Charlotte sighed in annoyance, as she had no trouble noticing the redness and puffiness of her eyes as she looked in the mirror before leaving her small one bedroom apartment. Perfect, not only did she feel like shit to begin with, she looked like it as well. A whole night of crying can do that to you.

As she made her way outside into the warm afternoon air she contemplated her decision to continue working as an assistant at the local councilors office. First off she had a hard time concentrating with all the emotions flying around. And second she had an even harder time resisting the urge to take their emotional scars for herself, which would explain her sleepless and tear-filled nights she has been having more and more often. It seems she may have been wrong in her reasoning this time. Taking on emotional injuries instead of physical may cause her to kick the bucket yet. I mean, what else was she going to do with her life? She wanted to help people, she couldn't see herself wanting to do anything else.

On the up side it was her day off, there was no doubt she needed it. Though she doubted it would be enough to renew her strength for another week of emotional healing. Highly doubted actually. How many times this week did she have to remind herself she needed to control her power and will? Too many come to think of it. She figured it was time to start taking her own advice. She doubted that would happen either. She was going to put the office out of work if she wasn't careful.

Charlotte made her way toward Elm Street and her favorite place to go and relax after a long and exhausting week, Jacobson's Used and Rare Books. She sighed and opened the door to the one place she felt she wasn't judged, and as the smell of old books went rushing past her mixing in with the fresh air of the outdoors she felt liberated at once. She smiled as she caught sight of a regular here, he looked her way for a moment and smiled.

"Rough night Charlie?" He asked softly, obviously noticing the state she was in but inquired no further. "Your spot is vacant at the moment."

Charlotte smiled at him broadly, whatever she was crying about the night before she seemed fine now. "Thanks a lot Jake," She said as she hurried back through the countless rows of books to her secluded corner. There was a mound of books stacked around a single chair. The chair didn't look that comfortable but argue that with Charlotte, who looked like she was in heaven as she sank down into her cozy corner and picked up a book to her right. She smiled to see that her bookmark was still in place as she opened up the old romance novel, whose title had faded completely, and began to read.

The first thing that struck Kendra when she walked in the store was the smell. It physically grabbed her nose and shoved itself inside. Then it invited all its friends. She liked books, she really did. However, the combined smell of mold and dust and dead insects that had to be hiding somewhere in there was a tiny bit...cloying. She was SO deepcleaning her face when she got home.

This wasn't one of the days that Kendra felt the need to look terribly presentable. Today, the best she managed was a frizzy set of pigtails, a blue shirt so bright that it was almost blinding, glasses to match, and a pink pair of wonderfully baggy, immensely comfortable pink sweatpants that hid any semblance of feet. On a girl as short as she was, it looked childish. While on the bus into town someone even asked her if she was lost. She was almost tempted to whip out her ID then and there and settle the matter for everyone in the bus.

In actuality, though, she did feel a little out of place. The books Kendra normally read were all by living authors who still received awards. But she did have a reason to be there. Her brother may have first discovered his powers close to ten years ago but that didn't mean that they had figured everything out within the first three. He was still learning about them and neither of their curiosities had lessened over time. To them, the ability to levitate was rare. Where better to find information on it than a rare bookstore?

She walked around hopelessly. Where to start? Aha. The front desk. Oh why hadn't she ventured there before?

"Excuse me?" She tried to keep it at a whisper. After all, it was sort of a library and people were reading. That, and she felt that if she spoke too loudly then the smell would somehow find its way into her mouth as well. Not pleasant.

Charlotte sighed and finally let the old book fall to her lap as she finished yet another chapter. Her eyes were burning, from the reading of course. Her eyes were sore to begin with, so reading didn't help, and she was somewhat of a sap. He father teased her because of it.

Whenever they watched a movie together and some tender moment was in play he always cast a glance in her direction, a look of expectance on his face. It often ruined the moment, but it always ended in a good laugh. The fact that he knew her so well made her happy. She sighed as she thought of her adoptive parents, it had been a while since she had visited them last. She decided she would visit them later today, for the moment she was content.

Charlotte took another deep breath, taking in the smell of the old books around her once more before opening her book to dive in again. Before she finished the first sentence however she heard the familiar voice of someone saying, "Yes how can I help you?" The front shop keep.

She didn't hear the first voice and looked through her peephole, which happened to be a series of gaps between the books leading right up to the front. She liked this about her spot, this way she could keep track of anyone who came in and if she knew them or not. She didn't know this girl, who looked younger probably than what she actually was, with her bright blue shirt and comfortable looking pink sweatpants.

