TEGAN'S 1F

Downstairs was less magical and more modern stationery store. There were also counters and shelves, but they were white laminate and glass and the products displayed were in neat cardboard boxes and multiple rows like proper mass-produced goods should be.

At the Tegan Pen Store, there would also be an opened sample of the product so customers could try their pens and touch the smoothness of their papers.

Also, everything had a price tag on the shelf so you knew that the jars of inks cost anything between 8 to 80 dollars. I noted that the fancier looking bottles didn't necessarily have to be more expensive.

"Hi! Can I help you?" A girl in a sky blue apron and pink shirt asked brightly. I think I much preferred this uniform.

When I didn't answer straightaway, she decided on a different approach. She made a little bow and corrected herself, "I mean, greetings to the Alpha Princess, may I be of service to you today?"

Ah, no. Go back. Reverse. Undo! I shook my head trying to figure out how to backtrack her approach, except now when I'm shaking her head, the girl took a step back and bowed quickly, "Pardon, Alpha Princess."

I would face palm, except I felt any movement on my part was going to be misconstrued. So I looked to my nearest beta to soothe over my social awkwardness.

Unfortunately, my nearest beta atm was Ben, so... that was another nail in coffin.

"Just leave us alone." Ben waved the girl off coldly.

The poor girl bowed again, "Yes sir... I'll just be at the counter if you need anything."

And then she fled to her corner and tried to look invisible.

I suppressed a sigh. I suppose that could've gone worse.

"So what are you looking for, Sam?" Ben asked, completely nonchalant to our less than friendly entrance.

Why? Was he going to personally take over the sales girl's job?

"I dunno." I shrugged, "Just looking."

Now it was Ben's job to suppress his sigh, he didn't do a good job at it though. I narrowed my eyes at my childhood friend. Ben never had the patience for window shopping.

My eyes wandered over to a worn looking workbench. I had been left by the shop window, perhaps meant to be a display, but it didn't fit in with anything else in the predominantly white shop.

I imagined given another backdrop, this workbench would've lent an air of well worn antique (not to be confused by the fancy antique upstairs). This workbench was in the same league as the workbenches and wooden stools in Winderhill's science labs.

I naturally gravitated to it and found it to be a fountain pen testing table (not to be confused by the fancy calligraphy table upstairs outside Mr Tegan's office). This table had a few different pads of paper and various pens that customers can try writing with.

There were also instructions with diagrams on how to hold and write with a fountain pen. And PRICES. Above each pen was a sign with the picture and brand and model and price of the pen.

I checked out the prices first. They ranged from $40 to $200, which was a ridiculous amount to pay for a single pen, but I suppose they were affordable since they didn't cost as much as a car.

I picked one up to try. I didn't really look at the price (since I wasn't really going to buy a pen.) I just wanted to try it. I wondered how different it would feel from writing with a magic pen.

Ben came over to see.

I made a zig zag line. Ben picked up the pen next to mine and scribbled a bit too. We played an impromptu game of tic tac toe - which I won because I was the alpha… and also because I went first.

Then I tried another pen. Writing with a fountain pen was quite fun. I like the way the ink made wet marks on the paper. It seemed like the pens were all loaded with different inks. I only noticed belatedly a smaller sign next to each pen with the corresponding ink swatches and ink names calligraphed next to it. This was when I realized that the pads of paper were also labelled. Tomoe River Paper, Tegan Silk Paper, Tegan Linen Paper... Tegan made quite a few types of paper. There was also Rhodia Paper, cartridge paper... I flipped through the pads of paper and didn't find any normal paper.

A second sales girl had come into the store and after some whispered discussion with the first one, she came over with a brave smile plastered on her face, "Good Afternoon Alpha Princess. My name is Gloria."

Gloria was also wearing the pink shirt and sky-blue apron. She also had green eyes and fiery red hair which she had up in a messy bun.

I smiled back and quickly stepped in front of Ben before he scared her away, "Hi. I'm Sam."

"Is this your first time using a fountain pen?" Gloria asked kindly.

