Stupid Grocery Bag (Open)

[Paul Wilkerson]

Paul's mom sent him to the store to pick up some things. He had the money his mom gave him was safely in his pocket. He knew what he needed to get. It was a simple task. There weren't too many things that could go wrong. Paul had gotten what he was sent for and was on his back home. In one hand Paul had the grocery bag with a carton of eggs. In the other hand he had the grocery bag with a couple of boxes of pasta and a jar of pasta sauce.

Paul's attention was all on the bag with the eggs. He didn't want to break them. Paul didn't noticed when one of the boxes poked a hole in the thin, cheap, plastic grocery bag. The movement from Paul's walking and the box had made the hole get bigger. The plastic bag started to rip. The sound of shattering glass made Paul stop dead in his tracks. He stood on the sidewalk staring at the mess of pasta sauce and broken glass. The two boxes had survived the fall. In his hand Paul had the remains of the bag.

Great. Perfect. What was he going to do? Just take the eggs and two boxes home and hope no one saw? Should he clean up the glass? It wouldn't be a good idea to leave the glass on the sidewalk. Paul probably had enough change to buy another jar of sauce. It would be totally embarrassing to go back to store to get another jar of sauce. Unless Paul goes to another store. No matter what he does Paul will have to explain what happened to his mom. His mom always asks for the change and receipt. She always checks and keeps track of the money.

On the bright side all the eggs were still safe.

[Rose Masters]

Rose's plan was to take the few bucks of allowance she had left from the week before and buy herself a treat. In her head she was thinking of what she could get, a magazine maybe, or some candy, a new notebook to doodle in, who knows, but she wasn't paying much attention to what was happening around her. So when she was a few steps away from the door and heard glass shattering, she was definitely startled.

Source of loud sound: Some pour kid with broken jar of red sauce

Threat?: Definitely not

Solution possible?: probably

Being familiar with the whole terrified teenager in the spotlight while the universe collapses around me feeling, she empathized, but knew how much help meant to her in these moments. It didn't help with the feeling but at least it shortened the embarrassment part of things.

She ran inside and stole a few unused bags from the checkout area and jogged back to him.

"Hey, do you need a hand?",she offered him one of the bags.

[Paul Wilkerson]

Paul continued staring at the mess at his feet trying to figure out what to do. He heard someone say something. It took a moment before he realized that it was directed to him. Paul looked up to see who was speaking to him. A teenage girl stood in front of him offering Paul another bag. So there were people who were going to offer help to people. Most people looked at Paul when the jar broke. They continued on their way without offering help to the young teen. It was nice that someone did stop to see if he needed help.

"Um, yeah. Thanks." He carefully placed the eggs on the ground and then stood over them so no one walking by would step on them. That was just what Paul needed, the eggs breaking. He picked up one box and used the sad remains of the plastic bag to wipe off some of the sauce. Paul placed it in the bag the girl was holding. "Thanks." Paul did the same thing with the other box.

Now what was left on the sidewalk was the sauce and broken glass. Paul looked down again. "Looks like something got murdered." Paul chuckled. "Probably should pick up the glass." His parents would of been proud at how responsible Paul was being.

[Rose Masters]

"Probably yeah" ,she sat on her haunches and started carefully picking up the bits of shattered glass and tossing them in the bag. When all of the glass was thrown away she tied off the bag and got up. She walked to the store, bag in hand, "My name's Rose, by the way." The bag was dumped in the trash can outside. Crisis averted. The only remains of the disaster lie in the ominous red stain on the ground, he was right, it did look like someone got murdered.

[Paul Wilkerson]

With help the glass was picked up in no time. There, now no one could hurt themselves on the glass. All that was left was the sauce. Should they try and clean it up? Or should they just leave it? It wasn't some toxic waste so it wasn't going to do real harm if it was left. Plus if they leave it then the pigeons could dip their french fries in it. Wait. Why was Paul wanting be nice to birds? Paul shivered at the thought of birds.

Paul picked up the eggs. The helpful girl said her name was Rose. "Paul." Paul tried to act cool. It was kind of pointless. He blew his chances of acting cool from the start. Rose had found him standing there like an idiot noting know what to do about the mess. Yup, cool was not something he could past for now. "Thanks for the help, but I had everything under control." But that didn't stop him from trying.

Paul felt a little pain on one of his fingers. He looked. There was a cut on his finger. A piece of glass must of nicked him while he was cleaning up. Oh no. His cut was bleeding. Paul wiped his turquoise blood on his jeans. Hopefully Rose didn't noticed. If she was a meta-human then Paul didn't have a problem. But Paul couldn't just ask her if she was a meta-human without giving himself away.

