The Accounts of An Ordinary Bookstore…

(Her View)

Cleeck. As the door shut behind the two, they were unaware of the clock starting its pursuit or Neil who was relieved of their presence.

The girl tossed a glowing circular light no larger than her amber eyes staring into the orb. “I was wondering where mine went!” she said accusingly.

The boy pulling out his orb paid her attitude no mind, “That boy, do you find that skittish child so amusing?”

By now it was clear that the path they had started down was only going further into the depths of the ground but the two walked with little caution.

“Who?” The girl seemed confused but uninterested.

She sauntered along dragging her hands along the cragged cavernous path. Her hand trailed across an especially sharp part and she pulled it back before pausing and looking ahead at the boy. “You can’t possibly mean Neil, right? You can’t exactly call him a kid when I’m sure we’re all about the same age. For all we know he could be older.”

“I highly doubt that, and in any case, his age is hardly my concern. My point is that he is entirely irritating but also unfit to work there and generally odd”. The boy spoke with little malice but a cold tone.

The girl knew this to be his usual manner, but his sudden interest in someone else piqued hers.

“And what makes him odd exactly?” Hastening her pace so she would not be left behind, her words had clear curiosity rolling off them.

The boy seemed to notice her intrigue and continued.

“I mean, that boy can hardly speak in front of you, yet chose to be a part of SELLERS. Besides the simple fact he isn’t cut out for it, he seldom talks to anyone back at the SHOP. I highly doubt a squirmy little thing like that, someone who even avoids his sister, would go out of his way to work in any position here even as just a clerk”.

They were walking side by side now, and the girl could see the faint blue glow illuminating the boy as he spoke, his monotone voice directed from that frigid face, staring into the dark ahead.

“I guess you could consider that a bit abnormal…” She paused before smiling a mischievous grin and continuing,

“Don’t worry though, I’m sure Neil won’t tattle on you and the slights you threw at him. Besides I’d have to consider you even worse if having no friends was a crime.”

The cavern had expanded, trailing off into three directions. The girl confidently skipped left with the boy following along, both leaving the other paths deserted and pit-black. The girl already knew she had earned another flash of annoyance from her colleague and she grinned to herself in the dark.

She watched as he composed himself quickly as always and feigned a smile before commenting, “It isn't uncommon for people like us to have few acquaintances but he has more than enough time to find a companion."

He looked around assessing their position "We are almost there, aren’t we? ”

The girl rolled her eyes and kept on. The labyrinth under the city was complex for sure, but if you’d used it as your primary way to get around for years, it proved to be less complicated than above ground. At least, that's how she thought about it. After some time of plodding along, she took a final turn left and they began heading up. She noticed the boy had started lagging behind her and turned expectantly.

“You're the one who acted as if you were on pins and needles waiting to get back, and now it's YOU slowing me down!” she crossed her arms as she waited.

The boy looked up at her, and as if unaware of her impatience, he casually asked “Are you upset you don’t have that clerk job?”

She looked perplexed “Do you care whether I say yes or no?”

Before he could respond she spoke again “I’m sure I already know your answer so never mind. As much as I like the idea of relaxing and doing whatever Neil does all day, it wouldn’t suit me at all. Besides you and I were assigned, we didn’t have any good reason to choose our position like Neil did. After all, it’s not like you asked to work with me anyway.”

“…..” The boy shifted nervously, his gaze deviating in the light blue glow.

The girl's mouth gaped watching his reaction and she looked at him with slight disgust.

“Did you seriously beg to be my partner?”

“I never did anything like that,” he said flatly but still shifted uncomfortably.

Her annoyance was not directed at him directly but primarily at the fact that even if he hadn’t asked, they would have been put together anyway. Of course, she wouldn’t let him know that. She sighed and they continued walking the cavern finally getting brighter as they headed up.

“If I’m to be mad about anything it’d be that we got assigned to commute from that lousy

bookshop on Ainemerr Street. What's the point in seeing it if I won’t work there anyway? Not to mention it smells of dust and the pathway from there is practically the longest. I know it’s because no one goes there and we’re still considered inexperienced but…”

She trailed off as the lights rendered the orbs unnecessary and a wooden trapdoor flung open revealing a boy with two missing teeth and greasy brown hair. His face full with the evidence of his last meal, he reached out a hand.

“Hey you two, how about ya come in now I could hear your groanin’ fore I could hear your feet.”

Without a twinge of embarrassment, the girl climbed up the ladder taking the boy's hand, and climbed out. With a triumphant huff, she brushed off her skirt and started over to join what seemed like more than one hundred faces staring right back. The boy followed her and then took a seat, not realizing the girl had been waved over by a much younger child.

The girl had hay blonde hair up to her neck and an excited look in her green eyes as she scooched up to the boy. Through bites of a bread roll, she whispered, albeit not very quietly, “I think you're a teensy bit late for lunch”.

Several others at their table and nearby heard this comment and tried to suppress laughter. The girl gave her colleague a stern look and he attempted to offer the little girl a kind smile. After achieving a very unnatural smirk he whispered back in the same manner, “Cami, we are aware and thanks to you I’m sure everyone else will be too”.

Cami’s face twisted into a frown and the girl looking at the boy with pure exasperation quickly changed the conversation.

“Cami, have you seen Grandpa Ed today?” The dining hall may have been packed but it wasn’t as if everyone joined every day. The girl didn’t understand why her partner had to be so blunt with the kid.

