WHO: Lil Auditore & Jamila Denial. WHAT: Manual labor WHEN: Saturday, September 14, late afternoon. WHERE: Willowbrook campus (by the parking lot nearest to the teacher apartments.) RATING: Low. STATUS: Incomplete, OPEN.
It was her own damn fault. She had no one to blame but herself and rationally, Lil knew this. Today was the day she'd gone out to the farmer's market in search of apples and, of course, she'd gone way overboard with it all. Again. She hadn't just deviated from the list she'd made herself beforehand or merely gone over budget. Lil had made two entirely unnecessary extra stops on her journey-- including one to a specialty food and cooking supply store that featured gourmet oils and vinegars that could be taste tested before purchasing, where she'd spent almost the entirety of her paycheck. It was entirely ridiculous, how many bags of produce and oils and vinegars she'd managed to fill her rented little Zipcar with and even more ridiculous, she still had to actually carry it all to her apartment!
Not for the first time, Lil muttered her fair share of curses that she'd never developed any kind of telekinetic skill to supplement her telepathy. It would've made so much sense (or so she would insist whenever she got encountered inconveniences like this one). A more active power to complement her reactive power! She also cursed herself for selecting a fourth floor apartment in the first place-- though she did that on a fairly daily basis, regardless of whether or not she'd gone shopping. Lil had the best of intentions when she'd chosen her living quarters (just like she'd had the best of intentions when she'd set out for groceries this morning). She knew she could use the extra exercise and even though the building was equipped with an elevator, Lil figured that sometimes, she might be inclined to use some of the building's stairs. But in the three years she'd lived there Lil had never once voluntarily used the stairs. All that life choice had served to do was make lugging things to her home all the more complicated and drawn out an endeavor.
But sitting in her rented car, whining about the injustice of her own poor choices, would only make her feel just the tiniest bit better briefly-- Lil knew she had too many purchases requiring refrigeration to let linger in their cooler bags for much longer and that would quickly drive her crazy if she let it. With an excessively melodramatic sigh entirely for her own benefit,
"Pardon me, but--" Lil said upon approaching the first person she spotted upon getting out of her car, hands planted on her hips. "--can you be bribed with baked goods to help me haul my groceries? There's a lot of apples but they're doomed to be smashed up into ciders and pies so it'll be totally worth it" She smiled in what she hoped was a winsome enough manner, adding, "And I do have two grocery trolleys--" Lil made a gesture back to where she parked the car to indicate the trolleys were already there and did not require retrieving, "--and there is an elevator, so it shouldn't take more than two trips between the both of us." She then added a perfunctory, "Pretty please?"