Woods △ Cube SMP ff

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Jen.

Do you know how many boxes are inside a single Costco? There's small boxes, big boxes, boxes so filled to the brim with pillows or slow cookers that you don't realize they're a box at all. Some say there's a thousand, others say millions, but there isn't really a way of knowing, is there? Of course, you can check the inventory once in a while, but does it count boxes? I mean, you could technically say this entire store is one big box, holding a multitude of boxes inside it. Each box holds a new surprise, though you have to pay in order to own it.
I had this running through my head as I watched my friends scampering through the aisles, throwing random 'necessities' into their small baskets. I walked gracefully and eyed each of them with a quiet, curious intention. They all had game faces on and stared intently at rows of Dove soaps and shampoo. It was a sight to see, and quite frankly, absolutely hilarious. There wasn't a single second where I looked and they weren't fooling around. That is, until about 10 minutes into the game, and everything turned to foolish chaos. That was something I was living for.
Rae and Isaac were somewhere near the middle of the store, in the middle of all the set-out camping gear. There were neatly sorted tents, sleeping blankets, and lanterns, but their main concern was the box they both had their hands wrapped tightly around. It went one way and another in a fit of grunts and exasperated remarks. Rae, although her hair was thrown over her face, fought her match against Isaac to pull the box back to her, but Isaac persisted. He had a death grip on the sides of the box, and wouldn't even let it go near Rae, save her hands. As I looked around the aisle, I realized why they were fighting - it was the last of the bunch, and only one hand could own it.
"Give me the stove, Isaac!"
"Why do you want it?!"
"It has SMOKELESS. CAMPFIRES. It's MINE."
Rae gave the box a final, large tug away from Isaac, and although she stumbled back and rammed into the wall of tent gear, the wrapped it in her arms and kept it safe from his clutches. She shot Isaac an evil grin, then ran as fast as she could to the cart that Nathan held shakily in the next aisle. Isaac looked down in a defeated stance. I simply crossed my arms and let out a laugh.
"Smokeless campfires?"
He turned to look at me, too stressed to even blink. He let out a breathy, clearly exhausted sigh, then spoke in his most timid voice.
"Save the hecking Earth."
With that, he made his way down the aisle to regain his confidence once more. With a bit more skip and faith in his step, he ran off in the opposite direction that Rae had. He disappeared into rows of boxes, and I didn't see him again.
I shrugged off the strange encounter as just a Rae thing and an Isaac thing. It was clear that Rae was completely competitive, and Isaac was too, but he hel in all his swearing to avoid kicking us all out of here. I appreciated his efforts, and his defeated act was too hilarious not to replay in your head a thousand times.
On the opposite end of the aisle, where Rae had run right past, was Sam. They covered their eyes like they didn't want to see Rae in such a rabid state, and two boxes of pizza rolls were at their feet.
"I don't know what goes on in her head when she gets competitive. But it's terrifying." Sam called out to me. I could only shrug and give them a helpless, awkward laugh. Sam picked up their pizza rolls, both frantic and afraid Rae may come back to steal them, and scurried off to Nathan's cart.
"Sam, dab!" I shouted out of the blue. Almost as if they'd be killed otherwise, Sam dropped the pizza rolls to the floor, and immediately hit the cleanest, most precise dab anyone has ever seen before. They scooped up their pizza rolls as I busted out laughing, and they rushed off.
I walked out of that aisle, passing the one where Nathan stood with the cart. I was hunched over, tired from the laughter I had just endured, but I was persistent to keep walking around. From a distance, I could see that it was packed with random camping snacks like Sam's pizza rolls, and blankets, but Rae's stove was not in sight. Nathan had his attention fixed to his phone, but he had his other hand placed firmly on the cart's handle. If anyone was to come and try to steal the cart from him, you'd expect it'd be out of his grip within seconds. But as Rae came up sneakily in front of him, trying to slowly take items from the cart to replace them with her own, Nathan pulled it as far from her reach as possible.
"Nathan, help me out here! Come on!"
"Your adorable face won't help you right now. I have a job to do, and it's to protect this cart from sabotage."
"Wow, I love Raeboom." I whispered under my breath.
I quickly hurried past the aisle, in case any of them had heard my comment, and settled on hiding behind where all the toilet paper was stacked. No one could possibly find me here, and I could silently watch through the rolls as everyone created a mass chaos all over the store. I could see Rae in the distance again, running around with a container of pretzels. Her pace was fast, a sight quite surprising to see, and Isaac still chased behind her to try to sabotage her.
