Mercedes had her haul over her shoulder in a reusable tote bag, receipts strewn in between the layers of the various clothing outlets that she had flitted in and out of. She had come in for a few spring outfits as she had discovered she had outgrown her previous old favourites and she had been mostly successful in replacing them without running away with temptation. She had seen some very cute stuff today but only a fraction of it could come home with her. Budgeting and all that, she wanted to be able to afford rent at the end of the month, after all, but as she was on her way out, she passed by a shop she had never paid much mind to: Build-A-Bear.
The bright yellow signage caught her eye, just out the corner and as she passed by, she did discretely stop because she saw something utterly adorable just on the threshold. She got out her phone, pretending to use it and smiled to herself as she watched a little tableau unfolded just ajar to where she stood.
The worker who had been supervising him handed him back his bear which now had a heart-shaped button on its vest and the boy grabbed it excitedly. He gave it a snuggle before his mother prompted him to say thank you. With courtesy out of the way, it was time to get out of this very nice lady’s hair. So, with his parents, the little boy came out of the shop very, very happy with a newly built bear in tow. He was wearing a little birthday sash and it made Mercedes' nose crinkle with just how unbearably adorable the whole thing was.
But then that crinkle became a cringe. A long forgotten memory was drawn up from the abyss. The boy looked about eight and now Mercedes distinctly recalled a tantrum of epic proportions that she had when she was about eight. She really, really wanted to go to Build-A-Bear, not even for her birthday or anything, else just cause she wanted to after seeing a commercial on the television about them. Her mother had scolded her profusely for kicking and crying in the living room floor because there simply just wasn’t enough money for such a trivial impulse purchase that she would no doubt fall out of enamourment with a couple days later so no!
Mercedes considered herself very mild and well mannered and considered so since childhood, maybe even toddlerhood but recalling this memory just shattered that illusion. Gosh, that tantrum was very embarrassing in hindsight. With the divorce and the falling out, money had been very tight and her mother had been right, though. A couple days later and suddenly Build-A-Bear wasn’t that interesting to her and a few years later, she would forget all about this phase until now.
Children were so silly and selfish, Mercedes chided herself but she smiled. She still had money in the kitty. She had turned down that really expensive perfume she didn’t need and she hadn’t dined out in the food court, either. Mercedes found herself getting very excited for no reason at all. It was probably fine for soon to be graduated university students to be silly and selfish for no reason at all, as well.
Mercedes put her phone away and inched closer to the Build-A-Bear. She peered inside and was wowed by all the options there was. She could swear there was only a small variety of different bears to adopt and little costumes to put them in back when she was a kid. This was basically a store within a store, Mercedes couldn’t believe it and whilst she ogled at the front entrance, a worker came up to her.
“D’you need anything?” she asked.
Mercedes could have jumped out of her skin but instead, just flinched. She blinked away her reverie and laughed awkwardly. As far as she could tell, the store was completely empty save for her and this worker, the one from before. She was very short and had ginger hair in pigtails underneath a cap which had bear ears on top. She looked familiar and Mercedes realised she had seen this little slice of carrot cake before, she had seen her around Garreg Mach campus. She was one of the fresher fucks, probably, or maybe a second year.
“O-Oh, um,” Mercedes mumbled, “is… Am I allowed to? Is this only for under twelves or…?”
“Building bears is an all ages activity, I can assure you. You are never too old for something cute.” the worker said with a wink.
Mercedes laughed, “Good to know.”
“So, how can I help you? I’m Annette and I’ll be your handy dandy, heartful helper today.” she beamed.
“I’m Mercedes and I would like just a small, simple bear… Do you mind showing me the way around? I’ve always wanted to go to Build-A-Bear as a kid but never had the opportunity.” Mercedes giggled evasively.
“Well, I’m glad that I can help introduce you to a lifelong friend today, then. Let’s get started.” Annette said.
She then marched off to the far side of the room and Mercedes trailed along behind her, they passed by the racks of the show bears which advertised various bodies and costumes, examples of what could be made. Annette then gestured a very unnerving rack of empty bears, bunnies, and other buddies.
“So, what colour were you thinking? We’ve got white, pink, brown, rainbow, and grey in stock right now.” Annette chirped. “Or has another species caught your eye?”
Mercedes looked around, admiring the various types of stuffed animals that could be made before looking in front of her again. She looked at all the deflated, velour skins of the unstuffed plushies. She nodded to herself, her decision was not only made but cemented.
“I’m certain I want a bear.” Mercedes said.
“It is a classic, or else we might have to come up with a new, catchy name.” Annette joked.
“And I want a brown one. This one looks extra fuzzy and the colour is so cute, it reminds me of chocolate.” Mercedes said and she pointed out the specific skin that she wanted to stuff.
