smiling critters

chapter 4 - groceries

The next morning, it was right back to tight schedules and a stressful amount of pressure. He had more chores than he did the rest of the week, but at least his room was still clean and the toughest of his homework was done. All he had to do was laundry, errands, and science homework. Now, doing laundry was always a challenge since it meant doing everyone's laundry, not just his own. Some of his siblings were nice enough to wash more intimate clothing pieces, while others were less considerate, sometimes leaving very crude or vulgar things in their pockets or just tucked into the inside of sleeves or pant legs. It was never not gross and he always made sure to wash his paws at least 2 or 3 times when he was done. After he left the laundry room and went up to his bedroom to get ready to go to the store, once he was at the front door, he was shocked to see his sister, Genevieve, the second oldest behind Godfrey, waiting for him at the door.

"Are you finally ready to go?" she asked. He looked away from her before looking back at her.

"You're going with me?" he asked, really not wanting her to go with him.

"Yes, Godfrey doesn't want you to sneak off like you did last time," genevieve rolled her eyes. Neil felt nauseous. He really didn't want genevieve, or any sibling for that matter, to go with him, she was super vigilant and would definitely catch him if he tried sneaking off and would be pretty uptight about getting home when Godfrey wanted them to. He had tried to get out of running errands in the past by going to spend time with his friends, which worked for about a month. He was hoping it would be more permanent, but turns out Godfrey figured out that he could just send Neil out with a buddy. He put his shoes on and left with Genevieve to the grocery store. They just had to get stuff for dinners for the week along with snacks they had run out of. Neil just wanted to get in and get out. For some reason, he felt like there were 50-pound rocks around his neck and just wanted to go home and lie down. He grabbed a cart and walked around with Genevieve getting the stuff they needed until Neil heard a familiar voice.

kai's  POV:

Kai had decided to join his dad on a trip to Costco to grab some stuff. It was a lot better than getting berated by his mom for having an F in social studies. He always enjoyed these mundane moments with his dad, it was sort of relaxing in a way. All of a sudden, he caught sight of a long purple tail coming from just behind a shelf. He looked at his dad, who was busy deciding on something, before he started walking over to the shelf, eventually spotting Neil with a fox girl that looked nothing like him and watching him like a hawk as he grabbed something and walked off, the fox following closely behind.

"Hey Neil, wazzup dawg!" he called out, getting the feline's attention; he waved awkwardly.

"How ya doing, everything good?"

"I'm fine, just running errands with my sister," Neil answered. Kai looked at the vixen behind his friend.

"Her?"

"Yeah, I have a lot of siblings, it's complicated."

"Neil, qui est-ce?" his sister asked, only then was it clear to Kai that she couldn't understand them.

"My friend, Kai," Neil signed to her.

"Oh, uh ok. Well, I was wondering if you wanted to walk around with me and my dad."

"Que veut-il?" Neil's sister asked, pointing at Kai. She sounded annoyed and demanding.

"He's offering to let me walk around with him and his dad," Neil told her.

"Bon sang non, nous avons trop de choses à faire," she sneered, grabbing his scruff and pulling him close to her. Maybe kai was going crazy, but he swore he saw her hesitate for a second.

"She said no. Sorry," Neil nervously smiled. Kai furrowed his brow in concern but decided to let it go.

"Alright, see you Monday, I guess," Kai hesitated as he went to rejoin his dad. When Neil's sister grabbed him, he looked like he was in pain or shock. Kai didn't have a scruff, so he didn't know how much getting grabbed by it hurt, if at all, but his other friends said the only way it would hurt was if you dug your claws in the skin or tried to lift whoever you were grabbing off the ground when they were too heavy. Kai wondered if Neil's sister had done one of those things. As he got his last look at them, he swears on his mom's life that he saw a bit of... regret? Remorse? Some kind of sad emotion on her face, like she didn't want to do that. He rejoined his dad and together they finished their shopping and went home.

"Kai, can we talk for a second, babe?" Kai's mom asked as soon as he walked into the kitchen.

"Sure, what is it?" he asked nervously, sitting beside her.

"I just wanted to apologize for getting so heated about your social studies grade, it wasn't the way to go about lecturing you for it. Would you like some help with your work?"
Kai darted his gaze from the table to his mom. Their arguments usually went like this: get super pissed at each other about something, spend some time apart and have time to think about what they were arguing about, and come back with their new knowledge and a cooler head to sort things out.

"Sure, sorry for pushing back so hard," Kai nodded and smiled. Together, Kai and his mom worked on the social studies homework he was missing after they helped his dad put the groceries away. Overall, the rest of the day went pretty well.

1006 words (this wasn't intentional, I swear. also i am no french coinsure, so please correct me if i got anything wrong)

next part in 2 days