It had already been cramped in Karyn's room with all of the extra paraphernalia that she'd ended up with from Sara and Kara's room, but now with four other girls in there with her, it was absolutely stuffed.
Lucy sat on the bed, Melody lay across two giant pink bean bag chairs, Melissa maneuvered her way to the closet, and Tiffany was in the corner at the bookshelf. There was barely any carpet visible.
"Hey!" Melissa noticed the green one-piece that Karyn had declined to wear just an hour or so earlier "This is really good quality, I have half a mind to steal it for swim team practice!"
"You don't already have a one-piece for swim team?" This was Lucy.
"Well, I have my competition suit, but it's usually a good idea to not practice in that one. And besides, this one's green. Green is my color."
"Hey," Karyn interjected, leaning awkwardly against the door frame, "green is my color."
"Could've fooled me. Look at what you're wearing!"
Karyn looked down at herself. While the other girls had covered up with what they'd worn over, Karyn hadn't needed to cross into public space to get to her back yard, and so she hadn't brought any clothes outside. So she still wore only the pink, rhinestoned bikini that she'd had on since the girls had arrived.
"Just because I'm wearing this now doesn't mean anything," Karyn protested. "I have a lot of bikinis, and I want to make use out of all of them."
"Your entire room is practically all pink," Melissa replied. The other three girls gave vague indications of agreement as they looked around. "You know what? I'll bet if you were to put together an outfit for yourself right now, without thinking, just reach into your closet and grab the first thing that instinctively speaks to you, it's not going to be green. Because green is my color." Melissa gestured to the green T-shirt that clung to her skin.
"Ugh, fine," Karyn relented. "Just give me some room to get in."
Melissa graciously retreated from the closet, joining Lucy on the bed, and the four cheerleaders watched as Karyn shimmied to the closet and made her selection.
Her hand passed over a loose, comfy, green sweater, but she had already made plenty of use out of that item, a voice in her head told her. It drifted over loose jeans and even a knee-length green tartan skirt. These it rejected: they'd been worn before. Instead, her hand reached for something new. Something she had yet to make use of.
Leggings. Bright, pink, stretchy leggings. Karyn looked at them for a moment, almost unsure of what she was holding. But then she entered a fugue state.
Karyn pulled the garment up her legs and over her bikini bottoms, giving a final tug with her left hand even as her right hand reached into the closet once again, producing a tunic in a reasonably paler shade of pink. This she pulled on over her head, and as soon as her arms were through the sleeves, they reached for a thin, plasticky belt that was almost the same shade as her leggings, and after a quick tug at the hem of the tunic, Karyn found herself fastening the belt just under her bust.
A blink, and Karyn looked out towards her friends, an "I told you so" expression briefly plastered across her face before registering the looks of glee and laughter that her friends were barely able to hide.
"I told you," Melissa almost chortled.
Karyn's expression dropped. And then her head dropped as well, if only to see what she was wearing.
"Not only aren't you wearing green," Melissa announced triumphantly, "every single thing you're wearing is pink. It's like I said, pink is your color. Green is mine."
Karyn blinked again. Melissa was right. Everything she was wearing was pink. Was pink her color, after all? No, but she used to wear green all the time! This was just... just...
"So do you mind if I borrow this one for practice?" Melissa nudged the pink-clad teenager once again as she raised the green one-piece. "I'll probably use it more than you will, with all the options you have."
There was that switch again. The one in Karyn's head. Something had changed. Rules had changed.
She turned to Melissa, "I want you to make sure you make good use out of it."
Melissa cheered, then the other three girls joined in. "Hey, can I poke around and see if there's anything else in there I can make good use out of? You've got more things in that closet than you could ever wear, anyway."
Karyn nodded her assent. "Just check with me before taking anything."
With all the swimsuits in the closet that Karyn had yet to wear, it would be a while before she rotated back to the one that she'd worn before. It just made sense. She needed to make sure everything was used. It was okay if Melissa also used some of the things she'd already worn.
