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Mr. Qifrey had brought them all to Walmart, as Olruggio was out of the house today for work. He had dropped Tetia and her foster sisters in the toy aisle at Walmart.
"If you get bored here, you can go to the electronics area," Mr. Qifrey had told him. Well, they had gotten bored of the toys area in about ten minutes. There had hardly been anything new added since they last went here a few weeks ago. So, they went to the electronics area, and there was hardly anything new to look at there either. Just video games hidden behind glass cases, and the worker had glared at them when they had tried to change the background of one of the tablets for display.
So, they had returned to the toy area.
"We're getting too old for this," said Agott, frowning at the shelves full of Barbies.
Agott may think that. Tetia missed the days of playing pretend, though. Looking at all the different dolls made her nostalgic.
"What would you rather look at?" asked Richeh. "Clothes?"
Coco hummed. "We could go back to the electronics again. Look at the books right by it."
"Walmart never has any good books," said Agott. "It's a waste to look at them here when there's a Barnes and Nobles right across the parking lot."
"Then let's just go there," said Richeh.
They were now walking down the baby toy aisle for the fourth time. Tetia pressed a button on a toy piano and it sang a song loud enough she wondered if the whole store could hear it.
"I don't think Mr. Qifrey would let us leave the store," said Coco. "He doesn't let us go to other stores by ourselves when we're at the mall, after all, even if it's just one right next door. I have a hard time imagining he would let us go across the parking lot."
"True…" Richeh sighed.
They were lucky enough he let him linger in the toy aisle at Walmart. Walmart was basically half as big as the mall, anyway.
"We don't have to ask him," said Agott. "We could just go."
"What? We can't," said Tetia. "We would get in big trouble!
"We could go there for a bit, come back, and he won't ever know," said Agott. "You know, we're nearly twelve. I think we can go to Barnes and Nobles by ourselves."
"We'll get in trouble," said Coco.
Richeh disagreed. "Mr. Qifrey always takes hours to shop. I saw his list, and it took up the front and back of the page!"
Oh no. They would definitely be stuck here all afternoon, then.
Agott nodded. "That proves it. We could definitely hang out there for at least an hour and come back. He would never know any better."
Tetia shook her head. "No. I don't think it's a good idea. What if Mr. Qifrey comes and checks on us?"
"When has he ever checked on us?" asked Agott.
That was true. Mr. Qifrey didn't usually come back over here until he was ready to check out.
"He doesn't check on us because he trusts us," said Coco. "If we leave the store, we'll be abandoning that trust."
"Then you two can stay here while me and Richeh go,” said Agott. “Doesn't the new volume of Witchly Way release this week?"
"I've already read it online," said Coco.
"But have you read the volume extras?"
"Oh! No, I don't think I have," said Coco. "Then maybe… Maybe just for a bit would be okay…"
So easily swayed by manga!
“We can probably ask Mr. Qifrey to take us there after we shop,” said Tetia. “He might even buy it for you!”
“Now that I know it exists, I want it now though,” said Coco. “I can't wait to get it!” She turned towards Richeh and Agott. “Let's leave right now!”
"But I don't want to be here alone…" said Tetia. What if Mr. Qifrey did come back? Then Tetia would have to explain the others had run off, and she hadn't told him. Or what if something bad did happen to her? Not to mention, it would be even more boring with nobody to talk to.
"I'm sorry, Tetia!" said Coco. "It's my favorite manga, you know?"
"Let's go," said Richeh, who was already heading out of the toy area. "The sooner we leave, the more time we can spend there!"
Agott and Coco followed after her. Tetia stood by herself surrounded by Fisher Price for a moment before sighing. She ran after them.
"Wait for me! I will come!"
And so, they left the store, carefully peering around every aisle as they headed towards the exit to make sure Mr. Qifrey wasn't there.
Tetia felt like she was doing something illegal. She was worried the Walmart greeter would try to stop them, but they were distracted checking a receipt.
Once they stepped outside, Tetia could see it. So close, but so far.
Barnes and Nobles. Oh, just seeing it was a bit of a relief after being in Walmart for so long.
"Let's go!" said Richeh, holding out her arms, leading the way.
"But…"
Walking across the parking lot by themselves felt wrong. It was a hot day, and the sun beat down on them. The walk felt like it was a mile long. But once they crossed the threshold and went inside the ever-so glorious Barnes and Nobles… It almost felt worth it. The air conditioning felt so nice. Tetia sank into one of the cool, leather chairs.
“I'm going to the manga section,” said Coco.
“I'm going to the real books,” said Agott. By that, she meant young adult novels, which Tetia supposed were ‘real books’ when compared to manga, but yet, there were definitely realer books in the store.
“I'm going to look at picture books,” said Richeh. Even if they intended for younger children, Richeh liked them for their art.
“I'm going to stay right here…” said Tetia.
