Whenever Adelaide Baker set her mind to something, it always happened. On this particular Thursday afternoon, that task was getting a piece of gum out of her hair.
"Just cut it off already," her brother laughed from across the room. She didn't respond, but sent a glare in his direction. The pink bubblegum stood out drastically in her blonde hair - which made her wonder why she hadn't noticed it until the very end of her shift at the diner.
In a better world, the kid who put the gum in her hair would have done it towards the bottom, where a trim wouldn't be noticeable. But in Adelaide's world, the gum was stuck near the top of a piece of hair framing her face. She'd had her infamous middle part and straight hair since she was a kid. Maybe it would be good for her to have a change?
Doubtful.
Her twenty minute attempt to dislodge the chunk had been a complete failure, so Adelaide begrudgingly reached for the kitchen scissors. She gathered all the pieces of hair tangled up in the gum, and placed the scissors just above the knot.
"Fuck it."
The lock of hair fell to the ground with a soft thump, with the gum keeping all the strands locked together. Adelaide shivered at the feeling of the ends of her hair brushing against her cheek. She copied the same movements on the other side of her face, despite it being free of any gum contamination. After more strands of hair fell to the ground, Adelaide was left with awkward bangs framing either side of her face.
"That's a nice look," Adelaide's brother mocked. He had moved from his spot on the couch, and now dug through the refrigerator for a snack. He motioned to the mirror on the wall across from the kitchen counter. Adelaide grimaced when she saw the uneven bangs she had cut, and was quick to cut a few more pieces to make them even. Definitely not her preferred haircut, but it would have to work.
"I have a group presentation tomorrow morning," Adelaide groaned as she cleaned up the pieces of hair scattering the floor. She brushed her new bangs behind her ears, frowning when she realized they weren't quite long enough to reach, "I'll be sure to wear a hat."
"You could always go for the shock factor and just shave it all off."
"Very helpful James," She rolled her eyes at her younger brother as he shoved a peanut butter and jelly sandwich in his mouth. He laughed her off as he headed towards his room.
"I've got homework - see you tomorrow?" James asked with a mouthful of peanut butter as he stood in the doorway of his room. Adelaide smiled at him and nodded enthusiastically.
"You know I'd never miss movie night!"
"Especially when it's your turn to pick. Can't wait to watch another boring, coming-of-age movie!" James mocked. She didn't even have to turn around to know it was accompanied with a dramatic eye roll.
"Just because it doesn't have fairies and witches and goblins doesn't mean it's boring," Adelaide argued, for what felt like the thousandth time. She finished cleaning up her hair and James' sandwich mess, making sure to lock the apartment door before leaving their kitchen.
"Yeah, whatever. I'll see you tomorrow Adela, love you!" James called, pushing his bedroom door closed before Adelaide could respond. She waved goodbye to the closed door, muttering that she loved him too.
The only other room in the apartment was down the hallway, and it was the only one with an attached bathroom. When they moved in over the summer, James and Adelaide had an epic fight about who should get the room. Adelaide argued it should be her, since she was older, and because she paid most of the rent. James countered, saying he deserved the room since it was his baseball scholarship paying for the other part of rent. In the end, Adelaide won the fight. Just like she always did.
Once Adelaide was safe in her bedroom, she flipped the stereo on that was sitting on top of her dresser and turned it up. Even though they lived in an apartment complex full of other college students, she found it far too quiet. She preferred to have music on to drown out her thoughts.
After a shift at the diner, Adelaide could sit in the shower for an hour trying to scrub all the food and smells off of her. Unfortunately, she still had some studying to do before her midterm, and it was already almost midnight. So instead, she kept her shower short and cold - mentally convincing herself the cold water would help wake her up.
Her presentation topic suddenly felt very boring, and that made it very hard to focus on reviewing their slides. Adelaide would read one sentence about the net profit of their case company, and five minutes later find herself falling asleep into her hand. Eventually, when it was close to two in the morning, she dozed off with her head on her laptop keyboard.
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The next morning, before it had even reached noon, Adelaide had slept through all of her alarms, only to be abruptly awoken by James who was rushing her out the door for a ride to class. She spilled coffee in her backpack, ruining some of her expensive textbooks. She was five minutes late to her presentation, which she did terrible on. And to top it all off, she found a parking ticket on her car when she went to leave campus. Boston University took parking violations way too seriously.
