No Future [Evelyn]

[mina pandora oliveira]

@evelyn

At one point in time today, there had been a glimmer of hope for Mina’s boredom. These days all meshed together now. Though if she were to be completely serious, it was actually closer to weeks. There was the occasional customer, sometimes browsing to kill time, other times actually buying a book. But nothing happened besides that. Each and every day upon closing, she could count on one hand the amount of people she had talked to. Sometimes that number was just one. Herself. It was maddening, getting paid to sit there in the silence and read books all day. If she was anyone else, maybe that would be a good thing. Mina wanted to talk to people though. She had figured that working in a shop, and a popular book shop at that, would satiate that hunger to talk and meet people. Surprise! It didn’t. At least not yet. The busy seasons, the start of the school year and the holidays, were just that. Busy. She didn’t have the time then to discuss aspirations, travels, or books with anyone during those times because the crowds were ginormous. To make matters worse, no one ever her age, nor attractive for that matter, ever came in when she was working, and if they did she was always helping someone else out. There were magical forces out there somewhere preventing her from meeting anyone decent outside of nightclubs and bars, and she wanted to put a stop to that. She couldn’t keep hooking up with random strangers, because eventually she’d end up like Sarah. Mina didn’t want to be Sarah. No one wanted to be Sarah. Every now and again, she wondered if her sister even wanted to be Sarah. These were trying times indeed.

But back to the point at hand. Earlier in the day, there had been a woman standing outside the store glaring in at one of the window units. That happened often enough as it was, but this lady was there for a while. And then her friend showed up and off they went. Mina had been so close to walking outside and asking her if she was interested in the book, just to strike up a conversation for a few minutes. Apparently that was too much to ask for though. Upon the departure of the woman, Mina stepped outside anyways because she needed a smoke break. That was the other bad thing about being bored. She took more liberty with her free time, thus more money spent on cigarettes. It was a disgusting habit, but it eased her mind and took away the jitteriness that came with trying to hold back from smoking. It was better than sitting in her chair behind the counter and spinning around in circles for hours on end. She had only done that an infinite amount of times at this point.

Hours passed and only one other person had entered the store since then. Her boss couldn’t blame her for scaring the customers away when there weren’t any to begin with. That was probably to her benefit. Kept her in a job a few months longer. All she had to do was be on her best behavior during the busy seasons and she was set. After that, practically anything was game. Sitting in her favorite chair like usual, Mina could feel her eyes starting to roll back in her head. It was getting to that hour of the day. The quiet shop was starting to take its toll on her once again. Some things never changed, and probably never would. All she needed was someone to talk to for five minutes, and then she would be set for the rest of the day. That wasn’t too much to ask for, was it?

[Deleted]

Evelyn was on her way back to the bookstore. Earlier in the day she waited there for Karen to arrive and was intrigued by one of the books she saw in the window. However, before Ev really had a chance to look at the book, Kara arrived and they'd gone off to talk and have ice cream and just spend time with one another. It was really nice, actually. Ev needed the chance to relax and not worry about things, since she was so prone to worry as a general rule, and now it was worse since she actually had something to worry about. Rather, someone. Dustin. 

As she made her way through the streets back to Flourish and Blotts, Ev tried to keep her mind in a good place. She'd follow Kara's advice and things would turn out fine ... probably. Finally, she reached the store and walked in. She breathed in deeply as she entered, enjoying the smell of books and excited to be in the bookstore. After a few seconds of appreciation, Evelyn looked around for someone that might be able to help her, but she couldn't see anyone. "Hello? Is anybody here?" she called, semi-softly. After all, book stores were similar to libraries and she always felt like they deserved some sort of quiet reverence.

mina pandora oliveira

[mina pandora oliveira]