Her foster sisters went off. She, personally, was too nervous to do anything besides sit in her chair. She felt like the police were going to come through the door any second. They were runaways right now, weren't they? Would they get arrested? She ran her hands across the leather and looked at the shelves closest to her. Toys. Somehow they seemed more exciting than the toys at Walmart. Which didn't make sense. They were the same exact Lego sets here as they were there. She grabbed a plushie of a cute, smiley apple to hold onto while she waited.
Coco returned to her first.
“How were the volume extras?”
“I had already seen them online, I just forgot,” said Coco. She sighed and sat by Tetia. “I don't know if this was worth it. I'm really worried Mr. Qifrey is going to find out.”
“I know!” Tetia was quick to agree. She hopped up from her seat. “Let's tell the others we need to go back now.”
Coco nodded. “We've had our adventure for today.”
They sought out Agott who was in the middle of the young adult aisle, reading a dreary looking book with a dark purple color.
"We should probably head back soon," said Coco to Agott. "I'm sure Mr. Qifrey's almost done shopping."
Agott didn't look up from her book. "We haven't even been here for a half hour."
"It's best to be careful, though,” said Tetia.
"I'm almost at a good stopping point," said Agott. “Five more minutes…”
“But…”
She waved them off. “Go tell Richeh.”
Richeh was sitting in a chair in the children's section that was slightly too big for her. She had an entire pile of books on the floor besides her.
“Isn't the art pretty?” She showed them what she was looking at. Somehow they had gotten glitter on the page of the book.
“We’re leaving soon,” Coco told her.
“I don't want to. It hasn't even been thirty minutes yet.”
It was going to take her thirty minutes to put away all of those books.
“By the time me and Coco help you clean up, it'll be time to go,” Tetia said.
Richeh sighed. “Fine.”
By the time they had put the dozen picture books away, Agott was at a good stopping point in the book they were reading and had come to join them.
“I think we could spend at least another fifteen minutes here,” she said. “We're just going to spend another half hour at boring Walmart waiting for Mr. Qifrey to finish.”
“No…” said Tetia.
“Let's at least walk through the toys,” said Richeh.
“There's toys at Walmart,” said Coco.
“The ones here are better though,” Richeh insisted.
“Just a walkthrough.” Tetia pulled on her arm to get her going. “And then we–”
“Girls!”
A familiar voice called out to them. Tetia shivered and turned around. There he was. Mr. Qifrey, who was red in the face.
“Oh no,” said Richeh.
"There you are." Mr. Qifrey collapsed to the ground in front of them, breathing deeply.
"Are you okay?" asked Coco.
"No, I'm not. Give me a moment…" He slowly sat up, though he was still trembling. He seemed more fearful than angry. Tetia supposed that was better for their sakes, but yet it made her feel worse.
“How long have you've been here for?”
“Less than thirty minutes,” said Agott.
"Oh… I was so worried,” Mr. Qifrey finally said. “There was a sale on graphic tees, so I went to check to see if you girls wanted any, but you weren't there. I ran all around the store and I couldn't find you. I thought you had been kidnapped… All four of you at once. It was a bit of a ridiculous idea, isn't it?" Mr. Qifrey chuckled before slumping. “I'm glad to see you're all okay.”
What do they do? They all looked at each other. Clearly they needed to apologize, but which one of them should do it first?
Tetia took a step forward. “We're sorry. We didn't think about how worried you would be.”
“Well, I was,” said Mr. Qifrey. “I was about to text Olruggio what to do before I remembered there was a GameStop next door. Then when you weren't there I saw the bookstore and thought I would check. Oh… Just what were you girls thinking?”
There was a moment's silence.
“We were bored,” said Richeh finally.
“That doesn't mean you can come on here on your own, especially without telling me!” Qifrey scolded them all. He looked between the four of them. “Whose idea was it?”
No one said anything. Tetia looked at Richeh and Coco looked at Agott. Both of them glanced away.
Qifrey shook his head. “It doesn't matter. At least one of you could've stepped up and told me what was going on.” Qifrey stood up. “Let's go. Oh… Is there any books you girls want?”
“Yes,” said Agott immediately.
“Witchly Way has a new volume out!” said Coco.
“There's a book I want too!” said Richeh.
“All right, go and get them.”
The three of them ran off. Tetia however, stayed in place.
“Is there a book you want?” Qifrey asked her with a smile.
“No… I was too nervous to look around. But… What about our punishment, Mr. Qifrey?”
“Punishment. Oh, I'll, uh…” Qifrey frowned. “I'll have to talk to Olruggio about that… I don't know… But it's important for children to have books. Literacy is important. Yes…” He seemed unsure in his own words.
So, despite their misdeeds, they left with prizes.
“We can drop your books off in the car, and then we can go back to Walmart,” said Mr. Qifrey as they walked out.
“We have to go back?” said Richeh.
"When I couldn't find you four, I abandoned my cart so I could search for you faster. I'll have to start shopping all over. And no looking at the toy section this time! You four are staying by my side, got it?”
They would be in for at least another hour or two of shopping. That was punishment enough for what they had done. Hopefully Mr. Olruggio would agree.