Digimon Fan Fiction ❯ Because All Girls Do ❯ Because All Girls Do ( One-Shot )

[ P - Pre-Teen ]

Digimon Tamers doesn't belong to me

I blame the cover of that "Girls' Parade" (or whatever it is) CD.



***


Rika took the piece of clothing from Jeri's hands, and held it up in front of her.
"I... I guess it's... okay." She said at last and tried to hand it back to her friend, but the auburn-haired girl just waved a hand at her in an imperious gesture.
"What are you waiting for? Try it!"
"What?!"
Jeri just smiled at her and took the dress, but instead of hanging it back on the stand she held it up against Rika's body, and snuck a hand around her friend's waist, turning the stunned girl towards the mirror behind them. She smiled as she held it against her body, keeping it in place with her hands on her shoulders.
"It looks great on you, see?" she said, her eyes meeting those of Rika in the mirror.
"But... it's a dress!" Rika said, turning her head doubtfully towards her friend and not feeling too assured by the smile sent her way. Jeri stepped back, and shoved it into her arms.
"I know that. That's why we're here, because you needed one." She said in her ever cheerful way, taking the girl by her shoulders and pushing her towards the changing room.
"Jeri, I don't wear dresses!"
"That's just silly, of course you do." the other girl said, flinging the curtains aside and lifting her puppet, "All girls wear dresses!" turning her voice back to normal, she nodded in agreement. "Now go in there and try it on!"
"What, no! Jeri, I..." and the curtains rustled once again as Jeri pulled them over again, leaving her friend standing in the small closet with a piece of clothing in two shades of blue in her hands and staring at the mirror in front of her with something that could be easily mistaken for fear. After turning around a couple of times and seeing Jeri's feet still present under the curtains, she held the dress up in front of her and regarded it critically, resisting the urge to sigh loudly as she slipped it over her head without bothering with taking of her pants.
When she opened her eyes again the only thing she did was staring miserably into the mirror, tugging at one sleeve to get it down over that of her T-shirt. Giving the girl in the mirror one last pitiful glance, she stepped out.
Jeri turned around from whatever it had been she had entertained herself with while she changed into the dress and smiled brightly at her. "See? It does look nice on you!" She then seemed to notice the sullen look on her friend's face, and set her arms to her hips to scowl at her. "Don't give me that. Wearing a dress has never hurt anybody."
"You weren't there the last time I did." Rika said quietly, memories of a frilly pink dress and men with cameras still fresh in mind.
"Oh, it can't have killed you." Jeri said and once again took a firm hold of her shoulders to force her around so she stared into the mirror. "See? You look pretty!"
The words didn't affect Rika to any further extent, and the only thing she did was pulling the skirt a little out from her body before dropping it again, watching it come to stop around her knees.
"I don't want to look pretty." She said, tearing out of Jeri's grasp and walking into the changing room again.



"No."
"But look at it! Isn't it cute?"
"It's pink."
"There's nothing wrong with pink." Two firm gazes met, and Rika at last looked away, but didn't uncross her arms.
"You're not getting me into a pink dress, Jeri. I might give the other ones a try, but not a pink one."
When she looked back at her friends she saw her roll her eyes, but hanging the dress back on the row before pulling out the one next to it.
"What about this one?"
"It has a Hello Kitty on the chest."
"No?"
"NO."
"What about..." Jeri wasn't given the chance to finish, because just as she was about to grab another dress Rika's cell phone rang.
It was with an odd mix of relief and regret Rika had to tell her friend that she had to go home for dinner.



