Shopping Day (For Blue)

Cassie put a hand over her mouth in shock as she watched Ace's basket and things go tumbling down the tile. Jocelyn seemed really mad, and she wasn't sure why, but Cassie had had worse. And she already beat Jocelyn before, so...

"I'm sorry I hurt your leg before. I needed to save my manager, and I didn't want you to stop me because you still wanted to win the match... I hope it wasn't too bad." Cassie motioned back and forth between Ace and Jocelyn. "Ace, this is Jocelyn. She was my opponent last year in Hawaii." She wiggled the handle of her cart to see if she could get free yet. Still stuck.

Oh good. That happened. Now her veggies were rolling all over the floor.

Groaning, Ace palmed her head and shook it, trying to remain relatively calm despite how irritating this girl was.

"Greeeat. Look "Jocelyn", was it? I didn't understand like, half of what you just said, and now I've got to figure out which of my veggies are on the floor. Thanks for that, by the way."

Ace set her other basket down, before her meat could be smacked away as well, before glaring at Jocelyn.

"Now it sounds like Cassie here has already kicked your ass once, and I'm pretty sure I could take her myself, which means I can probably kick your ass too. Now, you gonna put your finger down already, or are we really going to get ourselves banned this store over you being a bitch?"

Cassie wrinkled her brow and tucked her chin down and frowned. She could feel warmth in her cheeks and knew she was turning a little red. Why would Ace even say that?

"You're not being very nice..." She said, to neither of them in particular, while subconsciously Jocelyn's accent began to creep into her voice. Ever since she was little, she had always found herself unintentionally mimicking the accents of people around her. She could even do them on command. This time she sounded indistinguishable from a native Aussie.

"Shut the fuck up, Freckle!" Jocelyn barked at Cassie. "I had you beat and you know it!" Jocelyn growled, snapping her attention quickly back to Haley. She looked down at her finger and up at Haley again. "Tch. Like I give a shit about getting banned from some store." She said. "Why don't the two of you get out of my fucking face and go be dish lickers together somewhere else."

Jocelyn flipped up her finger and flicked Haley's nose. With her foot she kicked the other basket so it spilled everywhere as well and then brushed past them, roughly bumping against Cassie's shoulder as she barreled past. They were a bunch of pussies and Jocelyn was finished wasting her time with them.

Ace growled at Jocelyn's blatant display of disrespect, but resisted the urge to punt the bitch between her legs in revenge. It wouldn't do any good, except to make her feel better. Besides, damn it, she wanted to keep shopping here, the food here was way more appetizing than buying a bunch of ramen and chicken from Costco.

"Oh goody...now I get to shop all over again..."

She muttered, turning and picking up her fallen meats and veggies while dealing with the other surprise of the day, even if she wasn't really sure what to say, given this, as well as the last, incident that occurred when they met.

"...Hi Cassie."

Cassie jumped back again when Jocelyn snapped at her. Why was everyone telling her about how they could beat her? Anyone could beat anyone.

But there was a reason why Cassie had experienced loss so rarely in her life, and victory so frequently.

"O-okay, bye Jocelyn." Cassie said, gripping the handle of her shopping cart like it was the only thing keeping her from being swept away by whatever invisible current drove Jocelyn. She looked at Ace, then remembered to smile. "Hi, Ace. Sorry about your meat. Let me help you..."

She began to make a lap down the aisle, squatting down with her knees together to pick up fallen vegetables and packages of meat.

"Thanks....sorry about all that. I wasn't expecting to run into her here, and I certainly didn't expect her to act out like that. Hope you didn't think we hang out or anything like that."'

She said, soon getting her food back in her baskets. She'd probably have to replace a couple items, though the meat was at least packaged well and the floor didn't appear overly dirty, though she'd certainly replace the veggies that touched the bare floor.

Sighing, she looked around a little embarrassed before speaking to Cassie again.

"So uh....sorry about that business with Akashi...I shouldn't have snapped like that. It wasn't my place, I should have just left."

"It's okay. I like Jocelyn. She's funny."

Cassie finished picking up the last of the fallen foodstuffs and went back to her cart. She casually leaned against it with her elbow. "Oh, it's okay. Everybody has their moments." Luckily, Ace was gone before Cassie had hers. "I hope that you're not going to hold a grudge with Akashi or anything. Everybody knows she's not usually like that, it's just in this particular case she's gone a little nutty."

Ace sighed and nodded.

"Yeah...I guess I can let it go. Don't really have a choice. I like being friends with Taylor, you and I were getting along pretty well before too. I'd rather not give up the few friends I've made just because Akashi wants to be crazy."

She stood, separating the few veggies she would replace from the ones that were still good, so that she didn't forget.

"I mean, if she keeps trying to crap on me like that, I'm not going to stand for it, but I won't start anything with her on purpose, and I'll be cool if she is."

Ace suddenly looked around the nearby aisles, looking over at Cassie with a raised eyebrow.

"Don't you guys like, live together? She's not here right now, is she?"

Cassie nodded. "Yup. But she's not here, she's busy with... something. I dunno. I wanted to make macaroni and cheese tonight, the good kind. I don't know if Akashi's ever had it."

She stopped for a moment, and stared thoughtfully past Ace with half a frown. "I think... If it was you being a little nutty, you'd want people to cut you some slack, right? I think sometimes you just have to let people be crazy. You don't know what she's going through. I don't really know, but I think she's having family problems. I... don't ask too much about her family."

She looked back at Ace with a little smile. "Anyway, being nice is usually the best idea. Right?"