Fandom Post Office, May 12 (Tuesday)

[filleauloup]

Right, so someone had gotten the brilliant idea to ship a package to Fandom using postage stamps, which wouldn't have been a problem if whoever it was hadn't needed to stick exactly seventy-three of them to the package with rubber cement.

The absurd thing was that they had managed to get the postage cost exactly right down to the cent.

The annoying thing was that the package had been sitting in the bin right beside the heater since it came in late yesterday, and someone had left the heater on overnight, and the shipper had used a lot of rubber cement.

Which was the story of how, once she successfully managed to un-stick the package from the side of the bin, Éponine still had to spend the rest of the day constantly peeling leaves and bits of paper off her arms from where the rubber cement was clinging in intricate, near-invisible webs to her skin.

There was also -- given the new crop of students -- a NOW HIRING sign in the window, but that had nothing to do with the thrice-bedamned package.

[OOC: . . . I don't even know. No OCD, but open!]

Comments

[doesnotkneel]

Now Hiring.

It had been a year since Edward arrived, and never before had he genuinely felt confident enough in his ability to read to try his hand at getting a job.

But now?

Now that had changed.

He stepped into the office with a winning smile. "Hello?"

[filleauloup]

Éponine poked her head out from around the corner, where she'd been dealing with the fax machine and was only too glad to abandon the stupid thing to help someone else.

"Yes, d'you need help with something?" she asked, peeling a quarter of a torn fax cover sheet off her arm as she came up to the counter. Damned rubber cement.

[doesnotkneel]

"There's a sign up at the front," Edward said helpfully. "Something about hiring?"

He was doing the nice thing and looking her in the face instead of trying to figure out what was going on with that sheet.

[filleauloup]

"Ah! Yes, we've got that again, haven't we?" Éponine crumpled up the piece of paper she'd unstuck from her arm and glared at it before tossing it into the recycling bin. Which meant it was probably a good bet that she didn't want to talk about it anyway. Still, other than that, she looked reasonably cheerful. "D'you want to work here, then?"

[doesnotkneel]

Considering this was the first place of employment he'd seen with a sign that didn't require technical knowledge he didn't have? "Absolutely," Edward said. "I can assure you I'm a hard worker."

[filleauloup]

"If you say so, that's good enough for me," Éponine said, waving a hand. "Mostly what we need's someone here to see to it that letters are sorted into the right mailboxes over there, and that people can buy stamps if they like, or get their packages posted. Does that suit you? There's mail to go around town and deliver, too, but you don't have to do that part if you don't want."

[doesnotkneel]

"I'm fine with that as well," Edward said with a casual shrug. "Bit of exercise is good for the soul, my father insists."

[filleauloup]

"There's worse ways to spend a day than wandering all over the island, I tell you that," Éponine said with a nod, "especially once you've learned all the quickest ways to get around, and it's useful for that, too. But that's all right, then! When d'you want to start, and what day?"

Technically she wasn't in charge, but people kept shuffling more and more responsibilities off on her, so why not?

[doesnotkneel]

"Next week?" Edward offered, after a pause. "Don't think I got anything pressing on Thursdays, if that's all right."

[filleauloup]

"Thursday it is, then," Éponine said, and clapped her hands together once. "I'll show you how everything works, and here --" she pulled a sheet of paper out of a drawer and placed it on the counter -- "you'll need to fill this out so they know to pay you and all that, but bring it in next week when you start and it should be all right."

The Fandom post office application form was the Extremely Streamlined Version, luckily for everyone.

[doesnotkneel]

Especially for the lad who had only just learned how to read!

He took the sheet of paper gladly. "Thank you," he said firmly, "I won't let you down, miss."

Coming from someone else, that might have almost been earnest. He mostly just sounded determined.

[filleauloup]

That reminded Éponine of how she'd cajoled her way into a job here, really, and she had to smile a little bit. "No need to worry about that. Everyone slips up now and then, don't they? It's silly to expect otherwise." That was the optimistic spin on this particular philosophy of hers, even. "Good lord, they let me work here. You'll do fine, I think."