A Hole in the World by Sophie Robbins

gently.
    Alexandra nods. ‘Oh yes,’ she says. ‘Your friends are so nice to me and your world is exciting.
    Bianca smiles. ‘I’m glad you feel that way.’ She tightens her grip on Alexandra’s hand and pulls her in a little. ‘I like having you here.’
    ‘I like being here.’ Alexandra beams at her. ‘What is this ‘supermarket’ of which you spoke?’
    ‘Ahh. It’s this place where you buy food and stuff. This way.’ Bianca leads Alexandra down the street and onwards for ten minutes, the two of them chatting idly as they go. When they arrive at the supermarket, the automatic doors catch Alexandra by surprise.
    ‘Magic!’ she exclaims.
    ‘Nah, just electronics.’ Bianca shoves Alexandra in through the door and into the shoppers.
    Daisy, Cory and Scotty catch up behind them, bringing a trolley with them, and Daisy says, ‘So, where do we start?’
    ‘Fruit,’ says Bianca. ‘Then sweets and chocolate.’
    ‘Fruit?’ Alexandra enquires. ‘We have fruit in my world.’
    ‘Really?’ says Scotty. ‘Even... bananas?!’ He produces from seemingly nowhere a large bunch of bananas. Alexandra raises an eyebrow.
    ‘We have bananas,’ she says.
    ‘Hm...’ Daisy picks up a melon. ‘What about this? You like melons, don’t you Alexandra?’
    Bianca smacks Daisy around the head and the redhead bursts out laughing. Alexandra, however, just takes the melon and says, ‘We do not have melons.’
    ‘We’ll take that then.’ Bianca pops it in the trolley and the small group spends the next ten minutes going through the sweets section.
    ‘Try one of these, too,’ Bianca says, adding a packet of Sour Skittles to the trolley.
    ‘And this!’ Cory drops some Lemon Sherberts in.
    ‘Are we trying to make her fat?’ Scotty enquires, contributing large amounts of fat free and sugar free sweets to the trolley.
    ‘One binge won’t hurt, Scotts,’ Daisy says, practically leaping on him and wrapping her arms around his neck from behind. ‘You’re just jealous because your metabolism is slow like Homer Simpson and you eat one chocolate and you start to look like him.’
    Scotty huffs. ‘ Hardly ,’ he says, haughtily. ‘I just don’t want her getting fat and blaming us.’
    ‘A large stomach is a sign of wealth and nobility where I am from,’ Alexandra announces. ‘But my family and I prefer to spread our wealth to the people and help them to eat, rather than eat ourselves.’
    ‘See?’ Daisy says. ‘She doesn’t mind!’ She hops down off Scotty’s back and grabs a large box of chocolates, full of truffles and creams.
    ‘How much is this all coming to?’ Cory asks.
    ‘Uh, forty I think,’ Daisy says, consulting her list upon which she’s been jotting down prices. 
    ‘All right.’ Scotty tosses a big bag of fruit sweets at Bianca, who puts them in the trolley. ‘We done?’
    ‘Yep.’
    *
    They emerge back into the sunlight from the warm interior of the supermarket and head straight for the nearest area of grass, which happens to be a small park.
    ‘Here.’ Bianca spreads out the bags and reaches for the first item: a large box of chocolates.  She’s never been as horrified by anything as the discovery that Alexandra’s world does not have chocolate. ‘Try this.’
    Alexandra accepts a dark chocolate truffle and bites into it. After a moment, her face lights up and she looks almost reverent. ‘I have never tasted anything so exquisite!’
    ‘I know right?’ Bianca grins. ‘And that’s not even the best one. Here, try this, it’s a champagne truffle.’
    The group spend the next half an hour feeding Alexandra random choices from the large collection of sweets and chocolates and noting which she likes and which she doesn’t. Sour Skittles, for example, cause her to wrinkle her nose, do this funny head-shake-shudder and squeal. She’s not a fan of those. She seems to like milk and white chocolate, although dark is her favourite, and she doesn’t like it when the chocolate is