@evelyn

It finally happened. Mina had fallen asleep on the job. Not her fault that her boss didn’t know how to consistently bring in customers throughout the quiet season. Luckily the bell above the door served its purpose and jolted her awake. She had no idea how long she had been out, but considering the fact that the boss wasn’t standing in front of her, arms crossed, and impatiently tapping his foot, that meant that she was still an employee there. Saying that she was jolted awake by the bell was an understatement. It felt like she had been ripped right out of her dream cycle. Wide awake, though still trying to comprehend and process the situation, Mina looked around the store to see where the customer was. She had slouched pretty far down in her chair, which probably meant that it was hard to see her from where she currently was behind the cash register. Maybe if she slid down to the ground, she could make it look like she was fiddling with something behind it. That actually happened right? The shopkeeper appearing from behind the counter wasn’t just in movies? Whatever the case was, she was going to try it.

Sliding to the ground, Mina made sure to grab a book that was under there and needed to be re-shelved. Perfect. Putting books back was always a good excuse. She heard a voice ask if anyone was there, and that was her cue. Moving up from behind the counter slowly, Mina set the book down, and looked around again. There was a woman standing near the door, but in a way that it was probably hard to see one another. There tended to be a lot of clutter in front of the check-out area. “Can I help you?” Mina called through all of it, though a little louder than she had wanted to. As far as she could tell, the only people in there were herself and the woman. Still, it was better to be quiet. That was a hard thing for her to do sometimes.

[Deleted]

Ev thought she saw some movement somewhere ahead and took a few steps forward. Then she saw her, a girl standing up behind what looked like the checkout desk. She asked if there was anything she could do and Ev smiled. "I was wondering if I could take a look at one of the books you have in the store window?" Ev's voice was curious but sure of herself. This was a bookstore. There would be no point in running a bookstore and not letting people look at the books they were interested in. She took a few steps toward the woman, looking around herself curiously. As a general rule, Ev tried to avoid book stores like Flourish and Blotts because she found them very dangerous to her. She was always tempted to buy way more than she should, but she also couldn't seem to help herself. She picked up a book off the counter and glanced at it before setting it down and turning her attention back to the young woman in front of her. Evelyn really needed to focus. She didn't need to come out of here with 20 books. She really didn't.

mina pandora oliveira

[mina pandora oliveira]

@evelyn

The woman at the door asked if she could see one of the books in the window. At least she hadn’t asked to see the book in the window. The people that kept the window display as a singular entity always annoyed her to death, because that meant she had to climb up into the display and figure out which one they wanted. Those were also the same kinds of people that didn’t actually pay close enough attention to get the author’s name or the title of the book; which meant she had to go into the display. Walking outside and asking them to point out which one it was would be easier, but she was only allowed to leave the shop unattended if it was completely empty. This woman had chosen to articulate that there were multiple books in the window, and that she was interested in one of them. While it didn’t seem like much to the average person, that meant she had paid attention to what she wanted, and was now inquiring about it. It was a world of difference for Mina and it made her job loads easier.

As she processed all of this and tried to recall what was in the window display this week, the woman approached the counter and picked up the book that Mina had set there seconds earlier. “Do you know what the title is?” She asked, back to her normal volume level. “That way I can show you where it is on the shelf.” This was actually a tactic her boss had come up with. Flourish & Blotts, like most bookstores, was set up by book genre or topic matter. What most customers weren’t acutely aware of was that the sections nearby typically had accompanying subject matter. The Charms section was surrounded by household spell books and cook books. School books had the fiction section right next to it, hoping to entice students to buy the newest hit books as well, and they were right within reach. The goal with getting the woman to go to the section instead of taking the one from the display (aside from Mina having to grab the one out of the window and then replacing it later), was to hopefully get her to look at other things that might interest her as well. And some people thought she was stupid. She was, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t pitch a few more books to a customer and potentially come out with a higher sale. That was smart business.

