Christmas Extravaganza.

A strange strange night. All Eli remembered was flames. Huge, towering, blazing flames. And then, she remembered that something dear to her crumbled down in front of her eyes. She saw these flames burst into balls of fire, and they suddenly turned straight towards her.

Eli woke up as the fireballs hit her in the face. They vanished into the air as she got up to go wash her face. When she went into the bathroom she saw a disheveled, leaf covered, girl. Eli touched her hair to pick out pieces of old crunchy leaves. She really needed to start watching where she was falling asleep.

As Eli put on her clothes, the events of the past day played back in her head. The first thing she would have to do, was go see the remnants of the Forever 21 building. And also call her boss.

Eli began to cough as soon as she entered Heaven Street. The whole place was covered with the ashes of the burnt Forever 21 building. As she got closer to the building, she saw the bright yellow caution tapes covering the surrounding area.

Eli turned around and made sure no one was looking and went into the remaining parts of the building. She knew this was illegal, but Eli really needed to see if there was anything, anything at all that could be saved from the fire.

The first floor was completely burnt. There was nothing at all to save. Even the fashion posters on the walls were pitch black. All the beautiful sequin and lace covered clothing were ripped and
missing burnt bits and pieces. Eli was about to walk back out when she remembered that there was a second floor. Where Petra, the manager lived.

Not being able to stop her curiosity, Eli went up to the second floor and opened the door to Petra’s home. There were definitely signs of the fire, but many places in the home were untouched. As Eli toured the house, she found out that Petra had been a shopoholic. A really really big shopaholic. There were flashy shopping bags strewn all over the house. Clothes still with tags on them were in her closet.

As Eli touched the fabric of a delicate cream chiffon dress, she realized that Petra probably left all of these things in a hurry for a reason. This was not a safe place to be. Eli hastily dumped most of Petra’s closet into five enormous Forever 21 bags and went down the stairs to leave. Maybe it was the weight of all the clothes, or maybe it was the pressure of Eli’s feet on the half-burnt stairs; the building started to shake.

It must have been a 30 second run out into the street, yet it felt like an hour-long nightmare. Eli took off her 5-inch heels and threw them in one of the bags and started bolting to the door as the building threatened to engulf her. Just as Eli tumbled out the door, the second story collapsed into the bottom floor.

Why was she getting into such dangerous situations?

Eli made sure that no one saw what she had done and she rushed home to take a shower to cleanse her body of the ashes now covering her ENTIRE body.

Why take the clothes? Eli wasn’t stealing. No, she wanted to give Petra a well-deserved Christmas present, the lady just had her house burned down for crying out loud! Eli chuckled to herself as she realized she was also covered in ashes, just like a real Santa would be, coming down the chimney. But Petra would have to wait.

Maybe in a day or so Eli will take them to her. But not now.... now, Eli needed to rest.

The Bumpy Ride

Bump. Bump. Bump. BUMP.

Eli woke up dazed and very groggy. And very bumpy...!?!?

She opened her eyes to see trees and then shops flashing by and bobbing up and down in a strange fashion. Her head was violently bobbing as well. She then felt the cool metal touching her legs and arms. She appeared to be in a shopping cart of some sort. That's when she looked up and saw a tomato-red asian man panting as he pushed the cart, and her, down the unevenly-paved street. Realizing the situation she was in, it was about time that Eli screamed.

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

"HUH?AHHHHHHHHHH!" screamed the man in response to Eli's screeching.

"Where are you taking me?"

"Look, I-uh- I'm not a bad person- I saw you sleeping- I mean, I found you all alone- What I mean to say is that I remember you from before. "

That was all Eli needed to hear to be completely creeped out. She tried to get out of the cart, but realized too late that her sense of balance was off from sitting in the cramped space for so long. Her movements and the crazy speed the cart was going at made the man lose grasp of the cart and sent Eli full speed down the road.

The inevitable was about to happen when something, or somebody cushioned her fall. Her cushion groaned as he pushed Eli off of him. No way. It couldn't be. But it was. The asian man was warily getting off the wet ground as it had started pouring.

"Mister, are you okay?"

"Does it look like I'm okay? All I was trying to say was that I remember you as the girl from Forever 21 who let me borrow this cart and that I found you in the woods when I was on my way returning from my mail delivery. I didn't want to leave you there, so I was bringing you back to the store. I'm not a pervert or a crazy person. I'm really not."

