Worry (open)

[SUNSHINE COLE IRIS]

Cole gave the shopkeeper an unyielding look, glad that she was playing a spoiled princess who could voice these thoughts under the guise of being spoiled. Whereas the real Cole was kind of just a bitch about these sorts of things. She disliked inept people, and couldn't understand why someone who ran a store wouldn't put in at least a little effort to keep the place neat and stocked with actual quality items. Since the shopkeep wanted their money, the least he could do was have some things worth buying.

Her "nanny" was another case of an inept adult, as far as she was concerned. She wasn't sure it would really take the woman 20 minutes to notice her absence, but she wasn't too worried about it either. Even if her handler was angry about the little walkabout, Cole figured she could count on some mutual assured destruction to keep her out of trouble. They might not have been stockpiling nuclear weapons, but neither one could tattle on the other without getting them both into trouble, so if her handler wanted to go running back to the higher ups, she'd have to admit she'd let a thirteen year old wander off on her.

Cole carefully picked her way through the shop, making a show of her distaste and careful not to let any of the dusty items touch her new clothes. Actually, they technically weren't even hers yet until they'd been paid for. Really though, Cole couldn't have cared less about the clothes; but a spoiled princess would, and the real Cole couldn't pass up the opportunity to further enrage the poor shopkeeper.

"I see lots of things," she replied. But nothing that you'd want to actually spend money on, she added mentally, not wanting to suddenly turn too much more spoiled than she'd been acting on the street. "Nothing that looks like what you described though," she said instead. She hadn't completely given up though, as she picked her way over to the shelf crammed with tchotchkes and bent over slightly so she could peer at all the various knickknacks crowding one another.

Suddenly, she gave a little laugh and straightened up with an item in her hand. An item that looked nothing like a worry stone. "Maybe this would take your mind off things," she offered wryly as she held out what appeared to be a simple pen with a poorly drawn woman contained in a bubble of water. Except when you turned the pen on end, the woman's clothes slid off leaving her naked. Cole was mature for her age, but she couldn't help but find that funny.

[AUDREY ANNABELLE APPLEBY]

This was going to be a bust, as much as Audrey hated to admit it. She estimated that they were about a little over five minutes into their challenge against the nanny. However, she didn’t want to wander too far away from the store in fear that Cole would get in trouble and grounded. Audrey didn’t really know how spoiled rich kids were punished. They probably had their daddy’s credit card taken away and were forbidden to ride their ponies for a while. Maybe it wasn’t even that harsh, but Audrey could still imagine. Back when she was punished for being out too late on her bike, she had her mode of transportation locked up in the basement until her grounding was up. That was never fun for her.

Cole said she saw lots of things, which in Audrey’s book was a bit of an understatement. Audrey almost had a couple of mishaps with the miniature statues of Lady Liberty and she tripped over a nicely stacked pile of doormats. Why anyone would want to buy a doormat declaring that the owners loved New York City was beyond what Audrey would understand. T-shirts were one thing, but an actual doormat that people stood on? That seemed like a little bit of an oxymoron for her.

Audrey quickly maneuvered herself around the store, bumping into quite a few boxes before she got over to Cole. She glanced behind her to make sure that she didn’t actually knock over anything or break it. She would have hated to see her money be spent on anything else but finding another worry stone, unless she paid off some kid to do her homework which was currently procrastinating on. She looked down at the object in Cole’s hand and smirked a bit. Yes, she was sixteen and was supposed to be mature and everything, but like every other teen, she found it hard to keep her head out of the gutter. She leaned down to pick up a pen that did the exact same thing, but with a man. “It would definitely keep me entertained,” she said as she flipped the pen upside down to watch it in action. “However,” she said as she glanced over at Cole and put it back down purposely the wrong way, “that would keep my eyes distracted. I worry about my fingers more. I have this habit that I always need something in my hands or else.” She didn’t mention the nail ripping or cracking her knuckles if she didn’t. Cole could probably figure that one out. At least it didn’t lead to something like shoplifting. “Should we try another store?” she asked, ready to get out of here and find her worry stones faster.

[SUNSHINE COLE IRIS]

Cole also didn't think it would be a good idea to go too far away from the boutique where she'd left her handler. Mutual assured destruction might protect her to an extent, but she had to figure even that idiot woman would eventually get worried enough to call in the big guns, and then there would no be helping either of them. Cole needed to time this just right so that she could give the woman enough of a scare to make a point but not so much that anyone else needed to know about their mutual lapses of duty.

She had no idea either how she might be punished for sneaking off while she was supposed to be doing something else. She wasn't really on a mission and she wasn't trying to run away, but she didn't think they'd be pleased by this either. Then again, Cole still hadn't the foggiest clue what did or didn't make the higher ups happy. Maybe they'd appreciate her moxie.

At any rate, Cole wasn't going to worry about it. In a way, it would probably be better to get in trouble now when it was still a minor infraction, so that she could see just what sort of power she was up against. It was like quickly tapping a stove's element to see if it was hot before she pressed her whole hand against it.

