Roni and Joey: Chapter 42: Shopping Montage

Tentatively looking around near the entrance and not overly certain where to start, the two found themselves surrounded by aisle after aisle of things neither had even considered. One section displayed fully furnished Little-scale bedrooms and living spaces, each arranged like miniature model homes, while another was lined with tiny mannequins dressed in everything from jeans and T-shirts to pajamas and winter coats. Farther back, signs pointed toward electronics, food, hygiene, transportation, and seemingly half a dozen other departments.

There was just so much to look at—so many items to consider—that Roni and Joey slowly started to realize maybe they should have planned this a bit better other than filling a virtual shopping cart with whatever seemed to make sense at the time.

As if answering their prayers, a male associate maybe in his mid-twenties appeared, a smile on his face and tablet in his hand, dressed in the LittleMart Uniform.

He was ready to assist them, eager even, and it showed in his whole demeanor.

“Welcome into LittleMart! I’m Kyle, is there anything I can help–” is all the young man managed when he took a real look at Joey. 

Kyle’s demeanor shifted from one ready to assist to one ready to appease almost immediately.

“Y-you’re….Joseph Calhoun,” Kyle stammer, looking at the seventeen year old as though he was looking at the next Caesar of Rome. “I…I uh…let me go get someone more experienced…and a few sodas!” 

Before Joey could attempt to dissuade the young man, he had briskly departed, leaving both Joey and Roni standing by themselves.

Joey could only sigh. He hates when this happens. Someone will recognize him from a social media post or some kind of high profile charity event his parents dragged him and his brother too, and they’d just act weird. As if he was his dad, the one with the wealth and the influence.

Roni, however, could never keep a straight face during these moments. It was hilarious to her, seeing her best friend, the reserved young man who did his best to avoid the spotlight, get dragged to center stage. 

She stepped right beside him, and nudged him teasingly.

“Oh my gosh, I forget just how famous you are Joe-seph” she says with a laugh, “Did you see how he just flat out decided he wasn’t good enough to help you? Could you imagine how broken his brain would be if I told him about the time you ate that 5-alarm burger and basically melted! I bet that’d really help bring you back down to earth”

Joey groaned in annoyance, “First, I didn’t know it’d be that spicy! I thought it was-was just like promotional material. And Second, shut up. You know I hate when people get like that” he finishes with a sigh,”You know they don’t see me as me when they react like that; they see some wealthy jerk that probably demands attention. I can’t stand it…”

Roni’s playfulness subsided a bit, and she nodded empathetically. It was true, after all, that Joey hated how people perceived him far more than the attention itself. They saw the Calhoun name first, and Joey second. The money, the influence, his father’s reputation—all of it seemed to form an idea of him before he ever had the chance to speak. And for all the privilege that came with being a Calhoun, Joey really was just a guy who wanted the chance to live a normal life on his own terms. 

Mid-thought, however, a woman’s voice cut through from somewhere behind them.

“Mr. Calhoun?”

Joey’s shoulders sank slightly.

Of course Kyle told her.

Roni’s grin immediately returned.

The woman approaching them looked to be in her thirties, dressed in the same LittleMart uniform as Kyle, though the manager’s badge clipped neatly beneath her name tag made it clear he’d found exactly who he’d gone looking for.

“I’m Mae, one of the floor managers,” she introduced herself, offering the two a professional smile. “Kyle tells me you could use some assistance getting started! Well I’m more than happy to help you out. He’ll be back with yours and your girlfriends sodas momentarily”

Roni’s grin disappeared immediately as her face went pink.

“We! We aren’t…” she stammered before Joey had to laugh, having indirectly gotten back at Roni for her taunting earlier.

“She’s not my girlfriend, just my best friend. And please, just Joey is fine.” Joey said, smiling politely at Mae showing he didn’t take her assumption personally.

Mae’s expression softened, and despite being a little embarrassed, she nodded in appreciation.