"Rika?"
"Yeah?"
"Why won't you wear dresses?"
The question surprised her, and looking at Jeri's curious face, she realized that she'd never actually managed to answer that herself. Oh, she did remember the day she had promised herself never to do it, and she knew that if any of her many vows about what to never let anyone see her do, the dress thing probably was on the very top, after buying a CD with love songs and using makeup. The episode with the modeling hadn't helped at all. Beside the fact that the dress had been pink and full of lace, it had also been itchy and the hat had been just stupid, and the entire episode hadn't only been a blow to her self-confidence, but the fact that she had let her mother talk her into that had been degrading as well.
Actually, her mother might just have something to do with it. Rika couldn't exactly remember that being what she had thought back then, but she did recall that she had been bitter at her mother for... oh, she couldn't even remember, but there had been something, and she had decided never to become what her mother wanted her to. So she had, one hundred percent conscious about what she was doing, started to ignore everything that had anything to do with 'looking nice', and wore her jeans until they were too short and deliberately ignoring the new ones her mother got her when the old ones started fading. She didn't grow her hair long, but let her grandmother take her to get it cut without consulting her mother, she didn't use any of the nice clothes her mother bought, and she never let her mother give her any advice in what to wear.
And somewhere in all of this, she had stopped caring and it had become a routine, a routine which had lasted all through her childhood and early teenage years. Oh, things were different now, and she and her mother did get along one thousand times better than they used to, but the prospect of doing anything to look sweet and pretty was still connected with a fear that had become a part of Rika's very core, and she had never seen the use in getting rid of it.
Maybe it was like an old survival instinct. She depended on having control, if nothing else than at least herself. And letting her mother see that she would do as she said would mean loosing that control, and loosing her independence, and if there was anything Rika needed to live, it was that.
It was actually very simple, she suddenly realized. Despite all excuses about pants being more comfortable and dresses being girly, it all came down to one thing: She was afraid of showing weakness.
"I think it was to spite my mother."
Whatever response she had expected for that explanation, laugher had not been one of the alternatives. Well, maybe laugher was taking it too far, but Jeri was, in the very least, giggling madly.
"Your mother? You won't wear dresses because of your mother?"
The idea of telling her the entire story was violently shoved away, and she settled on glaring at her friend instead.
"It's not funny!"
Jeri stopped giggling, but she still smiled. "It isn't? It sure sounds like that." And the she laughed again, and Rika had to smile despite herself, realizing just how stupid it must've sounded.
"Well..." she got her friend's attention with the way her voice trailed away, and she smiled sheepishly at her, "It's a long story."
"Yeah, I can imagine." Jeri said. She plucked a single flower that had somehow managed to force its way up through the asphalt, and reached up to put it in her hair. It hung a little too far out because she couldn't see what she was doing, and Rika reached up and corrected it, meeting Jeri's smile with one of her own. "If that really is the reason you won't dress nicely, it must be."
"Yeah." Rika nodded in agreement, being glad that it was Jeri and not Ryo or anybody who heard this story. Of course, the chance of her telling something like this to any of the boys was microscopic, but she still didn't want to think about what their reactions would be. This was something even Henry would've laughed at her for, and she did not need him doing that, particularly because Henry generally wasn't a person who laughed at others.
They walked the rest of the way in silence, only saying their goodbyes as they came to stop outside Rika's house.



