Mo led us through the automatic doors, smiling at pedestrians that passed by us. Inside, I took in a deep breath as my eyes tried to take in everything. To my left were stands packed with perfectly aligned televisions of varying sizes playing some sort of sci-fi movie. To my right was camping equipment set up around a plastic campfire, large price tags stuck on each item. Farther in, I saw a food stand behind a group of tables and a soda fountain. I turned my head this way and that, catching glimpses of different items farther in still, and I couldn’t even see the other side of the store through all the merchandise.

Mo grabbed the two of us, pulled us off to the side, and looked us dead in the eye. “I have to say something real quick. I don’t want there to be any trouble or accidents, so please behave yourselves. Amethyst, we have to pay for the food, so don’t go putting everything in your mouth on a whim.” When Amethyst opened her mouth to protest, Mo quickly said, “But there are free samples, so go nuts on those if you have to do so.”

At the prospect of free food, Amethyst bounced on her heels and visibly shook. “I’ve gotta go! Steven, have fun and find me only if its an emergency! Later!” She tore off down the aisles, heading straight towards a sign that ready “Produce.”

“I’m already regretting this,” Mo mumbled. “So Steven, anything you want to find first?”

I couldn’t focus on any one thing before something else caught my attention. There was just so much. “I honestly can’t decide.”

“Let’s get you something to eat first,” Mo said, already guiding me over to the food counter. She greeted the employee with a smile and ordered a jumbo pretzel with cinnamon-sugar and two ice creams cones, vanilla for her and strawberry for me. A few minutes later, we were walking away with the large cones in our hands and Mo carrying a soft pretzel that was wider than my head on a paper plate. As we ate our ice cream and picked pieces of the sugary pretzel, Mo guided me through the maze of the store.

We passed frozen foods which turned out to be three aisles with the freezer sorted into even smaller groups of food. In the far corner was a pharmacy with a bored-looking woman sitting behind a screen. A man with a headset was promoting some sort of superior blender, and I was tempted to watch the rest until Mo pulled me away and popped another bite of pretzel in my mouth. The produce took up much of the back of the PricePal, and different coolers of varying sizes contained so many types of protein and cheese that I couldn’t list them all off. I saw Amethyst swarming each free sample stall while patient employees tried to calm her. Mo groaned each time she saw.

When we reached the baked goods, my mouth instantly watered. Rows and rows of cookies, pies, and pastries were heaped on tables and stored in brown boxes with plastic lids. As we wandered by the tables, I wanted to act more like Amethyst and take a piece of every single one. Mo started laughing, pointing out that I had started drooling at the displaying. I felt my face heat up as I wiped my mouth with my sleeve.

“Maybe that’s enough food for now. How about clothes?” Mo suggested.

I couldn’t help to think the clothing section was a lot like the baked goods. Each item of clothing was kept in individual stacks, with different sizes on top of one another. Articles that were similar to each other were placed together, and the pants were on separate tables from the shirts.

Grabbing a red sweatshirt from a stack, Mo crouched and held the shirt in front of me, shifting it at different angles. “Nah. That’s no good.” She refolded the sweatshirt and placed it back on its stack. “Let me know if you find something you like.”

We waded through the masses of clothes for almost an hour. I found a few items I liked, but I didn’t want to impose on Mo so I put them back. That strategy didn’t work out since she seemed to notice every time something caught my eye. In that time, I’d amassed quite a pile despite how I tried to deter Mo. When I told her that I like the clothes I wear now, she said, “A little variety wouldn’t hurt you.”

Through this whole time, Mo seemed to genuinely be enjoying herself, humming and pointing out each section of the store with an enthusiasm I hadn’t seen before. That’s the weird thing, though. She didn’t seem to have a problem with the other customers or employees. Mo was acting like any ordinary human and people barely turned an eye. Aside from the few that noticed her gemstone, I’d doubt any of them would guess she was an alien species.

“How do you do it?” I ask her as she examines a hot pink tank top.

“Do what?” She replies absently.

“Act like a human,” I say. “With the other Gems, it’s like mixing oil and water. They’re nice and all that, but they don’t seem to click like you do. No matter how much time they spend here, humans just don’t mingle easily for them. But here you are, in possibly one of the most human places ever, and you’re just fine. So, how do you do it?”

Mo took some more time to look over the tanktop before setting it back and picking an olive t-shirt. When she set that back, Mo turned around and sat on the edge of the table. “I’ve just been around them a lot more than the other… than the Crystal Gems. Have I told you why I came to Earth in the first place?” I shook my head. “It was your mother.”

“My mom?”

Mo nodded, her gaze becoming misty as if she was looking at something that wasn’t there. “I could never find my place amongst the Diamond’s hierarchy, and I didn’t know how much longer I could go on trying with fruitless results. Pink told me that she knew a place where it didn’t matter if I had a purpose or not. I could do whatever I wanted and just be… whoever I wanted to be. Honestly, there were times where that wasn’t much easier. Even on Earth, I had no idea what to do. My decisions were mine, but I had no idea what I wanted to do. Suddenly there were so many options, and I was clueless. I fought, I sang, I ate. I grew, I learned, I laughed, I hurt. I was alive for the first time I could remember. And I was happy. Really, really happy. We were fighting and some days everything seemed hopeless, but I wouldn’t trade any of those moments for anything.”

Mo chuckled, which morphed into a sigh. She picked up a random shirt and worked the material with her fingers without seeming to realize. Not wanting to push too hard, I let her have a moment before asking, “What happened?”

Mo took a breath and let it out. She crumpled the shirt and straightened it out again. “Things went downhill. We hit a dark time, and everything went into the toilet. And then… well, it may be easier if I showed you this.” Mo’s fingers ran along the metal rings on her arms before they clicked and came off, freeing her jacket’s sleeves. She shuffled and freed her arms from the sleeves, dragging the jacket onto her lap. I was taken back that the jacket had been actual clothing instead of part of her form. Before I said anything, I saw it. Underneath was the black, sleeveless shirt with the white “X” on the front. Without her jacket, I saw the spots that had been covered.

Patches of yellow marred her ivory shoulders, spreading along her arms and disappearing underneath her shirt. More patches marred the black material along her sides and back. I’d seen marks like these almost every day since the Diamonds sat in Rose’s Fountain, and I had become so used to them that I felt like I shouldn’t be surprised. Still, I couldn’t hide my shock of seeing signs of corruption on Mo.