An Overmeal Talk

Shizuka unlike everyone else in the cafeteria, were using chopsticks. It really wasn't something to get impressed at... But even so, people though otherwise and watched her behind her back trying to get the secret behind eating with the slim pair of sticks. It really wasn't like they did it quietly, as Shizukas irritation started to build up whilst she ate her breaded deep-fried pork cuttlet with rise at the side. She had planned to read a couple of pages in her book here too... Ofcourse she had forseen that it wouldn't work due to the students that didn't give her enough space to even think anymore. And it was actually quite rude of her to read a book whilst Angela was sitting next to her on the table. "Might as well try to converse a bit when we together like this... I don't want to lose a meister after a single day after all...". Shizuka shut her book firmly and took another bite of her pork cuttlet. "Would it be fine if I asked you a question Angela?" Shizuka asked still shewing on her food, even managing to get some bread crumbs sticking to the corner of her mouth.

Angela was just sitting next to Shizuka. The witch was eating a mini-pizza. You know..A pizza for one person.
She ignored the other students around her. Indeed, they were too loud for her. At least Shizuka was a quiet person. Well of course Angela was impressed when she saw her partner eating using chopsticks. But it was normal for a person from Japan. In the moment when Angela finished her mini-pizza Shizuka spoke.
"Oh yeah, sure. What is it?" Angela asked. But she was a bit surprised. The witch thought that Shizuka is going to read a book! Heh! At least she can have an another very interesting conversation with her.

Finaly realizing the bread crumbs, Shizuka takes them of one by one with her fingers and put them in her mouth. Can't let them go to waste you see.
"I was kind of thinking... I have seen and heard it from many partners around but... Most partners are living together under one roof you know? Have you ever though of that we might do the same? It's not like I'm trying to imitate the others, actually god no... But have that thought appeared in your mind? We'll get to know each other better if we did." And most importantly, she'd be able to squeeze Angelas puffy cheeks. every. single. day.

Angela put her finger on her chin as she began to think. Well, it was a great idea. Sadly, poor Angela didn't know that it would give Shizuka some great opportunities to make her cheeks suffer! "Hmm..You know what? It's a good idea. Even better than good. Living together with your partner has a lot of advantages." Angela said. Well she also had her own evil plans. She would for example walk into Shizuka's room in the middle of the night dressed as a ghost!
Also Angela could learn a lot about japan thanks to Shizuka. But the only thing she was worried about was..money. Angela's family wasn't rich. But she would get a part-time job.

Surprised by Angelas instant decision it now seemed like they would be living together. "Hmm... How do you live right now? How many rooms do you think we need? Should it be an apartment with a kitchen? Because I can't cook at all... Even though it would save us a lot of money." She started thinking about any apartments at all that she knew around... But there were actually none she came to think of. Don't blame her! He never had any interest about it in the first place!

"I might need a bit of space though... I don't think I'll be able to fit all of my books in a small room. Well... I could always stack them up on the floor like I've done up until now to solve it I guess." She said calmly.
What made matter worse was that she didn't have any money for this. Shizuka had always counted her monthly income in a precise way so that she could visit the bookstore with the money that she wouldn't use for her food. She didn't like the thought of work either but... She couldn't really leave this to Shizuka.

"Now I live with my sister..And you know...It's really hard to live there because there is enough space for only one person.. Okay..If we really want to rent an apartment, we will need two or..Even three rooms or I dunno..Two rooms and and a big living room..You know, to have enough space to store the books or..Err..Nevermind! Your idea is better. Okay..I think we don't really need a kitchen because food in the cafeteria is cheap aaaaand..We both can't cook. But sadly with our allowance..It'll be difficult.. Well I would find a part-time job..Hmmm." Angela said. Well maybe it would work somehow? Who knows? Well Angela wasn't lazy..She wasn't afraid of working. For her it was a great fun. And she got used to work to get some money.

"Okay... To minimize our spendings on the apartment i think we should have a livingroom connected to the entrance, for you know... If we ever rarely got visitors like your sister for example. It'll also be a nice space to be if we just want to socialise. Then we will have two more rooms for personal use... And then a toilet with a shower and bathtub... For obvious reasons." Well that pretty much summed it up what they needed right? A balcony would be nice too but... One can't have everything in this world. "I probably think that my room will consist of a bed, a desk with a lamp and the rest will be books spread around the room... Ahh! And a small ladder to reach the top of my book piles. I honestly don't think that I'll have room for anything more unless we were to rent a bigger apartment. But we want it cheap now." Finaly finishing her food, Shizuka stood up and grabbed the food tray with her long sleves. "So..." Shizuka sighed. "How about we try to find a part time job?... I won't let you work alone. Even I have some sort decency."

