With a little hope that she'd at least have some less ridiculous clothes in the near future, if not today, Anneza left the tailors' shop. That was the first thing to really go right since this had happened to her, and as miniscule as it was in the grand scheme of things, it lifted her spirits.
But...what now? She'd gone out this morning hoping that the doctor would know how to cure at least her speech, but that hadn't happened. She certainly couldn't go to work, nor could she accomplish much else without being able to communicate verbally. And it wasn't even noon yet...
Well, it was approaching noon, and she was getting hungry. She'd have to go home for lunch, she supposed; she could hardly read a menu or make a request for a given food, and while she supposed she could go to McDonald's and point at a picture on the board above the counter, both her executive-manager pretensions to affluence and the fact that she liked good food meant that would be a last-resort option.
So, lunch at home, then. She tried to think of what she wanted to eat as she flew back in the direction of her house, but nothing was springing to her mind. What did she have on hand? Not too much, actually; she'd been going longer between grocery runs since the sun changed. Well, at the very least that wasn't holding her back anymore.
Anneza changed course, climbing up over the roofs of the buildings. Luckily, this section of the downtown was more small shops than skyscrapers, and before she'd gone too high she could make out the box-store district a little further out. She wanted to stop in at a higher-end store, but until she figured out her finances, she'd probably better keep her spending down; she already knew she would be dropping a sizable sum on whatever it was the tailor was doing.
She tensed her legs tightly and shot off towards the big buildings in the distance. She hadn't realized before, but her..."flight muscles," or whatever they were, provided acceleration, not a constant velocity, and by the time she'd caught on she was going so fast that her hair was whipping about and stinging at her face. She had to draw her knees up nearly to her shoulders to stop.
A little further experimentation and she found a more practical speed to maintain - still quite a bit faster than she'd expected. There was atmospheric resistance to account for, so she couldn't exactly coast forever, but with her small in-flight profile she was quite capable of gliding a quarter-mile without any noticeable speed decrease.
Before long she'd arrived at a suitable grocery store. She didn't understand the name, but she knew the logo from some ad flyers that had come with the paper. She swung gracefully down into an upright position as she dropped towards the doors, and went inside.
Once she was in, she began a slow circuit around the store, wondering exactly what it was she wanted to eat. There was something specific she was craving, but it was tucked in the back of her mind and she was having trouble retrieving it. Maybe if she passed it she'd-
She was passing through the produce section when it struck her. Mushrooms! Mushrooms, that was it! She didn't even know why she wanted them, but she did. She swooshed over towards the mist-sprayer side of the section. There was a bin of standard button mushrooms in cartons; she stopped to consider them, but frowned. No, too bland.
They didn't have any fresh mushrooms, but she found some nicer packaged ones that made her mouth water. She wished there were some other varieties to be had; she was conceiving of a sort of hodgepodge stew of them, but these would do for now.
With nearly a pound of them in her basket, Anneza rushed over to the spice section. There was an idea in her mind, and she wanted to get it down before it evaporated. She couldn't read any of the labels, but she thought she could tell by the look of the contents which of the little plastic bags held the things she wanted. And she could tell by the scent, too; in fact, that told her more about what she was looking for than trying to remember which of these was what. It got her more strange looks, but right now she was too busy to notice.
Yes, this would work, and there was some cooking wine at home that would make a good base for the sauce. She took her things to the checkout; as with the tailor, her credit card made things perfectly convenient even without her being able to speak. She took the bag and went outside, ascending from the parking lot and turning towards home, smiling to herself for the first time that day.
Alex hunched at the keyhole, waiting. He thought for a moment that he'd been discovered - the teacher turned to look at the door, and he got the distinct impression that she'd seen him. But she finally left the classroom...so maybe not?
He gently nudged Sally, who groaned and murmured sleepily. How could she have come along if she was this tired? He felt like he should be angry with her, but his relief at having a companion in this adventure mitigated it to mild annoyance. "Come on," he said. "If we're going to have a look around, now's the time to do it."
She rubbed the sleep out of her eyes and stood up, narrowly avoiding hitting her head on a shelf. "Whadyu mean?" she mumbled.
Alex pointed to his watch. "It's nearly noon, so the sun's left this side of the school and is passing overhead. That means we have a while to look around without worrying about getting caught in the light, and maybe when it's on the other side of the school this side will be safe. We'll have to be back in here by then, just in case."
She nodded thoughtfully. "Huh, you put some thought into this. How long were you planning it?"
He shrugged. "A...couple days. Not that long. Steven was talking about how he did it, and I just wanted to see for myself..."
Sally frowned. "Steven did it? Are you sure?"
He shrugged. "...no, I guess not. He sounded kinda like he was being honest, though. Well, mostly."
She shrugged. "Huh. I wouldn'tve thought he'd try something like this. Well, shall we go have a look?"
