Dresden Academy

Who: Pepper Stark and Jools Le Gallo (npc)
When: This morning.
Where: St. George's Way
What: Pepper and Jools have a visit.
Rating: SFW


St. George's Way was almost unbearably sunny. This morning found the Way pleasantly cool despite the brightness.

Two women sat on a bench, one of them looking for all the world like a muggle and the other an eccentric and well known fixture on the Way.

The woman who looked more muggle than wizard was Jools Le Gallo, an alumni of Dresden Academy up for a weekend visit with her friend, Pepper Stark. They'd met in town and were simply lingering in the gorgeous morning before heading up to Pepper's tree house in the woods. They'd been talking for some time about nothing in particular before they got around to the good stuff.

Pepper was all about the good stuff. "Things going well with you and Bobby?"

Jools leaned back, her thin frame revealing most of its secrets just by the way she arched. "As well as they ever are," she replied almost perfunctorally. Pepper knew how complicated it was and there wasn't much need to get into it further while they were still out in public.

She offered her old friend an ironic smile. She wouldn't know any of it if Jools hadn't confided the truth to her. It took a lot of trust to do that, though Pepper was certainly the best option Jools had for levity. If ever there was a person to understand not fitting into the status quo it was most certainly Prudence Stark.

"Off to Japan after this?" Visits usually occurred on her way home or on her way abroad; the Way was something like a stop-over for Jools.

"Not so soon. I've been placed on stand by indefinitely." A little smirk told Pepper exactly what Jools thought of that.

This was another secret that Pepper knew, another which she was always careful to tiptoe around. "Which agency?" she asked amused.

"Both, actually," Jools replied dutifully. "Apparently the motherland needs me more."

"Is that what we're calling it?"

"We have forefathers. I figured it needed to be the motherland to balance it out. Give us a sense of gender equality."

Pepper let her smile blossom without compunction.

Jools thought it best to change the subject before they got too far into it. "How's the new crop?"

Pepper shrugged. She didn't keep up with Dresden too much, just to run a workshop here and then when Pete asked for her help. Didn't that always stir up rumors? "They seem the same as ever." She'd matched up some magnificent wands this year, but that crop wouldn't show any definitive talent for awhile yet. She could say the same for the wands she'd matched up several years ago, but it wasn't in Pepper's nature to keep track. There was always at least one really special wand and user that she was lucky to bring together every year; she couldn't keep them all in her head.

Jools noticed that dreamy look that came over her face even as she shrugged. Pepper was thinking about her work and she was itching to do some crafting. "Has old man Stark budged at all?"

Pepper rolled her eyes in annoyance. "Does he ever? I think he's holding out hope that little Jonah will show a talent for it and decide he wants the shop."

"Wouldn't he have shown a talent for it by now?" Jools asked, her frown deepening.

Pepper looked off down the street toward the shop. This time of year was great for people watching. The weather had finally broken and it was actually pleasant to be outside. "He has a talent," she admitted with a pull of her lips which indicated the slightest bit of worry. "He hasn't shown an interest."

Jools didn't need to point out the worry; if she did it would grow by inches until Pepper couldn't sleep. "I imagine he's planning something else with his life."

"The old man won't kick off and let me have run of the place until the boy makes up his mind entirely. Stark's has never been run by a woman before."

Both women groaned. "So old school."

"So old school it hurts," Pepper added. Her father was far more traditional than his own father had been. Ephram Stark would have given the title and deed to Pepper and retired happily years ago. Not Lael. He'd keep the shop until Jonah said definitively that he didn't want it. He'd hold the deed over Pepper's head who had made the shop her life until the boy made up his mind either way.

She wondered if it wasn't so much because she was a girl, but because she was Pepper. His little oddball Pepper. She was a little different, a little off, and that suited her just fine.

But they both knew as soon as he handed over the shop that it would be run differently. She wouldn't waste time talking to the parents of children coming in for their first wand; she'd talk to the children because it was their wand after all, never mind that mom and dad were paying for it. She wouldn't waste precious minutes trying things that wouldn't work just for the sake of trying, or using pushy sales techniques to have people going home with more wands than they needed. She would serve as intermediary, a middle man bringing together two forces that would work in harmony for many years.

She sighed and offered her friend another shrug. "I could always open up my own shop down the way. I don't need the prestige of the Stark name."

"Even though you've earned it," Jools pointed out. At one time Jools had been standing on the same precipice. She'd earned the right to carry on the Le Gallo name; she could have run her father's business and might have done so happily. But that was another life when she was known as Julien. Now she was Jools and much happier, much healthier. She didn't need to be her father's right hand man, both literally and figuratively.

Pepper smiled appreciatively at Jools. They had been in the same boat and Jools had crossed successfully to the other side. She made her own way into the world, her own success backed by her own name. Pepper could do the same if she needed; for now she could build her skills and enjoy the relative security of the shop. "Feeling like a summer ice?"

"Mmm." Jools rose from the bench they had parked at and headed toward Cafe Sur Le Lac without any further prompting. The summer ice was probably still the spring ice, strawberries and rhubarb or blueberries, but they might have had an early crop of raspberries which when mixed with peaches was her absolute favorite and one of the reasons she visited St. George's Way at least twice every summer. "Are we going dutch?"

Pepper looped her arm with Jools; had it been anyone else the plainer woman would have flinched away. They made a fine pair walking down the way arm in arm. "My treat," Pepper promised and led the way.