[Deleted]

The girl was quiet for a moment and Ev waited patiently. Yes, she was curious about the book, but she actually didn't know what the girl was doing. Maybe she was busy with something or finishing something up, though Ev couldn't see what that would be. When she asked the name of the book, Ev nodded, rattling off the title without thinking about it. The name stuck in her mind when she left the store, but Ev wasn't quite sure what it was about. She nodded when the girl said she wanted to show her where it was. "That sounds like a great idea to me," Ev answered, already anticipating what would happen next. She was definitely going to get more books than she needed because the title of this book seemed like a mix of alchemy and cooking and she was intrigued to learn more about it. Since she knew absolutely nothing, Ev would probably need more to go on. "How long have you worked here?" Ev asked after a moment. She thought she knew all the workers here, but clearly she did not.

mina pandora oliveira

[mina pandora oliveira]

@evelyn

Thank Merlin’s scraggly beard the woman gave her the title instead of pointing out what the book was in the window. Mina was rather proud of wiggling out of that one. She knew if her boss was here, he would have made her climb into the display and grab it, even if it did disturb other customers or those passing by. He was weird like that. With the title in her head now, Mina picked through her brain to try and remember where that one was located. If she recalled correctly, that was one of the new home alchemy books. She had no reason to ever pick up something like that, but it had the makings of being popular. The woman seemed to be on board with going to the aisle it was in, so that was a good sign. Some people preferred her fetching the book for them, and that meant they probably wouldn’t buy more than one book. Damn people and their self-restraint. Never hurt to splurge a little.

“Right this way then,” Mina responded, hopping around her counter and started off towards the aisle the book was in. She was almost positive that she knew where it was. Alchemy, while popular for specific tasks, didn’t seem to be as popular these days. These new hybrid like magic books were bringing that back though. Witches and wizards were finally learning from muggles. Took them long enough. The woman asked her long she had been working at the store as they walked, and Mina laughed a little. “Not long. Late summer, right before the fall term at Hogwarts started.” That had to be a first. She was pretty sure she had never been asked that one before. The regulars already knew her by name, but that was because they were regulars. Most everyone else didn’t give a crap about her. The feeling was mutual though. Unless they bought a ton of books. “And I don’t usually work weekends, so if that’s when you normally stop in, you won’t see me.”

Turning down an aisle, Mina scanned the names on the bindings of the books. This was the alchemy section, so it should be around here somewhere. She tapped each book as she ran her hand along them. “Should be around here…that book is new so I haven’t memorized where it is yet,” she stated as she continued looking. “What do you do? If you don’t mind me asking.” That would pass the time searching better. Plus being personable helped with sales. Callisto would absolutely cringe at this version of her. It was like she was a perfect little cog that fit into the wheel that the working world consisted of.

[Deleted]

The girl paused again before saying anything and Ev assumed she was trying to remember where the book was our something like that. At least, that would be what Ev would need to do if she had that job. Sure she loved books, but remembering where they all are kept couldn't be an easy thing. So Ev waited patiently. The girl moved around the counter, indicating that she would show Ev where the book was and Ev followed her easily. "Great! Thank you," she said politely. Ev didn't know if the girl had to go with her anyway or not, but she appreciated having someone willing to help get present. She looked around all the shelves as they moved through the library. This place was beautiful. Granted, Ev didn't think there were many people in the world who would agree with that judgements, but it was how she felt. Books were knowledge and knowledge was beautiful.

Ev nodded as the girl explained how long she'd worked there and frowned. She should recognize this girl then. Well, better late than never. "I come here all the time, and not just on weekends," Ev said with a guilty shrug. "My name is Evelyn. What's yours?" Not her smoothest attempt at getting to know someone new, but it would work.

When the girl started scanning the bookcases, Ev started looking as well. After all, all books were interesting so even if she wasn't the one to find the book she was looking for, she might find another one. Ev smiled and nodded when the girl explained why it was taking so long. "No problem. I'll help you look," she answered as her eyes continued to scan the bookshelves one by one. She smiled at the next question. "I play Quidditch work the Falmouth Falcons. I'm a beater," Ev explained. If the girl was into Quidditch them the information would probably be unnecessary but she might as well tell her just in case.

mina pandora oliveira

[mina pandora oliveira]

