[3rd POV]
The man had shown Billie and Haley a selection of books for quite some time after he had realized that his customers were his two favorite singers. And unlike what Billie and Haley had been fully expecting, he was explaining them in depth and surprisingly well.
The man was strangely passionate about magic, that much was clear. But it would seem that it had been a long long time since someone had last come in that was truly interested in learning the art. With only Phil being a regular customer.
It had gotten so bad that according to the mans words, the store would have likely been forced to close down to how little foot traffic they were getting.
Billie felt a little bad, so after she had picked her first book, she decided to bring up an idea.
"You know, since this is the place that I am technically learning new techniques from...maybe I could tell people about this place? At least if I use these techniques in my concerts?" Billie offered, as the man who had been finding the next book to show her, looked over at her with wide eyes.
Phil looked a little surprised too.
"Wait...you'd really do that? But-But all I'm doing is giving you a few books to read!" Lewis responded with wide eyes.
Even Billie mentioning the store in passing would bring a lot of attention from her hardcore fans. And if she had used their techniques in a concert, while also telling them where they can learn them for themselves?
It would absolutely catapult the business, and very likely would save them from closing down.
That was something that would be absolutely perfect to help them, but it also felt a little...wrong. As if he was taking advantage of the fact that his favorite artist was in his store right now.
He didn't want to come off as a douchebag or anything.
"I don't think you are? You've been explaining a lot of the techniques that can be found inside, and even recommending where we can go to learn them. Not only that, but you've shown some of them to us, and we have only grabbed one book so far" Billie responded, as she looked over at Haley as she nodded in response.
"Yeah, I mean I came here fully expecting to leave while Billie was finding her books with my dad. But honestly the more I listened the more I realized that this place has a lot of potential, and the books you have here could be a super cool way to improve our shows" Haley said with a genuine expression on her face.
She wasn't lying either. The shop genuinely had shown her a few new things she could do to help improve her shows in a meaningful way, and she hadn't even read the books, just listened to the man detail a handful of techniques in just one of the books that he had recommended.
And there were over 5 more books that he had said could be really useful.
The new ideas were mostly ones that could give her a better "Stage Presence" making her seem more natural, and getting more attention. On top of that a couple of them would make her entrances and exits much more exciting and interesting.
Billie leaned into her darker aesthetic, with flames and darkness. While she wanted to be a bit more...upbeat? Not like pink or anything, but more silvers and whites and golds. With more stars and stuff. While Billie was a lot of darker colors. Like dark crimson, black, and stuff like that.
Basically it would improve the aesthetic of her overall concert.
Now not all of them were actually useful, and there were a few that he had shown her that he deemed as "Joke Magic Tricks" that was basically just for fun and kind of dumb. But it was the sort of magic that Phil was shockingly good at, and was good to get a laugh.
Might be neat to use every once in a while.
"They don't lie, Lewis the Coolest! When they say they're interested in learning more of the awe inspiring things you have here, they mean it! Just like they want to spread the name of this place" Phil added, agreeing with his daughters words.
Neither of them were the type to lie about something like that.
Billie fought back the laugh that was threatening to leave her when she heard the phrase "Lewis the Coolest". While Haley had full blown face palmed when she heard what her dad had said.
Lewis didn't seem to mind it much, and instead smiled slightly.
"Okay, um...how exactly are you going to tell people about this place? Because as nice as it sounds to have more customers, I feel like if you tell them in one of your concerts, it might bring too much attention. Making it hard to do my job. And if you couldn't tell already, this place can't exactly handle thousands of people coming here to buy from us" Lewis responded.
Billie hummed at this, realizing he had a good point. There was just no way he could handle the workload of that all by himself, as Haley looked like she had an idea.
"Why not make it a bit more special for the fans?"
"What do you mean?" Billie asked, glancing over to her girlfriend.
"We could do it like a lottery or something! We select a handful of people and bring them around the city, showing them the places that we got some of our ideas from. And even give them a mini shopping spree or something" Haley offered, as Phil couldn't help but pipe up.
"Even better idea, do make a wish. I'm sure you two have a few kids that have wishes to have a fun day with you" Phil said, as the two looked over at the man.
"Make a wish? H-Have we gotten anything like that yet?" Haley asked, eyes widening as she had never heard about them getting anything like that. But now that her father had brought it up, they surely should have gotten one by now.
"I...do not know. I'll have to make some calls about that. But I think we'll be going with that for obvious reasons" Billie responded, frowning as she brought her phone out and made a note on there to make some calls later on in the day.
She'd need to talk with the people behind the Make A Wish stuff, but she was pretty confident that she hadn't gotten contacted before. Which was probably a bad thing. Even if it did sound a little arrogant to think like that.
"But either way, if you do get too many customers, I can just put out a tweet about it or something. Trust me, you might be busy for the first week or two, but it'll die down dramatically after a while. And who knows, if you get enough revenue, you could even expand and open more stores or something" Billie said to the man who nodded slowly, understanding what she was saying.
It would make him a lot of money, even if it would likely not be the most enjoyable thing to deal with. It was especially going to be a problem because he had...well, like two employees besides himself in total.
"Now, how about you start showing us some ideas again?" Billie said, as the mans eyes widened and he began to happily explain more ideas without complaint.
After another hour or so, Billie had paid for the new books. Phil had tried to, but she stopped him before he could, and refused to let him pay for them.
While paying, she noticed the expression on Lewis's face. Like he wanted to ask something, but didn't want to be rude, causing her to chuckle.
"Yes, Lewis, I'll sign something for you" Billie said, as the man's face slowly warmed into a bright smile.
"Thank you so much!" Lewis exclaimed, as he brought out a rather well made portrait of her. She snorted when he brought out a sharpie, before letting her sign it.
This was the first thing she had ever signed. And moments later, Haley had signed her first thing ever as well, which was one of her albums, a special edition vinyl version of it at that. He wasn't as big of a fan of Haley as he was Billie, but he was still a pretty big one.
With the signing done with, Billie, Haley and Phil bid Lewis a farewell, and walked out of the shop. While Phil could only say one thing as they exited.
"...Hah! I told you that you two would like it!"
In response the two rolled their eyes, but could not keep the smiles from their faces, as inwardly...
They admitted that he was right.
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That's the end of the chapter!
Just some more OC shenanigans, and setting up a future chapter that Billie will be involved in.
I plan on having her interact with other celebrities beyond Ellen in the future, as she will also be going to award shows and stuff like that. And that is not even including Victorious which she will become a bit active in and will happen semi-frequently.
Anyways, have a good day!