The Starlight Sentinels: The Amusing Story of a Struggling Superhero Team

Chapter 4: The Haunting Visage of Vyn Lon

"I gotta be honest, I'm really dreading this," said Sam.

"We'll be okay," assured Olivia as she focused on her driving.

"Seriously, I don't want to do this," admitted Sam.

"You knew this was coming, it's too late to back out now," said Olivia as they rounded a corner.

"I know, it's just... I just thought we would work out a better way than this." Olivia slowed to a stop and put her car in park while Sam looked up at the supermarket looming over her. "A'ight, let's get this over with." The pair grabbed a shopping cart each and headed inside.

Sam did her best to stifle the urge to groan as she and Olivia marched through aisles of produce, but somewhere around trying to locate tangerines she couldn't bear it any long and let out a long and irritated sigh.

"Something bothering you?" asked Olivia, despite knowing the answer.

"Why the hell does Daryl insist two people take turns shopping for everybody else?"

"He said it's a team building exercise; gives us all a chance to bond," shrugged Olivia as she tossed what she was somewhat certain were tangerines into one of the carts. "Or something like that."

"It's a waste of time. Everyone should just do their own damn shopping. Instead, we're stuck here shopping for five people and fetching tangerines for someone who thinks chores are a form of team building."

"Yeah, like it matters who goes shopping with who. I'm just—wait, where are the grapes?"

"Up front where we came in," answered Sam. "Why?"

"Those were on Angela's list."

Sam groaned again. "You see, this is just inefficient, two people with five shopping lists split between them. You know what, just give me yours and Angie's lists. I'll keep track of the lists; you grab things I read off them; division of labor."

"Um, okay." Olivia handed her lists over to Sam. "I'm gonna run back and grab the grapes." Sam examined the lists while Olivia dashed back to the front of the store.

"Damn. Is Angela's handwriting always this fancy?" Sam asked herself. Olivia returned with the grapes and the pair pushed their carts deep into dairy territory.

"Hold up," said Sam as they neared a veritable bounty of cheeses. "Okay, I want Cracker Barrel extra sharp, Kid wants Kraft singles, Daryl wants... Reny Picot brie soft ripened and Alouette gorgonzola crumbled?" Olivia looked over at Sam, who was just staring at Daryl's list in disbelief. "That son of a bitch," Sam grumbled to herself as Olivia started hunting for the cheeses. "So, you're just gonna have to what?"

"What?" said Olivia as she hunted for the correct cheeses.

"You said it didn't matter who you shopped with because you just..."

"Oh, I'm just gonna have to go out again later anyway."

"Why's that?"

"I need things I don't feel like putting on a list for everyone to see."

"Like what? Tampons?" Olivia didn't answer. "Oh come on, you can tell me, we're bonding remember? Oh, I just got a great idea," said Sam as a sinister smile moved across her face. "When it's Daryl's turn to do the shopping I'm gonna put like thirty maxi pads on my list. See how he likes standing around in line with those stacked up in his cart. And I'll ask for two dozen paper towels as well, make him lug around a third cart with nothing but paper towels all day."

"You'd really buy a ton of pads and paper towels you don't need, just to annoy Daryl?" asked Olivia.

"Damn right I will. He wants to push this arbitrary grocery routine on all of us, then he can bond with my brand of menstrual products. And paper towels have a million uses, so you never don't need them. Hell, I've used folded ones for pads a few times."