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Big Willy's was open six days a week; 9:00 AM to 7:00 PM Monday-Friday and then open from 11:00 AM to 5:00 PM on Saturdays. It was a privately owned business of which Big Willy himself was very proud. The building had belonged to his family for generations and, since the death of his father and an unfortunate robbery, Big Willy had lived in the upstairs apartment. The store was his life- a tall man with a giant belly and a balding head, Big Willy treated his customers like guests, and his employees like friends.

When Vanessa was letting for work after school, he watched the clock and waited patiently for her to show up. He knew that she was a good kid and did not reprimand or punish her for poor timing as she exploded through the front door, huffing and puffing. Her skateboard was tucked under her arm.

"Sorry, sorry," Vanessa's cheeks were tinged pink. Whether it was from embarrassment or exertion was up for debate. "I got held up after class- teacher wanted to talk to me."

"Forget to do your homework again?"

"Uh," Vanessa looked uncertain for a moment, and then nodded, "yeah."

A deep chuckle rippled up from his belly, and it jiggled like a bowl full of jelly. "Didn't require an explanation, kiddo, but that's as good as any. Now come take over. I need a smoke."

Vanessa did so, moving behind the counter as Big Willy shifted away from it. She watched him as he headed towards the back room. "Where's Damian?"

"His shift doesn't start for another half hour," Big Willy barked good-naturedly and, pulling a pack of cigarettes and a lighter out of his shirt pocket, disappeared behind the curtain of beads that separated the front of the store from the back.

Big WIlly had heard the tell-tale rumble of the jeep as it'd pulled up behind the store, and didn't need to look to know that it was Damian's figure stepping over the threshold of the back door (it was heavy, and looked like it may have seen a bullet or two in it's day) and into the dimly lit back room. He was busily leafing through some papers, and grunted a simple greeting as the boy whizzed by. There was a stack of unopened boxes at his feet.

"Hey yourself," the smile on Vanessa's face was genuine, and the corners of her eyes crinkled upwards. She was always happy to see Damian, and enjoyed the shifts that they shared together. He was generally in a good mood, and had a wonderful habit of not making her feel stupid.

She opened her mouth to say something else, but was cut off by Big Willy. The hulking man returned to the front of the store carrying the previously mentioned stack of boxes in his beefy arms. He eased them onto the counter, looked each of his employees in the eye, and said; "Get to work."

They knew what to do. Big Willy left them to it and Vanessa whipped a pair of scissors out of a drawer. Like (almost) everything in the store they were old and well-used, but still productive. She sliced into the tape that bound the cardboard flaps together, and then dug into the first box.

"New CDs! I bet there are DVDs in the others."

Sorting inventory was an easy enough job. This was a big part of why Vanessa could pull it off at all, even though she sometimes tended to misplace a horror film into the comedy film section, and occasionally made other innocent mistakes of the sort. Big Willy had been forced to correct her on a number of occasions. And, of course, every time, Vanessa would giggle with embarrassment and insist that she'd meant to do that.

"Sounds good to me," she responded with a shrug, and delicately passed Damian the scissors. When she'd been very young, and John Jr was much younger than she, careless handling of scissors had concluded in a heinous (and, for Vanessa, absolutely traumatizing) accident. John Jr had needed twelve stitches in the back of his ear. He'd been too young to remember. She would never forget. Vanessa no longed ******** around with scissors or knives.

Just crowbars and fireworks. And probably anything else she could get her hands on.

She watched Damian with a thoughtful expression on her face before returning to her own box. Theirs was a friendly relationship and, while they weren't close by any means, Vanessa was rather fond of his flirtatious disposition. Here was a boy with a natural sort of charm. It suited Vanessa very well.

"So," she smirked at him. Her voice was loaded with significance. "How was your weekend?"

Lips quirked at the endearment. She laughed at him, golden eyes twinkling, and mimicked his tone when she responded; "No problem, babe."

Vanessa didn't really know how to flirt. She'd spent more time punching boys than kissing them, and was made slightly awkward by the things that Damian said. But she liked it- particularly because she understood him to be playful and, really, quite harmless. Tanned cheeks flushed slightly pink, and she met his silver eyes determinedly with her golden ones.

