Little Dreams

Grocery Shopping

The lights of the grocery store parking lot reflected off the windshield and onto the roof of the van as our protagonists pulled into a spot.

"Where did we get this.... not at all suspicious white van, anyway? None of us can drive," Hannah pointed out from the back of the van where she and Lily sat.

Griffin, riding shotgun, pulled the keys from the ignition and jingled them at nobody in particular. "I stole it, obviously," he started to say, but Cassidy, in the driver's seat, cut him off.

"No you didn't, dumbass, it's my mom's car."

"The mumsymobile," Jamie nodded solemnly.

Lily leaned over Jamie's seat to stare at them. "The-fucking-what?"

Lillian waved her hand. "Ignore her. Can we just go inside?"

The image that followed was reminiscent of clowns exiting a clown car. Out of the van came Madison and Chalsie, Lily and Hannah, Lillian, Griffin, and Cassidy, trying with little success to dislodge Jamie from her back.

After a quick headcount from Lillian (minus Cassidy, which caused a slight panic, until chalsie helpfully and intelligently supplied "oh, right, teleportation". Sighs ensued. This is a group of very special children) our protagonists headed into the target with great haste.

Jamie had been left riderless following Cassidy's disappearance, but (superspeed and all) still managed to make it to the door first, somehow forgetting to grab a cart. She instead made her way in the vague direction of forward. Luckily, Lily and Hannah's older sibling instincts kicked in and they both reached the cart train at the same time. There was a quick argument on who should push it, won by Lily ("I'm taller.") and so they set off, minus Jamie and Sluss.

As our lovely protagonists walked down the isles, shoveling candy and chips and in Griffin's case, four containers of raspberries, into the cart, Lillian tried in vain to remind Les Gobelins of the grocery list they'd previously conceived of.

"Yeah, yeah, we'll get paper towels," Hannah waved her off, piling yorks and starbursts on top of Chelsie's grape soda gummies. "Are starbursts gluten-free?"

Lily blinked at her. "yeah, they're gluten-free."

"Then what's the problem?"

"We passed the fucking paper towels."

"ah." Hannah nodded. "so we have."

Lillian turned to ask Griffin to fetch them, as they always seemed to have the most energy in grocery stores (she couldn't fathom why, but it was useful at least) but Griffin had strayed from the group, and was--Lillian ducked into the aisle they'd last left--staring expressionless at a flickering section of the freezer.

"Hey, griff."

No response.

"Whatcha doing there?"

He replied something quietly, somewhere along the lines of "haunted ass freezer, freezer ghost," which Lillian pretended to feel very deep remorse for.

Once she'd escaped that situation and returned to Lily, she realized the rest of the group was gone.

"What the hell happened now?"

Lily rattled them off on her fingers. "Cass and Jamie are still a mystery, I rumored Hannah to go grab those paper towels, madison went off with chalsie to grab some tampons." Lillian sighed. "Look," Lily continued, "We can find them in a bit, but maybe splitting up is a good idea."

"I can't bring myself to imagine how," Lillian replied robotically.

"Whatever, let's go get a pomegranate. I haven't had a pomegranate in ages." Lillian could agree with that. off they went.

Let's check back with Jamie. They'd steered themself to the drinks aisle, and happily grabbed a two-liter bottle of sprite and a couple of monsters (green and white).

"Ooh, grab a dr pepper too."

Jamie screamed, which made Cassidy, who had suddenly materialized behind her, scream in return. 
"When the fuck did you get here?" Jamie managed to get out, nearly doubled over laughing. "You scared the shit out of me, oh my god. Where were you?"

Cassidy smiled. "Your mom's house."

"Fuck you," Jamie replied, then paused. "Where's everyone else?

"I thought they were with you," Cass said, sounding a bit worried.

The pair decided to walk until they found someone. That someone came in the form of Griffin, facing the same freezer door, blank stare and all.

Jamie called out to them. "What are you doing?"

That seemed to snap griffin out of it, They turned towards the two. "Your mom."

Jamie turned at that, yelled "Fuck you both," and decided to find the rest of the group by themself.

That decision was short-lived, because Hannah was in the next aisle, and as soon as Jamie stopped to ask her what she was doing, Sluss and Griffin caught up with her.

"Uh," Hannah started. "Lily rumored me to get these paper towels, but she didn't rumor me to bring them back, and now I can't find anyone."

The four of them started walking towards the exit, figuring they'd end up a whole group again, safety in numbers and all that. And huzzah, they were right! Chalsie and Madison were chatting by the register, Lillian and Lily behind them. As Jamie, Cassidy, Hannah, and Griffin dumped their items into the cart, Madison used her power to transport items onto the conveyer belt, Lily prepared to pay.

"Alright, that'll be $560. Are you a rewards member?" the cashier recited.

Our protagonists froze. Money was certainly an object, and "rich" is not a word I would use to describe these ducklings.

Hannah was about to quietly ask if they had to put things back, but Lily, ever the quick thinker, smiled at the cashier and casually responded, "Actually, I heard a rumor it was free."

And with that, they carried their bags out to the mumsymobile and were sent careening down the road back to dice.

The end <3

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Please send all your love for this chapter to Griffin!!
They did a wonderful job writing!