" I'm sorry, I didn't know you were helping me that much. And thank you for saving me again, you know, from falling, even though it was your fault for letting go of the cart."

"Your welcome, I guess" he said as Eli helped him to his feet. They both walked the rest of the way with the cart to the Forever 21 building. Eli had been side-stepping a puddle, so Renshu (they had introduced themselves at this point) was first to notice the ablaze building.

"Eli, Look!" he said running towards the fire. Eli couldn't close her mouth for the disbelief of what was happening. Her future project, job, and everything was burning up right in front of her eyes. The building was completely covered in ashes and was on the verge of crumbling down. Eli composed herself and called 911 and they came shortly after the call.

The fire department tried to overpower the growing fire, and Eli paced outside the over-lit building. While she was pacing, she looked up to see a man come out of the theater to look at the burning Forever 21. But instead of looking concerned or shocked, she saw the man burst out laughing and saying "Someone probably doused the whole thing in gas and set it off. Too bad I didn't think of that". 


Oh how she wished he did think of it, so she could send him to jail. How inconsiderate! People thought the store was for lame girls but this store meant so much more, even if it was a pain at times. What was she going to do about her job? They were going to kill her!

By the time Eli calmed down and stopped glaring at the man who went back into the theater, she realized that Renshu was nowhere to be seen. "Oh well," she thought. "I'm sure I'll see him again, and hopefully this time, he'll have some better news to tell me about."

Eli left the depressing scene with a flyer of a white teenage girl in hand- not knowing who this girl was- and went back to her crappy apartment building.

Not the Best Day for an Adventure...

Eli woke up from what seemed like a long, deep, peaceful sleep.

Wait. What time was it? She reached over for her iPhone and pressed the home button.

It was 11:20!! Oh no, she was already late to work. This was not the impression she wanted to make on the manager. Eli rushed out of her bed and into the bathroom. With no time to shower or put makeup on, she washed her face and quickly brushed her teeth. Still, the one thing she could never do was leave the house without a decent outfit on; all the fashion schooling just wouldn't let her. After picking the outfit of the day, she looked longingly at her refrigerator. No, she told herself, there's no time!

Eli ignored her grumbling stomach as she sped out the door to only ram her head into the barely-opened elevator. As she recovered from the collision, she looked up at the completely empty elevator with a sigh of relief. Well, at least no one saw that.

What seemed to be a sign for a better day turned into an omen for disaster.

Eli's first experience with weather below sixty degrees was met with only a mid-thigh length blue dress and an almost-sheer grey cardigan. Not the best weapon against the non-too-friendly weather. Just another reason why she should have never left California. And, there was no time to go back up to change, she was already a couple hours late! As Eli walked up to what she thought was Heaven st., she saw a huge bus blocking her quick entrance into the road. Oh no, this is just great, more problems, could it get worse?

Yes it could. Eli tried to go around the bus and all the angry passengers, but it was no use. She would either have to jaywalk towards the theatre, or go all the way around to Willow Ln. and go through the back of Forever 21. With so many eyes and a tense atmosphere from the growing group, Eli thought it would be wise not to break any laws. By now, all she cared about was making it somehow, and at some point during the day, to the store.

With the map-thank God for this drawing- in hand, Ei started to walk towards the end of Poplar street. Right then, a chilling breeze blew past her, causing her to flinch and losen her grasp on the paper. And just like that, her one guide through this crazy town disappeared. Wait, that can NOT happen. Eli ran after the map which had floated back up the street. She chased after the drawing and was just about to grab ahold of it, when it dropped into a manhole. REALLY? a manhole? And why was this thing opened? There wasn't even construction going around!

Eli was interrupted from her angry thoughts by a loud 'RING RING RING.' She felt around in her bag until she found and answered her phone. It was her boss. She tried to breathe deeply and calmly as she listened to the man degrade her troubles as an "experience" and to just "follow up on orders," whatever that meant. But when he asked her about her homely accommodations, Eli flipped.

After basically telling her boss to shut up and leave her alone, Eli looked up to see a doe-eyed teenager looking at her. With an already burnt fuse, she wasn't sure how this conversation would go and tried to weasel her way out of it. But the girl was persistent about getting a job at Forever 21, and Eli just couldn't deny her a chance to prove herself.

