open to all: shopping is the worst

[rulesofthewild]

dated: January 15, 2015

The thing about being hungry all the time is that it means all of Malia's food is pretty much gone. Which is how she finds herself standing in the pasta aisle, trying to find something worth buying. She has a shopping cart, and all it has in it is a carton of eggs, a bottled water that she's drank half of, and a box of baking soda because the fridge has started to give off a weird odor.

Malia's pretty sure she's got exactly nothing she can use to make a meal, and she's not entirely sure where to continue from here.

She sighs. She wishes she had help. Malia's pretty sure that without some sort of intervention, she's just going to buy one of everything in the store and go from there, which she's rational enough to know that that's not a good idea.

So she pulls out her phone and punches out a text to one of her friends:

Grosseries are hard help this sucks

[ find Malia in any Target-like store of your choice, at a time when it's convenient for your pup to be there. Assume she sent you the text, or already be there shopping. She definitely needs help shopping in her stupid hungry boy body. ]

Comments

[imcoraline]

"Boys are the worse, brace yourself I'm going to hug you." Coraline said, warning Malia of her impending doom. Hugging Malia's arm- her very nice, muscular arm- Coraline kept the contact brief and light before snatching the cart and pushing it down the aisle. Hopping onto the wheels, she skated down the aisle before skidding to a stop and grabbing a couple of boxes of pasta before throwing them in the basket. "Why are groceries hard anyway?"

[rulesofthewild]

"I never know what to buy, or anything," Malia grouses. Her pout looks out of place on her boy face. "Every time I've shopped before it was with a recipe in mind so I knew what to get. But there's almost nothing in the house. I think we have . . . a slice of bread, and that's it." She could be exaggerating, but she doesn't think so. "I just want to eat everything."

[imcoraline]

"I'm terrible at cooking, I'm very good at microwave meals though. What do you fancy eating?" Coraline asked. Almost adding that Everything wasn't an answer before she got distracted by the aisles of food. Coraline grabbed a couple of sauces before smiling at Malia's comment. "Yeah, I know that feeling. You need lots of carbs, they're really filling. And meats. Proteins. Snacks. Snack bars or fruits. I used to eat a lot, I mean like a real lot of food. It's because I'm so tall, it's probably the same with guys. They're always growing."

[rulesofthewild]

Malia smiles a little, watching Coraline talk in that fast way of hers. "I don't know," she admits. "I guess I just want food. Snacks sound good." Something she can stuff into her mouth when she gets hungry. "And meat. I like meat." Coraline knows this already, though.

[imcoraline]

"Yeah, I know you do." Coraline said, grinning at Malia's comment. She put her feet up on the trolley, pushing it forward and riding it along the aisle. Stopping, she turned and almost bumped into Malia, blushing at their close proximity Coraline cleared her throat before putting in some wraps and taco shells. They could probably have boar tacos or something, that'd be cool. "We'll get snacks then too. And if you get really hungry, we can always order a take away. It's kind of nice having money for food and things."

[rulesofthewild]

"Take away?" she echoes. "Oh, like ordering in?" She'd done that before, back in Beacon Hills. "Yeah, okay. I need breakfast food, too. Well, we do. Dany and Zuko eat, too." Malia just barely notices because she eats so much.

[imcoraline]

"Yeah, like ordering in." Coraline replied, eyes glancing at Malia's lips before she very pointedly looked away at sauces and added them into the trolley. She leaned forward, almost into the cart as she pushed it round the corner. "We never had cereal, not like there is here on the island. We had like really boring bland stuff. I like the ones though with the tiny marshmallows, they're the best. What do Dany and Zuko like?"

[rulesofthewild]

Malia freezes, because she has no idea. It's awful. She lives with these people, but she has no idea what they eat. "Um. I don't know," she admits. "Food?" She hopes it's that simple. Just whatever she brings home.