Cami’s face swiftly lit back up at the prospect of being helpful again and it was clear to see gears turning in her head. She opened her mouth to share and then closed it quickly. Forgetting that the boy was the one next to her she pointed her spoon in his direction and asked expectantly.

“Can you tell me what my brother was doing first?” Her eyes widened as soup from her spoon flew right onto the pant leg of the boy's slacks.

“Oops?” Cami said with a slight smile that seemed to say “It was an accident though?”

Before he could react the girl pulled his handkerchief from his pocket and handed it to him. She then turned, giving him a firm pat on the shoulder and whispering “Don’t you dare say anything.”

To this, he simply lifted her hand off his shoulder with a slight frown and started wiping his pant leg. Focusing her attention back on Cami the girl smiled cheerfully “Neil was having a lovely day but he was a bit upset that he wouldn’t get to see you until the shop closed.”

Cami nodded as if her brother missing her that much was only understandable.“He must be really sad without me. Next time you see him upset you should tell him that when I get older I… I'll become a shop clerk for SELLERS too so… so he better focus on his work so I can do mine.”

Despite Cami tripping over several thoughts to get to her sentence the girl genuinely thought the child had a good yet naive resolve. It wasn’t like she even knew what SELLERS (often called SELL for short) did or meant but since she was growing up in the SHOP she would already know most of the rules needed to become one. All she needed was a few more years and school... The girl's thoughts were disturbed by Cami who continued shoveling soup into her mouth swiftly. Finally, the child seemed momentarily satisfied and remembered the girl's initial question.

“Oh right, I saw Grandpa Ed with the redhead girl. You know the one with really big dangly earrings who always has the short freckled girl following like how you have him.”

Cami pointed, rather carefully this time at the boy, which meant she must have been talking about two people who were partners like them. Most of the younger children like Cami in Sellers Home and Orphanage for the Poor would never know SELLERS individuals personally. After all, getting rid of your name was the first thing to do for those joining SELL unless you were an elder who ranked highly or a shop clerk with little contact with SELLERS.

It was even common for some orphans who disliked or didn’t have names in the first place to stay "nameless" as the boy had. The girl looked at him, irritation in her gaze,

“So that means we’ll probably get leftovers again. That redhead always takes the interesting stuff.”

She stood up and began briskly walking towards a large flight of stairs in the corner while her partner followed shortly after with two bread rolls. One he tossed to her and she was forced to stop and catch it. Annoyed at him for slowing her pace she took a large bite before questioning,

“I didn’t see these on the table? Where did you even ge-”, she coughed as she tried to swallow it.

Not surprised in the least, the boy handed her a flask of water which she drank quickly. “It doesn’t matter where I got it since we haven’t had it in a while.”

It was true that they were often too busy in the society to come back to the orphanage for what was considered “home-cooked meals” so she stopped arguing and they walked up the last flight of stairs to the very top floor. Just as they made their way off the final step they were met by a man who looked to be in his sixties but had a youthful glow about him.

“There you are! Why is it that my family members are always the last to show up?” He uncomfortably reached his hand out as if for a hug, fist bump, or high five. The girl couldn’t tell but he soon cleared his throat and patted his sides as if to move on.

“Well, I’m not saying you two should be rushing in here to see your Grandpa. I mean, after all, they say birds gotta fly the nest sometime. By that I mean you two baby birds grew up.” With that, he shaped his hands into birds and started chirping.

The girl watched as the boy next to her twitched his brow with annoyance, something that always happened when a comment like this was made. She just rolled her eyes and nudged him slightly to keep him from causing any trouble.

This was because the man was Grandpa Ed. He came from a line of one of the main founders of the SELL and he only had one daughter, the girl’s mother. Her mother had wanted little to do with the Society of Espionage and Leaders of Labor in Extensive Requests and Services. Often the extensive requests and services were just words for difficult jobs no one else would do and the girl's mother decided she would marry rich to avoid working as someone from SELLERS. A long story short, her mother's match ended up with a con man, and the beautiful life she imagined went up in flames that engulfed her as well. The only family she knew was two people after that. One was a grandfather who insisted she forget her name, become his star pupil, and live like every other SHOP kid. For some reason, the other was this boy who she had known to be her other family since childhood. She didn’t know if this was because she had brought him in that winter morning or if it was because he just scared everyone else off. All she knew was that for one reason or another, they were close. All of this made Grandpa Ed consider them his only family and yet the same information is what made the two youths feel less connected to the old man as time went on.

Seeing their lack of response to his comments, the man chuckled awkwardly, his almond face revealing his normally hardly noticeable wrinkles. Then he sighed a long sigh and said, “Come along then.”

Finally, the three of them walked into the first of the three offices on the top floor, the other two belonging to Grandfather Richie in charge of initial job placement exams and requests, and Grandmother Cal who managed the orphanage and overall funds allocation. Grandpa Ed was mainly supposed to explain your next mission, what your names would be, and how much money you got out of it. Well, that was what he was mainly in charge of, but most of the time he spent hanging out around the orphanage, asking the SELL individuals about the interesting stories of their missions, and telling stories of his youth as a member of SELLERS. When he wasn’t doing that, his demeanor changed drastically.

The old man sat up with his hands resting on the file in front of him.

“You two have little to say as usual, so let's move on to this.” He opened the file up to reveal… and fifty minutes later, they were back to making their way through the dark and craggy pathway.