Who: Sirius and Anna What: Random Encounter When: Late August Where: Baxter Bakery Rating/Warnings: Low/None Status: Complete!
This was a take it slow type of morning. Sirius often went into Baxter's, grabbed some food and a drink and then headed right back out the door. He didn't have any clients until later in the day, but there were a few things that he wanted to get taken care of this morning. He was seated at a table, his coffee cup held in one hand and his cell phone on the table in front of him. Sirius was scrolling through the network, checking to see if anything of interest had happened.
Nothing really was going on at the moment, which was nice to see actually. He was two seconds away from texting Lily when there was a bump against his table, his cell phone sliding a few inches to the left. Startled, Sirius looked up at the young woman that'd ran into his table. "You alright there love?"
Anna was carrying like, four books. And a stack of papers. She turned to the guy at the table, grinning sheepishly. “I’m so sorry, I just… I was getting my coffee, and I was looking for a place to sit and then my feet went out from under me, and I’m just clumsy is the moral of the story.” She gasped. “Hey, you’re on Valarnet, too? So am I! I’m Anna.” At this, she attempted to hold out a hand for him to shake, and all her books went tumbling to the floor.
The clatter of the books caused Sirius to slightly jump, and he gave a small chuckle with a shake of his head. "That's okay. Here, let me help." He pushed back from the table, moving to help her with her books. "I am on the network though. It's quite a strange place. I'm Sirius, by the way." He gave her a smile, piling her books on top of the table that he was seated at. "Here, why don't you join me?"
“Oh, Gosh, thanks!” Anna said, taking a step back and bending down so he could help her pick up the books. It was ridiculous for a girl to have so many of these books, wasn’t it? But Anna was a bit of an overachiever. She was taking far too many classes for her own good. “Hi Sirius! Is that like… the Dog Star? Not like, serious, but Sirius?” She asked, then beamed as she slipped into the chair across from him. “Thank you! I thought I’d get a coffee, but man. So many books!”
Giving a nod, Sirius offered her a smile. He didn't comment on the amount of books she had, who was he to judge? Besides, he'd seen worse in his dreams with some of the people in his house and those in Ravenclaw. A small smile tugged up the corners of his lips, "Yes, I was named after the Dog Star." He would've gone into an explanation of his dreams and how everyone in his family was named after constellations or stars, but he wasn't sure if she was one of the lucky dreamers or not. "You do have quite a few books." Sirius picked up one, looking over it. "Starting back to school I take it, or is this just some 'light' reading?"
Anna gave a little laugh, starting to sort the books out. Thankfully, none of them were damaged--not that a slightly damaged book was unreadable, or anything--and she hadn’t spilled anything on them. That would be really bad. Anna took notes in her books, but only when she could read them! She shrugged gently. “Light reading! I mean, this is coursework for this semester. I’m studying at UCI.”
Sirius gave a small nod, "That would do it." A lot of people he knew were heading back to college, and he had entertained the idea himself. Never too old to start learning and all that. Still, Sirius wasn't completely sold on the idea yet, but he was considering it still. "What are you studying?" He asked, a dark brow rising in question before he took a sip of his coffee.
Anna was able to stuff most of them back into her backpack, but she was going to have a big stack to carry with her on her way out, too. “Art history?” She said, as if it was a question. “Art history and journalism. Though, I’m thinking maybe it’s time to start taking some business classes, too.”
Canting his head to the side, Sirius gave a small nod. "Sounds interesting, on both accounts actually." Sirius wasn't one to judge people for what they went into since variety was the spice of life or something like that. "Do you think you want to open your own business? Or would it just purely be for managerial purposes?" Sirius wasn't as stupid, or rather ignorant, as most people believed him to be when it came to things such as school and degrees.
“No, I think it’d be to understand the business side of things,” Anna explained. “I mean, if I’m going to be running someone’s art collection? Or if I’m gonna be running a museum some day or something? I should really have a basic understanding of business principles. It’s the kind of thing I don’t know if I’d pick up properly on the fly. Besides, I’ve already got a double major, I might as well add in a minor?”
That made sense, Sirius could understand why she'd want to take on business classes as well if she were going to go that route with her degree. "No, I can understand why you'd want to do that. I mean, it makes sense to know what you're dealing with in regards to the business side of things." His eyes turned down to the pile of books that she had, "Well, you could do that, but make sure you have time for some fun." Sirius wasn't saying that everyone should party all the time, but if you didn't take care of yourself in that way it could get a bit overwhelming.
Anna gave a little smile. “Right, yes. Fun.” She shrugged her shoulders, thinking about the fun she normally had. The happy kind of fun. The people she spent it with. And she thought about Wash. Her cheeks reddened. “I try to make time for fun. I just can’t let my fun times now get in the way of what’s really important. I don’t want my grades to suffer.”
With a chuckle, Sirius moved to stand, and picked up his cup of coffee. "Just don't let life pass you by while you're staring at the pages of books. Not that I'm saying that school isn't important, it is, and my girlfriend would kill me for saying otherwise. But still, it's always worth remembering to look up and around you from time to time even if it's just to take a little break and have a candy bar." Sirius gave her a smile and a wink, "With that, I'll leave you to it. I've got to go meet up with my girl. It was nice talking to you, Anna. Good luck."