“Right, my apologies. We get couples in here all the time looking for littles to raise together” she said politely, before looking at her tablet, “Now then, perhaps we can start with building a profile for the both of you so we can curate our products to your preferences and ideal little.”

“Uh, actually, it’s…just for Roni” Joey apprehensively corrected again, making Mae look for a moment, before nodding and tapping on the tablet’s surface before smiling warmly at Roni.

“Okay! It looks like you already have an account with us set up, so we get to skip that part of the process,” Mae said, speaking with the kind of customer oriented tone an experienced associate would use, “If you’re okay with it, I’ll look over what all you have favorited and added to your shopping cart online, and look over the details imported from linking your Shard account, and we can go from there!”

Kyle suddenly returned holding a tray with several varieties of drinks.

“H-Here is your drink! I wasn’t sure what you wanted exactly so I uh, I grabbed a variety,” said Kyle, who was still shaking a little seeing that a member of the Calhoun family was there in the store he worked at and was talking to them, offering them drinks. His friends would never believe him!

Joey and Roni exchanged looks of uncertainty, before Roni smiled, taking a drink, with Joey following suit.

“Thank you, Kyle, but you didn’t need to go through the effort,” she said warmly, but appreciatively.

“Yeah, thank you,” Joey added, “I…appreciate the customer service”

Kyle nodded vehemently, before taking the rest of the tray with him and disappearing again.

Mae could only exhale, shaking her head in amusement.

“Please pardon Kyle. He’s normally very good with customers. It’s just, well, he can get star struck easily.”

“Does that happen often?” Roni asked.

“Not particularly. Sometimes some of the Sacramento Kings will stop by, but that’s usually it. Though you should’ve seen him when Ms. Gracewood visited for an inspection. That was a doozy”

Joey gave a dismissive shrug. “See? Now that I understand. I’d probably faint if I ever met her.”

The manager looked between them. “Wait. You don’t know Chloe?”

“No.”

Her eyebrows rose. “Really? I would’ve thought the Calhouns and Gracewoods would…”

“Run in the same circles?” Joey finished for her, chuckling a little. “Not even close. I mean, we know who they are for sure, but at best, they might just know of us through the grapevine. Like my dad might’ve been in the same room as one of them before. Business events, fundraisers, whatever. But The Gracewoods aren’t showing up at our house for Christmas parties anytime soon, that’s for sure”

“That’s so crazy to me,” Mae said in uncharacteristic surprise, “I always thought all of these powerful families were on the same level…”

Roni nodded, “Yeah I used to think the same thing, but Joey’s pretty adamant that even elite circles have cliques. Really he and his family are just important enough for the Gracewoods to know you exist, probably.”

“That’s not the compliment you think it is.”  Joey muttered

Quickly able to tell this was getting a bit too touchy, Mae pivoted, facing Roni and smiling.

“Okay Roni, I think I got everything I need from Shard and from your LittleMart account. You made some good choices so far, sensible, stylish, but pragmatic, but there are a few things I want to show you and discuss a bit as we go through the store.”

With Mae leading the way, the two teens began making their way through LittleMart in earnest. What had seemed overwhelming only minutes earlier became considerably easier with someone there to point them in the right direction. They moved from department to department, Roni adding some of the basics Mae recommended while Joey offered his input whenever she asked for his opinion. A few sets of clothes joined their growing collection, along with basic hygiene supplies, bedding, and other small necessities Roni hadn’t thought to add online. Mae proved especially helpful in separating what they actually needed from what could wait, occasionally stopping an increasingly enthusiastic Roni from adding something to the cart with a polite reminder that there would be plenty of time to come back once she had a better idea of her Little’s individual needs.

