12 Days of Fic-mas: Day 02 - Gift
Title: Present Hunt
Characters: Jazz Fenton, "Original Character"
Word Count: 775
Summary: Jazz is looking for gifts for her family for the holidays in her favorite bookshop.
You can read on AO3 of below the cut
The bell above the door jingled as Jazz entered the old bookstore. Her plan for the day was to get at least one thing for everyone in her family, even something for her Aunt Alicia.
Initially, she wasn’t going to stop in the bookstore because she came here all the time. There was always that risk that she’d only end up looking at things she would like and spend the whole day there.
Then she figured that it wouldn’t hurt to look anyway. Besides, who doesn't like books?
It didn’t take her long to find a nice book on embroidery for her dad. It had lots of nice-looking patterns that were sure to inspire his hobby and it wasn’t ghost-related. A perfect combo.
Despite her frequent visits, she somehow found herself a little lost in the stacks after about ten minutes. Perhaps it was because she wasn’t in the psychology section.
The shelves had not only gotten taller the deeper she went into the store but also the aisles got narrower. At one point she had to walk sideways because there were stacks of books on the floor as well.
It had also been a bit since she had seen or heard another person. Sure it wasn’t the most popular place in town and it tended to be quiet like a library, but she’d never felt like the only person there.
She’d never felt alone there before.
She looked back the way she came and started to entertain the idea of just buying the book for her dad and leaving for the mall. The loud, noisy, people-filled mall.
“Can I help you?”
Jazz turned and did her best not to jump in surprise at the sudden voice. “Oh, hello.”
“I didn’t mean to frighten you, dear.” the store clerk apologized.
Jazz waved it off with a smile, “I’m fine. I was just noticing how quiet it is back here.”
“Ah yes, the books do quite a bit of noise canceling, don’t they?”
“Feels like a whole different world, and I’m not even reading anything.”
The clerk smiled and laughed softly at her little joke.
One of the reasons Jazz liked this bookstore was this store clerk, who she was pretty sure was the owner but wasn’t able to get a straight answer for some reason.
His name was Charles. He was an older man, possibly around her parent's age or maybe older. He had long white hair that he kept in a simple braid down his back and dressed like a college professor.
Today he wore a white button-up with a black vest that had purple pin-stripes with matching black slacks along with his ever-present silver pocket watch tucked into his pocket.
“What brings you so far into the store today?” he asked.
“Today I’m gift shopping, ‘tis the season and all.”
“I was wondering how you picked up embroidery with all your studies.”
“This one is for my dad, but I was hoping maybe I could find something from my brother while I was here too.”
“What sort of things would he like to read about?”
“Well, that’s the thing. He hasn’t really been a big reader lately. I think starting high school and all the ghosts…” she trailed off, not really sure how to finish.
“made it harder to manage his free time?" Charles suggested.
"Yeah. I don’t even know when the last time he stargazed."
"He enjoys the stars?"
"He’s wanted to be an astronaut since he was a little kid." Jazz said with a fond smile.
"I think I have just the thing," Charles said before motioning her to follow.
They weaved their way a bit deeper into the store when they stopped suddenly. Charles quickly looked through the shelves clearly looking for something very specific.
"Aha!" Charles said before crouching down and slipping a thick volume from his collection.
For a moment Jazz was hesitant about the book due to its size, but since that was literally judging a book by its cover, she waited to hear the explanation.
“This book is one I’ve had for a while now,” Charles said just before he blew a coating of dust off the cover. “I’ve just been waiting for the right person.”
Charles stood up and slowly flipped through a few pages to show off the book. It had beautiful highly detailed drawings of the moon and the other planets in the solar system with paragraphs of information. She could see her brother happily losing hours going over the images alone.
“This is perfect.” Jazz said with a smile.
She couldn’t wait to see Danny’s face when he opened it this Christmas.
