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Post by JOHANNA CHAMBERS on Dec 28, 2013 22:50:47 GMT -8
It was the nearly a week since her encounter with the new girl at school. Well, not exactly new yet considering she wasn't starting till next year. She'd be the new girl at school next year. Technically. Today Johanna had her hair pulled up in a ponytail. Today she'd chosen to wear coral colored shorts and a blue t-shirt with white detailing and a white tie around her waist. School was over for the day the weekend was officially started. So, of course, instead of the homework she had to do over the weekend, Johanna decided to go to the mall today. Most of the homework was math. The mall had seemed like a better plan, so that's where she chose to go.
The mall was a relaxing place. Unlike most people, she preferred to spend the time by herself. Idly, she thought she could probably come with Eun-Yul if they ever saw each other again. Honestly, anything was more fun than staring at math homework for hours and hours. For any amount of time, really. She sighed at the thought. One day math was going to make perfect sense to her. ONE DAY. Or she'd just have to put aside her dreams of anything environmental, get some high-paying job, and pay someone else to handle any and all math-related situations. Obviously someone she could trust not to cheat her out of a lot of money or anything else. There was another sigh at the thought. She shook her head, trying to push the thoughts out of her mind. She was in the mall. There were better things to focus on. Like shoes or pretty baubles or...well...anything.
Stopping outside of the shoe store, Johanna looked through the window to see if there was anything immediately that stood out to her. She didn't really need any shoes, but it never hurt to look and see if there was anything she'd like in the future. It would likely make her mother's day for her to ask her to come shopping with her. Maybe she'd do that. That thought in mind, she slipped into the store, looking around.
Date: May 25
Tagged: Johanna, Lilian
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Post by LILIAN VOICULESCU on Dec 29, 2013 5:32:19 GMT -8
i've seen the world, lit it up  Shopping. Lily knew she should lay off the shopping but it was a pleasure of hers that she couldn't help indulging every so often. Plus, she was in need of some new shoes right about now. Well, she didn't need them, but they were always nice. And she could afford them, so long as she didn't fall in love with something ridiculously overpriced and expensive.
She liked this mall a lot. There was a lot here. She put shirts and skirts in the back of her mind, telling herself to look for some of those should she have enough money left over from shoe shopping. Because Lily had to admit, shoes were getting kind of expensive these days, especially when she was looking for fashion and not so much comfort (she liked comfort but shoes were supposed to look good). It was always an effort to look good at school while also bordering on the line of professionalism and practicality. And those two already didn't mix well together, why would fashion ever make it better?
But still Lily tried and arguably succeeded. Not that a bunch of ten year olds would really care how she looked anyways. Or how much time she spent looking at the mirror perfecting her appearance every morning while she got very little compliments concerning, well, her attire. And this was everyday. The only time she had ever purposefully dressed down was when they were doing something like painting... or throwing water balloons at each other... or making volcanoes for their science project.
"Ah... Sorry." Lily hadn't expected to immediately bump into someone whist going into a store, but goodness it actually happened a lot. She offered a little smile. "You're shopping for shoes too?"
;a; and thus the age old bump for character interaction is put to use. |
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Post by JOHANNA CHAMBERS on Dec 29, 2013 11:00:50 GMT -8
Johanna hadn't really been expecting to run into anyone...or be bumped into as was the case, but when she turned around, it was with a quick smile as she waved it off. "It's fine. Worse things have happened to me." A pause. "I think, anyway. I'm sure they have." With two older sisters who weren't particularly fond of her, she was sure she could find something. It likely wouldn't be too hard, but she didn't really want to think about that any more than she wanted to think about math.
This week, it seemed, was a week for meeting new people. Not that she was complaining, it was just a little strange. "Yes!" She laughed a little. "Well, at least I'm looking at some shoes. I don't know if I'll buy any. Maybe if there's something I like enough." She studied the woman for a moment, taking in her clothes and everything. "Are you looking for anything in particular?" Not that she really worked here or anything, but helpful was the way of things this week as well. Maybe she could help her to find whatever she was looking for and put a few things in the back of her mind for later.
There were a lot of nice shoes here, so she was certain something would catch her eye. If not, then maybe she was lucky. It was probably better than ending up buying something. Probably.
