Nora stood in her kitchen, preparing breakfast. She had some culinary experience, due to the cooking class she took in high school & some baking she had done with Leslie. This morning, she was making some scrambled eggs. Sorrel entered the kitchen, yawning.
“G’mornin.”
“Hey.”
They looked over Nora’s shoulder at the skillet.
“What’cha makin’?”
“Eggs. Scrampled.”
“Scrampled?” they chuckled.
“I said what I said.”
Sorrel leaned against the kitchen counter.
“Gosh, I remember when you were just a wee kid. You were, like, 3 or 4 or something like that, & Mom was making scrambled eggs. You would always call them scrampled eggs.”
“Yea, yea, Dad’s shown me the tape of me trying to say ‘scrambled’ correctly, like, a million times now.”
Nora turned off the stove. The scrambled eggs were finished. She took out a couple of paper plates & put the eggs on them.
“You want a fork or a spoon with this?”
“Can I have both?”
Nora rolled her eyes. “One spork coming right up,” she said, spinning around to the cabinet & opening it up, grabbing a spork & a regular fork. She stuck the spork onto one of the plates & handed it to Sorrel.
“Thanks,” Sorrel said, grabbing their plate.
“No prob.” Nora stuck her fork into the other plate, taking a bite out of the scrambled eggs.
The two of them stood there eating their eggs in silence.
“So.. uh...” Nora hummed. “When are you gonna tell Mom & Dad you dropped out?”
“Hopefully never, if I can handle that,” Sorrel said, mouth full of egg. “Maybe if the time comes, I’ll tell them. For now, though? I’d rather it be kept secret.”
“Well.. I suppose we all have our secrets.”
“I suppose so.”
Sorrel finished up their scrambled eggs fairly quickly. Nora was still only on the second bite.
“Anyways, that was the last of the eggs.”
“Oh.”
“I’ll have to go by Walmart later today & buy more. Bleh.”
“I just hope they’ve restocked the bananas. When I went there yesterday, they had none.”
Intentionally not mentioning why the bananas were out of stock, Nora set down her scrambled eggs & took out her phone. “I’m gonna ask the others if they wanna come shop with me.”
She quickly sent a text to the group chat.
Nora: hey who wants 2 come shop w/ me. im outta eggs.
“& now we wait for a response,” she said, putting the phone on the counter & grabbing her eggs again.
“Oh! I was gonna ask you earlier, but.. what’s up with that flyer you brought home last night?”
“Huh?”
“Y’know.. the purple one about the auction.”
Nora froze.
“Oh, that one. Some guy handed it to us after rehearsal last night. Guess I forgot to throw it away.”
“It does sound kind of interesting,” Sorrel said. “I’d like to go to the auction.”
“You can go if you want to.” Nora shrugged, finishing up her eggs. “I’m not interested.”
“Alright, your loss.”
Nora’s phone buzzed a couple of times. She grabbed it & looked at the group chat.
Leslie: ya sounds fun :3
Cherry: sure
Kalani: 👍
Juniper: ok lol
“What’d they say?” Sorrel asked, leaning over to look at Nora’s phone.
“They said yes,” Nora said, quickly shutting off her phone & shoving it in her pocket. “Better get going now.”
“Have fun! & tell them I said hi!”
“I will!”
-
Nora pulled her car up into the Walmart parking lot.
“We’re here,” she said, unbuckling her seatbelt.
“This is the Walmart with the ballpit, yea?”
“There’s a Walmart with a ballpit in this city?”
“Yeah! You’ve never been to it?”
“No?”
“Well, I guess we’ll see if this is it when we get out & go inside the Walmart.”
The group all hopped out of the car & entered the Walmart. It was massive inside, like most Walmarts are. If you’ve ever been in a Walmart, you can probably imagine what it looks like. Also, there was a ballpit inside, near the entrance.
“Oh shit, there really is a ballpit.”
“It’s.. kind of smaller than I expected.”
“A ballpit’s a ballpit, no matter how small.”
“Well, we can play in the ballpit later. We have some shopping to do!”
“Woohoo!”
