The Perk; Saturday Afternoon [05/26].

[white_oleander]

Astrid didn't even like coffee, but here she was, at the coffee shop, because it seemed like the sort of thing to do in a quaint, European-style village on an island, reading one of the many books on her reading list. She wasn't doing much actual reading, though, distracted as she was with people watching. She had to carefully count out coins she'd found on the sidewalks and in the grass on the way here, dropped, deposited, forgotten, to pay for the cup; she sketched the exasperated face of the harried barista and her irritated customers on extra napkins, not wanting to waste precious real estate in her quickly-filled sketchbooks. Was this what it was like for her mother, before she came around, paying for coffee in found change? At least Astrid didn't have to worry about a place to sleep or food to eat, paying for a couch with a poem or a smile, swiping food when no one was looking...

Maybe she should get a job or something. But who would hire a fourteen year old kid with no experience and bad grades? She didn't want to ask her mother, either, and she was pretty sure that wouldn't do any good, anyway. She pushed a few nickels around the table a little, frowning a little, wondering how long it would take to scavenge enough to buy a new sketchbook. Too bad there wasn't any tourism here, she could sell her drawings on a corner or something like that.

Maybe if she hadn't dropped more than two whole bucks on just a small coffee, too. Since when had coffee been so expensive, anyway?

[[open perk is open!]]