Urm... No? I had used it once before. (Upstairs less than an hour ago...)

I hesitated, "I just started very recently."

I felt very proud of my answer btw. It was how I imagined a seasoned diplomat like Dan Lion might answer.

Gloria nodded, "Cool. Do you have any questions?"

So I asked her about the paper and Gloria told me about all the different kinds (for best performance, fountain pens did need certain papers), which led her to explain the different inks because there was wet ink and dry ink... And that led on to shimmer inks and ink sheens, bleeding, feathering... Which I did understand a little from my previous life experience with brush calligraphy, but only a very little because Lady Amber's calligraphy lesson was extremely traditional with brush and ink block.

Gloria was very into fountain pens and inks, so she was very enthusiastic about it. She made it all look very cool and sophisticated, "Many of our customers use fountain pens in their journals. The experience is very therapeutic."

I nodded. I kept a diary. I could be cool and sophisticated too.

"Writing with a fountain pen puts less strain on your hand." Gloria continued to exhort the fountain pen, "And it's also environmentally friendly, because a single fountain pen can last you for years."

Think of all the ballpoint pens you would have saved yourself from using and discarding!

Gloria was most excited to recommend to me the twisty range of fountain pens. They had an inbuilt ink reservoir and ink can be sucked up to refill the pen by dipping the nib directly into the ink bottle and twisting the back of the pen to draw the ink up.

This was revolutionary because now you didn't need to deal with fidgety converters, and she assured us it was much easily to clean and was perfect for beginners. She demonstrated with two glass jars of water, changing the magenta ink out for a bright cerulean blue. I the ink float in puffs in the water before dissolving into a bright clear liquid, and then how easily it could be refilled. It felt like a kind of magic too.

It was like the ink bottles were potions and the fountain pens magic wands. I can't say what kind of spell Gloria weaved right there, but I was convinced that I absolutely wanted, no, I NEEDED a fountain pen for the perfect writing experience.

I would have bought the pen on the spot, except I was quite aware that I had no money on me. I hadn't even brought my wallet along.

So whether it cost $40 or $400 000, I had no money for it.

Gloria was on a roll though. She showed me all the different models for this twistable range of pens. They all had clear plastic barrels to show the ink levels and colors clearly, but it was in the details - the cap covers and metal findings that differed. My eyes fell on the navy capped model with bronze finishings. Gloria told me it was a limited edition and new design. I just thought it was the exact same shade as my beta's jackets. There was also a very pale green one, it was translucent so that it looked like a glowing piece of jade, but like every other pen in the range, it was made of plastic. I felt the completely transparent models were nice too. Gloria showed me the diamond range - which were transparent, but with chrome finishing. Those were $100.

While I decide on the pen model, Gloria moved on the recommend the right inks. At first, I had thought a dark navy or midnight blue might be the grown up ink for me, but I fell in love with a bright purple blue of hydrangeas, and oh... there was this royal blue too, writing with it felt like I was writing with magic. It came on wet and intense, but would lighten when it dried leaving a ombre effect of deep blue lightening into a pinkish blue hue.

"I see the Alpha Princess prefers blues with pinks in them." Gloria nodded, "Very feminine."

I shook my head, Lala maybe, but not me!

"They just look like ordinary blue ballpoint ink." Ben commented at the test sheet I had drawn multiple lines on for comparison. The moment he said it, I realized he wasn't far wrong. I punched him in the shoulder, "Don't kill the magic, Ben."

But it was too late. Now that I saw it, I couldn't unsee it. The Royal Blue in an extra fine nib did look indistinguishable from the blue click ballpoint pens Beta Lucas stocked the Alpha Office with.

I decided I would go with hydrangea blue. Now that Ben had killed the magic, this also looked suspiciously like those yellow plastic BIC ballpoint pens from my puphood - before Beta Lucas upgraded to the click pens.

Why was it the two inks that caught my eye and heart were the exact two that I had generally been using all my life?