If she had actually liked him that way, it would have been impossible to look at him. As it was, and even though she didn't have a clue what she was doing, Vanessa stepped up to this little game he'd started like a champion. She revelled in new experiences. This was a big part of why she enjoyed Damian's company as much as she did. It was always like this.

"You have no idea," Vanessa laughed, flattered by the things that this boy said. It was obvious that she was lying, but Vanessa wasn't really making an effort to hide the fact. She was not embarrassed by her lack of dates. Hers was a busy life. Ever since she'd unleashed the awesome power of Super Van, Vanessa had barely been able to get enough sleep. Never mind dealing with things like romance.

She rifled through her box of CDs and continued to work while they chatted.

"One of them was so excited to see me he knocked the door off its hinges. My dad was pretty mad."

"Nah," Vanessa flashed a smirk at Damian over her shoulder and, with a shake of her head, said; "It was a big job, but I fixed it myself. Greased the hinges and everything. I'm not sure you could have handled it."

Maybe she was better at this flirting thing than she'd originally thought. It was difficult to know; strange to think that this was a skill she might have possessed. It was also pretty exciting.

This was an avenue that she had only really explored with Damian, under the roof of the record store, where Big Willy was always close by and the things that passed between them could hang in the air. It was not serious- never serious. Damian was attractive, but Vanessa wasn't into him that way.

She knew he was like this with many women. His reputation preceded him.

He was bolder than she was. Vanessa had brass and courage, but that was somehow not the same as this. She enjoyed flirting, very much, but also considered herself a lady. A lady with attitude. Usually, she was the one being told 'no' or 'stop that' or 'don't touch.' Being around Damian was different. He never touched, of course, but Vanessa couldn't help but think that he wanted to. And that made her feel strange. It was refreshing and intimidating all at once.

Exciting, too.

"I do look super cute in a bikini," she told him with a laugh, smiling at the familiar sound of her nickname, and the corner of her tongue stuck of her mouth as she concentrated on alphabetizing the CDs. This always took her much longer than it took Damian. She had to repeat her ABCs over and over again to get it right every time.

"But you've got a long way to go. If you can fight your way through all of the guys that want me, you'll have to deal with my dad. He's a big man, you know."

As much as she frustrated and infuriated her father, Mr. Rae's opinions still meant a great deal to Vanessa. She was a daddy's girl.

Damian had a flair for the dramatic. Vanessa had a flair for accidents. This meant that, together, they were potentially pretty dangerous. And probably the sort of team that would have a hell of a lot of fun together.

It was sometimes easy, even though she knew that he behaved this way with all sorts of girls, for her to forget that she wasn't supposed to be interested in Damian that way. The thought of driving off into the sunset with him, towards the beach or elsewhere, was highly appealing to Vanessa-- at least, the part of her that didn't mind a little bit of romance tied into her adventure.

"Mmm," she mused while she worked. Vanessa was concentrating, and her tongue stuck out of the corner of her mouth. "I'm sure you will."

Mr. Rae was not exactly an easy man to get to know, but he was kind. It tickled Vanessa, a little, to think that Damian might actually try and charm him on her behalf.

Such a silly, endearing boy.

"Tell me, Damian, do you have any girls knocking down your door?"

Vanessa didn't have time for boys. When she wasn't at school or working at Big Willy's, she was either babysitting. When she wasn't babysitting, she was cruising around Destiny City on her skateboard with her crowbar wielded in one hand and her tablecloth-turned-cape billowing out behind her like a sail in the wind. The last, and only, boy she'd ever kissed was a distant memory in the back of her head.

She'd punched him.

This was the way it went when you were in fourth grade, and somebody smacked his lips to yours because he'd been dared to.

"There are a lot of pretty girls," she laughed, because she'd never really appreciated her own good looks before. If she was good looking. Vanessa didn't really know.

Still, it felt good to be told so.

Vanessa continued to work, and went to stack her own wracks. "If I ever feel like driving off into the sunset, you'll be the first to know… lover." The last word was an afterthought, a playful addition to a statement that was otherwise neutral statement. She winked at him. It was very exaggerated.