(no subject)

[parkerlee]

[OOM: Without really meaning to, Parker finds herself with a second job.]

Parker has her laptop open on a tabletop, experimenting with different blog styles.

The page has a couple of fixed features. The Coiner Gazzette logo in the upper right hand corner. And the blog’s title – Millie Tipp: Practical Advice for a Thoroughly Modern World.

(She had just smiled when Luke, J.R. and Aurelia had raised eyebrows at the choice of the name Millie. It’s not like she could have explained the homage.)

Parker has narrowed her choices down to a layout with a header of sunflowers, one that’s powder blue with polka dots, and one that looks like the surface of an old fashioned desk.

She’ll happily take opinions.

Comments

[alsoagreengrass]

"'Practical Advice for a Thoroughly Modern World'?"

Now advice is something Scorpius could use loads of.

He's looking at the screen over Parker's shoulder, an eyebrow raised at the display.

"Millie Tipp, huh?"

He grins. A small grin, but a grin.

[parkerlee]

Parker straightens her shoulders and gives him a very prim (but for the smile that visibly tugs at the corner of her mouth) look.

"I'll have you know," she says, "you are looking at the new advice columnist for the illustrious Coiner Gazette."

Okay, illustrious may be pushing it. A lot.

The grin breaks through.

"Given how much of the writing I'll probably wind up doing here, Millie seemed only appropriate."

[alsoagreengrass]

"Fairly appropriate, yeah."

His grin widens in response to hers.

"Congratulations on the, er, new job?"

[parkerlee]

"New second job," Parker says. "I'm still working at the ranch. This is....kind of more of a hobby thing."

It may die in three months. No way of knowing, really.

"How's it going, Scorpius?"

[alsoagreengrass]

"Oh. Well, uhm - All the same, then. Congratulations."

Hobbies can be fun. And, from what Scorpius has read in the Daily Prophet, advice columns can be rather entertaining. He thinks Parker will have a good time of it.

He shrugs when she asks how things are going.

"Terrible," he says. "This growing up thing really is horrible."

But, he's not crying and moping around anymore? So.

[parkerlee]

"Oh, honey."

Parker pulls out a chair.

"Sit down and talk to Auntie Parker."

"What's the matter?"

With any luck, this is teenage hyperbole at work.

[alsoagreengrass]

Scorpius frowns as he sits. He gestures vaguely at her laptop.

"Aren't I supposed to write in for the advice?"

[parkerlee]

"Special dispensation for friends. You get the real deal."

Parker closes the laptop. For to give undivided attention.

"Unless it would be easier to write. In which case I'll go get you a notepad. But you're not budging from that chair until you tell me what's up."

Okay, so maybe J.R.'s right. Maybe she is kind of bossy.

[alsoagreengrass]

Kind of. But, Scorpius has sort of known that.

He squirms in the chair. She's always been a good person to talk to, so -

"I'll do without the notepad."

He takes a deep breath.

"Okay, uhm. I turned seventeen, and then I - I lost Albus as a friend. Because it turns out he wasn't interested in being friends, and I thought he might have been, but he wasn't. So I got my heart a tiny bit broken and mucked up the friendship.

"And then I broke up with Annabeth. Because I felt guilty for - For carrying on with her, and fancying Albus. And it was sort of amicable, because she had loads of things going on at home and liked another bloke anyway, but still.

"And now - Now I don't know what to do. About anything, really."

[parkerlee]

It's times like this that Parker is reminded how much being a teenager well and truly sucks.

"Sweetie. I'm so sorry. I'm sorry things didn't work out."

"Maybe, things being as they are...," from the summary Parker is getting, "...maybe the best thing would be to give dating a rest for a while. Focus on other things."

It feels like lame advice, but maybe lame advice is better than none.

"For what it's worth, I think you did the honorable thing. Breaking up with Annabeth. If you truly liked someone else."

[alsoagreengrass]

Scorpius would very much like to think about anything other than Albus Potter, but -

"I can't stop thinking about him," he confides in a miserable murmur.

[parkerlee]

Parker rests her elbows on the table and leans forward.

"You want to tell me what went down?"

[alsoagreengrass]

Scorpius recounts what happened on the bridge with as much detail as he can.

" - And then, just recently, I saw him in Milliways so I sent him an owl. Not a real owl, 'course, just a tiny paper one and he was receptive to it, but I don't know what any of it means."

He sighs, slumping back in his chair. She's the first he's told any of this to, and now he needs to catch his breath.

[cutting_edgex23]

"Parker," X says, making her way over to her friend's table.

She's got her Security badge pinned to her belt, at least for the moment.

"You are working?"

[parkerlee]

Parker looks up and grins. "Hey, Laura."

She glances back down at her screen.

"Sort of. I have a new job. Well, a second job. A hobby-type job."

"I'm still getting set up for it."

Millie Tipp hasn't gone live quite yet.

[cutting_edgex23]

X blinks.

Twice.

"I do not understand."

Beat.

"What is a hobby-type job?"

She pronounces that phrase very, very carefully.

[parkerlee]

"A job that pays pretty much nothing and that doesn't require a huge time commitment."

Even with the blog online, Parker's not looking at many hours. Especially with Milliways to write in.

"I'm the new advice columnist for the newspaper in Coiner."

[cutting_edgex23]

"Oh."

X absorbs both of these facts, head tilting very slightly.

"I think you will be good at it. Giving advice."

Beat.

"The lack of money will not be problematic? For you."

[parkerlee]

"No. I mean, I'm still working at the ranch. I'm just doing this on my own time."

And Milli-time.

"It'll be nice to have a little extra to tuck away in savings. Besides, I think it'll be fun."

Parker looks back at her screen.

"A little nerve-wracking. Giving published advice. But fun."

[cutting_edgex23]

X shifts her own position so she can look at Parker's screen, too.

"You know what questions they will ask you?"

[parkerlee]

"No. Well, I mean, I can make a guess."

Parker shifts the laptop so Laura can see better.

"Most people seem to write in to advice columns with questions about relationships. Romantic relationships, family relationships, friends, neighbors, that sort of thing. Or with other problems they have."

"They write in to get an outside opinion."

[cutting_edgex23]

X blinks.

Twice.

"They do not have other people to ask?"

Beat.

"People they know."

[parkerlee]

"Well, that's sort of the appeal of an advice column."

Based on Parker's recent research.

"Sometimes what people really want in an outside opinion. Someone who's really going to be objective. Someone outside their circle who won't judge them the way a person they know might."

Parker shrugs.

"And then I'm sure there are a good many who get a charge out of seeing their letters in print. But that's okay, too."

[cutting_edgex23]

X hesitates, just a little.

But eventually --

"I do not understand."

Beat.

"That."

[parkerlee]

Parker grins.

"That's because, my friend, you are one of those enviable people who doesn't really get hung up on what people think of you."

"I mean, from what I've seen."