@evelyn

She came here all the time, and not only on weekends? That practically made her a regular then. How come they had never seen each other before? It didn’t make sense to Mina, though she supposed there was a chance that her boss just happened to deal with the woman every single time she walked in. The odds of that happening were slim but technically possible. Most of the old timers preferred working with someone that knew a bit about every book in the store. Mina knew she was getting there, but memorizing everything was a little ridiculous to except of her. She was pretty much just a cashier after all. “Hmm. Strange.” Mina echoed her thoughts. The woman asked her name and introduced herself as Evelyn. “Mina,” she responded, turning around enough to flash her name tag as well. She enjoyed having the shiny piece of metal, because it made her feel important. That would probably sound a lot more depressing if she didn’t keep it all in her head.

Evelyn offered to help look for the book as well. Good. Because Mina was sure that it would take forever if she did it on her own. Some of the books were elusive little suckers. Her boss never had a problem finding them immediately, though apparently that came with her tenure. Someday she would get to that point. Assuming she stayed long enough for that to happen. Mina figured that her question about Evelyn’s job would elicit an answer like a healer or Ministry employee. Nope. She was a Quidditch player. Mina stopped her search immediately, looking at Evelyn’s face harder. She hadn’t realized it when the woman first walked in, but on closer inspection, she realized that Evelyn did look vaguely familiar. Years of memorizing teams and players helped out with that. The Falcons weren’t really on her radar that much, but they came up occasionally, which would explain not recognizing the Beater sooner. “No kidding? That means you’ve played against my brother. He’s on the Appleby Arrows.” Mina paused for a second, hoping to drum up a little suspense for the reveal. “Captain and Chaser, Dakoda Wulfe.” What a dedicated sister she was. As one should be.

[Deleted]

The look on the girl's face made Evelyn believe that she was surprised by how often Ev came in. Most people were surprised by that. If they knew that Ev was a part of the Falmouth Falcons, they didn't expect her to be bookish. However, that was how Ev was. Then she said it was strange and Ev looked at her curiously. "What's strange? That I come in here that often?" It didn't really seem like something that someone would ask if they wanted her to buy books here, but it wouldn't stop Ev. She just wanted to understand the question. She smiled and nodded when the girl introduced herself as Mina. Alright, Ev actually might be able to remember that name.

When Evelyn answered Mina's question about her job, the girl stopped looking for the book, turning to Ev. Evelyn paused in her own search and faced the other girl as well. What was going on? Mina was watching her closely and Ev kind of shrugged a little. This entire conversation was a little weird, but maybe that was just Ev not understanding people? She didn't think so. Most people didn't stop everything they were doing when she told them her job. Then she smiled when Mina started talking about her brother, Dakoda Wulfe. Evelyn smiled and nodded, "I have. He has a good team. Do you watch his games much?" Maybe if Mina started talking about her brother, she'd stop staring at Evelyn ... and maybe start looking for that book again. But Ev would wait a little bit before she brought that up.

mina pandora oliveira

[mina pandora oliveira]

@evelyn

It took a second for Mina to figure out that they seemed to agree on the same thing, but that maybe her phrasing of it being strange had come across the wrong way. While she was sure Evelyn was around the same age as her, give or take a few years, she also had to remember that the other woman was a customer first and a conversation to kill time second. Suiting her needs, which was finding this book, was more important than creating a misunderstanding and running her off. Especially if she was as much of a regular as she pointed out. “Oh, no, not that you’re here a lot,” Mina backtracked to hopefully clear it up. “That we’ve never met before now. Because I work almost every day.” There were obviously times when she was doing other things and the boss was running the store, so it was quite possible that Evelyn came in then. Freak occurrence really, but it made sense. “Can’t exactly say you buying books is a bad thing. Keeps in business after all,” Mina shrugged.

