''Right, here we are. It's taken us twenty four minutes and thirty one seconds to walk to the store and we have yet to buy all of the ingredients.'' Jeff stated as he glanced at his watch.
''Well what ah we waiting foh? Let's hu'hhy up!'' Ness firmly gripped his friends wrist and dragged him through the automatic doors. ''My mothah will kill us if we take moah sen an houah!''
''Okay, okay. But, Ness… Get off my wrist. You're hurting me.''
''Sah-ee…'' Ness loosened his grip and dropped his hand to his waist before looking up above the shop aisles to get a view of the signs which stated what could be found in each aisle. ''What is fhast on seh list?''
''Eggs. For some ridiculous reason, she'd like twenty of them.'' Jeff raised an eyebrow before shrugging.
''Okay.'' Ness scanned the signs once more before coming across one that wrote 'Dairy and eggs' ''Sere it is. Let's go!'' He hurriedly scurried past several shoppers and skipped into the aisle that he wanted with Jeff following at his heels.
''Do they do boxes with twenty eggs in or will we need two with ten to make the sum of twenty?'' Jeff questioned as he observed the shelves.
Ness assumed it as a rhetorical question and ignored him before grabbing any old box and throwing it into the basket that Jeff had retrieved before he got rudely dragged into the store.
''Be careful, Ness! They're fragile! They're probably all smashed up now!'' Jeff moaned.
Ness moaned back and tutted as he opened the egg box to find that they were luckily all in one piece. ''You wohhy too much! What's next?''
Jeff pointed at the second item on the shopping list and looked up at his friend. ''Milk.''
''Okay, sats just ovah sere.'' Ness skipped over to the refrigerated milk and grabbed a four litre bottle with a green lid. ''Semi skimmed.'' He said as he carefully propped the milk beside the eggs so that Jeff wouldn't hassle him for being too rough, again.
''Alright, next is...'' Jeff readjusted his chunky glasses, pushing them up his nose and squinting. ''Frozen vegetables. You know, the ones that are already prepared and chopped up and you just have-''
''I know what f'osen vegthables ah, Jeff!'' Ness shook his head in disbelief at how his friend could assume that he didn't know what freakin' frozen vegetables were. His mother brought them all the time and he hated them so obviously he'd know!
''Oh, okay. That's quite alright. Let's head of to the frozen food section. I predict they'll be there.''
''Jeff, if you keep standing sere and announcing you'ah p'hedictions sen we'll nevah be done quick enough!'' Ness rolled his eyes and once again, took hold of his slow coach of a friend and dragged him down a couple of aisles despite his complaints of his aching wrist and how the basket was thumping against his leg.
''You're so rough!'' Jeff growled as he stood in the fairly populated aisle and rubbed his sore, red wrist.
''Sa'hee. Be quickah next time.'' Ness replied oblivious to the small mark he had caused the bowl hair cutted male.
Jeff deeply sighed and reached into a small freezer for the frozen vegetables that he had spotted. ''Hey, look. I'm faster than you. You've been looking all this time and you didn't spot them but I did. Now who's slow?'' Jeff sniggered as he snapped out of his usually sensible state and began clapping childishly.
Ness stared daggers at Jeff and proceeded to snatch the list from the laughing boy's grasp and skim-reading it. ''Now sat I know what's on seh list, I'll get eve'hysing at seh speed of light! You just watch, Jeffeh!''
With that, Ness bolted off, reciting the list in his memory, pushing past fellow customers, retrieving the necessary items, piling them into his arms and also, very resourcefully, carrying a few in his teeth's clench.
Before Jeff knew it, Ness came rushing back around fifteen minutes later with three quarters of the lists items in hand... And hanging from his teeth... He didn't bother storing anything in his backpack or pockets incase people instantly suspected that he was shoplifting. ''Does sis mean I win?!'' Ness exclaimed triumphantly as he not very thoughtfully and very literally dropped everything into the basket that Jeff was still holding.
Jeff almost instantly got weighed to the store floor. ''NESS! BE CAREFUL, YOU CLUTZ!''
Ness flinched at the ever-so-slightly shorter boy's words but then covered his mouth with his left hand and giggled like a little school girl. ''I'm sah'ee... Again.'' He apologised sincerely and put a hand on his friend's shoulder.
