Please don't drop them, please don't drop them. Please don't...! A large dust cloud rose from behind one of the shop counters. Boxes of quills and rolls of parchment tumbled out of her grip and to the shop floor. "Damn," Aurelia sneezed, high pitched like a mouse.

Luckily, she was the only one on shift at the moment, and the store appeared to be empty. She could pull out her wand and spell everything into its place on the shelf, but she knew she'd end up double and triple checking everything if she did. At least by doing it the Muggle way, she'd know it was done right the first time. Reluctantly, she knelt to gather the pile of merchandise.

The day so far had been rather pleasant, as the summer was providing more sunny days than not. While most of her time was spent back in the states at her parent's house, since she was out of school, she had some errands to run today in town, and was glad for the warm breeze that had blown into the open shop door.

With classes starting up soon, she hoped to grab some of her text books and get a jump start on the reading. She'd had Prof. Holmes for Healing Potions last year, and if he was anything to go by, her new classes were going to be rather challenging. Not that Healing was anything to sniff at, but it was way more difficult than her Potions at Salem had been. It wasn't just the treatment of the ingredients, but the exact precision of execution, that would be keeping her on her toes.

She could barely contain her excitement!

An armload of quills at the ready, she moved past her disaster area to the proper shelf, humming along to the music playing throughout the shop.

Isaac was looking forward to the start of the coming school year. He was still a little bummed that he hadn't heard from Frankie, but he was trying not to think about how much he missed her. She was one of the few friends he'd made but he knew that he could make some more if he made an effort. Making friends wasn't something he was very good at though, due to him being rather awkward. Pushing that thought down, he made his way into Scrivenshaft's so he could get his writing supplies for his studies.

Walking in, he began to wander around as he looked for the things he needed. Slowly he started piling them up as he found them, and he started to wonder where the person working was. Isaac hadn't seen anybody even though he was sure somebody had to be here. There was music on, and that wouldn't be the case if the shop was empty. Finally he saw somebody with arms full of quills and noticed some parchment on the ground. It seemed the worker had dropped a few things, and he set his things down before starting to pick up some of the parchment scattered on the floor. When he had an armful he gave the girl a wave. "Hi, I thought I could help you pick up a little if that's okay." he said quietly.

The small chime on the door rang out in the shop. "Welcome to Scrivenshaft's!" Aurelia called out over her shoulder, in her customary greeting. Setting a couple of peacock quills in their proper place, she scooted down a few feet to the pheasant area for the next set of small boxes. She didn't pay much attention to the customer until she heard the voice only a few feet away.

"Oh!" Spinning around, a smile graced her face. "That'd be awesome, actually. That counter over there, if you could." She'd have to put it all away behind the desk, but that would at least get them off the floor and in one place.

Three pheasant quills and an eagle one later, and her hands were free. Dusting them off on the front of her jeans, she didn't really care if she got a bit dirty. In this shop it just kind of came with the territory. Aurelia stepped behind the row of counters, over to where the boy had piled the parchments. Thankfully, they were bound with twine, so as not to come unraveled. Varying lengths and textures, they were going to take a bit more time to sort out. So, she piled them on the shelf behind her to get to later.

"Can I help you find anything? We've got most of your usual brands for inks and quills. Though there's a section far to the left set up for a nice guy who enchants them to change color." While she would prefer to work with books over simply the supplies, the witch had to admit that she enjoyed the array of possibilities that up and coming craftsmen were creating.

Isaac smiled back shyly and nodded when she told him where to put all the parchment. "Sure, no problem. Happy to help." he said cheerfully. He walked over to the counter and carefully set the parchments down, making sure none of them rolled off since they were bound up with twine. There were a few more left on the ground so he made a second trip before grabbing his things. Looking at what he'd already collected, he tried to think what else he needed. It looked like he'd already gotten just about everything as far as he could tell.

Waiting patiently while she went about her work, he looked around the shop for anything interesting. If there was something that caught his eye he had a little bit of extra money to spend. Before he could find anything she was talking again, and he turned to face her as he paid attention. "Umm, I think I've found just about everything I need already. Don't think I'll need anything that changes color, although I'm sure that could be amusing. Writing your homework in ink that changes color as a professor tries to grade it." Isaac joked, chuckling a little. He had to admit, the idea did amuse him probably more than it should. "Seriously, though, I think I do have what I need. Where do I check out?" he asked.

