Emma Tolly sat on her bed, humming to herself as she drew a lovely duck, her duck to be exact. Nancy wore a pink bow around her neck, loosely though, so she would be able to breath normally. Emma stopped every so often to admire Nancy's lovely white and yellow feathers before continuing on.

There was a knock on the door and Miss Ingledew popped her head through the doorway. "Emma, I need you to run to the grocery store for me and pick up two cartons of eggs, a full gallon of slim milk, a pack of steak, and 2 liters of soda, in case if we want to celebrate!"

"What are we celebrating?" asked Emma.

"Oh, you'll see!" Julia Ingledew said slyly. She reached into her purse and pulled out a handful of money and gave it to Emma, who stared at it with awe.

"Where did you get that?" she asked.

"Paton borrowed it from Grizelda," Julia said, smiling.

"Are we celebrating because he made it out alive?" Emma laughed.

"Maybe," Julia laughed along wih her niece.

Emma took the money and told Nancy that she would be back.

The Store at the Checkout Line...

Emma heaved her basket of groceries onto the counter and the clerk, a very tired looking woman, scanned the milk first and said, "£300 ," the lady said in a toneless voice.

Emma almost laughed but she was a polite girl so she pointed out, "That says it's £ 3 miss,"

The lady looked down and said, "Oh...my bad," in a toneless voice again. She placed it in a bag and did the same thing over again with the eggs.

"£ 200 for the eggs I see..." she said tonelessly again. Emma was getting annoyed.

"That says £ 2!"

The lady looked down again and said, "My bad again..."

She placed it in the bag with the milk and grabbed the liter of soda. "£400, wow, what a price..."

"That's only £4, can you not see it?" Emma asked, steaming.

Tha lady didn't say anything. She just grabbed a new bag and placed the soda in the bag. Then she saw the pack of steak and said, "Steak huh? Wow, £1000! You must be rich..."

Emma's jaw dropped down. "It says-"

But she was interuppted by a ring. Tha lady held up a finger and pulled out her cell phone. "Hello?" the lady said into the phone. "Oh hi Bitzy, no, I'm not busy at all!"

Emma, who felt insulted, said, "Are you crazy?"

The lady said in an annoyed tone, "Hold on, I'm being interrupted by a very rude costumer!"

Emma let out an angry sigh. "Please, would you finish?" she asked through gritted teeth.

The lady stared and spoke to her phone again, "No, I'm not busy,"

Emma was fuming now. "Look, I haven't got all day. I usually am a nice person but you really ought to remember what you're doing!" Emma said desperately.

The lady hung up and said to Emma, "What do you want?"

"To finish my check-out please!" Emma said, hiding her fury. Perhaps this woman was mentally crazy. Then again, maybe she isn't...who is she kidding, of course this woman has GOT to be mentally crazy!

"Oh yes, why didn't you say so? All you had to do was ask," the woman said, back into her toneless voice. She placed the meat in with the soda and she started to scan the last item. "Eggs huh? £300 please ma'am."

"It says £3 if you really must know!" Emma said, feeling relieved that the chek-out was over...or was it???

"Pay up ma'am," the lady said, blowing a bubble with her gum.

Emma reached in her pocket and counted up the money. £22 is all Emma owed.

Emma handed it over and picked up her groceries to head out but the lady said, "Hold on, you're £1032 short."

"Even if I do owe a lot of money for the food, that isn't the right amount anyway," Emma said, groaning.

Then Charlie appeared next to Emma. "Hey Emma!" Charlie said.

Emma turned around and smiled. "Charlie! Good to see you, your mom works here, right? Well, this lady is bugging me about the prces a bit..."

"Oh Darley? She's like that all the time! Hey, I got a message from Uncle Paton from your aunt and she says to get some chips too."

"Would you stay to help?" Emma asked, she didn't want to be stuck with Darley the rest of the check-out.

"Er...sure?" Charlie forund himself saying.

Emma looked at the snack rack behind her and grabbed a bag of chips and said to Darley, "These too please,"

Darley took them and opened them, saying, "Let me check that they're not poison."

Emma and Charlie groaned. "Nooo...."

Darley went, "Not poison...not poison...not poison..."

Charlie laughed nervously. "I have to go Em, my mom needs me, gotta go, bye!" Charlie rushed off before Emma could protest.

"You owe me!" Emma called angrily.

"Not poison...not poison...not poison..." Darley said, eating one after another.

Five Minutes Later...

"Not poison..." That all, would you like them back?" Darley asked Emma who shooked her head vigorously.

"That's okay, I'll get another one for you but first I have to check if they're not poison!" Darley said earnestly.

Emma moaned. "Oh nooo..."

"Not poison...POISON! No, just joking!" Darley said tonelessly as Emma's eyes widen with shock.

Emma's eyes went back to normal and she just left Darley eating away for any "poison".

"Wait, you forgot your chips!" Darley called after Emma.

Emma kept on walking and Darley shrugged and brushed her purple hair away. "Oh well, maybe my niece Olivia Vertigo would like them!"