Now that she'd found the funny pen, the rest of the shop was easily enough forgotten. Still, she couldn't help but give a lip-wrinkle as she looked over at the sound and saw Audrey bumping her way through the boxes and crap piled up in what were supposed to be aisles. Leaning over slightly, she looked at the pen the other girl had picked up and gave a snort when the man's clothing fell away as well. "Well, it was worth a shot," she said blithely as she set her own pen down, now that the other girl had pointed out they wouldn't really feel her own particular need.

Cole's gaze flickered down to Audrey's hands, considering the explanation for a moment before nodding. "That sucks," she said simply, not really dripping with sympathy but granting that it would make life harder if her hands always needed to be busy or risk destroying themselves. "And yeah. I don't think this store has anything good. Or at least nothing better than those," she said with a nod towards the pens. Giving the shopkeep a final skeptical look, she began heading back towards the door, having to weave her way around all the junk. "Who even buys this stuff?" she couldn't help but wonder... or maybe she was just going out of her way to annoy the proprietor now.

[AUDREY ANNABELLE APPLEBY]

Audrey looked around the cluttered store in one last attempt to find the worry stones. As much as she wanted to test the nanny, she wanted to find her worry stones faster too. It was only a matter of time before she started cracking her knuckles again or toyed with the lining of her jacket pockets more. Audrey’s fear was that she was going to destroy her jacket somehow without her worry stones. She was particularly fond of this article of clothing and hated to see it get destroyed by something as controllable as her habit of having something in her hands at all times.

Audrey looked down at the pen on the display as she contemplated buying it just in case she couldn’t find what she needed when Cole said something. She had to choke back another laugh, which caused her to get another glare from the shopkeeper. Audrey was pretty sure they were going to be asked to leave if they didn’t leave within a few moments. She just shrugged as she looked down at Cole. “Tourists, I guess. Or probably someone looking for a cheap, tacky gift for somebody. I don’t know. I usually try to stay out of these types of stores if I can help it. She looked around and sighed before she tried to carefully navigate her way out of the shop without knocking into more boxes. Part of her wondered if it was purposely set up this way, since she just noticed the If you break if, you buy it signs posted all around the shop.

But finally, finally Audrey made it out of the stenchful store and walked into the fresh air of Fifth Avenue. Or, at least fresher than the incense-air of the store, since it was New York City. She glanced up and down the street trying to decide which store they should try next. There was no way she was going to try the seedy stores. It might have been a desperate time for Audrey, but she wasn’t going to stoop so low. She finally decided on the store next to the one they came out of and made her way towards there. A few seconds later, she walked right in the store and found it much more pleasant. This one was a lot cleaner and didn’t reek like the other.

[SUNSHINE COLE IRIS]

Cole was lucky that she was so small and had a natural sort of grace that allowed her to weave through the piles of junk without much problem. Even still, she had to keep her wits about her in order to avoid stumbling into anything inadvertently. It was almost impossible to turn around or change direction without finding something new blocking your path.

More than once, she made a face and brushed the dust from her new skirt as it swept the lower, dusty shelves when she passed. She wasn't usually fussed about keeping clean, but it fit the spoiled princess routine, and besides, she didn't really want to carry any of this dirt back with her to her new home at Fordham. From the look of it, this place could be infested with bedbugs for all she knew.

She just smirked to herself as he comment got a laugh from Audrey and a dirty look from the shopkeeper. She wasn't sure exactly why, but she was taking a great deal of delight in tormenting him. Anyway, he was an adult and therefore more likely to be an enemy. Adults were always doing things to get on her bad side. If she'd walked in wearing her tatty foster kid clothes, he probably would have kicked her out immediately or tried to accuse her of shoplifting. The thought made her almost tempted to slip something into her pocket as she left, but that wasn't the point of this particular mission, and anyway, she still didn't want anything from this dirty store.

"Yeah, good idea," she said, turning back, her nose wrinkled slightly, to agree with Audrey's idea of trying to stay out of these sorts of places. Her hand on the door, Cole gave the shopkeep a fake, saccharine smile and then pushed it open so that she could step out into the fresh(er) air of the city street. "Another minute in there and we probably would have got scabies or lice or something."

She glanced back towards the clothing boutique where she'd left her handler, wondering if her absence had been noted yet, if the shopkeep and pretend-nanny were searching the store for her. She bit her lip, tempted for a moment to go back. But no, let the stupid woman learn a lesson about blowing off her agents just because they were new kids. Setting her shoulders resolutely, Cole turned on her heel and followed Audrey into the next store. "At least this guy seems to know how to dust," she remarked, as she ran her fingers over a shelf near the door and they came away almost clean.

[AUDREY ANNABELLE APPLEBY]

The thought of scabies made Audrey shiver a bit more. She didn’t really pay attention in her health class, let alone did the homework, but it just sounded very nasty. She subconsciously brought a hand up to the back of her scalp and scratched a particularly itchy spot that needed attention right at the mention of lice. Funny how the brain worked with the power of suggestion, but Audrey knew she didn’t have lice, yet. She was just glad she made it out of the store without some contagious disease or having to pay for something she broke.

