[boaf] learn how to watch // mlb

It was a week after his sixteenth birthday and his parents had promised to take him to any restaurant of his choosing to celebrate. Normally, Ricky would've chosen one of his favorite establishments in New York, but he had developed a taste for the amazing food served at the Caribbean cafe in Shackamaxon and just had to go there. He'd begged and pleaded with his parents to go, but in the end his father claimed he had too much work to take time off and go the wizarding town near Ilvermorny. Ricky was disappointed, but honestly wasn't a bit surprised, as his father constantly claimed he was too busy with work to spend time with his family. It wasn't as if Ricky had just celebrated a milestone birthday in his life or anything. Nevertheless, his parents gave him some money and told him to take Maggie and Charlie to the town and have some desserts on them.

When they arrived in Shackamaxon, the three of them immediately went to the cafe, as Ricky had threatened to become annoying it they didn't comply. After they devoured their goodies, they all separated and agreed to meet up in a few hours near the Bubbler. While Maggie went off to check out St. Augustine’s Clock Emporium and Charlie left for The Toad & Bone, the fifth year desperately wanted to visit The Oak Pipe, even though he knew he wasn't old enough to buy some of the goods he wanted. Nevertheless, he headed straight for the shop and smiled as the familiar scent hit him. He was fairly known by the employees of the shop, as Ricky was always in there trying to convince them to let him buy something they all knew he wasn't old enough to buy. But today he just wanted to check the place out and see if he could catch up with one of the shop workers, a fairly attractive 20-something woman named Beatrice.

Beatrice had long brown hair and gorgeous brown eyes, and Ricky couldn't help but lust after her whenever he spotted her. He enjoyed their conversations a little too much and was always sad when he had to leave. However, when he entered the establishment, he was met with the sight of an older woman who looked like she hadn't had fun in the last thirty years, and was told to leave because he was too young to buy anything. Scowling, Ricky adjusted his baseball cap and decided to check out Birds of a Feather instead. He had been to the shop a few times in the past, but had never actually looked around. He knew they sold outdoorsy-type things, like backpacks and tents, but he wasn't exactly one to go camping, nor did he really have a chance to while living in New York. As he approached a display with some maps, he took one out and began looking at it, suddenly realizing he didn't know how to read it.

@Mary Lou Bird

Mary Lou pushed open the door separating the back storage area from the main store area with the toe of her boot, hauling as many empty packs as she could. She had one on her back, one on her front, and two on either arm, her hands clutched tight to the straps. It was a rather slow day, so Lou had been moved to restocking things instead of spending her time trying on different climbing harnesses and seeing which one accented her caboose the least, which she had done for about an hour earlier that morning.

She had just made it to the rack of packs before dropping the load in her hands and peeling off the other two packs. Reaching up toward nothing, Lou stretched her back and looked around. The store was still relatively empty, minus the occasional glance she caught of her parents or a random sibling. Nudging one of the fallen packs with her toe, Lou shrugged, her head snapping up as she heard the familiar jingle of the bell over the door.

Over and over again she had been told to let the customer have some room to breathe; apparently there had been some concerns that Lou had no semblance of personal space and had a hard time accepting the answer of ‘no’ when she asked if they needed any help. Of course, she had a problem understanding why those things were frowned upon, but she was still trying to try. For at least thirty seconds, anyway.

Lou prided herself on the sheer number of students she knew at school, every year taking it upon herself to help each and every new student feel at home. Ricky was in the year below her, in the first batch of students that she had bestowed her help upon. 

He had one of the bigger maps, the one with lots of detail on the Appalachian Trail, one of the maps she pored over whenever there was a lull in customers or a uptick in annoying ones she didn’t want to deal with. Lou ducked around the counter and ducked under a kayak display, reminding herself she wasn’t allowed to run indoors as she slowed to a normal human’s pace. Still, it was hard to hide her excitement at the possibility to help someone out, especially someone she knew, and especially about something she loved as much as the AT.

“Rickyyy,” Lou started, not waiting for him to acknowledge her first and not minding if she startled him. “Are you planning a trip? Planning this far ahead is a good idea.” It was far too late in the year to set out on the trail, nevermind that they had school again in a couple weeks and not even Lou thought she could walk that fast.

Holding the map up, he turned it to the side and squinted as he tried to make out what it was of. Honestly, geography wasn't his strong suit, and if it wasn't in the New York City it probably didn't matter much to him anyway. But, he was intrigued by this map. It was detailed and if he recognized any of the towns dotted on it, he might have an idea of what it was supposed to be. He turned it to the side once more, sticking his tongue out slightly as he tried to concentrate. As much as he tried to figure it out, he was at a loss. Oh wait, no wait... nope. He had no clue what this map was supposed to show him.

He was about to fold it back up when he heard the sound of a familiar voice saying his name. Looking up, he saw Mary Lou and smiled. "Hey," he said, shrugging at her question. "Not really. I mean, maybe someday if I... figure out what this map is of." He started folding up the map and sighed, not even thinking to ask if she might know. See, the thing about Ricky was he was really stubborn and never liked asking for help. He'd much rather admit defeat then let someone teach him something for once in his life. The first step was admitting that this was a problem and Ricky had taken that first step so many times, but he just couldn't bring himself to actually let people help him.

