Dime Store Pt. II

"So, it's stuck in a lab that you can't get it out of?" Ree asked, the side of her face resting on one fist.

Lucy found herself wondering whether the woman's arm ever fell asleep. It was a rather mundane thought in comparison to where they were. She glanced to the side where Aarti and Rena were gushing over flavors of something called 'kombucha' while giggling. This place had a bizarre variety of things on offer, just like a regular store even if it was anything but.

When the door had swung open in the lab, a girl had strolled through, wearing a fabulous pair of boots paired with a cute little cowgirl outfit. She'd introduced herself as Joey which was just as cute as her whole look. Joey had dragged a boy who had to be the infamous Bastian behind her.

They'd tried breaking the container the hat was in to no avail. They hadn't had anything other than Aarti's brute strength and a pair of nail files from Rena's little purse. All they'd wound up with were two broken nail files and Rena's artful cursing while Aarti nursed a bruised fist to the side.

So, Joey had suggested going to her headquarters for more tools. Then they'd promptly all decamped as lights started flashing ominously with a scary lack of accompanying sound. It had been more than enough persuasion to get Lucy, Rena and Aarti to trot through the door after Joey and Bastian.

Now, Lucy was trying to explain things to the manager—Joey and Bastian's boss—Ree. Ree, a black woman with cascades of curling brown hair tinged with blonde, had listened to the entire story with gradually widening eyes, her eyebrows slowly creeping upwards.

"What is going on with this world?" Ree asked, looking towards Joey and Bastian who shrugged.

"If I'd known," Bastian began, holding up his hands in a half-shrug.

"You'd still have gone because, hello? Amazons?" Joey retorted. "The hat was in some sort of container we need tools to get into."

"And they probably know that someone was trying to tamper with it," Lucy added. She squinted at the counter in front of her. She could have sworn she saw her old favorite candy bar, but the maker had gone out of business ages ago. "There was an alarm triggering when we left."

They all ignored the unspoken subtext that that was the only reason Lucy, Aarti and Rena had come back with Joey and Bastian.

"Wasn't Sebastian able to just call the hat to him?" Ree asked, frowning now.

Joey and Bastian shook their heads.

"I tried, but there was interference of some sort," Bastian admitted. He blew out an angry sigh. "It was like I couldn't reach it at all."

"That might be a bad thing," Lucy said. She carefully sorted her words as everyone's attention landed on her. "Maybe the alarm wasn't that we were trying to get the hat out of the case, but perhaps it was about the hat trying to get to Bastian?" She twirled a lock of hair around her finger. "When I think about it, it wasn't when Aarti tried breaking the case that everything started going off, it was after."

"When I tried summoning the hat," Bastian said, whirling around and gesturing out of frustration.

"This is a first," Ree said. "We're going to have to research it some before we try again. You have the coordinates, right, Joey?"

Joey nodded reluctantly. She ran a finger around the brim of her hat in front of her right eye and a small screen appeared, hanging in mid-air. The screen fizzled with static before clearing to show the room they'd recently exited. Guards and researchers were milling around, the researchers using some sort of equipment on the case the hat was in.

"Hopefully, they'll think it's a glitch." Ree straightened up. She ran her hands through her hair and fluffed it out with an angry noise. "Just when I thought that I could go on vacation. Just a couple days in Maui, or maybe even the beaches of Biloxi, but no, this had to happen."

"You don't take vacations," Joey pointed out.

"Because things like this keep happening!"

Lucy found herself dearly wanting to know just what was happening to keep Ree from vacations. She forcefully stuffed the impulse to ask away and turned towards where she'd last seen Rena and Aarti.

"You've got to come this way," Rena said from behind her, nearly making her jump.

"What's that in your hand?" Lucy asked, eyeing the cup of reddish liquid in Rena's hand. It was accompanied by an armful of junk food, most of which she'd never seen before.

"This place is awesome! They have strawberry kombucha! Strawberry! I need to just set up camp here and have everything delivered," Rena raved. "Come this way! They have Crystal Lemon Berry Splash soda! Can you believe it? I thought it was just a one-time summer thing a couple years ago."

Lucy drew in a breath to refuse and paused. She remembered Rena ranting about it being a temporary thing a couple of years ago. Rena had obsessed about that stuff for nearly a year, trying desperately to buy any supply she could find. Unfortunately, she hadn't been the only one.

"Fine, let's go taste the soda or buy it or whatever," Lucy agreed, letting her friend tug her in the direction of the bank of soda machines.

"Well, it's that, and this is major weirdness, even for us," Rena whispered to Lucy once they were away from the counter. The three people who worked for the store were still there, trying to come up with a solution to acquire the hat.

"When haven't our lives been weird?" Lucy asked with a bit of bitterness. "This isn't the strangest thing I've ever heard of, but I could wish for a better result."

"Oh, they'll figure it out. It's their hat, after all," Aarti said, joining them at the end of an aisle. "This place is great. Did you see the pastry aisle? They have this chocolate chip vanilla coffeecake over there, cheap!"

"You're using septims to pay for everything. Of course, it's cheap," Rena snarked. "I'm not even going to ask where you found them. Your mom is probably going to ground you forever."

"They're my coins, and she doesn't know anything about them," Aarti said, plucking the things from Rena's arm and dropping them into the basket she held. "Lucy, find some munchies to take back. We'll get them to drop us at the hideout or maybe outside Simone's house." At Lucy and Rena's quizzical glances, she added, "Court's at Simone's house? Remember?"

"Oh, yeah," Lucy agreed. "Let me see what kind of jerky they have. He likes this weird teriyaki pineapple stuff." Lucy drifted towards another aisle while Rena scrunched up her face.

"No, I've tried it. Surprisingly not disgusting," Aarti said. "However, I bet if we're nice, they'll also give us something that'll take us back to where the hat's at."

Rena rolled her eyes as she disappeared down another aisle, heading towards where the larger bottles of soda were.