The veritable explosion from the teenager made Andrea take a step backwards, physically as well as mentally.<i>Oops. Pushed it a bit too hard.<br/>
<br/>
Told you so!</i>The nagging voice in her head accused. Andrea shook her head to get rid of it. "No, dear, seriously, this is about to become the busiest time of day, and while I can manage without you if you really feel the job is not for you, unfortunately I simply cannot take time away from the shop to pander to your adolescent whims." And then the girl let out an exasperated noise and ran out of the door into the small parking area outside. Andrea sighed and did what she could to fix the problem. She almost felt the release of tension as a palpable thing. Or wait... there was a shift, a change. Not something Andrea had done, either.<br/><br/>Laughter came from outside the shop and she saw one of the cheerleaders at the local high school race past, heading for the burger joint on the end of the strip of shops. Andrea shook her head. That sort of thing needed to be discouraged, or it could get both of them into a<i>lot</i>of trouble. "Seems I'm just in time..." She muttered.<br/><br/>"Auntie Andie?" The cry came from upstairs. "The drink machine is making funny noises!"<br/><br/>"I'll be right there, Kenny."<i>Honestly, what sort of parent calls their kid 'Kenny'? It's almost asking for trouble!</i>Andrea made sure the till was locked and trotted up the stairs. "What happened?"<br/><br/>"It says it's out of chocolate. Ron said it can't be and kicked it..."<br/><br/>"I never!" Ronald Flimmer looked guilty.<br/><br/>"Did too!" Kenny Jessop accused. "And now it's making 'Blurp' noises and says to call for a service whenever anyone tries to get anything!"<br/><br/>"I just tapped it with my foot is all!" Ron murmured as Andrea fixed the teenager with a stare. None of them could lie to her.<br/><br/>"Ah, well now, you see, the little gnome inside the machine that makes all the drinks doesn't like it if you kick the machine. You wouldn't like it if some great big giant came along and tapped your home with his foot, would you?" She smiled as she used a key to open the front of the machine. Inside were all the usual tubes, bottles and pipes one would expect to see in a drinks machine.<br/><br/>"Gnome? What?" Ron was thirteen and not a believer in such things. Kenny was eleven and still had a little bit of awe and wonder at the universe left, but the older lad scoffed at Andrea's words, even as she spoke softly to the innards of the machine, telling it to ignore the young man, and not to be mean to everyone else just because one person is impatient for his chocolate fix. "No such thing as gnomes..." Andrea finished cleaning the nozzles, flipped the on-off switch off and on again, promised she would bring more chocolate powder as soon as she could, closed the machine and locked it.<br/><br/>"There, try now..." Kenny pressed the button for chicken soup and the machine dispensed a paper cup and filled it with the requested beverage. "Good, all fixed. Mister Flimmer, I would apreciate it if you could respect my property and keep your footwear away from it in the future?" She pointed at the "Bad Things" sign, on which list was included "The use of feet and/or footwear for anything other than standing or walking".<br/><br/>"Sorry, Auntie Andie." Ron was looking genuinely apologetic.<br/><br/>Andrea made her way down stairs, passing a couple of teens on their way up. "Machine is out of chocolate, I'll see if I can get some more." She advised and arrived back in the main shop just as Kaileigh came back in.<br/><br/>"Right. I believe you wanted some answers? But, as I recall, you haven't actually asked any questions. Ask me a question, and I will do my best to answer it." Andie stood and stared at Kaileigh, waiting. It was as if time stood still for a moment. And then Andrea shrugged. "Fine. Well if you can think of any, do let me know. Ah Doctor VanDerSneed. Good afternoon to you too sir, how can I ... Ah. One of the foremost works on the subject, I understand? I've not read it myself, but I'm told it's a much more scholarly work that many from that era." She scanned the bar code on the back of  the book,<i>Three Books of Occult Philosophy</i>by Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa. "That will be forty two dollars and ninety nine cents. If you want to pre-order the fourth book, I can give you a ten percent discount overall? No? Okay, well you can't blame a girl for trying to up-sell... Have a good afternoon sir." Andrea turned back to Keileigh. "So you were telling me about what happened and why you need to bribe Becca to let you stay with her for a few days?"<br/><br/>The afternoon wore on, with a succession of customers, some buying, others browsing. The days takings slowly mounted and Andrea left Kaileigh in charge again around 4:00pm while she went back into her office to do some more paperwork.