The Great Dollar Store Experience

"Heh, alright." Pearl briefly looked over at Flint after Marina mentioned him, tilting her head slightly as she wondered why he had suddenly moved further away. She could have sworn he was just in line to get a donut, too.

"So...? What'll it be...?" the shopkeeper asked Marina, looking slightly amused. Part of him was glad that he'd finally be finished dealing with these two customers soon, but he did find the whole experience somewhat entertaining, really.

"I think I'd like..." Marina paused briefly, her expression thoughtful as she confirmed her order in her mind. "... One glazed, one chocolate, and one red velvet, please!" she finished, feeling quite satisfied with these choices. Each one sounded good to her, but she was especially excited about trying the red velvet variety, in particular.

As Marina was listing the donuts she wanted, the shopkeeper went to the display case by the wall, picked the donuts out, and plopped them into a paper bag which was just barely large enough. He then returned, placing the bag in front of Marina on the counter. "Careful; the bag's a little small," he warned her. "We didn't have any bigger ones left."

When the shopkeeper returned with her three donuts, Marina got out some money and quickly placed it on the counter before carefully taking the bag. "I will; thanks...!" she responded, bobbing her head gratefully. As she waited to make sure she had paid the shopkeeper enough, she somewhat had to resist the urge to start eating her first donut right there.

The shopkeeper looked at the cash on the counter, then at a small screen over the register, then back at the cash again. He did this a few times, looking focused, before finally speaking up. "That's... definitely more than enough, thanks," he chuckled, only taking a portion of the money, and pushing the rest back towards Marina.

Meanwhile, Pearl was completely focused on staring into the bag she was given, taking a good look at her vanilla-frosted, sprinkled donut. "... I've seen sprinklier," she mumbled with a small pout, noting the rather underwhelming amount of sprinkles.

"Oh... OK," Marina chuckled softly as well, taking back the remaining money with her free hand. Then, after waving to the shopkeeper with a friendly little grin, she turned away from the counter and headed back to Pearl's side.

Flint glanced up noticing that they were done. He couldn't help curiously eyeing their purchases, but tried to keep it subtle. "enjoy yourselves?" He asked absently. Glancing one again out the entrance towards the main walk way.

As she approached the entrance, Pearl looked up at Flint when she heard him speak. "Eh, I dunno... I mean, I know it was cheap, but I was expecting something a little more exciting than... this." She lifted the sparingly-sprinkled donut out of the bag, held it up, and stared at it with an unimpressed expression.

Marina, who had followed Pearl to the entrance, leaned over to get a look at the donut her friend had ordered. "Huh. It does look a bit... lacking," she remarked, a slight look of uncertainty on her face. "Uhm... Maybe it'll still taste alright, at least?" she suggested hopefully.

"Maybe..." After one more moment of staring at the donut, Pearl went ahead and sunk her pointed teeth into it. Of course, she was just as disappointed by its taste and texture as she was by its appearance. "Eghhh...! It's stale!" she complained, having to rip bites off using a little more force than should be necessary.

"Aww... It is??" Marina, sounding disappointed upon hearing about the donut's apparent staleness, reached for one of her own-- the red velvet donut-- to try. "Well, let's see if the rest are like that, too..." Slowly, she sunk her teeth into it, having to use a lot of force to pull the first bite off, much like Pearl. With a rather unimpressed expression, she then began to chew, which also took a bit more effort than it would with a fresher donut.

"And the icing's all waxy!" Pearl continued to gripe. "The sprinkles are waxy, too... And the bready part has ZERO flavor! Bleugh!" She stuck her tongue out. "Why are we eating these things again?!"

"I guess we were just that desperate for a snack..." Marina responded upon finally swallowing her first bite; then, after this, she almost immediately started on her second. Even though these donuts were turning out not to be quite what they had hoped, the fact that she was so hungry managed to make them seem a little more appealing.

“How much were they again?” Flint asked, narrowing his eyes in the direction of the counter. He took a moment to try to read the text on the menu from here, but it was a bit too far for him. He chose instead to keep a wary eye on the cashier. Has he given them stale doughnuts on purpose?

"Eh, it was practically nothing," Pearl responded, shrugging. "But still! Even a DISCOUNT donut shouldn't be this terrible!" She forced herself to take another bite, scrunching up her face a bit while she chewed it.

"Yeah, these just seem... especially cheap," Marina chimed in, holding her red velvet donut in front of her as she stared at it for a moment. She then attempted to sink her sharp teeth into it again for a third bite.

Flint growled. "Pathetic. They don't even look worth selling by the worst vendor!" He crossed his arms pointedly, scrunching up his nose at the doughnuts in the two girls hands. "They should up their quality."