The next morning, I found myself waking an hour before my alarm. Instead of going back to bed, I decided to get up and put my lab together.

       Currently, I had managed to set up roughly half of all of my objects before there was a knock on my front door. I quickly left the garage, locking the door, and went to see who it was.

       "Why him?" I opened the door to find Rick leaning against the frame with a smile on his face. "What's up, eugh toots?" I scowled in response, watching as he pushed his way past me and into my living room. "Please come on in..." I crossed my arms. "What exactly are you here for?"

        Rick was looking around. "You were literally here yesterday. Nothing has changed." He paused and looked at me, "That's where you're wrong." He pointed to the corner, "A majority eugh of the boxes marked garage are now gone. Quite a bit has changed. Don't know why you're so secretive, though."

       "I'm not secretive. I'm just not comfortable with other people seeing my work. I feel as though they're going to destroy everything the second they touch it." Rick gave me a look that screamed, 'you're insane'.

       "Anyways, whatcha up to?" I moved to the kitchen, "I'm going shopping today. I have apples, and that's it."

       "Actually," I reached into a bag, "I have one apple. Definitely going shopping."

       I decided to run upstairs and change, leaving Rick to do whatever. He couldn't get into the garage anyway, and he seemed to know better than to touch my boxes.

        Though I could be wrong.

-x-

       Fifteen minutes later, I walked downstairs wearing a pair of black skinny jeans, though they restricted my motion, and a solid red t-shirt. I decided against the lab coat for one day. "I don't know about you," I grabbed my phone and shoved it into my purse before throwing it over my shoulder, "but I'm going shopping."

       "I'll tag along." I walked past Rick, my shoulders slightly slumped, as he followed me out with a victorious smirk and hopped in the passenger seat. "Isn't this a bit eugh big for you." He motioned to the entire vehicle itself.
       "Absolutely not. It's perfect for my work." I pulled out of the driveway, noticing Rick refuse to buckle.
       "SARA, play 'Whiskey Lullaby', artist Brad Paisley, please."

       The tune began to play and I noticed Rick staring at the radio. "I am not going to let your presence ruin my day." Raising one side of his unibrow, Rick gave a dismissive grunt. "SARA is my vehicular assistant, if you will."

        At this point, I gave up on explaining. I refused to let his presence ruin my morning as I began to sing along.

She put him out
Like the burnin' end of a midnight cigarette

She broke his heart
He spent his whole life tryin' to forget
We watched him drink his pain away a little at a time
But he never could get drunk enough to get her off his mind
Until the night

He put that bottle to his head
And pulled the trigger
And finally drank away her memory
Life is short but this time it was bigger
Than the strength he had to get up off his knees
We found him with his face down in the pillow
With a note that said I'll love her till I die
And when we buried him beneath the willow
The angels sang a whiskey lullaby

The rumors flew
But nobody knew how much she blamed herself
For years and years
She tried to hide the whiskey on her breath
She finally drank her pain away a little at a time
But she never could get drunk enough to get him off her mind
Until the night

She put that bottle to her head and pulled the trigger
And finally drank away his memory
Life is short but this time it was bigger
Than the strength she had to get up off her knees
We found her with her face down in the pillow
Clinging to his picture for dear life
We laid her next to him beneath the willow
While the angels sang a whiskey lullaby

       "Instead of trying to manage my bluetooth and driving, I took SARA. She has been my favorite technological advancement." I smiled at the road, enjoying the fact that SARA was my design.

       "Pretty eugh impressive. Can I play a eugh song?"
       "Remember to say 'SARA' first, and 'please' when you're done. She's programmed only to respond to that."

       Rick cleared his throat, "S-SARA, play 'Do you Feel It?' artist Chaos, Chaos, please." I was shocked to hear him get through a sentence that long without a single belch. "Interesting song choice." He obviously didn't expect me to know this one because he seemed surprised when I sang from start to finish.

       After a short discussion over the fact that SARA was not a 'glorified SIRI', we finally made it to a small shop in town. Rick hopped out and followed after me, staring at a scruffy looking orange cat. It looked almost like a heroin addict in cat form. I think the most odd thing about the encounter was Rick making a shushing motion as what appeared to be a look of recognition flashed across the animals face.

       "What was that?" I threw my purse into a nearby cart and began to push it along, throwing food items in as I went. "Nothing." Rick eyed some chips before throwing them into the cart. I gave the bag a once over before I walked over to the shelf and threw another two bags in, "I had no idea they carried those! I would've completely missed them!"
       "Yea, well eugh don't worry. I'll pay for mine." Rick continued looking at the snacks, throwing some in every once in a while. Occasionally, he would run and grab more as I asked. "Don't worry about paying, Rick. I got it."

       Cocking a side of his unibrow again, he shrugged and wandered around, not straying far from the cart. Eventually, we made it to the checkout counter. "Your total is $107.67." I scanned my card and began pushing the cart away, Rick following behind. "You spent that eugh much on food and didn't even eugh flinch when you ran your card through. Impressive."

       "Trust me, it's a long story." I sighed, unloading everything into the backseat and putting the cart back, only to return and find Rick requesting another song.

       "-on Give it To ya artist DMX, please."

       "Oh please, like that song is new." He looked at me before slumping in his chair. Obviously he doesn't know I've spent so much time listening to music, I've pretty much heard everything.