Nora grabbed a shopping cart & the group was ready to go. They all instantly went to the egg aisle, looking for some eggs to get.
“Why are all the eggs so EXPENSIVE nowadays?”
“Well, you know how it is.”
“Eggs shouldn’t cost, like, 7 bucks. I should be able to get a carton of ‘em for $1.79.”
Eventually, Nora just picked out a carton of eggs that cost around $5 & went on with the shopping.
“I guess while we’re here, I could buy some other stuff too. What else should I get?”
“Ooh! You should get some of those Moon Pies!”
“Nah, you should get some Sun Chips. Fuckin’ love Sun Chips.”
“I’m not buying Sun Chips just so you can come to my apartment & eat them all.”
“I won’t eat them ALL! I’ll save half for you, promise.”
At that moment, the intercom in the Walmart turned on.
“ATTENTION ALL SHOPPERS: THERE IS A GIRL STEALING CANDY BARS IN AISLE 9. SHE LOOKS VERY FRIGHTENING. PLEASE STAY AWAY FROM HER.”
The group looked at each other.
“Do you think this is another evil person we gotta beat up?”
“One can only guess. C’mon, let’s go.”
They all pulled on their necklaces & entered Hero Mode.
“Everyone in the shopping cart!” Juniper said. “I’ll push it to Aisle 9!”
Nora, Cherry, Leslie, & Kalani all hopped into the shopping cart, taking care to avoid crushing the eggs.
“Let’s do this!!”
Juniper put vaer hands onto the cart handle, holding on tight. Voi started running as fast as voi could through the Walmart, dodging obstacles & people along the way.
“EXCUSE ME! SORRY! IT’S AN EMERGENCY!”
Rolling into Aisle 9, Juniper & the shopping cart skid to a halt, taking a look at the candy bar thief.
“Took you heroes long enough to get here.”
“NATALIE?!”
Indeed, it was Natalie, in her black & purple “magical girl” outfit she had worn on Tuesday. A candy bar was in one hand, & her squeaky hammer was in the other.
“What are you.. doing?”
“What does it look like I’m doing?! Stealing a candy bar, obviously!”
“Ok, but... why?”
“Because I couldn’t think of any other crimes to do without making it too extreme.”
“So you.. decided to rob a megacorporation?”
“Well, I’m not robbing a family-owned business! I have standards!”
The group looked at each other for a second. They pulled on their ties, poofing back into their normal clothes.
“We have standards, too. We’re not fighting you.”
“WHAT?! Why?!”
“We have magic! You have a squeaky hammer! It’s not a fair fight.”
“Plus, stealing from megacorps is always morally acceptable. Who are we to uphold the law?”
Natalie huffed, crossing her arms. “Well, if that’s how you wanna be, then so be it! My next crime will be SO heinous, you won’t have any choice but to stop me!”
“Is that so?”
“Yup!” she winked. “See you tomorrow!”
With that, she spun around & ran off.
“Well.. I guess we’re seeing her tomorrow.”
“Better than going to that auction or whatever.”
“True. Let’s just continue shopping now. I still want you to get those Sun Chips.”
-
“Ohh, what am I to do?!”
The Auctioneer paced around their office. Their boyfriend & partner in crime, Pim, sat on the desk.
“Well, what’d they say last night?”
“They said they’ll think about it! That’s basically the same as saying ‘maybe’, & saying ‘maybe’ is just a nice way of saying ‘no’!!
“I did warn you, they’d be stubborn..”
“They’re perfect for the auction, too! What are we to do when the people we want - the people we NEED - refuse to come?!” The Auctioneer sighed, twirling his hand up to his forehead dramatically.
Pim looked around the room. His eyes fell on a whiteboard, scribbled with writing.
“What about the backup plan?” he asked.
“AHA! The backup plan!” The Auctioneer exclaimed. “Pim, you beautiful genius! How could we have forgotten the backup plan?!”
The Auctioneer ran up to the whiteboard & skimmed through it.
“This is exactly the plan we need!” they grinned. “Pim, prepare the flyers! We’ve got a scavenger hunt to do!”