Children of Nowhere

Chapter One –

1

"Choroes...Choroes...Choroes?"

Jessa had never even heard of this brand of potato chips before, much less knew what they looked like. However she had no choice but to keep searching because if she went back with the wrong ones, Elle would pitch a fit. Substitutions just weren't accepted when it came to Elle – something they had all learnt within a few days of moving into the share house and discovered her 'ground rules' and chore-chart implementation. Elle had had also added a pad lock to her bedroom door within an hour of moving in, demanding no one else enter unless she was there to supervise.

Jessa's mother had warned her that other's weird habits was just one of the experiences she would have to learn to live with in a share-house. That it would make her 'grow as a person' or whatever. Personally Jessa hated that sentiment because it was up there with believing everything happens for a reason which her grandmother used to say constantly. Or her other favourite: hardships were the water of life that polished rocks until they shine...or whatever. It had confused her as a child and now it just felt like a way to minimize a person's pain and make them feel bad for even bringing them up. In Jessa's opinion it was everyone's right to complain and gripe.

But it was still a pain to have to try and find exactly the right damn brand of chips.

'I hope the fact that girl's doing a psych degree helps her sort some of her shit out,' Jessa thought.

They were all doing their best to keep Elle happy because she hadn't been too sure about the party to begin with. Jessa had left her and Sam hooking up various speakers to a central music station while she did a 'supply run'. Although that had been before she realized that rather than a simple run-in-run-out situation, she had pretty much been sent on what equated to as a scavenger hunt or mission to discover the lost city of Atlantis.

"Choreos...Choreos," she muttered under her breath. "...I should have gotten a damn trolley." She had assumed a basket would do and was now trying to balance all the other chips, dips, drinks and bag of oranges of all things – Jessa had no idea why Tez had wanted those but he did. Lemons she could understand for shots, but oranges?! – and a tub of ice-cream for herself. No one else understood it, but Jessa found there was nothing tastier than dipping nacho chips into vanilla ice-cream. It even tasted good first thing in the morning, although she knew what her mother would say about that in terms of an appropriate breakfast. But she could have ice cream if she damn well wanted to and any damn time.

She thought she spotted the start of the word 'Che – ' on a packet of something on the very top shelf. She could only read half of the word because the packet had fallen on its side and was the last one in a box on the very uppermost shelf, well and truly out of her reach.

'Why the hell would they do that?' Jessa though irritably. Surely the number one purchasers of these chips would be teenagers and kids and there was absolutely no way they could reach them. She wasn't even that freakin' short and yet here she was, considering climbing the bottom shelf and wondering if it would be enough to hold her weight or not.

'There are other stores. 'I'll just get this stuff and then go to a service station. They'll probably cost three times as much but whatever, I'll pay. Or I'll just tell Elle they didn't have any – or she can come down and – '

A hand suddenly reached past, grabbing the packet and holding it out to her.

"Thanks!" Jessa said. "I hate how they put some stuff up so high. Don't they know not all of us bring a step ladder with us...?"

Jessa had been hoping to share a laugh with her would-be saviour but then she got a good look at him and stopped short.

He had backed away as soon as she'd taken the chips but was still a little uncomfortably close as she found herself face to face with his chest. He was thin, almost painfully so, about thirty, dark hair and one of those thick, full beards that was in right now. He was also incredibly pale, his eyes shiny but seemingly with no expression at all. In fact, he didn't even acknowledge her existence much less respond to her attempt at a conversation, something Jessa would have been thrown by anyway but even more so now. She unconsciously gripped the chip packet a little tighter, crushing the contents until the guy walked past her and back to his own trolley.