The next segment was on her brother though, and his team’s skills on the Quidditch pitch. Of course they were good! They had him as their captain. It only made sense. Anyone that had watched a match of his while he was still at Hogwarts would have known that. She was sure Evelyn here had a similar opinion on the matter too. As for how often Mina was at the matches…“Season tickets,” she grinned. “Though I can’t exactly make it to all of them because of work.” That would unfortunately interfere a lot. The team’s ticket people knew who she was, and a little ring on the phone a few days before a match would always make sure that somebody would get the tickets, if she hadn’t given them away or sold them yet. They weren’t really fans of having them sold. Mina turned back to the shelf, continuing to run her finger along the bindings as she began walking again. “I also run his official fan club. Keeps all those crazies away,” she stopped for a second to look back at Evelyn. “I’m sure you’ve had to deal with some of them, right?”

[Deleted]

Evelyn wasn't offended by Mina, she just didn't quite understand the girl. She was a bit confusing, jumping from one topic to the next without really any warning at all, but Ev was alright with that. Distraction was good. It was why she came to the shop so often, after all. She needed the distraction in her life. When she started to explain what she'd meant to say, Ev found herself smiling and nodding. "That makes more sense." She looked at the girl more closely when she said that she worked almost every day. "Well ... you do look sort of familiar. I've probably seen you working, you've just never helped me before," Ev concluded. It wasn't completely impossible for that to be true. She smiled when the girl said her buying books helped keep them in business. "If I have anything to say about it, you guys will be in business for a long time. I buy too much when I come in here." Which was a problem, but not one at the same time. Evelyn didn't just buy books to buy them, she studied and read them and she knew each and every book she bought. So at least she wasn't wasting her money on them.

Season tickets? Well that meant that Mina definitely was a fan, though she did admit she couldn't come to all the games because of work. "So do you just go to your brother's games or all the games that you can?" Evelyn asked curiously. There were some fans that focused on one team, and some that focused on the game in general. She had no idea which category Mina would fit under. She also mentioned that she was her brother's fan club leader. "That's ... very sisterly of you?" Ev didn't know how brother/sister relationships went, being an only child so she was more fishing for information than anything else. She didn't know if that type of thing was normal. She shrugged at the question. "A few, but not as many as most. I'm more ... quiet than the typical Quidditch player, so I don't think I get much attention most of the time. I've been getting a bit more lately, but that will probably die down soon." After the "scandal" between she and Rocco, Ev got lots more attention from the media and fans than she ever had before. In all honesty, she just wanted it to go away. She played for the game and the thrill, not to get attention from others.

mina pandora oliveira

[mina pandora oliveira]

@evelyn

She kind of looked familiar. That was…flattering? It wasn’t a problem if they had never had contact with each other before. Just meant that Mina was either terrible at customer service, enough so that Evelyn here automatically avoided her subconsciously, or someone else in the store was on top of things. Mina knew she wasn’t exactly all there every waking moment of the day. Hopefully that wasn’t an early sign of alcohol abuse. She probably had a few more years until her liver gave out. That was plenty of time to do what she wanted to do in her life. “Well, we have some pretty great workers here, so that wouldn’t surprise me,” she agreed. Though most of the time it was just her and Ursula. The occasional other employee did take over the majority of the grunt work when Mina was on as well. She couldn’t be bothered to constantly restack shelves or do itemization in the books. “Glad you like it here. It’s not really like those muggle bookstore and coffee shop combos, but there’s still something special about it.”

Now that that topic was done with, it was back to her brother’s Quidditch matches. “His matches first and foremost,” Mina stated. “Though I do get discounts for others as well. Only weekend day matches for other teams. I like having my evenings free. Unless his team is playing, of course.” There were exceptions to all of those rules though. If she already had plans to go out, missing a couple matches throughout the season wouldn’t kill her. He was still an up and coming player and would have years ahead of him to play. "Isn’t it? Better than having some crazy fan girl doing it. Those types are insufferable these days. They don’t know what boundaries are,” Mina rolled her eyes, shaking her head a little. She always tried to put those types in their place when she could. Showed them who was boss. It was interesting to hear Evelyn’s take on it though. “Only a few?” Mina asked, rather curious about it. “I would have guessed that you would have a lot more than a few, being athletic and attractive.”

