“Hurry up Lindsay, I want to be in and out as fast as possible, I want to go on at least one ride today” Susan said, trying to get her friend to move along the path to the gift shop faster.
“Susan, it’s not as if the souvenirs are going to leave on their own. We’re literally the only people in this park, so calm the fuck down and leave me alone. I’m trying to get a signal,” Lindsay responded back with, her phone in the air looking for bars that simply were not showing up.
Many people often wondered how Susan was able to put up with Lindsay all the time. While Lindsay had been great friends with everyone in the group since freshman year, but it was a change in attitude that grew over the past two years that generally caused her to become more bitchy and truly an awful person to hang around. Because of this, Lindsay found herself often times being shafted whenever Veronica’s friend group did anything, especially if Heather was involved. This often times led to a further justification for her bitchy and obnoxious behavior. The one person she was able to find solace in was Susan, who would often still hang around with Lindsay if she wasn’t doing anything important.
The truth is, Susan saw a glimmer of hope in Lindsay. Susan grew up in a very large family, and one talent she got from this was being able to really see a person’s character and true feelings. Because of this, she could see that the Lindsay the group had none wasn’t completely gone, but was rather hidden behind several layers of self-hatred and loneliness. The reason that Susan hung out with Lindsay even more than she hung out with her best friend Veronica, was because she was worried that if she didn’t have at least one friend she could talk to, the kind-hearted Lindsay that the group had initially grown to love would be gone forever.
The two had finished making their way down the path, and now stood outside the front door to the gift shop. The overcast sky framed the red sign that read ‘Chronos’ Emporium’. Next to the sign stood an image of the park’s mascot, a smiling clock face with cartoonish arms and legs.
“Great,” Lindsay slammed her phone back into her purse, “Guess I’ll just be gauging the prices I should pay for myself.”
“Um… not so fast Lindsay,” Susan said, pointing to a sign in the door that read ‘Sorry, We’re closed.’
“What the fuck! You guys promised me that they would have all the stores open today! It’s literally the only reason I came!” Lindsay lied.
Suddenly, the noise of something heavy falling came from inside the store, and a short blue haired lady dressed in a red flight attendant’s uniform appeared behind the window of the door. Flipping the sign open, she opened the door, profusely apologizing, “I’m extremely sorry ladies! As soon as I was let off from my position at the front gate I rushed over here, but clearly you ladies beat me to it.”
“It’s about fucking time!” Lindsay said, anger present in her voice, causing the short girl to cower.
“Again! I’m extremely sorry! If there’s anything I can do to make it up to you two.”
“Could you please get the fuck out of our way so we can actually go in?”
“Y-yes, of course! Terribly sorry!” Sapphire said, bowing her head and moving out of the doorframe to let the two girls in.
Lindsay continued on into the store, a look of disgust on her face as she passed by Sapphire. Meanwhile, Susan, who had worked many jobs in retail, and had experienced customers from hell like Lindsay, gave Sapphire a look that read, ‘Sorry about my friend’.
The store, while rather small looking on the outside, was truly massive on the inside. There were multiple levels of the building housing a large variety of branded and non-branded merchandise. There were multiple mannequins on display, wearing all types of branded clothing, shirts that had specific creatures associated with different rides on the park, a Chronos hat (with little hands that accurately told the time of the day!), an Eternipark watch. The mannequins made Susan slightly uncomfortable, as though they were watching her, but Lindsay didn’t seem to notice anything (lest of all the mannequin heads eyes following her throughout the store.
“So, Sapphire was it, is there anything in this store that is limited edition or planned to be discontinued soon,” Lindsay asked, producing a notepad and pen from her purse so she could know exactly what she was looking for.
“W-well miss, I’m not sure-“
“After all the trouble you made us already go through? You’re going to make us go through more?” Lindsay asked incredulously,
“*eep* I’m sorry miss. I really don’t know what to tell you besides the basic info my boss told me. He’s in charge of all the ordering and production schedules!” Sapphire was practically on the verge of tears
“*sigh* Fine. I guess I’ll have to do things the hard way,” Lindsay pulled out her phone yet again, determined to get a signal so she could write a review on her blog that this theme park was a waste of time.
“Sapphire, would you be able to point me to the souvenir section? I promised my mom that while I was here, I would pick something up for her,” Susan said in a calm and gentle tone.
“C-certainly miss. The store’s actually organized pretty simply. This floor is all clothing. The next floor up is toys, and the floor above that is where you can find souvenirs and memorabilia,” Sapphire said, dabbing at her eyes with a bright red handkerchief.
“Great, then me and my friend here will be on our way!” Lindsay said to Sapphire, placing the pen and notepad into Susan’s hands and walking off. When Susan didn’t immediately follow, she said, “Come on Susan, we’re not going to figure out what we want by standing in one spot all day.”
In what floor do Lindsay and Susan go looking for gifts?
1.) Ground Floor: Clothing
2.) Floor 2: Toys
3.) Floor 3: Souvenirs & Memorabilia