The Perfect Job Opening

Who: Alexis and Harper
When: After school
Where: Nevermore

Harper was working on straightening the shelves, putting books back that had been orphaned around the store. With the time that Harper had been there she'd finished the impulsive grand cleaning she'd started before the shadows, and the place was looking nice and organized. It was easy for Harper to drown out her own personal concerns- like her arm- in work by making the place look nice and helping the customers as they came in, probably not the healthiest of things though.

After yesterday's conversation with Thom, Alexis had to track down Nevermore. Any bookstore that contained real literature on the supernatural was worth her time, so she hoped Thom had been right in saying so. Pushing the door open, she stood near the entrance, taking a look around. It was a small shop, but she hadn't expected anything huge. In fact, if even half the books held anything of value, then there were more in Nevermore than she'd ever seen in one place. In that case, the place was huge.

Harper heard the door and looked over after placing the last book in its place. "Hello." She said with a smile as she turned to greet the customer. There she was; happy, smiley, cheerful salesgirl and true blue believer- at least that was the image she'd gotten really good at putting on. In actuality she wasn't as happy, smiley as she normally was and cheerful she was so far from. She was sad her friend had left. It was more than that his departure meant that she was the only employee at the store yet again, but he'd become someone she could talk to and someone who was willing to listen. With all that had happened in the town and the changes in her powers, Harper had liked having someone to confide in. But, she wasn't going to let that show through her happy, smiley, cheery salesperson exterior- not one bit.

"Hi," Alexis said, giving Harper a small smile. "Do you have any books on...vampires?" she asked. It wasn't the topic she really wanted to look up, but she'd rather not jump into something she preferred to keep private. Once she had an idea of how legit the shop was, then she could browse around for herself.

Harper nodded. "Of course." She said with a smile. "One of our more popular subjects, that and hauntings." Gesturing the girl with her good hand she moved to one of the rows. "Over here." She said leading her to the area that had all the vampire themed books.

"Have you read any of them?" she asked, following Harper to the vampire section. It was a little store, so she thought Harper might be the owner, or maybe the book buyer. If she was buying the books, then she had to know which ones were worth reading, or if any of them held any information of value.

"Not as many of the vampire ones, I'll admit." Harper said as she showed the girl the section. "Not yet at least." She chuckled a little. Most of the books that Harper picked up were about psychics and what not… or the search on mirror shadows.

"Which ones do you read?" Alexis asked, scanning the vampire section. It was hard to tell if they were any good from the titles, so she picked one up and began to flip through it. "Do you have anything on the shadow things?" she asked, looking up at Harper this time, just to see what she could read from her expression.

Harper wasn't surprised, 'shadow things' had been the most recent choice in books for about a week now. The hard part was that there was no book that was a detailed 'this is what you're looking for' on them, they were always associated with another being or alluded to as warnings. "You know I'm not sure if we have anything left." Those that hadn't been nabbed up during the 'invasion' had been nabbed up Sunday when people were trying to figure what had happened. "But you know, I did run across something yesterday…" Harper waggled her finger in thought as she walked out of that row and into another, her eyes trailing along the spines.

She didn't have anything left? Alexis supposed that made sense, considering the circumstances. If everyone was aware of this bookstore, then she probably wasn't the first to come hunting down explanations. "So you've been busy lately?" she asked, following behind Harper as she hunted down the book. "Do you get a lot of business?"

Harper shrugged a little. "Some days more than others, some hours more than others, but there's a nice group of regulars to make the day fulfilled. Ah, here we go." She said, pulling out the book that had been hiding with the haunted houses before being found and put in its place. "This might help." It was a book on 'realm guardians', something that would have helped had she found it last week.

Alexis was pretty sure she didn't need a book on haunted houses-- her house wasn't haunted, unless the entire town of Marquette was-- but she took the book anyways. It would be worth looking through, even if she didn't buy it. In fact, the whole store was like that. She could already tell she'd be spending lots of time browsing her way through Nevermore. "Thanks," she said, flipping slowly through the book with curiosity. "Do you hire part time?" she asked, then looked up at Harper again. "Are you the manager?" It would be a good way to look through the books without buying them, so-- why not?

The book itself was on 'realm guardians' of all sorts, from lake and forests to dreams and the afterlife- something of a compendium in its own right. "Actually I just lost my other employee; he had to leave due to family obligations." Harper said. "And yes, I'm the manager." At least for now. Harper wasn't kidding herself in thinking she'd keep the title; she knew it was Dorian's place and whenever he came back she would be her original position again- and part of her liked that idea.

"Really?" Alexis asked, both brows raising. It was just... too perfect. Her type of bookstore and they had an opening. "Can I fill out an application? I've got a little experience with this kinda stuff-- I mean, I've read about it, and I can work some days after school." She didn't want to work too much, but some extra cash would be nice. It meant not asking her dad for money, which would be the biggest bonus; she could buy what she wanted and he wouldn't have to know.

Harper grinned a little at her question, it would be nice to have someone so quick to take over- not that she wouldn't miss Herbert, but she couldn't run the place on her own. "Yeah, there's one at the front." She said as she stepped out of the row and started up to the counter. "Do you have any sales experience?" She looked like a high school kid, but Harper wasn't the best at judging ages.

"No, but I'm a quick learner," Alexis said, following Harper up to the front of the store. How hard could it be to run a cash register? Nevermore didn't look like the kind of place that would ever be jam packed with people. Hopefully she wouldn't need any references; she was too new to get any here in town. Her teachers barely even knew her.

"Good." There really wasn't -too- much to working at the store, at least in the big picture, and the finer points were pretty easy to pick up. "It's not that bad," Harper told her. "The hardest part is learning where things are, and what people mean when they try and tell you what they're looking for, but as long as you can keep a smile on and be nice to the customers you'll do ok." After all, a screw up can be forgiven if done by a kind, pleasant person, rather than a grumpy, upset one.

"I can manage that," Alexis said with a smile. She couldn't imagine having to deal with flared tempers in a bookstore. It was usually a pretty quiet place, wasn't it? Alexis imagined she'd be able to get a bit of her homework done there as well. "I'd like to fill out an application-- Can I fill it out here and just give it right back?" she asked.

Harper nodded. “Of course, that’s more than ok.” She said pulling out one of the applications and passing her a pencil. “Here you go, just fill it out as best you can.” If she didn’t have an experience some of it might be a little blank.

"Thanks," Alexis said, taking the application from Harper. "I'll just be a minute," she said, and took a seat at the little center table. A part time job would be a good idea, would bring her extra cash and allow her to research without buying each and every book. It would have been better if Nevermore was a library, but since it wasn't, this was the next best thing.