Whisper

Chapter 39

"I don't think Whisper would like that color." Spring was taking this whole clothes shopping quite seriously to Frost's surprise.

"I think she looks nice in pastels though," Frost twist and turned the hoodie that had a cat wearing a bow patch which finally caught her eye, "Maybe not."

"She seems like a cat person to be fair," Spring picked up another shirt, a deep wine red turtle neck that was made from fairly thin material, "Maybe she would like something like this?"

"Oooh I like that!" Frost folded the hoodie back up neatly out of habit. Working retail was the worst experience of her life even if she only worked for barely a month. But folding clothes had been ingrained her so much that she unconsciously did it. "Let's grab those mustard pants to go with it!"

"Are you styling a clown?" Spring scoffed, going over to a pile of plaid straight-leg pants. "These will go with it."

"Are you sure?" Frost was skeptical, of course she was more into bright colors and styling herself as such so she was a bit skeptical.

"Positive."

"You guys done yet?" Link's voice startled both of them, nearly forgetting that they were all connected except for Whisper. Link and Golem were in a different store just making themselves busy as they all wait for Weaver to finish getting gas and Whisper still had to fix the taillight.

"Not yet," Frost responded awkwardly pretending to look at a nearby clothing rack.

There wasn't that many shops in town but there were a few clothing shops each carrying a distinct style. A more modern store. A redneck store. And god know what it's there but it's certainly not just clothes.

"Do you think this hat looks good?" Frost lifted a pink beanie up to her head, looking to Spring for some sort of acknowledgement.

He pondered for a second before pointing at the stand, "Get the light blue one instead, it looks better on you."

"Sounds good," Frost put the rest on the pile and gently put it on the counter ready for checkout.

The checkout woman - who was staring at them like a hawk the entire time - took one look at the pile and then a Frost, her lips smacking like she had something sticky on her teeth, "That'll be $200."

"You're joking right?" Frost spoke reflexively. She was doing the math in her head and the total barely reached $100.

"No," the woman was deadpan, not budging one bit. She got a good look at the two and even if they dress like they are homeless they act like high-end city kids. Of course any outsider to her were high-end city kids. She just would've never guessed that they were trapped in a testing facility for a few years. "That'll be $200."

"Can you even do math?" Frost cut in, pulling out a $50 bill and slamming it on the counter, "The total would've been $44.27 and that's with tax."

They were buying a quite a lot of items, there were all listed at rather cheap prices. It was like the prices didn't even scale with inflation.

"No," the woman was steadfast, a bit pissed that Frost asked if she could even do math. Yeah she can, 2+2 is 5 and the price is whatever she says it is. "$200."

"Frost just leave it," Spring wasn't one for conflict, especially since they were supposed to be laying low. "We need to go."

"Everything alright guys?" Link could feel their emotions spike through the connection. It made it a bit harder to maintain the link, especially since that Weaver's emotions suddenly began to veer into the negative side. It feels like she is nervous.

"Yeah," Spring said back, reaching out to tug at Frost's arms, "Frost come on."

"Frost?" The woman sneered, "That's a stripper's name."

"And it's my name too, what of it?" Frost could feel her finger tingle with the urge to grab the woman and shatter her. "Take the money or we're walking out of here."

The woman scoffed again, not budging.

"You so clearly get a lot of business already," Frost maintained eye contact, noticing the ever so slight twitch in the woman's eye, "Take. The. Money."

After a moment of just silence the woman finally slapped her hand on the counter over the bill, sliding it slimily towards herself, pushing the pile of clothes towards Frost.

"Keep the change," Spring spat as he quickly collected everything and shuffled Frost out the door. "Are you fucking crazy?!" He sent a mental message to Frost, "We already don't need the attention, now you want to piss off the locals?!"

"She was trying to take advantage of us," Frost shot one last glare at her for good measure, "Now lets go back, we don't have time for the laundromat."

"Yeah let's go," Weaver finally spoke up, "These locals are giving me the creeps."

"Is Whisper there?" Frost's mood picked up significantly at the thought of getting out of here.

"Yeah she's coming right now with some girl," Weaver reported back, "She needs 10 minutes to fix the car and we'll be good to go."

"Some girl?" Spring questioned.

"Yeah some local girl, probably an Abnormal." Weaver seemed exhausted even in her mental voice. "They seem to get along."

"Well that's good," Link sighed aloud, "Let's all start heading to the car."