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Post by LILIAN VOICULESCU on Dec 29, 2013 17:49:10 GMT -8
the clock has stirred Was it bad that she chuckled? She couldn't help herself, this was amusing. Lily meant it in the best way possibly. Plus, she was subtly trying to laugh off her little clumsiness. "I'm usually not this clumsy, really." She supposed her endearing trait was that she apologized a lot, though even she knew it could just be a little bit much. And annoying, fast.
"Not really looking for anything particular. Just need something to wear for school. I've been needing new shoes for a while." She shrugged a little. After all, there was nothing really in her mind as to what she'd like. Most of her shopping trips were like this. A generalized checklist of what she wanted, and she'll go into a store, find something she absolutely loved (usually), and that was that. It was to say, her money got spent rather quickly.
"I guess it's the same for the both of us." The shoe shopping. She wondered what possibly could grab the other girl's attention, so she sort of kind of tried to notice how she looked. Which was that she was probably a lot younger than she was. Sometimes she forgot how old she was getting - so close to thirty already and she still wanted to dress according to latest fashion. Since when had she gotten so old, again?
"Have you been here before?" This was a stranger after all, and Lily thought it couldn't hurt to ask. "This shop has a habit of getting shoes I really like and before I know it there's a million pairs I want to buy even though I can't." Sounds about right. After all, just last month it had happened, except with dresses. |
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Post by JOHANNA CHAMBERS on Dec 29, 2013 18:22:04 GMT -8
Johanna couldn't say she really minded the laughter. She was known to be a bit dramatic at times, but she was only really bothered by laughter if she was being laughed at. That wasn't the situation at all so far as she could tell, so she wasn't really bothered by it. "Sometimes things just happen. Nothing to worry about." It wasn't as if she went flying into a display of shoes. Quietly, she peered at the nearest display and tried to gauge the likelihood of her ending up flying into it. The risk seemed low for now.
"Oh!" For school. She wasn't young enough to be in high school and she'd never seen her around before as far as she could tell. "Are you in school or do you teach?" Because that would make all the difference. At least in Johanna's mind. You'd want something comfortable if you were on your feet for a long time, but if you weren't teaching, she supposed you could go with something else. Then again, she almost never went with the more fashionable shoes. She liked flats and tennis shoes mostly. Sometimes flip flops. If she wore heels, it was only on special occasions.
Nodding, Johanna looked around. "A lot more than I probably needed to, yes. It's a pretty nice store." She laughed at the last part, shaking her head a little. "It does have that tendency. Perhaps there is some secret force at work that reads people's minds and puts things out in the store that it knows we have trouble resisting." Unlikely, but she was sure that was something that would happen in a book or movie. She really hoped it was just something to laugh about.
"I'm Johanna, by the way. Since I didn't say so before."
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Post by LILIAN VOICULESCU on Dec 29, 2013 19:09:38 GMT -8
the clock has stirred "I teach at the elementary school." The elementary school, as if there was only one (there were a bunch, this was Los Angeles after all). "I finished school so long ago, but I don't really miss it much." Oh dear, the reminder that she was getting old, again, twice in one day. Not even five minutes, even. But school was something she didn't miss. Maybe her earlier years in college, once upon a time, but those tests she had to study days upon days for to get her teaching license? Not something to be missed.
"I usually wear flats, so I was thinking about looking at those." She didn't fancy walking around in heels where there were so many kids around, no need to accidentally trip and fall or anything. Three inches would be as high as she went with school, though she usually only wore heels for special outings with her family and social gatherings. And usually, those heels would be higher.
About the mind reading store's tendency to have cute shoes... "That would explain a lot, actually. Or, they just overhear conversations about what people want." That was a likely cause, though not as amusing as the proposed theory before. "What do you usually wear? Maybe we can help each other out." Lily had made assumptions, although she didn't like drawing conclusions without confirmations.
"Oh, I'm Lily! I, wow I should have introduced myself." Why didn't she do that earlier? "I feel kind of stupid for not. Oh well." |
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Post by JOHANNA CHAMBERS on Dec 29, 2013 21:07:27 GMT -8
"Elementary school..." Johanna had no idea which one that was, but she didn't really ask. It might have clarified things, but then she wasn't likely to try to stop there. So there wasn't much point in asking. At least not as far as she was concerned. Maybe later. "I still have a year of high school left. I'm almost certain math is trying to kill me." It was bad enough that she had dreams about it.