Jeri came to visit her the next day, carrying a bag in one hand and Calumon on the head. Apparently, she had ran into the Digimon on the way there, and he had decided to come with her. Once in Rika's room he jumped down and went to look at something or the other in one of her schoolbooks. She didn't really notice just what, because the look on Jeri's face was far too unsettling for her to concentrate on much else.
"Look! It was on sale!"
Rika found her arms full of blue denim.
"What?"
"The dress! Isn't it nice? And it was really cheap, too!" Jeri dragged her up from where she had been sitting on her bed and shoved her out of the room and into the bathroom, once again taking the stance behind her as she held the dress up in front of her. "I thought you'd like this one. It's almost like jeans, just that it's a dress!"
Rika failed to see the logic in that, but didn't point it out as Jeri's enthusiastic hands had started tugging at her clothes, and she realized that unless she undressed herself, her friend would do it for her. Off her pants went, and the dress was shoved into her hands as Jeri rambled on about how great the dress was and how Rika would love it. And then, for what seemed like the hundred time during the last two days she was turned around against her will, facing the mirror above the sink.
"See? I told you it was great!"
It really wasn't as bad as it could've been. Very plain, with two straps over her shoulders and reaching just down to her knees, and the only decoration was a picture of a tiger on the back - a very menacing looking one at that she noticed.
"It is nice!" Jeri insisted, brushing nonexistent dirt away from it.
"Yeah." Rika agreed with a barely noticeable smile, "It's better than any of the others."
"See? I told you all girls look nice in dresses! And now... what are you doing?"
Rika looked up from undoing the buttons on the side.
"I'm changing back?" she suggested, letting her hands fall when she noticed Jeri's upset expression. Upset or annoyed, she wasn't quite sure which was right.
"Aren't you going to use it?"
Trying not to seem all too affected by the disappointment in the other girl's voice, she repeated the words from the day before. "Jeri, I don't wear dresses!"
Jeri seemed to regain her composure, and she reached out and buttoned the dress up again. "Of course you do!" She smiled again. If it had been anyone else, Rika would undoubtedly have been snapping by now, but Jeri's smiles had always had a strange way of keeping Rika quiet, and they did now as well, letting the girl fuss over her before taking her by the shoulders and leading her back to her room. "You look nice like that." She said, still smiling, "Right, Calumon?"
The little white Digimon looked up from the book, and smiled brightly at them. "Rika's dressing like a girl!" he giggled, and Jeri nodded vigorously.
"And isn't she pretty?"
"Yeah! She is!"
It was really ridiculous to feel this embarrassed by wearing a dress in front of Calumon, of all Digimon there were. Being innocent and carefree and not quite as used to human customs as the Digimon with tamers, he was probably the last one who possibly could have cared about it to a further extent than how her looks had changed.
"Great, so now I have you and Calumon thinking I look pretty in a dress. Is that enough reason to use it?"
"Do you need reasons for wearing nice clothes? You know, if this still is about your mother, I think you're just being childish."
And hadn't it been, from the very start?
"The others will laugh at me." She said, crossing her arms and in an attempt to regain control while mentally beating herself up for the last sentence.
"They won't, because they know that you won't care anyway." Jeri said, and grabbed her wrist, handing her her card deck and dragging her out of the room.
"Jeri, stop! I'm serious, I'm not wearing this thing in public!"
The angry outburst made the girl stop and turn around, the look on her face more serious than Rika could ever remember seeing it.
"Why not?"
And Rika found herself floundering helplessly somewhere between Jeri's sad gaze and her own pride.
"Because..."
The silence was becoming too long, and she didn't know what to say. She couldn't give Jeri an answer, because she didn't have one, and only half of her had any sort of interest in just that anyway, because the other half of her was desperately trying to come up with a way of stopping Jeri from looking at her in the way she did now.
"I think you look nice." Jeri said at last, her voice tiny. "And... I thought that you'd like looking nice, too." The unsaid words lingered between them. Why don't you?
Because I don't want to be like all the other girls. I don't want to be whiny and clingy and fuss about my clothes and my hair. I want to run without thinking about how my clothes will look if I fall, and I want to show the world that I don't have to be like that just because I am a girl.
"I never cared."
The smaller girl looked down, a slight blush staining her face.
"I do."
She swallowed, feeling helpless about what to do. The silence was once again taking control. Even the usual cheery Calumon had gone silent, staring distressed at the two girls.
"I, um..." she stopped for a moment, but when Jeri once again was looking at her, she started talking again, looking at the wall beside her and not at her friend, "If it really means that much to you..." she pulled a little a the skirt, and picked up her card deck again, sliding it into the pocket on the right side. "Are we going?"
Jeri smiled at her, her face beaming happily as she nodded, and she placed Calumon on her head again before grabbing Rika's wrist and started running.
It wasn't as bad as she'd feared. The skirt wasn't long enough to get caught in anything, but it was wide enough for her to run just as fast as she wanted and it felt nice and airy in the spring breeze. And Jeri's hand, which at some point had slid down from her wrist, felt so wonderfully reassuring clasped in her own.



"What?"
Takato startled, and his eyes moved up to meet hers.
"Why are you wearing that?"
Eyes narrowing, lips pursing slightly.
"Because I wanted to." Still breathless from running all the way, she managed to look as intimidating as ever in front of the boys. "Do you have a problem with it?"
Silent shakes of heads, and she sat down and pulled out her cards.
"You know, seeing you dressed like a girl makes me nervous."
"You're not the only one, Terriermon."
"If you think me wearing a dress means I can't kick your ass, you're sadly mistaken."
"Hey, I'm not complaining or anything..." Ryo said, sitting down across of her and starting to flip out his cards.
"And what makes you think that I'd possibly care about what you think?"
He smirked at her. "Well, logic says that the reason you're dressed like that is because you're trying to impress someone."
She rolled her eyes and laid out her first card.
"So what if I am wearing this dress for someone." She met Jeri's eyes, and smiled back. "But that sure as hell isn't any of you boys."