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.
