Andrea's lunch was quiet. A lot of the kids in the lounge went home for their meals and unlike lunch time on a weekday which was often her busiest period, on a Saturday it was mostly quiet. She sat in her office eating her sandwich and booking in the delivery. She didn't bother looking up when Gwen popped in. "Go away."<br/><br/>"That's a fine way to talk to an old lady. You should have more respect!"<br/><br/>"So should you, Gwen. I've told you before about turning up at the shop. There are customers out there! What if one of them..."<br/><br/>"Psht!" Gwen interrupted, "Hasn't happened yet! Anyway, how's it going with young Kalmahmity Jane?"<br/><br/>Andrea looked puzzled for a moment, then burst out laughing. "Kaileigh? Oh goddess. You know she hasn't even worked up the courage to tell me that, yet? Not that it matters. I'm still going to call her by her given name. Anyway things are sort of on track."<br/><br/>"Sort of? Do you know what's happening right now?" Gwen rolled her eyes and muttered, "Just like you were at that age. Sheesh!" And she left.<br/><br/>Andrea shrugged. "There's not a lot I can do about it. Not without causing far too much trouble!" She sighed and finished her sandwich, washed it down with more coffee and headed back out into the shop to see Kaileigh coming back in. She glanced at the clock behind the counter. "Actually, you're right on time," She smiled encouragingly, while thinking<i>Which is something that could get you in a lot of trouble if you knew!</i>She sighed and held her arms out. "Come hear sweetie, let Auntie Andie hug it better. And less of the 'Ma'am', I'm not the Queen of England. Not yet anyway." The older woman gathered the teenager into her arms and was about to say something when the door chimed. Andrea didn't know the woman and child that entered, the woman in her late forties or early fifties, the girl in late single or early double figures. The woman smiled politely as Andrea released Kaileigh from her hug and stepped back. No point in starting more rumours than were already circulating,<br/><br/>The child made a bee-line for the statuettes, and started looking at them, picking up the lighter ones and turning them over and around. The woman shrugged apologetically. "It's her birthday and she wants a fairy. Be careful dear, Those aren't toys, if you break one you'll have to pay for it out of your birthday money, and then you'll have a broken fairy model instead of a whole one!"<br/><br/>The girl looked up and nodded. "I know, Nana. I'm being careful. Nope, not this one. Not that one either, it's wrong..."<br/><br/>Andrea was smiling with mild amusement suddenly, as though at a joke only she could hear.<br/><br/>"Because you're a flower fairy, that's why. And you're on the beach." The child blurted out, talking directly to the statuette. "Oh... Well... I don't want you anyway...." Suddenly the child's face fell and she turned to her Nana, "Nana, the fairy said nasty things about me...!"<br/><br/>The older woman looked somewhat perplexed, looking at Andrea apologetically. Andrea smiled understandingly, though obviously still trying hard not to laugh. "Children do have the most wonderful imaginations, don't they?" She said to the grandmother, then turned to the child, squatting down and, if Kaileigh was being at all observant she might notice Andrea giving the fairy statuette in question a look that could only be described as 'quelling'. "Well you did say some not very nice things about the fairy first, didn't you? What's your name, dear?"<br/><br/>"Tina. And no I didn't, I just said it was wrong because flower fairies shouldn't be at the beach!"<br/><br/>"But why not, Tina? Haven't you been to the beach and seen flowers there?" This brought a thoughtful expression to the child's face. "Kailiegh, may I borrow your smartphone please?" She held out her hand, the request was clearly a thinly veiled order. On receiving the device, she tapped the screen a few times and produced a picture of a yellow flower that was very similar to the dress the flower fairy was wearing. "That's a yellow horned poppy, and it only grows on the sea shore!" She smiled and handed the phone back without clearing the screen. "So tell me, what did the fairy say?"<br/><br/>Tina was now wide eyed. "She said what you said, that flowers grow by the sea side and flower fairies can too, then when I said I didn't want her she said she wouldn't want to be wanted by a stuck-up ingy-ray-mouse like me anyway. Nana, what's an ingyramouse?"<br/><br/>Andrea was trying really hard not to laugh. She reached out and casually placed a finger on the fairy's face as though wiping something off. "Perhaps if you apologise to the fairy, she might apologise to you too?"<br/><br/>Tina smiled at Andrea, then looked hopefully at her grandmother, who had a bemused expression, clearly amused yet puzzled by all this. She nodded at the child anyway, and Tina turned back to look at the fairy. "I'm sorry, miss fairy. I didn't know. And, actually I would like to own you if you will let me, please?"<br/><br/>Andrea burst out laughing a second later and said "Well, I guess that's settled..." Tina picked up the fairy model, and carried it oh so carefully to the counter, then fished in her pocket for her birthday money. The grandmother watched as the coins and notes were counted carefully.<br/><br/>"I don't think you have quite enough there, dear. Perhaps a different one?"<br/><br/>Andrea scowled at this, and held up a finger to both Tina and the fairy model. "Kaileigh, fetch me the price ticket that was by this fairy, please?" She waited until the ticket was handed to her, then tutted. "Oh dear. Will you look at that? Someone put the wrong price on this!" A marker pen appeared in her hand from somewhere under the counter, and she crossed through the marked price and wrote a new, lower value that was exactly a dollar less than the money on the counter. She pushed one green note back to Tina. "You should buy some sweets with that," she stage-whispered. Then rang up the sale and scooped the cash into the register. "You two look after each other, you hear?" She had a sad smile on her face as grandmother and granddaughter left the shop, the child clutching the fairy doll so gently yet so firmly. Andrea had shaken her head when the grandmother had asked about packaging. "That type generally don't break easily."<br/><br/>She turned to Kaileigh and laughed softly, almost as if  it were forced. "Ah, the unfettered imagination of children, hmm? Now, we need to find you somewhere to stay.  You aren't ready to move in with me just yet, so perhaps we can bribe your friend Rebecca with some staff discount. Just don't make it a habit is all. Go on, call her..."