5. Nicole Ann
The grocery store on 7th wasn't especially big, nore did it have minor security. But it had a lot of people, and when you want to be under the radar, crowds are good.
John, Jasmine, and I flew for exactly 4 minutes 47 seconds. During our flight, Jasmine hung behind, gazing at the clouds and earth beneath us. I perfected the plan.
Exactly a 2 minute walk from our destination, we touched down. John landed first, in his awkward stumble he hadn't quite perfected, (the rest of us had it down quite well, but John had been blending in, not living a bird's life like me) and tightly folded his wings, gold like Scarlett's, but with reddish spots, like blood, into his body. Jasmine gracefully landed, touching ground at a run, and shook out her raven-black wings before folding them in.
By the time I hit ground behind them, they were already at a run, pulling their jackets over their ripped T-shirts.
We didn't run far, for fear of drawing attention. But we walked together, and I ran over the plan again and again in my mind. Jasmine would be the one actually retrieving our food, because she was so easy for humans to miss, and also because, in case of an emergency, she could keep anyone off our tail.
John looked annoyed, nervous, a whole slew of things. I wished I had Scarlett's gift to see how he really felt. I knew he hated crowds. A simple brush against a person and he would have an overload of often indistinguishable thoughts in his head.
I reached for his hand, and let him focus on me and my thoughts, instead of the thousand strangers around us.
*****
Raphie's 7th Street Market was no different from the usual, with the exception of its good security. It was cold, stocked like a warehouse of food, and crawling with customers.
"Jasmine, you take our bags and go start with perishables. I'll start working on the security cameras, but I need you, John, to distract the guards." John nodded, and went off to ask them about something or another.
I wished I had Freddi with me, because I knew she wouldn't refuse sneaking into the security room. It would be so easy for her. But she wouldn't do any actual stealing.
As soon as the guard was supposedly 'fixing' the ATM machine to get our John's imaginary card, I walked into the security room.
Most grocery stores don't have this much security, however, Raphie's has been a site of a lot of badly planned, and some well planned, shoplifting. After a while of kids and adult thieves stealing from him, Ralphie updated his security, a lot.
I hacked into the computer easily, and entered the inventory. We'd made a list of everything we needed, and I carefully took those out of the inventory. Nothing would appear to be missing. I checked on Jasmine, who had moved onto the canned goods. She gave a thumbs up, and held up three fingers. She needed three more minutes.
John and the guard had given up on the ATM, and John was pretending to get money from it. We really should get cell phones, I thought, then I could tell him how to withdraw money.
I checked on Jasmine, who gave me the go-ahead signal. I froze the security cameras' pictures, and set it to resume in two minutes. Plenty of time.
Making sure no camera was still working, I wiped the computer keyboard to smudge my fingerprints, and opened the window, keeping my hands covered.
We met in the place we had landed four minutes later, and high-fived. Jasmine gave me a bagel, which was a surprise. John took twenty seconds later, but had some cash with him.
"John, don't pickpocket people!" I scolded.
"I didn't. It's straight from the ATM."
"How did you…?"
"You're forgetting my 'magic touch'," he said, wiggling his fingers. Of course. It worked on objects, too. I was starting to realize how annoying it must be to be him.
We were gone not much later, and Ralphie's didn't notice our stolen goods.
And the bank never figured out that a hot seventeen year old boy had taken out money without a credit card.
We were pretty amazing outlaws.