Post by mina pandora oliveira on Nov 22, 2024 7:24:27 GMT -7
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November 30, 2029
Tomorrow was December 1st, officially the first day of the Christmas season. Or that was what most people wanted to think of it as. Over the years, the start date of shopping for the holidays had crept back, almost to the point where Mina wasn’t quite sure where it began anymore. She had older customers at Flourish & Blotts telling her that books they were buying in June were presents for their grandchildren. Which was nice and all, but wouldn’t they forget six months later? There were very few elderly folks in her life, aside from calling her parents that as a joke, so she wasn’t quite sure what memory was like for those that were in their nineties and early hundreds. On the other hand, that made her feel great about herself. Just past the halfway point of her twenties meant she had decades to go.
Of course, that brought in tons of other horrible thoughts, like how she was starting to feel stuck in life. Not everything had been perfect in the Oliveira family over the last couple of years, and with the Ministry constantly edging werewolves uncomfortably with the threat of stronger laws against them, she disliked visiting her parents more and more. None of it was their fault, and she was also upset about what was being proposed against them. Despite not being one, Mina liked to think that she understood almost as well as one could without the affliction. Throwing on top of that her malaise towards work, and she had quite the combination going.
The incoming Christmas shopping rush always had her anxious before it began and completely drained by December 26th. Customers had only grown greedier and more aggressive. It wasn’t as fun as it used to be. She also wasn’t sneaking off into the back alley to sneak sips from a flask or getting high on her breaks. Those had dulled the experience greatly, but she couldn’t keep up with that anymore. She had actual responsibilities at the bookstore now, and her boss expected quite a bit out of her this time of year. That should have been a positive sign for her, yet it wasn’t. Too much trust being placed on her made it all so much harder.
Head propped up by one hand on the check-out counter of Flourish & Blotts, Mina let out a long sigh. There were a few customers milling about, though they had long since disappeared into the back rows of the store. The thicker texts and spellbooks were usually kept back there, and she had no desire to go looking to see if they needed any assistance. She was the only one working today, having started her shift at noon. Now that it was entering the holiday season, they were open later to grab those that worked regular shifts. Which was terrible for her on the days she closed, because not only was her entire afternoon consumed by book talk, but also a severe lack of sunlight. The sun was already down, and she still had an hour left of the shop being open. Knowing her luck, none of the people that came in now would actually buy anything. ‘Just window shopping!’ as one of the annoying younger Witch-Tok mums had said earlier before going on a ramble into her phone as she walked through the aisles of books. They really needed to ban that sort of thing. Mina let out another deep sigh as she thought about it.
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MADE BY VEL OF GS + ADOX 2.0
