Charlie (charlotteemily) wrote in madisonvalley, @ 2018-08-22 02:35:00 |
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Entry tags: | !closed, !complete, !log, !match-up, jill mastrano (needstobreathe), ~2018 august, ~50 points, ~~charlotte emily (chartlotteemily) |
Who: Jill Mastrano and Charlotte Emily
What: Shopping
When: Wednesday
Where: Maurice’s
Warnings: Probably none!
Status: Partial GDoc - TBC in comments/Match-Up
Jill was still in the “grateful for not going home” stage of things, combined with “grateful she hadn’t lost Lissa again”. Not that she would’ve known it, she’d have gone home to Lissa, but still. Details, details. But she hadn’t gone home, and Lissa hadn’t, nobody had, and everything was fine. Which meant that now everybody was gathering their wits about them again and moving on.
She and Lissa were thinking about getting a place together, which meant figuring out all the details first because they weren’t going to just jump into it. And the first thing was whether or not they wanted to find some random place or rent from somebody they knew, because Lissa had a couple friends with places to rent as opposed to having to look through all the listings in town. Adulting was hard sometimes, Jill had decided readily.
At the moment, she actually preferred working. Unpacking boxes and labeling shirts, pants, and dresses. Folding them and putting them on hangers, putting them out on the tables and racks, moving on to do the thousand and one other things she had to do. Greeting customers, asking how they were, finding out what they needed. She was good at figuring out what they needed.
She was behind the register when the door opened. Glancing up, Jill flashed the customer. “Hi, welcome to Maurice’s,” she said. “Can I help you find anything?”
***
The entire town was strange. The new year and modern time were just as odd. Charlie was settling as well as one could, but she was still having some difficulties. She was, after all, learning what she liked and didn’t like all over again. There were no items of comfort or familiar things on the shelves.
Clothing was another monster that she would have to wrangle. Charlie considered herself pretty simple when it came to fashion. She preferred comfort and had never owned a lot of colorful items. Her aunt had tried to keep her “hip”, but Charlie preferred doing things herself.
Browsing a table of tee shirts, Charlie made a face. Things were pricey. Sizes had certainly gone down. The changes were drastic and, at times, a bit overwhelming.
“What? Oh. Sorry. Sure? I’m not really sure what I’m looking for, to be honest.” Which was the truth.
***
“Okay, that’s no problem,” Jill said, looking at Charlotte thoughtfully, sizing her up. “Do you jeans and shirts or dresses? Or skirts? And what kind of colors do you like best?”
She wasn’t going to throw a bunch of questions at Charlotte all at once if the other girl wasn’t sure what she was looking for, but a couple questions would give Jill a much better idea of what to suggest without throwing a million things at the other girl and overwhelming her with things that she might or might not want, might or might not even come close to liking.
“I’m Jill, by the way,” she introduced, even though her nametag was fully visible. “You know, just for when you get completely lost in everything and have to yell for someone before the clothes eat you alive.” Teasing now, because she could spot the mark of someone who wasn’t quite used to things in this time.
***
Oh boy. Blinking a few times, Charlie looked even more terrified. Maybe this was why Aunt Jen had been trying to give her some pointers. Even when Charlie had gone back to Hurricane, Jessica had tried, but Charlie was always set in her ways.
“I...like jeans and tee shirts?” That was a good start, right? “And this,” Charlie added, tugging at the army green duster she had on. Her present outfit consisted of a pair of worn jeans, a khaki-coloured tee shirt, and a pair of brown slip ons. Nothing fancy at all.
“Nice to meet you, Jill. I’m Charlie.”
***
“Jeans and tee-shirts… okay, then,” Jill mused, studying Charlie. “So, as casual as possible, then, without looking messy and incomplete. That’s just sloppy.” Said to herself, not Charlie. “Alright, this way, let me show you something.” She led the other girl towards the back corner of the store, to a rack that had a bunch of white shirts with colorful swirls on them. “What about these?” she asked, pulling one off the rack and holding it up so Charlie could see it better. “They’re pretty, but they’re not overly girly, since that doesn’t seem to be your thing.”
If she was wrong, she’d entirely find that sort of stuff for Charlie, but she liked to think she was pretty good at guessing what people would like. Or at least the vague style, anyway.
***
It all sounded good and Charlie followed Jill through the store. She was keeping her eyes open for anything that caught her attention. Some of the styles were so...out there. Of course, Charlie was about thirty years behind in the latest and greatest fads.
Turning her attention to the shirt in Jill's hand, Charlie shrugged. "It's...bright? I mean, it's nice. It looks nice." Things could be more than nice and Charlie had to remind herself of the current state and time that she was living in.
"It's kind of difficult to decide. I was still in the nineties back home." Maybe that would help Jill understand and Charlie explain just where she was coming from.