North City, North City Family Grocer (EST. 1881)
June 1st, 1915, 2:04 PM
'Arguments'
The employees in the general store stood up a little straighter, and worked a little faster when two women in military uniforms walked in, accompanied by the ting of the bell placed just above the door.
Even though the uniforms communicated that these women were in positions of authority, their appearance and interactions with each other did not.
The taller of the two (by only a couple inches) was explaining something with great gusto, with hand motions to match. The shorter one appeared to be very close to nodding off where she stood, and sure enough, when her companion went off to look around the general store, the woman sat down on a bench and fell asleep.
Two children, one around the age of five, and the other around the age of eight, walked up behind the dozing woman. Her blond hair was splayed all around her, already coming out of its messy ponytail.
The younger girl poked the woman's head, and the children jumped back. When she didn't stir, the children turned their heads towards each other and grinned. They each grabbed a lock of golden hair, and began to work.
In the back of the store, Lance Corporal Breedlove was struggling to find a carton of milk. Well, it wasn't that she couldn't find it, she couldn't…. reach it.
"Curse these high ceilings!" She muttered. They had to be eight feet high, at least. Lance Corporal Breedlove was but a short, brunette ant to the tall shelves. Sergeant Abernathy wouldn't have had much luck either.
"Oh!" She said. That's it! I'll get Sergeant Abernathy to sit on my shoulders and reach it, simple enough.
"Sergeant?" She called. She walked over to the bench where she last left the Sergeant, and was surprised to find an empty one.
She shot a cursory glance at the window, while searching for the Sergeant. When her eyes met a pair of horrified blue-green ones on the other side, she froze.
And she began to laugh.
There the Sergeant sat, on a picnic table, just outside the store. Two little girls were stationed on either side of her, doing something with her hair. This 'something' was two braids on either side of her head, curled up to meet where they began, in a style that reminded Lance Corporal Breedlove of an old-fashioned milkmaid. The soft pink bows placed haphazardly all over made the entire girlish hairstyle just perfect, contrasting with the severity and formality of her military uniform.
"You sure have pretty hair, Miss Sergeant!" The older of the two said, with an accent characteristic of this area of Amestris. Sergeant Abernathy scowled impressively deeply.
Lance Corporal Breedlove made sure that the Sergeant never lived this down.