Charlotte herself wore dark blue jeans, that were slightly baggy on her, and a soft brown sweater. It had occurred to her that it might get hot outside, but this was her comfort sweater, so she really didn't care. Her hair was how she woke up this morning, loose curls, a few tangles, and just a little frizzy at the ends. She tucked her hair behind her ears as she continued looking through the gap, exposing her scars. It was no trouble to see them this morning, her makeup bag left untouched on her bathroom vanity.

"Yeah," Geez, she hated saying it outloud. Did she really have to?

She didn't really have to ask herself that. It was akin to wondering if she had to breathe. Did she really want to help her brother figure out his abilities? There was no question.

"Do you have any books on levitation?"

At least the guy at the counter didn't seem like he'd look at her funny for asking.

"I believe we do actually," He said looking around the place, "I believe they are near the back on the top row of one of the shelves." He pointed her in the right direction, smiling kindly.

Levitation hey? That was an interesting subject, Charlotte thought so anyway. She also knew there were a few books here on the subject, and she wondered if they would be of any help at all. She looked away from the gap and across from her to look at the top shelf. Sure enough, there they were, with titles like, "The Mechanics of Levitation," and "20 Feet Off the Ground." Charlotte smiled to herself a moment and looked back down to her book.

Top of one of the shelves? Guess they didn't believe much in the Dewy Decimal System. Maybe it was a Canadian thing? Kendra didn't know. However, neither did she feel like asking. She had a direction and a goal, she could make do.

Kendra made do with wandering around and seeing some titles. She did her best not to be too, how shall I put this...obvious with her height disadvantage once she did find what she was looking for. After all, top shelf, short girl, inadequate step ladders...

Oh dear.

She didn't feel like going back to the front and there was someone right here so, "Sorry to bother you," not really, "but can you grab a few books for me?"

Charlotte closed her book, after carefully placing her bookmark inside of course, and stood after a soft sigh. She tucked her hair behind her ears and smiled kindly as she looked at the other girl.

"Sure, what ones do you need?" She asked politely, shooting a glance to the top shelf. Charlotte already knew of course, but there was no need to let it known she was eavesdropping. It was rude of her to do so, but at least she would be of some help.

"Umm..." she considered. Which ones? "All of the ones on levitation up there."

Kendra would decide later which ones she really wanted. There was no way she could tell how many of them would actually be helpful just by looking.

"Yeah," she decided, "All of 'em."

Charlotte nodded and stepped past her toward the shelf. She wasn't much taller herself, but she managed to keep her balance while on her toes. Charlotte took a few down and went to hand them to her, using her other hand to reach for a few more.

"What's all this for anyway? A school project, or are you just curious?" She asked as she reached for the last of them, coming down from her tiptoes with a sigh.

The growing stack of books was encouraging. They definitely looked like they were about more than cheap magic tricks.

"Nah, they're for my brother, he just loves this stuff," not a lie. Once he found out he could do it, Jacob spent as much time as he could exploring his abilities, which inevitably drew his sister into it. It brought them closer, er..as close as a brother and sister can be when big brother ends their arguments by hoisting her up in the air.

"Well this is the place to be then, for things like this," Charlotte said while handing her the last of the books. She stepped back from the shelf to allow the other girl some room before pulling her sweater sleaves back down to cover the scars on her arms.

"My names Charlotte by the way, do you need help looking through any of these or are you just taking them all with you?" She asked, looking a little amused at the thought.

Kendra noticed the scars. She said nothing and didn't linger on them. The thing about scars was that there was never a reason to mention them. Physically, they had healed so there was no question pertinent to a person's health that would need be asked. Emotionally, scars either dredged up uncomfortable memories that it would be rude to inquire of or their stories were finished and over with. Besides, she was a stranger. It was none of Kendra's business where they came from or how long they were there. Mentioning anything about them would additionally remove focus of Kendra's immediate goal. So she forgot them.

She was thankful for Charlotte, she would admit that much. The stack of books, however short or tall it was, looked impressive. There were books leather-bound with yellow pages, diagrams and wordy explanations alongside of thick, almost schoolbook-like texts. Whatever she could glean from their collective knowledges would be worthwhile. She grinned, satisfied, "Oh I plan on sitting down and looking through them all before I make my purchases. You're welcome to help if you'd like but I dragged you away from your book, it'd be rude if I asked you to help anymore. You can go back to reading if you want to," but Charlotte was more than welcome to stay.

Charlotte smiled and shook her head, "I think I can take time away from the old book to help you look through these." No doubt it would be an interesting read, levitation is not something she would want to do herself, but it was interesting all the same.
"What information would be most useful?" Charlotte asked as she picked up the book closest to her and flipped it open.



OOC: I apologize for the late reply.