It was 10 o'clock when Dan and Phil finally got to the supermarket. They'd had to walk the whole way there, and it wasn't even in Willow Creek: it was the next town over.

It was a fairly large shop and when they walked through the doors, a cheery looking lady offering them free samples of a new brand of cheese had greeted them.

They didn't take any.

Now, down the bread aisle, metal basket resting in the nook of his arm, Dan looked down to check his list. He'd abandoned Phil to go and find some lactose free milk and was quite enjoying his peace and quiet. Phil hadn't seemed to have stopped fidgeting since they'd arrived in this world and he didn't know how much more nerviness he could bear.

"Dan! Dan!" The voice of his friend came from a way in front of him.

"What is it?" Dan sighed, still staring down at the piece of paper in his hand.

"Can we get a houseplant, Dan?"

Dan turned to his left, facing away from the shelves in front of him, to look at his friend with a blank expression,

"That's not on the list, Phil," he said.

"But-" Phil started, "You sold the houseplant I got for Dil's house."

"I don't remember that," Dan replied, dryly, closing his eyes and turning away.

"You sold it to get money to buy decorations," Phil insisted.

"When was this?"

"2015."

"Wellll…"

"Please, Dan?"

"Didn't I send you out to get milk?" Dan asked, flatly.

"They didn't have any without lactose," Phil replied. "Looks like you won't be eating any cereal then…"

"Well, we don't have any cereal anyway; Tabitha finished it off this morning," Phil frowned.

"You can go and find the cereal, then!" Dan smiled.

"Okkkaaay…" Phil mumbled, buttoning up his shirt and walking away. He had no idea where he'd find cereal in such a huge place – it was certainly bigger than ASDA – but he'd definitely try.

This was when he felt a funny feeling in the air, like something was just a bit off, but he couldn't quite put his finger on it. Yet that wouldn't last long: rounding the corner was when he heard clicking footsteps behind him.

Scratching the back of his neck and turning around, Phil gazed down the length of the shop and saw the fringes of yellow fabric as somebody turned down an aisle a way away from him.

Usually, he'd just brush this off, but his heart skipped a beat when he saw it and something inside was telling him to follow.

So, quietly, trying not to be seen by Dan, he strolled forward to follow whomever he had seen.

It seemed, as he peered around the corner, his back against the end of the aisle, that the person in question was a woman.

As he looked further, Phil saw that said person had their hair tied up in a ponytail and that the fabric was a dress.

His heart sank.

It was none other than Erica Pendleton.

Phil recoiled in slight disgust. Of course he was bound to run into Erica on the day when he just wanted some peace and quiet.

'Oh well,' he thought at first, 'I'll just avoid her,' but that was before he realised that miss Pendleton was stood in the middle of aisle 9.

And aisle 9 just so happened to be the cereal aisle.

Giving an audible sigh, Phil stuffed his hands in his pockets and strolled down the aisle, trying his best not to make eye contact with Dil's worst enemy.

He knew which exact cereal was on the list, too, and Erica was stood right in front of it, but he wasn't about to go and find some other cereal just to avoid Erica – oh no, of course not – this was a mission: a mission to find the honey Cheerios.

Still not maintaining eye contact, Phil picked up two boxes of whatever cereal happened to be in front of him and pretended to inspect the nutrition information whilst he waited for Erica to move. He was stood right next to her and he really didn't want to ask her to move so he just stood awkwardly staring at the carbohydrate contents in Shredded Wheat.

Just as it looked as if Erica was finally moving away, she had the misfortune of bumping into Phil's arm and jumping him in such a way that he dropped the box of Shredded Wheat, catching it and dropping it again like a bar of soap. Or a hot crumpet.

"Sorry!" Phil coughed, awkwardly, a slightly scared and apologetic smile on his face. It wasn't his fault, but being the overly polite Englishman that he was, he instinctively apologised anyway.

"You should watch where you stand!" Erica retorted, huffily.

"Sorry!" Phil repeated again, swallowing nervously. Many things were racing through his mind right then as he was confronted with Erica's menacing eyes and disapproving frown. One such thought was how he realised that he was about a foot taller than Erica and she could hardly do anything to him, but he was nervous anyway because he's Phil and this is what he does.

"You better be – move out of the way next time," Erica rejoined, turning away and marching off.

