Glancing at the silver wall clock, above the kitchen stove, (f/n) (l/n) leaned against the kitchen island's grey counter-top. It was currently a quarter to four in the afternoon, meaning that she would need to leave her apartment in the next few seconds. Popping the last bit of her grilled cheese sandwich into her mouth, she put on her thick maroon jacket and grabbed her thermos, filled with new pumpkin spice coffee. With this accomplished, she went off to her second day of work.

Personally, she was expecting to work morning shifts, but after she received her name tag yesterday, Matilda had informed her that she would be working the late shifts. The only reason she had a morning shift yesterday was due to the fact that she needed training. Thus, with her training completed, the (h/c)-haired girl was to take over the later shift. She didn't mind it, though. In fact she was quite pleased by the fact that she no longer had to wake up early in the morning. Granted, she did enjoy the morning shift, on her first day of work, since she was able to see the smile on that girl's face when her mother bought her that stuffed rabbit.

Smiling at the recent memory, the girl continued on her way down the light grey sidewalk, as she placed her house key around her neck, since it was attached to a chain. Hiding the said key under her white blouse, she rearranged her crossbody, so that it rested comfortably on her right shoulder. Her maroon ankle boots clicked against the cement, while her beige skinny jeans complemented the shoes. Taking a sip of her coffee, she enjoyed the sight of the falling colored leaves, while she went on her way to work.
Once she reached her destination, she said her goodbyes to Matilda, as she took over for the auburn-haired girl. Retrieving her apron from the backroom and tying it around her waist and neck, she positioned her name tag, so that customers could see it. Looking out over the store, she let out a small sigh. It was packed, and she knew that the next several hours would be quite busy. Still, she had the pleasure of looking at the wonderfully crafted toys for the next six to seven hours.

                                                                                     ~~~~~~~~~~

Does this doll come in a red dress?
Are there any non-wooden toy soldiers?
How much do the four-foot dolls cost? There's no price on them.
Can we buy those toy planes in the window display?

All of these questions were only a small sample of the many she had to answer. No wonder her training took quite some time yesterday. Still, it didn't seem like those eight hours were enough. Sometimes she had consult the list on the checkout counter, which stated what was for sale and what was just for display. Regardless, she didn't only have to deal with a multitude of questions, but she had to work the checkout as well. Thus, she would sometimes be in the middle of a transaction, and another customer would start throwing questions at her about various toys in the store. Honestly, there needed to be another worker helping her out.

When the customers finally thinned out, she looked over at the grandfather clock in the store. It was painted in rich hues of red, yellow and blue, while two large eyes moved back and forth with each tick of the large clock. Seeing that it was seven in the evening, she wondered how she was able to keep up with that for three hours straight. At the moment, though, there were a few customers in the store. Thus, she took a quick sip of coffee, which was now cold, but it still tasted good. After doing so, she grabbed the stock sheet from the backroom and pulled over a metal stool with a navy blue cushion.

Sitting on the piece of furniture, she picked up a blue pen, with a brown bear on the top, and scanned over the sheet. Every time she came across an item that had been sold, she crossed it out. Thankfully, she didn't have to remember the toys bought, since she had quickly jotted down the purchased toys, on a piece of paper, back when she was making the transactions.

As she was working on the task, she heard a child's voice from the other side of the checkout counter. Not being able to see the child, she stood up from the stool and peered over the counter. Looking down, she saw a boy, who looked to be about five and had brown hair, trying to reach one of the lollipops on the stand, which rested on the counter.

Going around the counter, she saw the child tense a bit, but she gave him a reassuring smile before picking up the lollipop stand and setting it on the floor. It was quite the treat, when the company announced that they would start making their own sweets. Granted, these sweets only consisted of hard candies like lollipops and lemon drops so far. This was due to the fact that the company had only introduced them last year.

Crouching down in front of the stand and boy, she watched as the boy grinned at her before his brown eyes focused on the sweets. His left hand hovered over the stand, as he was debating what the best flavor was. In the end, he kept switching the position of his hand over the orange-crème and banana split. Chuckling lightly at his indecision, she picked up the two lollipops. With one in each hand, she placed them behind her back and switched them up a bit.

"Choose a hand," she stated, as the boy caught onto the game she was playing.

"Hmm, wight," he replied, not being able to pronounce the r properly.

Finding the mispronunciation adorable, (f/n) laughed a little before revealing the orange-crème in her right hand. He eagerly took it from her before running over to his two parents, obviously asking them if he could have it. At first she wondered why they hadn't grabbed a lollipop for their child, but glancing over at them; she saw that they were looking at the toys for newborns. Noticing that the woman was pregnant, (f/n) figured that they were letting their older child browse the store, while they debated upon what to get for their new child.

Focusing her attention back in front of her, she picked up the stand and set it back on the counter. Returning to the stool, she continued on with the stock list until the parents of the boy paid for the lollipop and a blue duck teething stuffed animal. The boy smiled up at her and waved goodbye. Returning the gesture, she watched as they left the store. Now with the customers even less than before, she took another sip of her coffee and continued with her work.

By the time the clock struck ten at night, she was finishing up the last transaction of the day. A father had come in to purchase a gift for his daughter's birthday the next day. The man was still in a business suit, indicating that he had just come from work. In fact he made this detail certain, as he began to complain how busy his week was to her and state how he was picking up just one last gift for his daughter. While he narrated these facts to (f/n), she worked on wrapping the exquisite doll he bought.

Pale purple curls adorned the porcelain doll's face, while glass amber eyes sparkled under the illumination of the store's lights. A handmade lavender silk dress, styled after the Victorian period, covered the doll's form. Lips, glossed with pale purple paint, complimented her design as well. Something of this quality was rather expensive, and she was sure of that, since she had just punched its price into the register. The girl, who received this present, would be quite lucky. Hopefully, she would take care of the doll.

Once (f/n) had made sure that the doll was secure in the white box, she wrapped an amber colored bow around the container. When the gift was completed, she handed it to the man, who thanked her and left. After he was gone, she went over to the door and flipped the sign from "open" to "closed". A few moments later, she had let out a long sigh. That was a rough second day, and she could easily feel exhaustion taking over her form. She couldn't leave yet, though; she still had to make sure that all the empty places on the shelves were restocked from items in the back.

Understanding that she would probably be in the store for another thirty minutes to an hour, she walked around the store to see what she needed to restock. First she started with the window display, since the toys in it were purchasable. Recalling that a couple of metal planes had been purchased, she headed to the backroom. Reaching that location, she examined the various shelves to see where they were at. Of course, they were on one of the top shelves. Slightly annoyed by this, she pulled one of the nearby stools over and climbed on top. Now able to reach the planes, she grabbed a red plane and an orange one.

Carefully, (f/n) climbed down from the stool and proceeded into the main part of the store. Right as she did so, though, she heard the bell on the door ring. Hearing this distinct sound, she wondered if someone had just missed the sign on the door. Concerned, she focused her attention on the door to see who was there.

Standing at a height of about five feet and eleven inches, a man with dark brown hair, which was tied back with a red ribbon, greeted her (e/c) eyes. His right emerald green eye scanned over the contents of the store, with a fond admiration, while his brown bangs completely covered the left side of his face. A grey coat and loose brown v-neck, with a sheer brown fabric underneath it, went over his torso. Black pants covered his legs, and black converse hid his feet.

Not knowing who this man was, (f/n) called out, "The store is closed, sir."