''Nevermind.'' Jeff said picking himself up and clearing his throat, hoping to regain some dignity prior to just falling flat on the floor. ''Let's just finish up and get to the check out. Your mother will be expecting us very soon.''
''Sats t'hue. What's left? I'm getting bo'hed now.'' Ness groaned before taking off his rumoured-to-be-attached baseball cap and ruffling his slightly sweaty hair.
''Just the beverages. Three cartons of concentrated apple juice, Two bottles of lemonade, One box of those small pierce-with-a-straw kwenchy cups and a jar of grained coffee.'' Jeff stated with no mistakes. As per usual.
''Okay. Wait heeya again. I'll go. I'm quickah. No offence but a slug would make it to af'icah and back fastah sen you could even spin ahound.'' Ness said with a harsh matter-of-fact tone before sassing him with his finger and a wiggle of his hips.
Ness sprinted off for the millionth time and Jeff stood there patiently as he read what ingredients were made to create a bar of soap on the back of a dove bar. He was pretty much in a total soap trance before he thought he heard somebody shout his name. The partially confused boy looked up for a second and took in his surroundings once again before shaking his head and assuming he was hearing things.
''JEFF! HEY, JEFF DON'T IGNORE ME!''
Nope, he wasn't hearing things. Where the heck was this familiar voice coming from? Jeff raised an eyebrow and grew anxious. He shuffled uncomfortably and scanned the concentrating faces of the other shoppers. How he wished Ness would just hurry up.
''JEFF!'' Suddenly a very feminine hand slapped itself onto the startled boy's shoulder and spun him around to face the owner of it. ''Why were you ignoring me?!'' A pretty, young, blonde girl grinned as she pulled her friend into a tight, breath-taking hug. Not breath-taking in the sweet way, either... Breath-taking as in literally. He couldn't breathe. He was sure that everyone actually wanted to kill him.
''Paula! Freaking heck! You scared the life out of me!'' Jeff chuckled as he breathed a sigh of relief when she finally loosened her grip.
''Sorry, hun! Hey, are you here alone?'' Paula looked to each side of Jeff as if she expected somebody to randomly emerge from the shop floor and say that they were with him.
''No, actually I'm just waiting for Ness to return with some drinks.'' Jeff glanced at his wristwatch. ''I wonder what's taking him so long.''
''Should I go look fo-'' Paula began.
''NO.'' Jeff interrupted. ''I'm fed up of looking like some sad loner who is just standing here for absolutely no reason.''
Paula giggled and propped herself on top of one of the sides of the small yet long refrigerator. ''What do you need ALL that food for anyway? Twenty Eggs? Wow.''
''Ness's mother is hosting a small dinner party for an old friend and me and Ness got given the fortunate job of travelling to the store to retrieve the food and drinks.''
''Oh, why didn't you knock on for me? I could have helped.'' Paula pouted.
''We were going to... Until Ness's mother insisted that Ness ate some food and then suddenly remembered that she had a dinner party.'' Jeff huffed. ''That reminds me... She never gave me the steak that she offered!''
''I'M BACK!'' Ness bellowed from an aisle away with his arms and mouth yet again full of items. The sound came out rather muffled as he had the handle of the kwenchy cup box stuffed in his mouth. His eyes sparkled when he saw Paula.
''Hi, Ness!'' Paula grinned.
Ness shoved the items into the basket and ran over to his female friend. ''Paula! Hey!'' He wrapped his arms around her waist and slid her off the refrigerator and pulled her into a hearty hug. ''How g'heat to see you!''
''Look, I hate to ruin the romantic scene but we're done getting the stuff. Can we just pay and GO now?'' Jeff said impatiently.
''Oh. Yes. Of couhse.'' Ness slowly pulled away from Paula and picked up the shopping basket without any struggle despite it's quite tremendous weight.
''Show off.'' Jeff muttered.
With that, the three children trekked over to the check out and paid for their stuff with no need for the credit card and then packed everything into several bags before handing them out equally between them.
''Sanks foah seh help, Paula.'' Ness smiled and winked flirtatiously.
''That's quite alright, Nessie.'' Paula giggled foolishly as she quite obviously swooned over him. ''But let's hurry to your house, now.''
''Good idea.'' Jeff pitched in.