Phil shakily replaced the Shredded Wheat, took a box of honey Cheerios and made his way back to Dan.

"Daaaannnn!" He bleated, tapping him on the shoulder, "I got your cereal."

Dan turned to look at him,

"Thanks, pal. Hey, are you all right there, Phil? You look like you've seen a ghost," he asked, looking quite concerned.

"Worse…" Phil swallowed, gently placing the cereal box into the basket, "I bumped into Erica Pendleton. Or rather, she bumped into me… quite literally…"

"Oh?" Dan replied, curiously.

"Yeah, I'll tell you later. Can we go now, Dan?"

"Sure, we have everything we need, I think," Dan nodded, "Let's go."
And they turned to leave.

Their plan of paying exiting the shop was interrupted by another aptly timed encounter. As they were approaching the tills, they saw their arch nemesis one again, also heading towards the checkouts.

"Careful…" Dan warned, under his breath, "A wild Erica appeared…"

"What will you do?" Phil chimed in, quietly, "Item? Fight? Run?"

"Dan and Phil used run."

"Too late: she's seen us," Phil hissed, holding Dan by the sleeve. He gave an awkward wave to Erica, who was staring him in the face.

Heading to the same till might not be a very good idea.

"It's OK, we'll just pretend we weren't leaving yet," Dan whispered, turning away. Their decoy wasn't very convincing, but at least Erica didn't follow them.

They ended up staying ten minutes longer than they expected, hanging about around the milk (where they found some lactose-free milk that Phil hadn't found before, so it wasn't all a waste of time, even though it was cashew milk and they hadn't tried that before, so it could taste horrible).

It was just as they were about to leave when they got a call from Dil. They'd exchanged numbers yesterday and found that there was surprisingly good signal in the Sims universe.

"Hey!" Dan coughed, hurriedly answering the call and shoving the shopping basket into Phil's arms.

"Are you two OK? I only sent you out for cereal and bread," Dil asked. He sounded quite concerned, "You've been quite a while."

"Oh, yeah, we're fine," Dan replied, looking around to check that Pendleton wasn't around, "We just… ran into someone that we knew."

"Oh? Which friend would that be?"

"Uh… Not a friend exactly, I wouldn't say."

"Not Eliza?"

"No, no, not Eliza… Worse: Erica Pendleton."
"Avoid her at all costs," Dil warned.

"Too late for that, mate," Phil chimed in, "I've had a bit of an awkward encounter already. I'll tell you about it later. Don't worry – we'll be back soon."

"Right. Stay safe, guys," Dil concluded, ending the call.

Dan stuffed his phone back in his pocket and looked around before giving a sigh and cracking his shoulders,

"OK, Phil, let's go," he sighed, putting a hand on his friend's shoulder and guiding him to the door.

Thankfully, their enemy had left by then.

Dan and Phil were half way home, carrier bags in hand, when they ran into her again.

This really wasn't their day.

Trying to keep a polite reputation, they decided to say hello, seeing as they were walking past her as they strolled by Magnolia Blossom Park.

"Hello there! Funny running into you again, right?" Phil laughed, uneasily.

"Yeah… You're not following me, are you?" Erica replied, still slightly frowning.

"No, no, of course not," Dan said, shaking his head, "Just happened to be walking the same way. Maybe a good time to introduce ourselves?"

"Erica," Erica said, flatly.

"Nice to meet you – I'm Dan and this is Phil."

"Sorry about our… encounter… in the supermarket, by the way," Phil coughed, "I have clown feet, it's bound to happen, I should've been looking where I was standing."

For the first time, Erica smiled.

"It's OK," she said, "Just a bit awkward. Nice to meet you, I guess."

"You too," Phil nodded, "We're staying with Dil, so if you ever want to pop in for a cup of tea, you're perfectly welcome."

Mentioning Dil was, of course, a very large mistake.

"Dil, huh?" Erica hummed with a scowl, "Maybe I will have to come by sometime…"

"You sure will! See you around, Erica," Dan nodded with a ginger grin, steering Phil away and heading on down the path, "Just had to bring up Dil, didn't you?" He hissed when they were out of earshot.

"Sorry," Phil stuttered for the fourth occasion in a very short amount of time, "Couldn't control myself – you know what I'm like."

"Yeah, try and be a bit more careful next time," Dan sighed as they neared home, "Now come on, it's almost twelve and I'm starving."