They walked into a nearby restaurant called Casa d' Waffles. Eli tried not to scarf down her food as she conversed with Brooke, the young girl that she surprisingly had a lot in common with. She was starting to think that working with an enthusiastic staff might help create a new and improved environment for the store.

She said her goodbyes to Brooke and walked back down Poplar. The commotion hadn't lifted, in fact, it had gotten worse and there was more traffic than before. Eli decided to try to figure out the back route to the store and made a left turn at the end of the street. She walked for what seemed like 20 minutes before she realized that she had stopped seeing any shops or buildings. Where was she?

Trying not to panic, Eli continued to walk until she saw an enclosed area that was surrounded by bulky trees. This seemed to be a park of some sorts because Eli found a faded trail hidden underneath the dead red and orange leaves.

She plopped herself down on the ground and tried not to cry. Why was God not helping her life here go smoothly? Why was he allowing her to go through all these ridiculous trials?

"I'm sure someone will jog by on their... afternoon run...." Eli told herself.

She waited for an hour, two hours, three, before she finally gave up and fell asleep in a pile of leaves.

How Will I Survive?

There was a quiet, eerie silence after the loud knock for a few seconds. Then, she heard feet shuffling as the door creaked opened. Eli looked up to see a substantially taller and leaner woman staring down at her with curious eyes.

"Who are you?"

"Uhh... ahem, Hello, my name is Eliana Rosenthal, Assistant Apparel Designer at Forever 21. I came here to start our new project... have you not heard about this?"

The Lady just stared at her as her eyes grew so big, they were basically covering half her face. Oh no, this was not looking good.

The next few minutes were torture as the manager and Eli tried to figure out what was going on. There had been no communication between the manager and the main shop. This left Eli cursing her boss and anyone else who had told her it would be such a great innovation to come here. So much for innovation. Not only was this town rundown and shabby, the store here didn't even know she was coming! But she decided it wasn't fair to take her anger out on this frazzled woman.

"Hey, how about I explore this town a little and go rest, and I'll get back to you tomorrow. You can try to figure out things with XXI. Don't stress too much about it, it's not like we're on a time frame."

The manager sighed from relief after Eli let her go down to the store to start working. As Eli saw her walk down, she felt bad that this situation, crazy enough, had just jumped on the poor girl. At least Eli had known about it beforehand. Oh well, she might as well see everything this town has to offer before thinking of bailing. She took out her phone to quickly email her boss a furious accusation about the current situation and then turned her phone off. She never turned her phone off. It felt... liberating! She was going to have to do this more and just take the consequences.

Eli walked out of the XXI building and surveyed her surroundings. There didn't seem to be much on this side of the town. And she didn't know where to go, now that her iPhone was off. Yet, she was determined to keep it off, so she decided to ask someone for directions. As she passed by the post office, she saw a man walking slowly her way. Eli asked him for directions to a restaurant, and instead of just telling her, he made her wait till her drew up a whole map of the town. The man left without another word and all she could do was yell "Thank you!" to the back of his head.

She continued to walk until she ended up by a clinic. She looked back at the map. Hmmn, she seemed to be on the main road. If she continued to walk passed the manhole, she would reach a few restaurants. She was about to continue walking when she heard a reminiscent tune filling the air.

" Somewhere over the rainbow~

Way up high~,"

Eli looked around to see where this song was coming from. She looked down next to the clinic door and saw a blob of something on the ground. It seemed almost like a pile of trash when all of a sudden it moved. As it moved, it banged its foot against a tarnished copper bowl. Next to the bowl was a small cd player still belting the sweet dreams of Dorothy. By now, Eli realized that the blob was actually a person, more visibly in the shape of a street beggar. Eli couldn't help but look at the poor soul and feel pity for him. Although both of them were away from their home, she still was in a better situation than him. Looking at him sitting stoically on the ground gave her strength and the will to find a way to make her problems right.

Eli opened up her purse to see if she had any dollar bills to drop in his bowl. But just as if to test her humanitarian nature, she only found twenty dollar bills and 10 cents. The change was definitely too small of an amount to give; it would seem as if she was mocking him. Breathing in deeply, Eli calmly took out a twenty and delicately dropped it in his bowl. She hoped that the man would use the money for food and not drugs. As she was about to walk away to finally feed her own growling stomach, the beggar yelled,

"What will come will come. Even if I shroud it all in silence."

