After babysitting her cousin, Liona was relieved that her Aunt Emma was true to her word and hadn't submitted the demerit for her inattentiveness when she got to school the next day. As the week progressed, and finals were rapidly approaching, she tried her best to retain what was being taught in her classes since it was supposed to be a review of the semester so far. As much as she didn't like it and struggled to understand some of it, she was determined to not get a demerit or any failing grades that could result in a demerit.
Her birthday was just around the corner, and she was determined to celebrate it with her friends and classmates. Invitations had been sent out and most had already Rsvp'd that they were attending. Now this party was just for her friends and her, while she would have a separate celebration with just her family later. She was very excited since her grandparents would be coming over to visit at that time.
When she got home Friday afternoon, she was surprised to see her mom home from the hospital. Usually she was on-call over the weekend and half the time just spent the night in an on-call room.
"Hi, Mom! What're you doing home? I thought you had work this weekend?"
"Oh, Liona, welcome home, Baby. How was your day? How are your studies doing?"
"My day was good. My studies are the same as ever, but you're evading my question, Mom."
Liona watched her mother sigh and noticed that her pheromones were slightly sour. She went up to her and wrapped her in a hug. She was being insensitive. It was written all across her mother's face and pheromones why she was home instead of working.
"I lost my priority patient this morning. I was unable to save him, and I had to tell his partner that he's now the sole parent of their little girl. I managed to save my patient's baby daughter, but not him…" Liona's Mom, Vivi, stated with a heavy heart.
"I'm sorry Mom. I didn't mean to be insensitive." Liona felt bad for pushing her mom to answer her curiosity.
"You couldn't have known, Baby. You've got nothing to be sorry for. When have we ever scolded you for being curious?"
"Only when I was doing something stupid, but even then, it was only to help me learn from that mistake."
"Right. So, there's no reason to be sorry since you didn't make a mistake, it was just my reluctance to bring my work home with me…"
Liona just hugged her mom tighter. She didn't know how her mom did her job without breaking down completely when something like this happened. She was home now for a mandatory mental health break after losing her patient, and she was trying to not bring that burden home with her. It had to be hard to keep your work and your feelings separate in these kinds of situations. Furthermore, she had only known of a couple of instances in her mom's career where she had to deal with the loss of either her patient or the patient's baby. It hurt her mom every time, since she had gone into this career to save as many high-risk pregnancies as possible, much like her mentor had done in her lifetime.
After hugging her mom, Liona headed upstairs to change out of her uniform and reluctantly started up her homework. After doing her best to plow through the review work, she set it aside and pondered, once again, what she wanted to do with her life. She was going to graduate soon, so she had to figure out what she could do. She didn't want to go to college since she sucked so bad at studying, so that left limited career options for her. There was always working at her Great-Aunt Jessica's store, but that only was a part-time gig and wouldn't really pay much in the way of funding her lifestyle. She liked her creature comforts and didn't want to give up her luxuries. Shopping was her number one hobby, after all.
As she contemplated this, there was a knock on her door frame. Looking up, she saw her dad at the door. "What's up, Dad?"
"Liona, I'm sure you're aware already, but your mom has had a tough day today. I don't want to leave her alone at the moment, but I need a few things from the store. Do you think you can run over and pick some things up that we need for the weekend?"
"Sure, Dad. What do you need?" Liona was happy to agree, it would be better for her mom to have that support from her dad when she was feeling down. "Oh, did you want me to tell Chloe and Alli that we can't do our sleepover weekend?"
"No, that's okay. I will be whisking your mom away for a little getaway. That's why I need you to pick up a few things so that your siblings can fend for themselves. I only ask that you make sure they don't burn the house down in our absence." Her dad joked.
"Funny, Dad. You know, they cook worse than I! If anything, I will be the one cooking food for them so that they don't burn the house down accidentally!" Liona laughed. It was one of the few things she was actually good at. She loved to cook for her family when the opportunity arose, and it soothed her to putter around the kitchen turning ingredients into a full meal.
"That's why I was going to ask you to pick up easy to make meal ingredients for them. I know they can assemble a meal just fine if it's all prepared ahead of time. If you get those ingredients and a handful of frozen meals for when you aren't here, they won't be tempted to burn the house down trying to cook. That way, you can enjoy your weekend with your friends without worrying about your brothers and sisters." Liona was then sent a list of groceries to get that her siblings could then make simple meals with, as well as a list of their favorite frozen meals.
"Okay, I'll head out right away. You just concentrate on making Mom feel better. It's no good if mom is depressed over this for too long, the whole house will smell sour! When are you and Mom going to be back?"
"We'll be back by Monday morning, but I'm going to be swamped at work the coming week, so you may need to be prepared to make sure that your brothers and sisters have their lunches too. I made sure to give you a little extra to cover the cost of the groceries, as well as get yourself and your friends a few treats to enjoy over the weekend."
"Thanks Dad! You're the best!" Liona got up to hug her dad.
After her dad left, Liona quickly grabbed a light jacket and her favorite ankle boots that matched her suede jacket. These shoes paired well with her favorite jeans and blouse that was her go-to style for a casual night. After checking her appearance in her vanity once, she tucked a stray hair behind her ear and headed for her car. On the way to the store, she browsed a few recipe blogs for ideas on what kinds of lunches she could prepare for her siblings if she needed to next week.
When Liona got to the store, she headed inside to grab a grocery cart and wove her way through the isles. She picked up all the requested things her dad asked for, along with the ingredients for lunches for the next week. Then she made a beeline for the bakery area to pick up a few sweet treats that she and the girls could enjoy. After selecting her friends' favorites, she headed for the checkout lane. It was peak hours at the store, so all lines were filled to the max.
That meant that human cashiers were called in to help pick up the slack to keep the lines moving faster than the self check-outs that dominated the grocery stores. There was always at least one old person that would complain that there wasn't a human to check out, so most stores had at least one person capable of checking efficiently.
Typically, more modern big-name stores would be equipped with auto-scanners that scanned everything in your cart or basket, and charged it to your account as you walked out the exit. This store, being a small, independently owned, local supermarket, had yet to upgrade to such a system. This meant that it was very popular with the older generation of shoppers.
Seeing as the line that was moving the fastest was the manned checkout lane, Liona made a beeline for it. Third in line wasn't so bad, considering all the rest of the checkouts were crawling along with at least six people deep, she considered herself lucky. She didn't pay any attention to the person who was her checker, she grabbed a magazine from the end cap and flipped through it. It was a fashion magazine that still had a physical print form, one of the few that still produced a hard copy in this era. Seeing a few ideas in it that she liked, she set it on top of her groceries, just as the cashier got to her items.