Iris walked with a large bag in her hands, holding onto it carefully as Ant pushed Will in a shopping cart around her. She walked as fast as her legs could carry her to get away from them. However, Ant made it clear that she was his target, and sent Will and his shopping cart crashing straight towards her. She yelped and hopped out of the way, her bag dangling in one hand, as the shopping cart hit a rather tall stack of boxes and sent them crashing onto Will's head.
"Run!" Ant shouted with his hands on his head. The boxes were, gratefully, empty, so all Will had to do was dig his way out of the mountain of them and jump from the cart. Ris stood by, perplexed and confused, yet equally satisfied that their plan to sabotage her had failed miserably. She handed her bag to Eugie, who hid in a pile of beanbags, and high-fived each other in victory.
Eugie brushed herself off walked the long way around to Nathan. She looked smug as she avoided confrontation with an employee, and subtly dropped off all her merchandise in the cart. He gave her a silent nod, and she went on her way to hide again. Ris had already set off to get more things.
On the other hand, Ant and Will had begun to stack the boxes back onto eachother again. They found it increasingly difficult as the stack got taller, and even their long arms could not reach to place the last of them on top. It was only a matter of time before an employee would show up to shoo them out of the store.
"Are you two really that dumb? Just run, they won't know it's you!" I shouted to them, stifling a laugh.
"Was that Jen?"
They looked around, puzzled as to where my voice had come from. I slipped behind the stacks of toilet paper again, hidden from sight once more. I heard the loud patter of footsteps on the floor whizzing by, and I could safely assume it was Ant and Will taking my advice.
"What the fu-"
"Nathan, cussing isn't nice."
"Yeah Nathan, stop that, you hecking pleb."
Kayla and Sean, the two I hadn't seen at all throughout this whole ordeal, were hanging by Nathan's cart. Kayla had apparently nailed Nathan in the ribs again, much to his surprise and Sean's laughter. They didn't have anything in their hands, which led me to believe that they had not taken part in the game after all. I could understand why Sean hadn't, as he tends to be quite timid around us sometimes, but Kayla? I couldn't imagine her sitting out, she's equally competitive as Rae is.
But instead, the two teamed up against Nathan and tried to pester him. They were distracting him from his only job, which was to guard the cart from sabotage.
Huh, funny how that worked out.
I slipped out from my hiding spot, tip toeing around the stacks of boxes that surrounded me. I was careful to not make noise as I took the long way around, passing by Rae's fervid self, and Ant and Isaac doing who knows what near the free samples. I took a pack of orange soda off a shelf, careful once again to be as silent as a mouse.
Kayla and Sean continued to tease Nathan and had him few feet away from the glorious cart. This way, he couldn't stop me in my efforts to put the last item in the cart, and he couldn't stop to check if I had even used anything else. This was the big loophole - what does 'fastest' really mean? In a race, whoever is fastest is also the first to reach the finish line. So, technically, being the first person to put the last thing into the shopping cart makes me the winner, right?
I explained this to Nathan a few minutes after I plopped the box of sodas into the remaining corner of the cart. I turned, exclaimed to the others that I had won the most glorious game, and therefore held all rights for the aux cord for the ride to the forest. If anyone tried to prove me wrong, I'd simply tell them of the loophole. Sean ended up agreeing with me, and tried to convince Isaac that, yes, the loophole was in fact a successful one. I had won the game, fair and square, through a faulty rule explanation by the host of the game himself.
We made our way to checkout, while Rae clenched her fists the entire way there. She snickered with Sam about how Nathan had let her win, how dare he, but soon realized that she couldn't handle the aux cord for so long before passing it to someone else after an hour. She said it'd ruin the whole point of the game, so instead of trying to win, she should've just helped me so I could have a fair win after all. I eavesdropped on this conversation, but I still turned to give Rae a thumbs up. Sam was still traumatized over their dab.
Although half of them climbed back into the van half-satisfied, with the entire back-half of the van packed with things for the trip, I was still given permission to sit in the front with Nathan, and my plus-one, Eugie. The van, filled to the brim with camping essentials and people, roared to life and set off for the highway.

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MERRY WATTMAS!! HERE'S DAY 1 :D
Kalopsia will be up supersupersuper soon, promise!
-Jen