Description: After a weekend of parties, Astrid is left with no voice. Since she works in a Disney store, she decides to blame Ursula the Sea Witch for the lack of voice. She didn't expect the impact this would have on one of her younger customers, though. Runa Ingerman is devoted to finding a way to help Astrid get her voice back. And if Arielle taught the little girl anything, it's that the only cure is Astrid's true love's kiss.
She had always wondered if people would take her more seriously if she wasn't able to talk. Since her talking often turned into threats and her threats always made her sound like she had some serious anger issues, not being able to talk had always seemed like a dream come true.
When she had woken up this morning and figured that the long weekend of partying with her friends had left her with no voice, she had thought that finally, she would be able to test her theory. She had wanted to make an experiment out of it. As nice as working in a Disney store was to earn some extra money for college, it wasn't really challenging her intellect. Doing this little experiment to find out if people thought she was nice without her voice had seemed like a nice diversion during her shift today.
What Astrid hadn't thought through, though, was that not having her voice meant that she had to use her hands to talk. Obviously, some people just seemed to have no fantasy or patience when it came to communicating with anything but words. Besides, the slightly wild gestures she had made really hadn't helped with being taken more seriously, so Astrid had decided to just give it up.
With or without voice people would probably continue to just see a pretty, young blonde in her. Well, at least in college and in her internship at Haddock Industries she was taken seriously by those she worked with or for. With them, she could show what she knew and was able to do and-
"Hello!"
At the sound of the young voice, Astrid lowered the book she had been reading in to find a little girl standing in front of the counter. She was giving her a sweet, toothless smile, so Astrid quickly closed her book, put it aside, and stepped closer. She propped up her forearms on the counter and looked at the girl with a smile.
"What's your name?" the girl asked.
Astrid pointed at the name badge on the left side of her shirt. The girl narrowed her eyes a little, focusing on reading the letters. She couldn't be older than six, but still, she managed to read out the name.
"Astrid," she said out loud after mouthing the name first.
Astrid nodded with a smile and then pointed at the girl, mouthing a soundless, "You?"
"I'm Runa," the girl answered immediately. "Runa Ingerman."
Again Astrid smiled. She lifted her gaze from Runa to the one other person in the store, eying the young woman up shortly, before she looked back at Runa with a questioning gaze.
"I came here alone," Runa told her, apparently understanding exactly what she meant. "I'm already six years old. I can go to a store alone. My mom and dad are shopping furniture for my baby brother. I was bored and asked if I can go here. They are picking me up later."
Astrid nodded slowly. There was a store for layette right on the other side of the street. Older siblings were often allowed to spend time here as long as the parents were busy buying everything for the baby. Sometimes they even came in here and asked her to take care of their kids for that time. Astrid didn't mind. She was good with kids. It was why she had chosen this job to earn some money during her unpaid internship in the first place.
Smiling, she looked at Runa and gestured around the store.
"I like the princess costumes," Runa answered to the question Astrid hadn't asked out loud. "Mom and Dad say I don't get anything now, though. My birthday is next Sunday, so I have to wait and see if I get anything then. I think I will."
