women should dress".

At the party, Rachael still didn't claim the title as the best dressed, Rebecca clutched that accolade for herself. While the best of efforts was made to assure her friend a good outfit for the evening, the birthday girl had some aces up her sleeve which she had already gotten beforehand in preparations for the party. A flashy and bright red dress, matching red heels and a magnificent necklace with exotic looking stones. Nothing too expensive, but it brought the outfit together. Of course, the only person she was truly dressing up for was her newly acquired love interest, Mark.

With the music booming, and booze ..buzzin? The night was assured to be a banger. Following an awkward, completely out of tune happy birthday, Rebecca did the obligatory rounds before settling on a couch with Mark somewhere in the living room.

Meanwhile, Rachael, despite her social growth over the past couple of months felt a little out of place. With alcohol in her cup, she took sips here and there, fighting for every drop to go down without retching. Without her BFF to lean on in this situation, she ended up fidgeting awkwardly somewhere a little out of sight, trying to somewhat move along to the rhythm of the blasting music.

Like a guardian angel, Fred stumbled his way into her peripheral vision. Right behind him, a snickering Sam and Hugh were walking away, high fiving each other.

"..Hi"

"Hey"

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Welp. We're back at it with corrupted files. I've had it on hold for various reasons. The PDF's took a big chunk out of my available time while I was busy with those, Chicken Out 2 took a lot of planning and image generation, not to mention me having to come to grips with a whole new interface in the A1111. Lastly, I just didn't know where to go with the series. On one hand, it's a story I want to take my sweet time with, let it simmer.

Well, it's back now. I can't promise that there will be a lot of images unfortunately. I've got a single one left, which will likely make an appearance somewhere down the line. It's what I had in mind for the story, when it was still supposed to be between 10-15 chapters. Now we're at 14 and nowhere near that point in time for the character. I can't guarantee that this story will see as frequent updates as Chicken out will, but it's hopefully a step in the right direction at least.

Until next time. ^^