[imcoraline]

Coraline was halfway down the next aisle when she realised that Malia had stopped the aisle over. Turning round, she walked backwards and leaned back into the aisle. Looking at Malia, she raised an eyebrow and waited for her to catch up with her.

"Next time, ask them? I mean, it'll save on money if you all like the same stuff. Or you can buy variety packs which have like small amounts of different stuff in them." Coraline replied. She didn't have that problem because it was just her but sometimes she would've preferred others. Instead of just sitting by herself in a quiet flat. "Asking questions is a good thing, you know. Most of the time."

[rulesofthewild]

"Well, sure," Malia says. "But I'm not really . . . good at it." Malia has been here for awhile, but she's still adjusting to the whole . . . being nosy thing. She's got caring almost down, but it's the nosy thing that Coraline is good at without being annoying that she's having trouble with.

[imcoraline]

"You don't have to be good at it. I mean, you just ask as politely as you can and if people don't like it then they usually tell you." Coraline replied. Coraline had gotten the figuring out when people were annoyed with her down though. It was mostly the way they squinted at her, with little breathy huffs that gave it away. "Or just limit yourself to five questions. That's what I do sometimes. Only sometimes. My mouth gets carried away sometimes."

[rulesofthewild]

Malia considers this, then nods. "I could try that," she admits. She eyes an endcap with different cereals on it, and grabs a few boxes to toss into the cart.

[imcoraline]

"See, I have some good ideas. Eventually," Coraline replied with a laugh, spinning the cart so Malia could toss a few boxes into it. Walking backwards with the cart, she smiled at her friend. "Besides you don't have to be good at everything. I'm terrible at loads of things."

[rulesofthewild]

As far as Malia knows, Coraline has talents in a lot of fields, so she has a hard time believing she's bad at any of it. "What do you mean? Terrible at what?"

[imcoraline]

"Spelling. I'm a terrible speller. Can't really work much on the computer, just a little bit of stuff. And I cannot cook or sing at all, oh and I'm really terrible at not asking questions." Coraline replied with a cheeky grin. She kicked her legs as she swung from the cart and tried to keep it balanced without overturning.

[rulesofthewild]

Malia smiles a little. "Alright, I guess those count. I'm not good at spelling, either, if that makes you feel better." She's never tried singing, though, and she's not going to try any time soon.

[imcoraline]

"I also rode an escalator for about an hour once, I forgot how much fun they were." Coraline replied with a grin. That was a pretty terrible fault. There had been so much modern technology she'd never experienced or had forgotten about. Now, she was better... most of the time. "It does. But you have an excuse, you missed out on a lot of education. I had one, it just never sticks."

[rulesofthewild]

Malia shrugs. "Still," she says. "You're not the only one, that's all." She looks at the signs hanging above the aisles, trying to figure out what is where. She hopes that just looking will make her think of something she needs, but so far that hasn't worked.

[imcoraline]

"I didn't mean..." Coraline sighed, reaching for Malia's hand and tugging her down the aisle with her. Watching her look around, still in a state of well, maybe confusion Coraline smiled at her. "When you're shopping, they tend to group things together. Like meats are all together, all dairy things are usually in the same area, dry goods and so on. They always do this stupid thing where they put the healthy thing right at the start of the shop. And then freezers are usually buried at the back somewhere. What kind of food do you want to eat?"

[rulesofthewild]

Malia still hasn't worked that out, and she makes a little face. "I don't know," she says. "I want to have something that'll make me feel full. I feel like I haven't been full since I turned into a boy."

[imcoraline]

"It's kind of cute when you make that face, you sort of look all worried and annoyed at the same time." Coraline said, as Malia made a face at her question. Coraline almost reached out to kiss her when she remembered that she was with Malia not... other people she didn't think about any more. "Yeah? That's because you're growing, in that body I mean. Boys eat more calories than girls as well. You need to eat at least a third more than you normally one. I used to eat lots, I was growing all the time but I think I've stopped now."