Audrey at least had high hopes for this store as soon as she stepped into it. First off, she wasn’t hit with the stench of incense. It was clean and fresh with maybe a hint of fabreeze. And second, as Cole pointed out, it was a lot cleaner. There wasn’t dust covering everything and there was a lot more room to maneuver around the store. Maybe she could find her worry stones here. She walked around the store a little bit more at ease, since she wasn’t worrying about running into boxes. She glanced over her shoulder a few times to make sure that Cole was around and not making comments about the shop. Then again, there seemed to be no complains about how the shop was kept, at least from Audrey. Yes, it was still a tacky souvenir shop, but it was a bit more… higher class, that’s how Audrey would describe it. There were the staples that every shop carried, but it had china with New York designs on them mostly consisting of the Statue of Liberty and the Empire State Building. She did a couple of circles around the shop, making sure that she wasn’t missing anything, until she found them.

She didn’t see them first off, since they were up by the register, but her worry stones were in the stores. Relief immediately filled her body as she looked over her shoulder to call over to Cole, “I found them.” Then she started going through the box of them, picking them up, and rubbing her thumb over the indentation. Finally she could have something for her fingers to do. Everything was going just fine until she looked at the price tag and winced a bit. “Ouch,” she muttered to herself, realizing she wouldn’t be able to buy as many as she originally planned.

[SUNSHINE COLE IRIS]

Cole was sadly far too familiar with these nasty and easily contagious plagues from her time in state care. One of the foster homes she'd been in, all of the boys had come down with scabies, even the baby, and she could remember too well the disgusting rashes it had caused. And lice, of course, seemed to be an almost regular occurrence in any of the places with more than a few young children. She'd never been badly afflicted herself, thankfully, thanks to her habit of keeping well away from the plague-ridden disease carriers, but still... She wasn't entirely being sarcastic when she warned of the horrors the shop might hold, quite beyond overpriced tourist junk.

But they were free of it now, at least, and hopefully without picking up bedbugs or anything else. And the new store seemed far less likely to carry communicable disease in stock. It was still a tourist trap, but at least Cole wasn't left with a feeling of loathing for this shopkeeper. He seemed to take some measure of pride in his work.

Breaking off from Audrey, she began to drift further into the shop, examining the occasional item that caught her eye, although there was nothing so salacious as those naughty pens in the last place. She picked up a bottle opener blazoned with the 'I heart NY' logo and turned it over in her hands before returning it to the bin with the others. She was just reaching for a Statue of Liberty keychain dangling from a rack when she heard Audrey call out from over by the register.

Leaving the keychain where it was, the blonde girl drifted back that way to see just what the deal was. She eyed the price tag not with the eyes of the spoiled princess she was playing, but by a kid who had seldom ever been given an allowance. "Might be cheaper to just do drugs," she pointed out wryly, as she leaned back against the counter, propping her elbows up on the surface behind her. "But at least you found them. Better remember the name of this place in case you ever need a new one again."

Leaning over, she reached past Audrey to pick up one of the polished stones so she could examine it, trying to figure out what on earth made it worth so much money. Well, if this spy thing ever fell through, maybe she'd learn how to make these things and become a millionaire that way. Leaning back again against the counter, she turned the stone over in her hands, examining it from all angles. "Doesn't really look like much," she observed.

[AUDREY ANNABELLE APPLEBY]

Audrey couldn’t help but chuckle a bit as she looked up at the worry stones to Cole. “And you know the drug prices on the streets?” She smirked as she looked down at the worry stones. Audrey heard a lot of rumors swirling around about drug prices and drug dealers, but it was never the CIA’s concern. They dealt with the more important issues, like global security or whatnot. They left the drug crackdowns to the local police and possibly the FBI, depending if it was a drug ring or whatnot. She didn’t pity their job one bit, since she heard that gangs and drug lords were pretty nasty people to deal with. However, she personally thought that Fordham, the terrorist organization against the CIA, was nasty to deal with too. “But remember,” she said with a smirk as she turned one of the worry stones in her hands, “Crack is whack.” She had no idea where that saying originated from, but it was quite a stupid one. Not that Audrey had any intention of starting drugs. The CIA did random drug tests each month and her life was already screwed up as it was.

At Cole’s suggestion, Audrey reached out, took one of the business cards by the cash register, and stuck it in her coat pocket. However, she knew it wasn’t going to last long unless she took straight out of her pocket once she got to her room. If she lost this worry stone that the card would be first to go. She would destroy the things in her pockets before she went for her fingers. She lost a gum wrapper earlier in the day. She looked down at the box of stones as she tried to decide which one to pick. They all seemed to be pale, soothing colors which made it harder for Audrey. It was no secret that she liked the darker colors the best, but she really needed a worry stone for the sake of her fingers despite the color. “They’re enough for me,” she said as she finally settled for a bluish colored one. “I should be kissing the feet of whoever invited this; they have saved my fingers so many times.” Then she maneuvered around the girl as she smiled at the cashier and pulled out her wallet. “My fingers used to be a lot worse before I started carrying around these things. My… friends suggested it since they hated looking at my bloody fingers all the time.”