Chapter Three

"So tell me about yourself, Tim," Callie requested as they entered the store and she grabbed a cart. He grabbed it from her and ignored her look as they began going down aisles.

"What do you want to know?" Callie shrugged.

"Whatever you feel comfortable telling a stranger that you just met this morning." Tim laughed.

"Okay, well, let's see. You already know I have four brothers. Um, I'm going to Gotham University for my undergrad program - which I'm in my last year - before I'll do online school for my masters in computer engineering."

Callie turned her head, listening to him as she placed a pack of strawberries, blueberries, green apples, a watermelon, bananas, kiwis, cherry tomatoes, and green grapes into the cart before moving onto the vegetables. "So you're a genius, huh?"

"N-Not really." He stammered, blushing.

"Okay, boy genius, but I see you." If anything her words caused him to blush even deeper. She added to her cart baby carrots, cucumbers, and lettuce. She wasn't that big on vegetables but eating healthier in New Rome and Camp Half-Blood has worked its way into her diet over the years and so even if she didn't necessarily like something, she'll start weirdly craving a cucumber slice or a carrot.

"How about you?" Tim said, not even blinking at the her choices so far.

"Oh, no. I barely graduated high school - just opted to get my GED instead and that was good enough for my mom. She was just happy that I finished. I don't think I would be able to have the patience for college or any higher education."

"Why'd you have so much struggle in school if you don't mind?"

"If I minded, I wouldn't have brought it up. But I have ADHD and dyslexia, those don't help and I've gotten kicked out of almost every school that I've went to without fail. It became the norm for me to be kicked out of my school every year and so it just made it harder on me and so I just lost the motivation to try harder."

They had arrived at the frozen goods aisle. She immediately threw in a couple cartons of chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream, frozen pizzas, tv dinners, frozen waffles, sausage and pancake on a stick, breakfast bowls, chicken fried rice, egg rolls, pizza rolls, and more frozen foods found their way into the cart.

She met Tim's bewildered look as he eyed some of the items in her cart. "What?"

"What's a pizza roll?" He asked curiously. Callie eyed him.

"Are you being serious?"

"I wouldn't of asked if I wasn't."

"Pizza rolls are only the best after school snack in the whole world. Stop by my place sometime after class and you'll see." He returned her skeptical look.

"By the picture of the packaging, they don't look appetizing at all."

"Haven't you ever heard of 'don't judge a book by its cover'?"

"…"

"That's what I thought. Onto the next aisle, boy genius."

Callie ended up needing a second cart by the end. The next aisle had been sauces, canned soups, canned vegetables, ramen of all kinds, and canned fruits which she had loaded up on. Then the next had bread, coffee (Tim went kind of nuts with the coffee - he picked out K-cups which led to Callie having to get a Keurig for when Tim came over), little Debbie's, and popcorn. Then the next had baking and spice supplies so Callie grabbed one of each spice and herb that she could find, flour, sugar, brown sugar, powdered sugar, were also grabbed. Then they also grabbed a spice rack, spice labels, and spice jars as both Tim and Callie thought it would cooler than just leaving the spices in their containers. Junk food was next which included candy and chips. Moving to the refrigerator aisle, they grabbed ground beef, Italian sausages, chicken legs, and pulled pork. She also grabbed lunchables - another thing that Tim looked at oddly -, shredded cheese, milk, eggs, case of water, case of coke, sprite, and lemonade.

By the time that they got to the check out both carts were overflowing but Callie was satisfied that she wouldn't have to be back in a long while to do a full restock for a while.

While they had been shopping, Tim and Callie had talked and their bond had grown stronger.

"Your total is $412.84," the cashier said with a monotone voice.

"I would like them delivered to my apartment building, how much extra would that be, sir?" The cashier sighed but pushed a button and the keypad in front of Callie lit up.

"Type in your address and the estimate will appear on the screen and it will ask if you want to confirm delivery or deny."

Callie typed it in and saw that same day delivery for her items was only $30.

Callie confirmed and tapped her card on the keypad. The cashier handed her a receipt and a barcode with a number under it.

"Here is your receipt and your same day delivery confirmation, ma'am. You should be getting your items before 5 PM today. Julio will take your carts to our secure pickup and delivery location and will have it out for delivery as soon as a driver is available." The bag man smiled at Callie before taking the two carts away, leaving Tim and Callie bag free.

"Thank you, sir. Have a good day! Let's go, Tim, we have so much more exploring to do."

They exited the store and just looked around at the busy sidewalk. Tim turned to Callie to speak but stopped when his phone began to ring. He sighed and fished it out.

Callie stood patiently off to the side as Tim began his one sided conversation.

"Hello?"

"What do you want, demon?"

"I'm hanging out with a friend."

"Have Alfred take you."

"Well, if Alfred isn't available because he is with Bruce, then go ask Duke."

Tim met Callie's eyes and felt the courage to say his next words - words that he had always thought but never had the courage to speak. "Demon, I'm not dropping what I'm doing just because you want to go to the museum. Call a taxi or something. I'm not planning on being home until late so you'll just have to wait until either Duke or Alfred or Bruce get home. I've gotta go."

And then he hung up and stared at his phone as his mind caught up with what he just did.

He lifted his eyes to Callie's.

"I've barely known you a day, but I'm already talking back to the demon spawn."

Callie began to make the slow walk back towards her apartment building and Tim kept in step with her.

"So you feel it too? A bond forming between the two of us?"

"Yes, but not of-"

"Lovers, but as friends, maybe someday as family… Also, I'm twenty-two and you just turned eighteen. So that will never happen!"

"Yes! Exactly… are you a meta? Able to manipulate the mind?"

Callie looked at Tim so horrified as the suspicion that had begun to form in his mind immediately died. Tim could already tell that Callie couldn't lie even if it would save her life.

"People can do that? Is there anyway to stop it from happening?"

"Yes, some people have been gifted with it, and some villains have mind control devices that are sometimes a b*tch to break. There are some exercises you can do that I'll send you later."

Relief filled Callie's face and Tim began to think that maybe had had her mind messed with before and she still had fear over it happening again.

They reached Callie's apartment building and Tim looked up at it in surprise. "Hey, is this one of the Wayne owned apartments?"

"Yes, that's what the landlord told me when I arrived yesterday." Callie stepped over to the glass wall and there was a different man but no less friendly than the one yesterday. "Hello, I'm Callie. I'm the new resident of 821. I have a delivery of groceries coming by 5 tonight. Is there anyway you can page me when they come?"

"Oh, absolutely. Is there anything else I can assist you with?"

"Nope, that is all. Thank you sir!" Callie tugged Tim over to the elevator and they took it up to the 8th floor.

Tim followed her to the front of her door, both could hear the grumpy neighbor from before rustling around his door.

"Let's hurry up. My neighbor is grump." Callie said just as she got the door open and ushered Tim in.

He smirked. "Huh. Sounds like one of my brothers."

Neither noticed that the neighbor's door opened and that the owner heard Tim's voice, causing his eyes to widen in surprise. Tim?! He thought.