"Eh..It's not a problem if I would be the only one who works..But..Oh yeah. Thanks to it we would earn more money." Angela said after a while of thinking. Then she stood up and picked up her tray. "There is a board with informations about part-jobs for Shibusen students somewhere in in the academy.." The witch added.
Angela thought that the best job for them both would be working in the café as the waitresses. Why? Because it wasn't a difficult or a very tiring job. Sadly..They probably would have to wear the uniforms. For Angela it wasn't a problem, but what about Shizuka? She seemed to like wearing her over-sized sweaters and bandages.

"Right, I have heard about that board too. Though I don't really know where it is and... Honestly I've never seen it either for that matter. Never had the need for that until now." Both Shizuka and Angela had now handed over their trays to the lunch-lady and were on their way out of the cafeteria.
"Honestly, I don't really care much for what kind of job it is. I'll bite the bullet as long as it doesn't get too tiresome... Will we work together? Because if I have to work with something that require talking to people... I'll defiently need a backup for when people finaly snap at me. As usual."

(Gogo with the waitress Leke! Shizuka won't like it one bit but... I've found a pic that I finaly can use for her looks in that case! xD)

"Yeah I think it'll be better if we work together. We need to find something which won't be too difficult for us and also..yeah..And our job can't be tiring, right? Oh I remeber! I've seen that board once. I know where it is! Let's go..Or..hm Can you run fast? If not hm..ah nevermind." Angela seemed to like the idea with part-time job. And working with Shizuka sounded for her like even better fun than working alone. Of course Shizuka's personality would be a problem, but Angela could find a few ways to deal with it.
"Hm...Have you ever worked before?" The witch asked Shizuka.

"Uegh... Running? I-I'd rather not..." Said Shizuka as she were already draged along by Angela in her energic pace. She seemed like she were looking forward to this. How could someone possibly look forward to such things when you could have been lying in your couch at home doing... Nothing.
"I have never worked before. I have always made sure so that my paycheck is enough for me to buy food and new books for the month... It's tiring and takes up your time. What's so good about it?..." Shizuka complained a bit childish.

"So hopless...Thanks to hard work, you learn self-reliance. And it's a great fun" Angela said with serious tone.
After a while of walking, the girls found the board. Angela looked at it. There were many different jobs.
Normally Angela would take the most difficult job from the list, but she was looking for something not too difficult so Shizuka could work with her. "Hmm...Do you see anything interesting?" She asked Shizuka. Then she noticed a job offer as a waitress. This one looks easy..But maybe Shizuka will find something better. She thought.

Shizuka sighed. Ofcourse there were no interesting jobs... Or... It was one but they rejected her the last time she applied there. "Honestly I'll go anywhere you go Angela. The only interesting job that I tried to apply to was as a fulltime librarian in the school library... The god stubborn darn geezers had more than one thing to say about that... And their main reason for it was so that I couldn't have access to the third floor?! How dare they lock away all those books from me!" Shizuka said a bit more aggravated than usual. "Choose a job there I can work together with you, that oughta make it a bit more interesting. Maybe..."

Angela gestured at the job offer she choosed. It was a part-time job as the waitresses. "This one isn't difficult. I think, that thanks to this job we will be able to rent an apartment. What do you think, Shizuka?" Well she knew that Shizuka is going to complain a bit but Angela didn't care. When she decides to do something, she always does it. But there was one thing she didn't like about the job she choosed. They will have to wear the uniforms.

"What I think? What do you want me to think? We'll be dressed up with a dress suited for a doll and probably be told to say 'Welcome back Master' and such bubbly things. This job is like a drug against hikikomoris like me." Though she knew that she couldn't be picky with the jobs... But this... This...
"What will you do if some wierdo comes by with requests and take pictures then? It's not like you'll be able to chase him out with a weapon. That's probably pretty damn illegal. And I won't have my warm sleves there either..."

"If the customers will do something stupid -Like taking photos without my permission- I can always do this..." Angela said. And then she made a fireball in her hand. "....And say: Don't even try, or I'll blow up your face, you perv." When she said this, the fireball disappeared. Angela crossed her arms and looked at the board again. "I dunno..This job seems to be good in my opinion..Uh..There aren't any better jobs on this board anyway." Angela sighed. Just as she thought, Shizuka was complaining. Then an evil smile appeared on Angela's face. "Oooh...Look..This job seems perfect for us!" She said as she pointed at job offer as a supplier of coffee to the restaurant. The whole day of carrying heavy bags full of coffee..It sounded good only for Angela. But don't worry she was just kidding.