By the time Adelaide had arrived at her internship in downtown, she was sure her day could not get any worse. She was determined to spend the next four hours with her head down, avoiding any possible incidents. She didn't expect it to be that hard; most of her time spent in the office was doing busy work and blending into the background. The majority of the staff in the accounting department couldn't even remember her name.
Adelaide liked it that way. When she blended in, people asked less questions. They didn't feel the need to make small talk or pry into her personal life. They gave her tasks, asked for coffee, smiled politely, and turned back to their work. She got to observe life in an accounting firm, and spend every day convincing herself that it was the perfect job for her. Was it incredibly boring and draining? Sure. Did it pay well and offer much more opportunity for her and James? Definitely.
"Adelaide!"
She jumped at the loud mention of her name as soon as she stepped onto the floor. Her supervisor yelled across the field of cubicles, waving for her to help him in his office. She threw her stuff onto her desk, and hurried into his office.
"Yes?" Adelaide flashed a polite smile and did her best to subtly fix her crooked skirt and wrinkled button up. Her supervisor sunk into his rolling chair that was a few years past needing a replacement. She heard it creak under his weight, and imagined the day it would finally give out and break underneath him. She forced herself not to laugh at that mental image.
"We just brought on a new CPA, so I need you to get her set up. She's a little on the older side, so you'll need to walk her through the computer software and make sure she knows how to use it. If I see missing entries next week I'll know who to come to..." He continued to explain some of the details of the onboarding she would be doing, but Adelaide wasn't fully listening. She was focusing on the name plate at the front of his desk.
Bill Smith.
It suited him.
"...and don't forget to take her up to HR and get the paperwork finished up. Got it?" Bill finished explaining her task for the day, slapping a file down on his desk and looking at up her expectantly. Adelaide quickly nodded, flashing another smile as she snagged the file.
"Got it. I'll get started right away!" She feigned enthusiasm for the task, and Bill waved her out of his office. At least if she was going to be onboarding the new CPA, she wouldn't be spending the evening in Bill's office sorting his massive collection of paper files.
"Are you Corrine?" Adelaide asked hesitantly to the woman sitting outside of Bill's office. She looked a little older, as Bill had so politely pointed out. Her hair was shoulder length and thinning, and the dark strands were peppered with streaks of grey. When the woman stood up to greet her, Adelaide was surprised by her beaming smile, and how bright and youthful it made her face look.
"Yes! You can call me Cora, dear." The woman shook her hand enthusiastically. Adeline smiled at her, but this time it was genuine. Cora had an energy that almost made Adeline excited to help her get set up. Almost.
"It's nice to meet you! I'm Adelaide, and I'm interning here this semester. I'm going to be helping Bill with your onboarding. First up, let's get you a desk."
Adelaide and Cora spent the entirety of the next four hours working through paperwork, answering questions, setting up the computer, and going through their systems. Onboarding usually took Adelaide two hours, but Cora did not seem to be in any rush. She asked countless questions, and took her time reading every form. By the end of the day, Adelaide was ready to get home for movie night.
"...but do you think this section is asking for my address, or the company address? Because I'm not too sure what they're asking for here, I mean these questions are very vague. And I don't want to give my address out to just anybody." Cora rambled as they worked on the final forms of the day. Adelaide glanced at the form and read the box in question labeled "Company Address".
"You know what, why don't I just finish these up for you? It's already past five, I'm sure you need to get home." Adelaide offered. She knew she would spend another thirty minutes here with Cora if she didn't interrupt.
"Are you sure? That's very sweet of you," Cora smiled as she gathered her belongings in her tote bag, "Well I guess I'll see you on Monday then! Thank you for all your help. It was so great to finally meet you!"
Before she could respond, Cora had slipped out of the cubicle and was gone. Adelaide would've questioned why she said "finally", but she was too tired to focus on it. She sat down in the desk chair, set on finishing the form and getting out of there before traffic got too bad.
As she pulled the chair into the desk, she rolled over something hard on the ground. Adelaide was surprised to find an old key sitting next to her foot. She knew it didn't belong to the office, because they used only keycards or digital number pads for all entries. She flipped it over and noticed a large, elaborate "E" inscribed in the golden metal, surrounding by rust and discoloration. She figured Cora must have dropped it from her bag. The tote must have been older than Adelaide, so she wasn't surprised that an old rusty key came out of it.
She grabbed it from the ground, quickly shoving it into her pocket. She would just bring it to Cora on Monday. For now, she needed to get this form done and head home. Movie night started at six o'clock on the dot, and if she was late again, James was definitely going to make them watch a horror movie.