Blowing a puff of air towards her forehead, Aurelia tried to move a bit of her bangs out of the way. With the humidity lately, they weren't wanting to cooperate, and she'd forgotten to use product in it...again. A lot of witches used glamour spells, but she felt like it weighed her hair down, and that just felt weird. She wasn't one to waste much thought on her looks, but it was annoying. 

"Oh! Okay." The owner kept telling her she needed to work on her salesmanship. She loved helping customers when they needed it, but hounding them into buying stuff they didn't...well, that just wasn't her style.

Aurelia made her way around the corner to another, cleaner counter-top, signaling for him to follow. While she could take his money anywhere, all the ledgers and such were underneath this one. She pulled out the log book, using the slip of material that kept mark of the page, she opened it to the latest page.

Taking note of his items as she went, the witch was thankful she'd finally learned all the pricings for the store. Made everything go by much faster. She picked up the quill he'd collected and smiled. 

"I love this one. The delivery boy for our shipment wasn't very nice. Son of the maker an all that. But I've got to test it out since we got it in," that was her favorite part of working here. "It's got the smoothest tip I've ever seen."

As she started packaging up his items, setting a bill in front of him with the total, she took a look at the man's face. "Do you go to the Academy? I don't think I've seen you on campus."

Isaac noticed the girl attempting to keep her bangs out of her eyes and found himself smiling a little. Not many girls had bangs any more but he thought that they suited her rather well for some reason. Then he realized he was thinking about a stranger's hair far too much and felt himself blush a little at the silliness of it. There was nothing wrong with it of course, but he still felt a little embarrassed about it anyways.

"Thanks." He followed her as she made her way over to a counter and set his things down on it so that she could take note of them. She didn't even need to check prices for things, probably having it all memorized. Isaac started thinking that maybe he should get a job here in Avalon as well. It would be nice to make a little money while he went to school and would help him occupy his free time. When he walked back he promised himself to check to see if any of the shops were hiring.

Looking at her as she examined one of the quills, Isaac smiled a little. There was no particular reason he'd selected that quill in particular, it just looked like a nice one. "Guess I made a lucky choice then. You enjoy working here, don't you?" he asked her. She seemed comfortable in here, he'd thought as she helped him with his things.

Isaac glanced at the total and counted out the money before setting it down on the table. Feeling her eyes on him he looked back at her and nodded. "Yeah, I'm just starting my first year though. Studying Healing. I take it you go there too?" Maybe he'd have somebody he would know there after all.

At the boy's remark, Aurelia couldn't fight against the light in her eyes as she laughed softly. "Yes, I do," was the simple answer. "The boss is really understanding, and I love the smell of the place. Not as great as a bookstore, but close enough."

Hearing that the guy was a first year, a bit of nostalgia hit her. This time last year, she'd been in his shoes. She could practically see her parents bustling down Diagon Alley, chattering away about their daughter going to the Academy. Her father hadn't attended school after his NEWTS, as he'd fallen in love with her mother and decided to live in the muggle world, with her. They loved people watching in London, listening to their accents and the funny words they used. She loved watching them.

"Yeah. Second year this fall." Aurelia set the back of merchandise on the counter between them. "I was actually in the Healing major last year. Not for me, apparently. Giving Potioneering a shot now."

Isaac couldn't help but chuckle at her comment on the smell of the place. She had a good point, the smell of books was pretty hard to beat. "Well that would be tough to top. Although I have to say the tea shop here smells pretty great." He'd only been once since he was still new but it had been lovely, definitely somewhere he would be going back to regularly.

With the first term rapidly approaching it was beginning to sink in that he really was out of Hogwarts. Now that he was preparing his things for his start at Merlin's he couldn't help but wonder if anybody else from his year at Hogwarts would be here with him. For the most part he'd kept to himself in school, but it would still be nice if he saw a familiar face or two. Isaac wanted to try and make a few friends this year, even though the idea scared him a little. He'd always been socially awkward, but he thought even if it was only one friend it would help him become more comfortable with being around people. Right now, despite the girl helping him being nice, there was a bit of anxiety bubbling beneath the surface. It was something he'd gotten used to a long time ago, though.

"That's cool. Hope potioneering suits you better. Mind if I ask why Healing wasn't the right fit?" Isaac asked curiously. Being a Healer was something he'd wanted to do for a long time, but it would be nice to hear what she thought of it. Although he doubted it would affect his choice of major, he knew it was always good to hear different perspectives.