However, as he looked down at the folded map in his hands, he then turned his attention back to the girl in front of him. "Say, Lou, what kinda map is this? Like... what is is supposed to be showing me?"

“Oh.” Her face fell when she learned that he wasn’t planning a trip. But she got it. She pulled out maps all the time, just to look, to dream, to have the perfect trip ready for when she had the time and the money. “Oh!” She said again, perking back up, eager to help. But just as quickly as he said he was trying to figure it out, he was folding it back up again. Was that a new record for how quickly she had scared a customer out of buying something? Yikes.

But then he changed his mind. Yes! “It’s a trail map. The Appalachian Trail.” She was talking quickly and closely and excitedly, nearly vibrating with caffeine and sheer helpfulness. “The AT,” she added, all the extra information he didn’t want or need. “It’s super cool, though, like,” she nodded a few times. “This one shows all the states the trail goes through, and you just say what state you want to look at and it’ll change to show you that one. And the scale is good, one inch for one mile.” She shifted her weight back to her heels, tilting herself away from Ricky just a bit and affording him the tiniest bit of personal space.

“So it shows you the trail and the elevations and good places to stop and all the usual stuff.” Lou wasn’t sure how much of the ‘usual stuff’ he was familiar with, but she was never good at stopping and waiting for people to catch up. “But iiiiit’s like a hundred bucks, so.” She sniffed. People didn’t need a map that showed the whole trail unless they were thru hiking, and those people didn’t really do their shopping in Massachusetts.

She pointed to another map on the rack. “You really only need directions and elevations. Everything else is just extra, anyway.” She wasn’t supposed to judge the customers, or try to talk them out of spending money; she looked around to make sure her parents weren’t around to get her in trouble, but she was in the clear. “So if you’re not planning, what are you up to? Just in town for the day?”

The Application... what? "Oh! Oh yeah, duh," he said, trying not to let on that he still had no clue what this map was of. When he said that geography wasn't his strong suit, he meant it. He sucked at knowing where things were. Like, he'd heard of a lot of places, but this Appli... Appalachian... thing? No clue. However, as he listened to her continue to talk, he did think it was kind of cool that this map could do all of that. He'd never really seen magical maps before; some of his friends back home had shown him magbob maps and the like, and they didn't look half as cool as this one sounded.

"That's really cool!" Honestly, he didn't have any desire to get into maps or anything, but it really was fascinating. And wow... "Damn, that's expensive," he said, cringing at the thought of wasting his money on it. Shifting in his spot, he shoved his hands in his pockets and looked around. There was so much stuff in this shop and he'd never really noticed it before. How hadn't he? Before he could say or do anything else, she began to speak again, this time pointing to a different map. He almost wanted to open it up and see if he recognized anything, but let's be real here.. Ricky was going to be just as clueless, if not more, if he did so.

He was thankful when she changed the subject. Shrugging his shoulders, he didn't really want to go into specifics about why he was there, because he knew that he'd probably tell her the whole damn story, and he was certain she didn't give a crap about his family and all that other shit. "Uh, my birthday was last week and, um, me and my brother and sister came here just to check shit out." Pausing, he coughed nervously before talking once more. "So, d'you like working here?" Pausing once more, he started wondering if she actually worked there or helped out just because. "I mean, do they pay you to be here?"

“Duh,” Lou agreed with a laugh. The trail went right past their school, literally. It was hard not to notice. And being from Shackamaxon, Lou was extra familiar with the miles of trail surrounding the area. She nodded some more as he agreed with how cool the map was. Even though it said it was a ‘Bird Family Product’, her mom had actually made it; Lou was pretty proud of it. But yeah, expensive. People still bought it; there were always those people who spared no expense for the latest gadgets and doodads and maps with extra fluff.

She looked around when he did, still teetering on her feet as she thought best how to help him without scaring him off. She didn’t think she had seen him outside much; he definitely hadn’t been in Adventure Cadets or the climbing club she had started; she couldn’t recall him ever wearing anything that could have passed for hike-ready. Maybe he needed all the help.

Lou’s eyes widened. It had been his birthday. Lou had a list of everyone’s birthday she could remember, including as many students as she could ask (and receive honest answers from). She tried to make sure they at least got some candy or some cookies or something (even though, really, this responsibility should fall to the Student Government, and no she wasn’t still bitter about losing). Thankfully Lou was so focused on forgetting his birthday that she didn’t have time to reprimand him for his language. She knew Margherita, of course, since she was in Wampus, and she glanced around to see if she was there, too, but it looked like Ricky was flying solo for now.

She had follow up questions for him, but she couldn’t resist the opportunity to talk up her family’s store. “Oh my gosh, yes. I love it.” She nodded excitedly. “They don’t, no, but they said once I turn eighteen they will.” Legality aside, Lou didn’t mind. The whole reason she had started working at the store in the first place is because of her punishment after first year, after that incident with Jack, but she had been good at her work and eventually enjoyed it.

“But I get just as many hiking hours for every working hour, and my parents will apparate with me to trailheads if I can’t get one of my grandparents to drive me.” She shrugged. “They’re no-maj. Papa Bird goes hiking with me a lot -- he owns another one of these stores, but without all the magical stuff.” She nodded again; it was hard not to get all excited talking about the store and hiking and all the things she loved. She usually didn’t notice when she was boring someone. “I think they pay my brothers, but I’m not supposed to know about that, probably.”