Food prompted a longer conversation as Mae walked them through the different options available to Littles, explaining what was practical to keep around regularly and what was better treated as an occasional luxury. Roni listened intently, asking questions whenever Mae mentioned something she hadn’t encountered in her training yet, while Joey periodically offered his own opinions—sometimes earning a curious look from Mae at just how invested he seemed to be in certain choices. Somewhere along the way, what had started as an intimidating list of things they didn’t understand began to feel almost manageable. Their cart wasn’t overflowing, but it was no longer empty either, filled with enough essentials that Roni seemed visibly more confident than when they’d first walked through the doors.

Eventually, Mae glanced down at her tablet, gave their selections another quick look, and nodded approvingly.

“Alrighty! I think we have a good group of essentials. You’re little must mean a lot to you already to go this far before even meeting them” Mae said, smiling at the two.

Roni plucked at a loose thread on the arm of her shirt as she nodded.

“Yeah they uh, they’ve been through a lot. I think,” she stammered anxiously, not looking at Joey at all who was just as on edge, “I saw some of their profile that was available. It seemed like Smallara took away a lot of their future.”

Mae nodded, understanding exactly what Roni meant. 

“Unfortuneatly, that’s true for most littles. Smallara takes their size and well,” she pauses, looking around real quick, “well lets just say some people’s ignorance needlessly takes away their futures.”

The two nod as they follow her to the last part of their journey through the store: the Little Habitat for Humans.

Once again, the store seemed to change around them.

The aisles widened, the shelves disappeared, and in their place sat homes.

Tiny ones. 

Some were little more than single-room enclosures with transparent fronts and neatly arranged furniture. Others looked like miniature studio apartments, complete with bedrooms, kitchens, bathrooms and living spaces, all glowing beneath soft simulated daylight.

Joey slowed.

This wasn’t another aisle filled with things he might need.

This was where he might live.

For the first time, Joey felt like it was actually wrong for him to be in the store at this size, like he’d crossed some invisible threshold into a world that wasn’t meant for this version of him. 

He looked around at the upsized items, the carpet samples, the special panels for both UV protection and climate control, and specially designed fabrics to allow the littles to breathe without clogging their skin. 

All of it was practical, all of it made sense, but all of it was about for when Joey would be a little. It didn’t care at all that he was still there as a human still. Despite that, he still couldn’t shake how unwelcomed he felt, leaning in closer to look at one of the habitat displays.

Roni could see out of the corner of her eye that something was off with Joey again, but was too focused with Mae on picking out the right habitat to address it.

Right now, they were looking at colors, trying to coordinate with her room, making sure that the habitat had the features she’d want for her little, all while Roni insisted on looking at designs she ‘assumes’ her little would want, like small baseball posters and space for a smartphone as a smart tv or a spot where they may be able to put a gaming setup for littles.

Mae didn’t fight or argue against any of these suggestions. Part of her knew that it wouldn’t be customer oriented; they’re always right in matters of taste after all. The other part of her thought Roni was doing things better than the average guardian in training or in waiting. She has the sense to have a habitat that she is happy to look at, but that is also functional and gives a little somewhere they can have some kind of normalcy. Those are the kinds of customers she likes helping, and Roni is no exception.

With a satisfied hum and a smile, Mae looks at Roni affirmatively.

“Perfect! I got your specs and preferences all noted and saved. Generating the results…” Mae says as she trails off, waiting for her tablet to load, when one of her eyebrows raises in a mixture of surprise and confusion.

“Huh, that’s…unexpected,” she mumbles to herself, her fingers picking up the pace and rhythm as she delves deeper into what came up on the tablet.

Roni and Joey exchange a bewildered glance, before Roni clears her throat, Mae looking up at her immediately.

“Is uh, something wrong? Can’t find my exact specs or something? Cause if not thats–” is all Roni could get off before Mae shook her head.

“No, no, nothing like that,” she responded reassuringly, “It’s just, well, you actually have a deluxe habitat already paid for with both US currency and Little Credits. That’s….extrodinarily rare.” 

“Wait, what?” the two teens said at the same time, looking just as surprised as Mae, who turned to show them the habitat that was picked out.