There was a nod. "Flats sound sensible when it comes to school. Kids are a dangerous thing." But then she was the youngest, so she only knew anything about kids because of her siblings having their own kids. Dashing around and knocking everything over. Dangerous. She was not overcome by any desire to surround herself with them anytime soon.
"It's entirely possible these days. They've got cameras and everything everywhere. It's also entirely possible that we're unknowingly trapped in some horror movie and the shoe store is a dangerous foe." A mind-reading shoe store was pretty terrifying. Kind of useful, but also terrifying. She smiled, waving it off. "But probably not. And I usually wear flats or tennis shoes. Off brand chucks." She could have had the real thing, but she really didn't want to make her parents pay that much for a pair of shoes. Maybe one day.
"Lily. That's a nice name. And don't worry about it. I figured we'd get there eventually." Smiling usually helped to make people feel better about things, so she always made a point to smile during awkward situations.
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Post by LILIAN VOICULESCU on Dec 30, 2013 0:00:22 GMT -8
the clock has stirred "Ew. Math." Okay so Lily didn't particularly like math, so what? She was a teacher, and she taught math... but it was only fifth grade math so that was better. But if Johanna only had one more year left of high school... oh, Lily was getting war flashbacks about horrible mathematics. Never again. Never again...
Kids were a dangerous thing, but as dangerous as they were, Lily found them rather cute. "They're really cute and fun sometimes too." She just didn't trust a couple of them. She knew what she was getting into when she first attended college and enrolled in the teaching program, but at the same time she didn't regret it one bit. Lily loved children, really, it was just a matter of time before she picked one up for herself. One day. "They're part of the older bunch, so it's not as bad as, say, a kindergartner." Not that kindergartners weren't cute.
"Oh... oh that's a terrifying thought." No doubt something that one of her kids would think of. Purely fictional but at the same time absolutely terrifying if thought of too long. A shoe store in a horror movie... starring as the horror monster. "That would mean we've walked right into a trap! The allure of cute shoes was just too hard to resist."
Lily had been around kids too much, she had been. The childlike mindset with the horror movie monster was a bit out of place for a high schooler though. "This store know all of our secrets." Well, if they kept providing her with cute shoes, she sure didn't mind at all. "Ah, I worry too much over the little things, no big deal. Let's work on finding shoes, though." Since they had been standing here just talking, not looking.
She was keeping in mind what Johanna liked. She tried to be helpful, she sure did. Tennis shoes, flats, cheap chucks, wherever. |
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Post by JOHANNA CHAMBERS on Dec 31, 2013 11:03:29 GMT -8
"Exactly!" Math was terrible. At least someone else understood this. The terrors of math. She hoped that she wouldn't have to do too much math in college. That would be the best unexpected present that she'd ever gotten. No math...or at least very limited math. She'd prefer none. "It's terrible."
Johanna hadn't really found a kid she liked enough to find all that fun or cute. Sometimes they said particularly funny things, but otherwise, they were just strange little people. That ran around and got mud everywhere and broke her things. Terrors. "Oh. Well, the younger ones are particularly...energetic." That was a nice enough word to describe them. "But even the older ones can be sometimes." She shrugged slightly. There was a reason why she would never be a teacher. She left that to people who actually enjoyed themselves.
Imagining dangerous and terrifying things was a strength. Whether it helped her in life or not was yet to be seen. "That's the way they do. Like most predatory flowers. It lures you in with something that makes you want to go in and then it strikes." She couldn't help the shiver that ran down her spine. She really had to stop doing this. She smiled a little, trying to ignore it...which meant not responding to the part about the store knowing their secrets. She really did need to stop.
"Oh! Right." She felt her ears heat up a little before moving towards the shoes. "We should probably look at the shoes first." Pausing momentarily, she looked at Lily. "What size?"
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Post by LILIAN VOICULESCU on Dec 31, 2013 15:47:09 GMT -8
the clock has stirred Lily had definitely been around kids too much. She was almost glad that the school year was nearly over. There were still a couple of weeks, but then it was summer and... and she had to work out the schedule for the next school year. Ah, no matter, it was always the same curriculum anyways. "They can sometimes be a pain to take care of, but some of them are really nice! Like one of the kids, they always try to help out whenever they can. Though... some of them are real devils..." But really, enough of school.