She paused as she looked at him for a minute. The man had turned away and had gone back to daydreaming. She had no idea why he had said that to her or what it meant. But it seemed to fit in perfectly with what was happening to her. Maybe this was fate. Maybe fate was what brought her to this town through such a ridiculous proposition. The more Eli thought about it, the more it made sense. There must be a reason why fate brought her here.

She walked into Casa de waffles for a late breakfast. As she sat down and dug into her chocolate chip waffles, she continued to think about how she would accomplish the project her boss wanted her to do. But for some reason, her thoughts returned to what the beggar had yelled at her. Eli decided to take his advice. She stopped worrying about the project. What will come will come, so she might as well focus on her waffles and have a good time savoring the flavor.

After a cup of coffee, Eli walked back to Castle Apartments into her new home away from home. She was definitely going to have to buy some major decorative furniture to make this room fit for her to live in. She closed the door of #1008 and plopped down on her bed. Maybe she could have a fresh beginning in this town. No more sucking up to phony bosses. And with that comforting thought, Eli fell into a deep sleep.

The Sudden Move

The day started with Eliana impatiently waiting for her flight to take off from her dearly beloved city of Angels. She still could not believe that this was happening. It had happened so fast. One second she was the pampered fashion designer at Forever 21 headquarters and the next, she was sent off to "supervise" and help "enhance" a small failing branch in an unknown, probably run-down city. All because she had opened her stupid mouth and volunteered for this "eccentric new project." Oh well. At least she was getting a bonus, not to mention all living expenses paid for and a possible raise depending on how well this project went.

Eli looked out the window of the plane as it lifted off and L.A became a tiny speck in the distance. Not knowing what to expect, she had packed everything she thought she would ever need, including the unbearably ugly knitt sweaters her sweet but unfashionable grandma sent her every christmas. Unconsciously, she combed her bangs in place with her fingers and checked other aspects of her perfectly coordinated outfit. Nothing less for a top designer, even for a plane ride.

Eli continued to sift through her pros and cons for the new lifestyle she would have to live for the next- who knew how many months?- as she felt the bump bump bump of the slight turbulence before a landing. she got off the plane, and she couldn't help but feel a little jittery. Soon, she would reach the place that would be her first home away from home since, well since forever!

However, as the bus that picked her up from the airport drove continually past the fancy buildings and luxurious looking restaurants, Eli started to get worried. Where exactly was she heading to? Was it really as abandoned as her colleagues warned her it would be? She jolted around in the bus until it finally stopped with a loud screech and she hastily got off with all her belongings.

As soon as she got off, she was enveloped by a humid and unbearable heat that she had never felt before. And what was this smell? It was like a mix of toxic gases and body fluids. Blech, she didn't even want to think about it. This was going to be harder than she thought.

She hurriedly took out her iphone and reread the email sent by her boss about her future housing location. Thank God for her iphone. She used the map app and went straight ahead, then took a left and saw the shabby looking apartment with faded letters that read: Castle Apartments. Great, how would she ever adjust to such humble living standards? Still, she grudgingly trudged up the street, through the doors, up to the 10th floor, and finally inside the door of her new home. She quickly looked around and sighed a breath of relief. Inside, the room wasn't half as bad as she had expected.

Suddenly, she remembered that she had to meet the manager of the store at around 8:15ish to introduce herself before the other employees came in. She looked at her phone, and it read 7:40. So early, and already it had been a long day. Eli decided that she would explore Castle Apartments a little later and ran out of the apartment with only a cute heart-shaped purse in tow. Unfortunately, It was too hot for a scarf, which she usually would need for the breezy california weather. Running faster than she expected, Eli reached the store in 5 minutes. She looked around and found out that the bus stop had been but 10 steps away from the store. It would have saved her the trouble and excess sweating, but there was nothing she could do now.

She tried to open the store door but found it locked. Well good thing she had gotten the key her boss had given her. She rummaged through her bag, found the key, and swiftly opened the door. Remembering in the email that her boss had said that the manager lived on the top part of the building, Eli climbed the stairs located near the back of the store until she reached a metal door. Seeing how it was only 10 or so minutes until the manager would have to come down anyway, she figured he or she wouldn't mind her slight intrusion. Hoping that her boss had in fact informed this stranger of her coming, she composed her self and wiped off any remaining sweat from her face from the running excursion. Eli quickly knocked on the door, cleared her throat, and stood up a little straighter. 

If things didn't get better starting now, she would have to reconsider this whole situation-bonus or no bonus.