Andrea looked up as the door to her office was pushed open. She had left it ajar so that she could hear what was going on outside in the shop, and also as an indication that she was available if needed. "Ah, the young apprentice..." she smiled warmly, a smile that faded slightly when Kaileigh spoke. "Calamari? You want people to call you 'Squid Rings'? Well if that's what you want. Personally I can't see what's wrong with Kaileigh - apart from the one letter difference, you'd be named for one of my all time favourite songs. Listen to this." She clicked her mouse a few times to bring up Google, then typed "Kayleigh Marillion". She clicked play and the song filled the office with it's slightly mournful chords.<br/><br/><div class="bbMediaWrapper">
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</div><br/>When the song was finished, she smiled up at Kaileigh."Now, that is an absolute classic. Anyway, if you want a name badge you can always make your own. It's not something I'd actually considered. And I'm sure people will get to know you the same as everyone knows 'Auntie Andie', or 'The McCall witch', as some of them seem to like referring to me!" She laughed, then glanced at the clock. "Oopsie, looks like it's closing time. Do you want to run upstairs and tell Miss LaFervre, Miss Rainton, Miss Edwards, Miss Trellain and Miss Harris that they need to make their selections and leave, please?"<br/><br/>It was an uncanny knack that Andrea had for knowing almost everyone's name and never getting people muddled up. It was rare for her not to know someone's name, and it was even rarer for her to get a name wrong. On those rare occasions she did get someone's name wrong, or apparently mishear a name, it was a pretty good guess that she didn't like that person. Or, in the case of Kaileigh's pseudonym, that she disapproved of it.<br/><br/>She stood, screen-locked the computer and headed out to the cash register, pausing by the front door to flip the sign that read "Welcome, We Are Open" to the other side that read "Sorry, We Are Closed". She deliberately turned off half the lights upstairs even as she heard Kaileigh's voice drifting down. She waited as the teenagers dutifully came down, a couple of them with selections that Andrea rang through the till and took their money. "Right. That was an interesting day. Your friend is here..." Becca was standing outside the shop, reluctant to enter due to the 'closed' sign. "I'll see you on Tuesday, bright and early. If you can get here for quarter to nine, that would be splendid, because there's always stuff to do before we open at nine. If you can't make it for whatever reason, like you decided to run off with the slime ball, or got hit by a truck, send me a text. I'll text you my number. Have a good weekend...!" She smiled and waved, even as she was pressing the button that lowered the safety shutters down across the shop's front windows.<br/><br/>"OH! I almost forgot..." She pressed the no-sale button on the till and opened the drawer, counted out $72.  "Here. I think you did about six hours total, at twelve dollars an hour, that's seventy two dollars. Ill do a proper pay slip for you over the weekend, I haven't had a chance today. Remember you'll need to pay the IRS their bit. If you don't... well it's worth remembering that the famous gangster Al Capone was not convicted of any of his actual<i>crimes</i>, he was sent to prison for not paying tax on his ill-gotten gains!" She grinned as she handed over the money and ushered the girl out the door.<br/><br/>With Kayleigh safely on her way to Becca's house for the night, Andrea closed the shutter across the door, locked it and made sure<i>all </i>her security systems were working, then cashed up. Her profits for the day were slightly higher than last Saturday. "Hmm... Seems having a pretty young face behind the cash desk might actually be a good idea."<br/><br/>"Only if she doesn't keep breaking stuff." Gwen's voice came out of the shadows by the occult items.<br/><br/>"Oh shut up. Besides it was the slime ball that broke them." Andrea swept past her mentor and out the back, where she opened the dumpster and retrieved the crushed boxes. "I'm definitely going to have to do something about him...!" She carried the boxes inside and cut them open with a craft knife that was kept just inside the stock room. "Hmph." The one box contained a plaster sculpture of a dragon and one of its wings was broken off, as was it's head and part of it's tail. The other box, the heavier one, contained six crystal balls and wooden stands for them. Two of the stands were broken, but the solid glass spheres were intact. "Okay. Gwen, will you tell everyone to be quiet please? I need to concentrate."<br/><br/>The chatter of concerned fairies and dragons ceased as Gwen glared at them. Andrea put the broken stands back together one at a time and there was a brief purple flash from her fingertips. She slipped the repaired - or apparently unbroken - stands back into their slots in the box, then turned her attention to the dragon. She held each broken piece in place, one at a time, and as she did a soft pink glow surrounded the break. As it faded, she released the broken piece, which stayed put, with no sign that it had ever been broken.<br/><br/>"There. Let's have you on the shelf outside." The mended sculpture vanished in a small puff of glittering sparks to reappear on the shelf amongst the other dragon statues. "And which one of you wants to replace the beach fairy?"<br/><br/>A chorus of "Me, me!" in soft, tinkly voices answered her. A little pixie, dressed in green, jumping up and down on his toadstool, caught her eye. "Go."<br/><br/>"Wheeee!" The pixie squealed and vanished from the stock room with a pop and a puff of green smoke.<br/><br/>Gwen tutted. "You'll have to edit the video tape again."<br/><br/>Andrea stood and walked through her mentor, heading for the back door and out into the strip mall's service yard where her car was parked. "It wasn't recording, dear. Honestly, you'd think I was still in my first century, the way you baby me all the time!" She tutted herself and climbed into the ageing VW beetle that she had been driving since it was brand new, started the engine and drove home feeling that she had accomplished much. All in all a very successful day.