(Greentext) Denise's First Purchase

>Denise's "phase" didn't seem to affect her other duties at first
>It all started when the Clark's oldest son Cody, who was 12 at the time, handed her a console controller and asked her for help in beating a level in his favorite shooter game
>Having a few hours to spare before she had to prep that night's dinner, she happily obliged him and started playing
>Upon pulling one of the controller's triggers and seeing her character fire his shotgun, something clicked in her robotic brain
>In an instant, all the appeal of video games made sense
>With her enthusiastic help, Cody and her breezed through the difficult level in under 15 minutes
>They both sat in front of the square screen for the rest of the afternoon, right up until Mrs. Clark came upstairs and wondered why Denise wasn't in the kitchen
>From then onward, she never went another day without spending at least an hour of her free time in front of the television
>Still, she had yet to become the burden her family would later know her as

>The following winter, she gained a habit of wearing her long black hair down and playing Cody's games very early in the morning
>The entire family found out about this on the same night, when she woke them all up by shouting vulgarities at her online teammates
>Cody wasn't very happy to find his console confiscated for a week because of something he didn't do, so Denise tried to make it up to him by taking him to the mall the next day
>As they were on their way to the food court for lunch, the two passed by a shop that neither had seen before
>Cody hardly gave it a second glance, but she was attracted to all the strange clothes in the displays
>However, she decided to temporarily ignore it, instead prioritizing spending time with the young man
>After a half hour long lunch, she proposed they split up and explore the mall, each with a half of the remaining cash Mrs. Clark gave her for the outing
>He agreed to the idea and made a beeline for the video game store, but she seized the opportunity to enter that shop she saw earlier
>When she casually set foot inside, the piercing-covered man behind the counter glanced up and gave her a strange look
>The exposed brick walls inside were an odd choice, she thought to herself, but that was most likely to play into the store's "underground" theme
>As she perused the racks, the clerk stared at her like a zoo animal, curious what a lone nandroid was doing in such an edgy place
>She spent a few minutes chuckling to herself at some of the absurd logos printed on the t-shirts and ballcaps, but ultimately decided to purchase something else
>Marching up to the counter, the clerk finally greeted her and rang up her item: a pair of black and green striped arm warmers, almost as long as her forearms but cut off at the fingers
>Out of some sudden embarrassment, when asked if they were for herself, she lied to him and said they were for her young missus back home
>Even if he believed her at first, he clearly saw her putting them on over her sleeves as she walked out

>She caught Cody just as he was leaving the game store with a plastic bag in hand
>He smirked and loudly exhaled through his nose as soon as he saw her new accessories
>They were really hard to miss, given their contrasting color to her Sterling-standard blue uniform
>"Nice gloves, dude", he sarcastically commented
>"Yeah, they're pretty cool, aren't they?" she answered, ignoring his jokey tone
>"You get them at that new place?"
>"Yep," she said as she pushed her hair off of her right eye, "but don't worry about telling mom, they were only 8 bucks."
>Walking together out the food court entrance, she knew they wouldn't be her last purchase there
>She earlier took note of a spiky bracelet that looked very "cool" to her, for lack of better words
>"Next time," she quietly mumbled