Today was not going his way. Paul looked at his finger again. He needed a band-aid.

[Rose Masters]

Rose nodded, a sly grin on her face. She did the zipping motion over her lips. "Don't worry, I won't tell" she looked over the sauce mark. "I guess there's not much we can do about that, I'll just tell them about it when I go in."

If he was a local, then she would have to be careful not to turn intangible around him, it would be just her luck to walk through something around him. Then again, if he was a student, there would be nothing to worry about. Working it over in her head how to ask, she almost didn't notice Paul looking at his finger, "Crap, did you cut yourself?"

Do I just ask him if he's a student around here? Do I mention that I go to school here? How about, ' Hey yes my name is Rose and I can walk through fucking walls like any normal person would, how about you?"

[Paul Wilkerson]

Paul used his thumb to push on the finger that was bleeding to make the blood come out because why not. A little dome of turquoise blood pooled on his finger. Paul quickly put his finger in his mouth to suck the blood off when Rose asked if he cut himself. He shook his head 'no.' Cool was not with Paul today.

Paul couldn't tell if he had seen her face at Hammel before. There ware so many faces at Hammel. Plus all the constant new faces coming, it was very difficult to keep track of everyone. But there was only one sure way to know if she goes to Hammel or not. If Paul asked and then found out they were in the same class or something then that would be embarrassing. Then again Rose did introduced herself.

Crap. It dawned on Paul that he still had his finger in his mouth. He mentally slapped himself. Paul quickly took finger from his mouth and wiped it on his jeans. If he wasn't careful his jeans would have turquoise and neon green spit streaks. While he wiped his hand Paul again tried to act cool, "So, what school do you go to?" There. Now Paul will find out if Rose was a meta-human or not.

[Rose Masters]

Rose was caught trying to find a way to ask if he was a meta-human politely without getting caught or seeming weird. She found herself staring at his hand absentmindedly. Why couldn't she have been better at remembering faces, all of this awkwardness could be avoided. She thought she saw something strange on his hand where he cut himself, but had to look away at the sound of his voice.

"I go to Hammel, what about you?"

 

[Paul Wilkerson]

Well, that was easy. Paul thought to himself. Paul didn't have to worry too much about if Rose saw the color of his blood. He just had worry if some non-meta walking by saw. But what ever.

"Yeah, I go to Hammel too." Even knowing that they both went to Hammel Paul couldn't place her face. He was pretty sure they didn't have classes together. Then again they might had been in a class or two together. So many faces and names to remember. "Going into sophomore year." Why did I say that?

Maybe Paul should think about going to get another jar of sauce. His mom was probably wondering why it was taking so long for Paul to come home.

[Rose Masters]

Rose relaxed now that she didn't have to worry about hiding her power or anything. She could remember seeing his face in the hallways a few times now that she thought about it. 

"Me too. I guess we'll be seeing more of each other then."


She smiled brightly, glad to have found someone she would know for the next school year. 

[Paul Wilkerson]

Paul smiled back at Rose. ”Cool. Maybe we’ll have some classes together then.” Paul glanced down at his cut to see how it was doing. The cut was starting to scab over.

The next question was kind of obvious since they both attend at Hammel. Paul didn’t want to ask it because he knew what the consequence was going to be. But if Rose was going to ask it then Paul had to come up with a clever answer. Man, he hated the question ‘what’s your power?’ His power sucked.

"Are you a local or are you from else where?” Paul was very proud of himself for being able to come up with another question. The dreaded question was avoided, for now.

[Rose Masters]

"No I'm not from around here. You?"


She avoided the magic question, knowing it was sort of personal to some people. To Rose it felt like a social taboo, asking about it too quickly could make or break a friendship. Of course if he asks about her power he might ask how she ended up finding out about her power, which was an embarrassing story she would rather avoid. 

[Paul Wilkerson]

”I’m a local. I know my way around here pretty well.”

Paul readjusted the bags in his hands. His cell phone binged in his pocket. Paul pulled out his cell phone to see who had texted him. It was his mom. No surprise there. She wanted to know if everything was okay since he was taking so long to get back home. He quickly replied.

”I guess I should go get some more pasta sauce. Mustn’t keep the mother waiting. Know what I mean?”

[Rose Masters]

"I won't keep you then. It was nice meeting you.", she smiled warmly, excited for the fact she met someone new after being stuck for a while. She was pretty proud of the fact she was coming out of her shell again.