"Mmh... I suddenly feel like standing as a model in a photo expedition, I wonder where that waitress café is. I just can't waaaaaait~" Shizuka said in a highly ironic tone that almost hurted to hear. She sighed and put one of her hands (or sleves as you'd see it) on her head. "Fine... Carrying coffe bags is probably worse. And it'd kill my back too for that matter... But I think that threatening to blow up someones head like a firecracker is pretty damn against the rules. And with magic on top of that... Just imagine the misunderstandings people will get, even though you've been accepted to the school." Was she her mom? It felt almost like she pointed out everything angela said... Why did she care so much? Let the girl do as she want damnit.

Angela shrugged. "Trust me, Shizuka, nobody is going to take any photos..Because we're not cute and we're too young!" The witch stated. "So? Are we going to take this job or not? If not then I'll take something very difficult and I'll be working alone." Angela wasn't going to change her mind, huh?
She didn't understand why Shizuka was complaining so much. It was just an uniform!

Another sigh left Shizukas mouth, it was getting pretty irritating actually... "I have already said fine okay? We'll do the work... I'd like to point out a few things though. Firstly, I don't have the slightest of worry about myself when it comes to photos. I was more hinting about it when it came to you." Shizuka said, concealing the fact that she was a tiny bit worried about Angela. "I don't even wear make up after all, I mean look at these dark bags under my eyes. Secondly, I don't want you to let your guard down because of a shallow reason like 'we're too young'. There are plenty of creeps out there who are all over that shit. Likewise with the uniforms... Anyhow, should we go and accept this job then?". Shizuka said, honestly quite tired of this conversation.

"Yeah Fine." Angela nodded. She noticed that this conversation was slowly irritating Shizuka so she decided to change the topic. "Hey, Shizuka? You've read a lot of books, right? What is your favourite book?" She asked. Well there were many things that Angela wanted to ask Shizuka. But Shizuka seemed to be tired of this conversation so she wasn't sure if she should ask her now or wait for another occasion.

"Hmm... That's a tough question to crack..." Shizuka tilted her head a bit, thinking to herself. "I have read many great works like 'Then there were none', 'Lord of the one Ring', 'Excalibur' and so on... But my favourite must be th-" She stopped herself in mid-sentence and realised: did she even have a specific favourite? Nonononono, ofcourse she must have had a favourite somewhere right? She searched intensivly through her head, almost as if it were to crack by the sheer pressure. Thoughts were flying everywhere and she had no idea how to ever answer the question. A serious headache started to appear in her head as she took more and more time thinking about it.
"Ahh... Ehm... Ehh... C-could we m-maybe wait for this to another time?" She said blushing, she hadn't even managed to answer to one of the most simple questions out there. Such humility! She had to save herself somehow. "But I... I like books that gives of hints and true meanings behind it that the reader can realize themselves if they pay attention to it. It almost becomes a bit of a game to figure out hidden meanings and hints at the same time as it gives the book more depth than usual." She said, quite satisfied with her final answer.

Shizuka's answer really surprised Angela. She didn't have her favourite title? Well.. It was Impossible! Is every bookworm reading tons of books and then then they can't even choose one? Indeed, interesting. Well Angela also didn't have her favourite book. But it was because she loved reading about history. Suddenly she began to think. How many books Shizuka has? About one hundred?
"I don't know If you care but I really like history books." Angela said somehow quietly. The witch was very curious how will Shizuka reply. Did she like the history too? Or maybe not?

"Did you say you like history books? Isn't that fine?" Shizuka said with a hint of confusion. Why was she so quiet about it? "I read and have probably read every type of book out there. I might not own a copy of everything but I know that I have about fortythree historybooks just laying around in my room... I don't really have much order on my things. Or rather, I don't have the space to do anything with them than to leave them around. But history is interesting too." She said reasuringly.

Angela smiled and crossed her arms. "Yeah, history is very interesting in my opinion." She said. But then she did a confused face. "Forty three? What? Ugh..wow..That's a lot.."
Yeah Shizuka had forty three history books when Angela and Aurora had only forty books from different genres. Uh..wooow...Shizuka buys too many books.. The witch thought. "Now when I think about it..hm...Almost every student of shibusen is somehow unique. For example..you wear over- sized sweaters and bandages and you read a lot of books..."

"Well... You are a witch who actually got permission to apply in this school and got such blazing read hair that might confuse people to think it's on fire." Shizuka countered back towards her partner.
"Honestly I think it's because of what we do which makes many of the people unique around here. Think about it, do you think any normal person would apply to a school whose main reason is to hunt bloodthirtsty monsters that try to take your soul and swallow it whole?" It was actually quite logical when you thought about it. There is no way a normal human would like to put themselves in such a danger after all. "I can probably grasp what you mean with the sweater and bandages I have, I have been labeled as wierd my whole life after all. The main reason I dress up like this is because I easily get cold, so I buy too large sizes to get some extra cloth onto me. I still get really cold on my leggs because of the skirt but... I can deal with that much. I don't really get the 'you read a lot of books' part thou. Is it really that unique to like books?"