“Great choice, a personal favourite of mine.” Annette babbled.
Annette reached up and took off the bear that Mercedes had pointed out. She held it lovingly in her arms, even though it was limp and disconcerting and smiled up at Mercedes.
“Let’s get stuffing next.” Annette said and then she had a light bulb moment. “Oh! And don’t forget, we can add a scent sachet, if you want. And yes, we have chocolate.”
“Does it cost extra?” Mercedes asked.
“Only a dollar or two, same for the charity heart if you're interested.” Annette replied.
“That’s fine then, I’d like both but I’d also like to see your complete range of scents before I commit to chocolate.” Mercedes said.
“Sounds good.” Annette chirped.
Annette had all but a skip in her step as she led Mercedes to the next station. She pulled out baskets upon baskets of little white packets that had dozens of different flavours to them and placed them on a table. Mercedes perused them but was hesitant to handle too many of them, it felt oddly impolite and in the end, it didn’t matter. She ended up choosing chocolate but the fairy floss almost tempted her as she did enjoy sugar and strawberries a lot.
“Good choice, chocolate is my favourite too.” Annette said.
“I like it best in Neapolitan ice-cream.” Mercedes mused.
“Ooh, yummy.” Annette agreed. “So how stuffed do you want this little fella?”
“As fat and stuffed as possible.” Mercedes all too eagerly replied.
“Nice. Let’s get stuffin’ then.” Annette agreed.
This was probably the part that Mercedes had been looking forward to the most. Slowly creeping closer to the front counter, there was this big, popcorn machine-like structure which had fun, primary colour scrawlings on its base and was filled with cotton. A metal pipe protruded from it and Annette set up the limp skin of Mercedes’ future life long companion that she had in her fuzzy brown bear.
Annette flipped a switch and the machine whirred to life. It was just like watching corn kernels pop. The belly of the bear began to inflate as stuffing was forced inside. Surely and slowly, Mercedes’ bear began to grow and come to life until it looked like it was about to burst. Annette laughed to herself as she unhooked the bear, it was as stuffed as it could be per work guidelines and the boundaries of its own velour and polyester skin.
“D’you like it?” she asked, holding it up to Mercedes.
“Oh, I love him.” Mercedes gushed.
“Cool, then let’s get to the front counter and do the Heart Ceremony.” Annette grinned.
The Heart Ceremony was easily Annette’s favourite part of the whole process of building a bear. She guided Mercedes back to where they started: by the front entrance, near the counter. Annette picked out a red stitched heart from a glass bowl by the cahs register and giggled.
“First things first, give this a little kiss.” annette said as she handed over the heart to Mercedes.
Mercedes blinked. She wasn’t sure if she had heard Annette correctly or not. Even so, she uncertainly accepted the fabric heart; it was squishy, seemingly having some sort of thin, felt layer inside of it.
“Go on, don’t be shy, you want your friend to love you forever and ever, yeah? So go on, give this a kiss.” Annette said.
“O-Okay.” Mercedes murmured.
She puckered her lips and gave the little fabric heart a kiss. It felt fuzzy on her lips and very unfortunately, she made very floundering eye contact with Annette throughout the few seconds she kissed the patch. Annette didn’t seem to mind, she smiled wide and unfazed.
“Next up… Rub it on your knees so your beary friend will always need you.” Annette said.
Mercedes snickered. If Annette really was a first year at Garreg Mach, then they had this dynamic all wrong and back to front. Older students like Mercedes were meant to haze the younger students like Annette but so be it. Mercedes did want her little beary friend to always need her. So, she abided by Annette’s instruction. Mercedes half bent down and picked up her camel brown, denim maxi skirt so that she could rub the little patch on her knees.
“Good, good, and next you should… Jump up and down to kick start that heart!” Annette said and she did an air pump gesture with her fist.
Mercedes straightened up her back and did some little bunny hops on the spot. She held down her tote bag across her body so it wouldn’t fly and flail about, potentially knocking poor little Annette to the ground. Still, Mercedes was having a lot of fun with this part of the process and maybe after twenty of those little jumps, Annette had her stop.
“There we go, all nice and warm and ready to go into the cuddly-wuddly new body of your brand new friend.” Annette said and Mercedes, who was panting a little bit, discreetly, of course, handed her back the stitch heart.
Annette managed to push the stitch heart into the wadded stuffing of the bear. She then tidied up the stitches on the back and tada. Mercedes’ bear was brand new and good to go. She beamed.
“Would you like any accessories to go with this handsome little man?” Annette asked.