“Here, it’s actually a nicer model than the one you were looking at, Roni. Better climate control features, privacy mode for both the little and the guardian, two docking positions for the exact setup you were wanting so you don’t have to carve out anything on your own, and they all flow really well together. They’re actually designed in Little Cities by the littles themselves, so they know exactly what’s needed. With how much these cost, you must have some friends in high places yourself, Roni!” Mae said with a warm laugh.

“That’s–that’s great and all,” stammered Roni,”but I, I still don’t know how that’d happen or…why.” she said, before looking at Joey, who just raised his hands and shrugged.

“Hey, don’t look at me. I didn’t do it.” 

Mae, though, hummed before her eyes widened seeing what she was searching for on the tablet.

“Ah-ha! Found it. Looks like someone knew you’d be here and bought it for you,” Mae said, turning the tablet to the two, “Right there, purchased a few days ago by ‘David Hunter’ and a ‘Tanya’, both from the Legal division of Generitech. Must have made a great impression on the two!”

Roni and Joey exchange bewildered, but still appreciative, looks, surprised that Mr. Hunter and Tanya would do such a thing for them.

“Huh, yeah uh, must have I guess,” Joey says slowly, before turning to Mae, “We only met them once.”

“Casually!” Roni interjected immediately, “Just, in public downtown, Tanya dropped something and uh, Joey and I were nearby and helped Mr Hunter find it,” She shrugs, relying on her theater work to get her through this without any questions, “must have been important to her, whatever it was…”

Mae looks at the two, a little curious about how that would lead to this, but shrugs it off. After all, stranger things have happened. Smallara itself was proof of that. She just made a few changes in her tablet and nodded when everything looked right.

“Perfect. You can take the basics home now, and the habitat will be delivered once the customizations are done.” Mae pauses a beat, “Normally we need the little here for this but…did you want to check out collars?”

Roni froze, and looked at Joey, who was visibly shaken, both of them hoping that they’d avoid that eventuality or at least push it as far out as possible.

“Uh…n-no that’s okay. No point, right? Might get the wrong one…or something,” said Roni, smoothing out her shirt as Joey just nodded silently next to her.

“Fair enough, well if you’re ready, let’s go up and finish things up!” Mae said, returning to her pleasant customer oriented persona as she guided the two out of the exhibit and up to the front counter, Kyle perking up seeing the trio. 

Checkout, thankfully, was far less eventful than the rest of their visit. Mae helped Roni finalize their selections and confirmed the habitat would be delivered once its customizations were finished, while Kyle carefully bagged everything they’d gathered. With one final reminder that they could always come back if they’d forgotten anything, Mae wished Roni luck with her future Little and warmly said goodbye.

“It was really nice meeting you, Mr. Calhoun!” Kyle called as the two started toward the doors.

Joey stopped and looked back while Roni stifled her laughter.

“Joey.”

“R-right! Sorry. Joey.”

A small smile crossed Joey’s face. “You too, Kyle.”

And with that, the automatic doors slid open, Roni and Joey stepping outside with several bags containing the first tangible pieces of Joey’s future.

“Well, that was an…event,” Joey said coolly, Roni humming in agreement.

“Yeah…that’s a word for it,” she said, before looking at Joey, “Are you okay? The collar…I..I haven’t”

“I’m fine, Roni,” Joey said with a sigh, “It…will come eventually, best not to dwell on it”

The two continued to the truck in silence, before Joey spoke again.

“Hey uh, you mind if I drive? It’s been kind of a long day and I can’t really take another ride in a Anti-Personnel vehicle.”

Roni rolled her eyes. “Please, I’m not that bad, am I?”

“No, you’re much worse. I was actually being polite,” Joey laughed before Roni joined in, tossing him the keys while the two swapped positions.

Joey then started up the truck, the vibration through the steering column and the wheel feeling familiar and comforting. Pulling out of the parking spot, he put the vehicle in drive, moving it forward for the ride back home, where the familiar comforts of the Hale house awaited them both.

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