[Deleted]

Evelyn smiled and nodded when Mina said that the shop was special, even though it wasn't like muggle book shops. Oooh, muggle book shops. The books in wizarding ones were far more interesting, but the smell of the muggle ones! Ev loved the smell of books mixed with coffee. That might be an odd thing for her to like, but it seemed natural enough to her. Growing up she went to plenty of bookshops with her parents, and since that was all before they knew she was a witch, those were all muggle ones. A coffee shop of some sort was almost always attached to the book shop, which was a fact that Ev loved. Maybe that was the one thing that would make her like Flourish and Blotts more than she already did. "It is special here," Ev agreed, glancing up at the shelves surrounding the pair at the moment. Of course, they were full of all sorts of books. A place like this was a dream to a girl like Ev.

Evelyn smiled and nodded when Mina started describing the games she went to. It seemed only natural to Ev that she would care about her brother's games first. Perfectly normal. She listened as the girl explained that she preferred day matched. That was interesting. Most people she knew preferred afternoon or evening ones that took place after they got off work. "Of course," Evelyn agreed softly, still listening to the girl as she continued on, talking about her brother's fan club. "Yeah, I've heard about that kind of thing," Ev answered. "I think it's a good idea to have family help so things stay under control." Then Mina started asking a bit more about Ev's fans. Ev gave a small laugh at Mina's assumption. "I don't know. Maybe I have more than a few, but it's not like I really meet a lot of them. I get letters often and try to answer them when I can, but I highly doubt I actually have a fan club. I mean, I'm a beater. It's not like I have one of the really glamorous positions," she explained. She wasn't looking for pity. Ev loved her position and felt like she did really well at it. She didn't care if others paid attention to her because she knew that she was important.

mina pandora oliveira

[mina pandora oliveira]

@evelyn

Flourish & Blotts was special indeed. It was obviously because Mina worked there. Ursula was a great boss too, and she had made a lot of quality changes to the store after taking over a few years back. Mina was lucky enough to have been old enough to see those go into effect. Moving from a stuffy, heavily-perfumed bookstore into a more modern, easily accessible one had made all the difference in the world. There were still those dark, secluded corners here and there; they were impossible to avoid simply because of the store’s size. She recalled running like a wild animal through the store her first few years of school while her parents waited in line to get the books they all needed. Usually they were for the older siblings. She had been too busy trying to recruit other kids into playing tag or hide-and-seek to realize some of the issues that the family used to have. Now everything was slightly more affordable, thanks to Ursula, and the former Slytherin was lucky enough to call the store her place of work.

Mina knew that it was a good idea to have family running the fan club. It brought in a little extra income at times too. Though that was her secret, and hers alone. If her brother found out about the charges she was making for signed pictures and quaffles…she probably wouldn’t hear the end of it. In her defense, that was money put towards rent and it wasn’t like she was charging astronomical prices for them either. Plenty of athletes, Quidditch and muggle alike, charged for those kinds of things. If they didn’t, then people would get dozens of them at a time and sell them on their own. Wasn’t it better to have one person control all of it? “Having everything under control is exactly how I like it too,” she nodded her head. Trusting any of the fans to run the thing would have been a nightmare. They wouldn’t know boundaries and when to back off. Mina understood that because she had watched from the outside her entire life. “Beaters keep the rest of the team alive. They have to be the strongest and most agile, in my opinion.” Evelyn wasn’t wrong though. There did seem to be a lack of respect towards Beaters. Every player was just as important as the next though. If a team had a solid Seeker, or a couple quality Chasers, they still needed a Beater there to keep them from getting destroyed by the other team. “But responding to letters is definitely a start. I’m sure they appreciate that you take the time to get back to them.”

She stopped walking as she approached a shelf that looked to have the book they were searching for on it. “So it should be somewhere around here. Shout if you see it.” Mina began her scan of the titles once again. There were so many on here that had never budged a smidge since she had put them up. All in due time though. It was amazing what people would buy family members for Christmas.