"Ah... I supposed I got too carried away with that and imagination. I think the mindset from earlier might still be there." It was a cruel way to murder people, really. But cute shoes, well. Lily didn't think they were worth death, not really. But with the amount of money she spent on her attire alone, it wasn't too much of a stretch to say they were worth quite a lot to her. Then again, she could never really escape that rich aspect of her life, even if she was independent enough and was making money on her own.
Hey, at least she didn't explicitly ask for money from her parents.
"Seven and a half." Oh right, shoe sizes, she'd entirely forgot. Then again, she was one to look at styles before sizes. That had been the plight of most of her shopping, actually. She found the perfect style and then... not the perfect size. "Yours?" |
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Post by JOHANNA CHAMBERS on Jan 1, 2014 21:35:38 GMT -8
Johanna was instantly thankful she didn't have children to look after too often. She was sure that the nice kids were few and far between. She shrugged slightly. "You're probably right. I don't know a large selection of kids." Because it was often easier to agree than argue. And she seemed to like her job and the children part of that job, so it was probably the easier option.
"It's okay. I am always doing that." Always.
Seven and a half. Johanna made a note of it. She always approached these things from a logical side of things. You might see shoes that you liked, but if they weren't in your size, then it ruined just about everything. "Eight and a half," she said quietly. She'd always felt that her feet were ridiculously big, but then she was also fairly tall, so it was probably just to make sure she didn't fall over on her face. It was only a size bigger than Lily's, though. So perhaps she wouldn't find her feet terribly oversized. And there was always a chance they were going to be in the same aisle.
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Post by LILIAN VOICULESCU on Jan 5, 2014 5:43:06 GMT -8
the clock has stirred "Sometimes I feel like I know too many for my own good." Seeing as she got around 30 kids a year and they were new every time - well, Lily sometimes got a little overwhelmed from children. But she didn't regret her career choice one bit. If anything, Lily wanted kids of her own because they were just so squishy and cuddly sometimes. Well, it really did depend on the children. One year she'd get the sweetest little angels and then the next she'll get the class full of demon spawn.
Not that it was a good or bad thing, of course. Lily tried to treat them all the same, much as she could anyway.
"Shoes shoes shoes..." Lily was sort of mumbling to herself. It was hard looking for cute shoes to match her own style, so it would probably be harder to find someone else's, but she liked being helpful. Eight and a half. She tried to focus on both, but sometimes her mind shifted on finding one type and then the other. "I'm sure we'll find something for the both of us. Or die trying." |
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Post by JOHANNA CHAMBERS on Jan 17, 2014 22:58:13 GMT -8
Johanna gave a little smile at that. One kid was generally too many, but the idea of a whole classroom filled with them was kind of terrifying. All right, not so much terrifying as overwhelming. Still. Too many kids in one place. Luckily there wasn't much chance of her having to worry about that outside of school and she could easily ignore people in school if she had to. Or make snappy comebacks and get them to leave her be.
"Hopefully we don't have to die for shoes." She laughed quietly, shaking her head as she tried to look for shoes. She'd never really tried looking for someone else, but given what the girl was wearing now...
A pause to look at her shoes again for a moment.
She shouldn't be too difficult to figure out. Hopefully. There was always a chance that something was going to be harder than it was. She'd still try and figure it out. "If we do happen to die, however, it has been lovely shopping for shoes with you in my last hours."
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Post by LILIAN VOICULESCU on Feb 9, 2014 11:32:28 GMT -8
the clock has stirred Lily had of course been enjoying the back and forth musing of killer stores and shoes and the prospect of dying for a perfect pair of shoes (to be fair, the way the media presented most shoppers seemed akin to that analogy, though she supposed there were a lot of things Lily herself would do to find the perfect outfit).
But it was getting tedious. But Lily hadn't the heart to tell her so. She enjoyed the company, but what was this lull?
Whatever. Shoes. Shoes were more important.
"Hmmm... Keds? I wonder, do you like these?" It was thirty some dollars, seemed to be of that general style most teenagers (that she observed, but even then she really didn't pay attention and she didn't see much of them in the first place). She wondered about some flats though.
Something appropriate for school but at the same time fashionable? Something of that sort.
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okay sugar wat do |
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