Mercedes hummed thoughtfully as she turned her head slightly to face the rack of adorable, baby-sized clothes that were on display. The denim overalls were cute but the pyjamas would suit the fact that she was going to give her new teddy bear a place of honour on her bed but in the end, she shook her head. None of them looked quite right and besides, just because she was treating herself to a whim did not mean she could go off the deep end with all the bells and whistles that cost extra.
“Thank you but no thank you, he’s fine being nakey like that.” Mercedes said and she managed to get an immature giggle out of Annette, too.
“Then all that’s left to do is to give your new forever friend a forever name.” Annette said as she removed one shiny, red certificate off the pile on the counter.
She picked up a black permanent texter and Mercedes peered over the piece of slick paper. It had the Build-A-Bear logo on top and fun, smiling faces of happy cartoon bears as well as place for her name on one side and a place for her bear’s name as well with a love-heart drawn in the middle. It was very cute and could have made her coo were it not for the fact she was deep in thought picking the perfect name and then it dawned on her.
Mercedes’s grey-lavender eyes had a flash, “Oh, I know exactly what to call him.” she smiled.
“Really? What is it?” Annette asked as she was overexcited to write down the bear’s new name. To sate herself, she wrote down Mercedes’ name on the right hand side in magnificently cute calligraphy.
“I want to name him Albinean as that’s my favourite blend of tea. It has a berry flavour with a chocolaty undercurrent.” Mercedes said.
“Sounds yummy, I’ll have to try it - so, um, how do I spell that?” Annette asked.
Mercedes smiled again as she spelt out the name Albinean for Annette. The end result was very careful and as such gorgeous. Annette had such fabulous handwriting, she ought to be commended. Mercedes couldn’t have been happier with any part of this whole experience as Annette slid the certificate closer to Mercedes and sat Albinean on top. She then rang through Mercedes' combination of Build-A-Bear parts and Mercedes paid on her debit card.
“So congratulations, Mercedes, you now have a lifelong friend in Albinean, I hope you two are happy and that you’ve enjoyed the Build-A-Bear ceremony.” Annette said with a wink as she handed Mercedes her the receipt.
“I have, but I was just wondering one little thing…” Mercedes murmured. “At what part of the ceremony is it appropriate to give the cute worker my number in case she ever wants to hang out.” Now Mercedes was the one giving a wink but she wasn’t quite a natural at it as Annette.
Annette had to take a moment to process Mercedes’ flirtation but when it did, she went red. She smiled, wonky, as if she couldn’t believe that Mercedes would want to come onto a dork like her. Some overexcited big kidult who worked at a Build-A-Bear.
“Th-That would be right now, of course, if you like.” Annette stuttered out, her eyes all but spinning.
“Good to know. May I borrow a pen?” Mercedes asked but she didn’t wait for a reply.
She pinched a red pen from Annette’s counter and tore off part of her receipt. She wrote down her number then let Annette stash it.
“But, um, my shift ends just at noon, in twenty minutes time, d-do you have anywhere to be? We could get coffee, if you like.” Annette dared to flirt back despite her red cheeks and overwhelmed demeanour.
“I can do you one better, how about I show you where I work. Just across the road, at the Coldstone, how does ice-cream and drinks sound? I get a discount, you know.” Mercedes said.
Annette’s eyes stopped spinning just so they could go wide, she was practically wagging her tongue, “I won’t lie, I did think I recognised you so it could be from there. I love Coldstone so I’d love to take you up on that offer, especially the discount.”
“Then I’ll meet you outside.” Mercedes said.
“No worries.” Annette replied.
With that, Mercedes took Albinean and his certificate, sliding both gently into her tote bag. His little fuzzy brown bear ears poked out the top and Annette waved Mercedes goodbye but not forever.
Though, it may have well as been. The following twenty minutes that ensued between seeing Annette again was agonising but absolutely well worth it when Annette popped out from behind the glass, automatic doors and saw Mercedes across the road, sitting at a planter bench, the Coldstone behind her. Mercedes flagged her down and they were both eager to get inside and to get to know each other.
Mercedes ordered a Neapolitan ice-cream with cheesecake stuffing whilst Annette went with the choice of chocolate and nerds. Both sat down by the window and got chatting and it was like they had known each other for years. Mercedes immediately learned that yes, she did know Annette from seeing her around Garreg Mach.
Annette talked about how she was a second year education major with an aim for working in primary schools and Mercedes laughed, what a thing to have in common given that she was pre-med and aiming to specialise in pediatrics. They discovered yet more things from there, their ice-creams in the little cardboard cups melting as they kept talking.
And Mercedes couldn’t help but wonder if Albinean was the only lifelong companion she had met and made today. She also wondered if companion was only what Annette was going to be to her as it already felt like a first date. Not to mention that they were making jokes about Albinean being their son.