       "Now where are you going?" He crossed his arms and looked out the windshield, a bored expression resting on his face. "If you're getting bored, why'd you come along?"

       "Because everybody went and did eugh stuff and I was urp bored. Now I'm just hungry."
"It is close to noon." I looked around, "I don't recall having eaten out before. Do you know anywhere worth eating?"

       If his jaw fell any further, it would've hit the floor, "You've never eaten at a eugh r-restaurant before?"

        "Not that I recall, no."

       "Oh, boy. I know eugh a great place." Following his directions, we eventually wound up at a restaurant. I believe the name read 'Maurice's'.

       After being seated by a preppy young lady who took our orders for drinks, I looked at the menu. Rick began telling me how a restaurant basically worked, and explained where you can find side dishes and things like that. "This whole idea seems odd."

       I flipped through the menu until our waitress came back and placed our drinks in front of us. "Y'all ready to order now?" I nodded at Rick before he placed his order.
       "And for you?" She looked over towards me, "I'll have the fried shrimp with loaded mashed potatoes please." She scribbled something down on a notepad before bouncing away, taking our menus with her.

       "So you've never, your whole eugh life, eaten at a restaurant?" Apparently he was having trouble believing me.

       "Like I said, my parents were never home. I didn't get to do much."

       "No boyfriend of yours ever took you out to eat??"

       "Never dated. Never had time." At this point his jaw fell, "How? You're urp too innocent. At some point that's gotta get fixed. It weirds me eugh out." I took a sip from my drink, Blueberry Lemonade, when I saw a claw machine in the back, behind Rick. "Is that thing operable?"

      Looking back, he checked. "There's no eugh sign saying it isn't."
       "I'll be right back." I grabbed my coin purse and began to walk over to it. "Just a warning, nobody's urp gotten anything out of it in months."

       "Watch me."

       I made it to the machine. One quarter per play. I looked around, choosing an animal, and put my quarter in. I watched as I dropped the claw a half inch farther left than most would place it. A blue elephant slowly rose and fell into the drop chute, having been held by the head for a grueling ten seconds as it rocked back and forth precariously. I smiled as I retrieved my prize, spinning around to return to my booth, but a six year old blonde haired little girl stood there, staring at my elephant.

       Looking back, I probably should've thought my actions through a little more.

       I handed the blue elephant to the little girl, only to have at least eleven pairs of eyes watching me. Eventually, I had one kid ask me to get him a toy. And I did. But, gradually, all of the kids swarmed me, each getting a toy and sitting down. Finally, I got to the last kid and gave him the flower he wanted before I gave away a few more dollars and returned with an armful of plush creatures. I threw them into the booth and sat down to applause from most patrons. "New in town and I already have a name for myself." Looking over to see Rick absolutely lost, I grabbed a plush donkey and gave it to him.

       "Look, an ass for an ass!" I received a death glare as the toy was shoved into a pocket on his lab coat before the food was brought out.

       "Looks good."

       "I agree." I dug into the food, absolutely starved.

       With minor conversation about the logistics of the claw machine, we finished relatively quickly, paid, and drove away. "I have one more stop to make." Rick laid his head back on the seat and groaned in annoyance.

       "Not my fault you couldn't stay home alone." Another death glare was shot towards me as I found my way to the mall.

-x-

      "Why eugh are we at the mall?" Rick looked around in either disgust or fear, but either way I knew he didn't like it here.

         "Because Summer told me yesterday that she couldn't afford smudge proof make up. And I decided to get you each a gift for your hospitality. With you being here, the surprise of the idea is ruined, but the surprise of the gift is not. So when I tell you to sit somewhere, it's probably because I'm picking out your gift."

       I received no response as I grabbed a small buggy and proceeded to push it throughout the stores, finally coming across one with beauty products. Looking around, I found a massive palette of smudge proof make up priced at $74. "I think this is what she was talking about." I set it in my cart. "Does Beth like any of these things?"

       Shaking his head no, Rick tried to ignore all of the annoyingly bright colors surrounding us as I went up the aisle and paid for the item.

       Outside of the beauty shop, I began looking for a coin dealer. "Jerry said something about a shop having an amazing coin that he'd had his eye on for a while, but Beth says no because she thinks it's a waste of money. Oh, there it is!" Rick rolled his eyes a trudged along, looking at the shops as we went around. I kept an eye on him, waiting to see which one caught his attention most.

       After going around the shops a while, I had paid a total amount of $297. Morty had mentioned an antique action figure, Jerry got his coin, Summer got her make up, and Beth is getting a trophy for best horse surgeon, just to lift her spirits. Having walked past all of the shops, I noticed one had always caught Rick's attention. "Tell you what. Go pick out your own gift. I have no idea what you want."

        Rick practically ran inside the shop, picking up a massive crystal for 'sciency reasons', as he put it. The clerk rang it up, looking genuinely surprised that somebody was buying it. I couldn't wait to hear the price. It was the same height as my knee to my foot and was fairly thick.

       "$324."
       "Better be important. I'm spending more on you than I am on the rest of your family combined." I received an excitedly bored expression, confused as to how the emotions even remotely related to one another and as to how both could play on the same face, as I swiped the card, hearing an electronic beep signaling that the cash went through, and began pushing the cart away. "Since you wanted it, you get to carry the damn thing to the car."

       After having spent over $600 collectively, I was glad to finally be heading home.