With one comment, Ben had killed all the magic. Gloria moved on to recommend notebooks, paper pads, and binders, because unlike the common click pen or humble BIC, fountain pens couldn't write on any cheap piece of paper.

We should minimally be using Tegan 101. Or Kokuyo. Or Tomoe River. I had the sense not to ask if dollar store notebooks or my old middle school exercise books would work.

Moleskin Notebooks was good too. Which was a relief because that happened to be my journal. Thank Goddess that Mrs Beta wasn't cheap about our Middle School graduation present. Hahaha.

Fountain pen ink was also not waterproof at all. Fountain pens may also leak, so a good pen cap was essential. Oh, and one must NEVER drop a fountain pen on its nib. Gloria told me this the way Coach Roberts told us to NEVER dry fire a bow.

Fountain pens were overall very troublesome pens. That was why ballpoint pens were invented.

So why was I choosing between the navy and the diamond pen? I could buy a hundred ballpoint pens with the money.

My head knew this, but my heart was convinced that I needed this to elevate my journaling experience to that of a grown up and worldly sophistication.

I looked back to the pens Gloria had selected for me to choose from.

"Just take whichever." Ben's patience had held up admirably so far. Functionality wise, the pens were exactly the same. Gloria had already helped me choose right nib based on my everyday writing style.

So it was just a matter of which color I wanted... And hoping Ben had enough cash on him to lend me.

Luckily Ki came down. I guess he had finished with his shopping. I'm not sure what he bought, but it was enough for Mr Tegan to recover from the earlier trauma. He was escorted downstairs with Mr Tegan and Jonathan on either side of him to see him off. Maybe Ki bought a new car - one that was fueled with ink and only ran on Tomoe River Paper.

Mr Tegan's assistant, Oscar, and the rest of my wolves followed behind them, all with somewhat bemused expressions. Maybe Ki bought two new cars.

"Hey, Dog." Ben nodded at the pile Gloria at made, "Sam wants this too."

Oh right. Clever Ben. Ki had a credit card. I glanced at the pile of stuff... I probably should only pick out a few items from there. Maybe try to keep my bill under a hundred dollars.

Ki floated over, his beautiful smile firmly in place, "Did something catch my goddess' fancy here?"

Gloria launched into round two of demonstrating the new pens and introducing the different models and prices.

Delta Felicity wooed and ahhhed and bought several on the spot in different colors. Angela was right. Her mum had no impulse control. I mean, I thought I was bad...

"Just these?" Ki asked.

I nodded. I guess they were a far cry from the ones in the Treasure Series but they were already super expensive to me.

I was about to buy a pen that cost me as much as a bag - a good bag too! Whenever we needed new "nice" bags, Mum used to take us shopping during the year end sales and we would go to the 80% discount section and look at the bags there. A lot of it would be branded, but due to the discount, we'd get it for $60 to $80. That would be the my most expensive bag I would ever own.

I can't believe was paying the same for a pen. It wasn't even on sale.

So it was very important for me to choose the right design. I was going to use this pen for the rest of my life.

"What do you think, Ki?" I decided he would be the right beta to ask. Ki might have some good advice as to which color to go with.

"Understood goddess." Ki nodded aa quick bow to me and then with an imperious air instructed Gloria, "Please wrap them for me. And whatever else the Alpha Princess desires."

"Quick." Mr Tegan ordered. He grabbed all four pens from the counter and their boxes and stuffed them into Gloria's hands, "Pack them quickly."

Ki took out his credit card.

"No, no, beta. There's no need." Mr Tegan shook his head and waved both hands to ward it off, "Just take this as a complimentary gift from our store."

Gloria's mouth dropped opened, but she rushed over to the counter and got the other girl to help her wrap up the pens and pack all the other things into paper bags.

Never mind cars, maybe Ki bought a full service apartment.

So we left Tegan's Pen Store with multiple bags of shopping (Delta Felicity decided to buy notebooks for her kids and some of the other wolves in the GAP Analysis Team got "souvenirs" too.)

In my defense, my stuff was free.