A dark-haired woman is hunched over her tablet, aggressively swiping through the pages of writing, her eyebrow twitches every now and then in frustration; muttering to herself on why her manager would send more documents to sign at ten at night with the instructions to sign them all before she gets into work in the morning at seven. She knows her manager can be a bit of a slave-driver, but honestly, these are documents that she could have done herself.
'Right, she's allowed a life out of work, but me, my life is work.' she stressed to herself, pulling at her messy bun. ' I just need to get this done, and then I'm on holiday after tomorrow. I won't have to see or hear from her for two weeks ' suddenly she hears the blaring of her phone ring, quickly reaching over for it, she sees the name flashing, Rachel, 'speak of the devil, and she shall appear.' "Hello?"
"Did you get the documents I emailed to you?" The high, nasally voice rang through the dark-haired woman's ears making her cringe back from the phone with a sigh of exasperation.
"Yes, Rachel. I'm already working on them now; I only have a few more left."
"Good, good. I would have done it myself, but you know I have this hot date tonight." The dark-haired woman did know she had a date tonight; Rachel had been pining for this girl for nearly over a year and finally got the courage from her coworkers to ask her out last week. The dark-haired woman, honestly, thought it was one of the cutest moments she had ever witnessed.
"Shouldn't you be on that date now?" the dark-haired woman inquired, looking at her phone's clock, "It's half eleven?"
"I am! We are still at the restaurant now, about to order desserts; I just ran to the loo to ring you 'cause my manager sent those documents to me just as I left. So I had to wait till we got to the restaurant and sneak away to send them to you. I'm not going to be rude and work in front of my date." Rachel argued.
The dark-haired woman understood why there was such urgency to get the work done instead of arguing that she could have done it or at least given a longer deadline. The Big Boss, Mr Cameron, was a bigot and didn't want women working for him, thinking that this job was a man's job; the job in question was marketing and managing new and upcoming talent. Mr Cameron had found out that the more the world evolved and accepted people, the less likely it was that he could just have male employees. The new client's parents coming in with their daughters wanted female managers and a female marketing team; Saying how they didn't want their daughters sexualised and how they objected to 'male gaze' camera work. That's why Mr Cameron had hired Rachel, and she had been given freedom to form her team. Rachel and her team had worked their way up in the last five years to be the head marketing team for female clients, beating Mr Cameron's own marketing team, and Mr Cameron hated them because of this. Even some of Mr Cameron's male clients now want to transfer over to Rachel's team, so he now tries anything to discredit them.
"You know how he is. He'll try absolutely everything to try and ruin us." Rachel carried on.
"I know I've got this. You go on and get back to your date; I'll see you in the morning." the woman urged her friend.
"Thank you, Eliana. I'm sorry I have shoved all this workload on you so suddenly again; I will pay you extra for all this work." 'She says that every time, but I've never seen a penny.' Rachel thought. "I'll see you in the morning." Eliana said, taking the phone away from her ear "Oh, wait!" The high nasally voice calls out, "-you might want to set off to work early tomorrow. My phone keeps going crazy on the notifications saying that there is some bad weather heading on its way here." she announced, then hung up straight after. 'Rude...' Eliana thought.
Thunderstorms! Eliana had always had a strange connection to thunderstorms; being found as a newborn on her town church's steps during a storm is what probably started it off. She had always felt safe and protected by them, also being in the sun made her feel as though she was being hugged and kissed by her loved ones; surrounding her with praises and love.
With a sigh, she chucked her phone to the side, pulling out her green scrunchie, she massaged her head tenderly, trying to push the strain away. It's not that she hated her manager, funnily enough, she was one of her best friends, but work-Rachel and friend Rachel were two different beings.
Work-Rachel is: demanding, hard on time-management and organisations, expects you to be your best and look your best, but most of all she demands that you remember the job is working with children so smile and explain everything clearly to them. Eliana entirely agrees with all of this, but Rachel couldn't handle Mr Cameron breathing down her back, wanting her to mess up. That's where Eliana steps in as her second in charge; Eliana's signature has the same recognition as Rachel's, so when Mr Cameron dumps hundreds of documents on them, they can share it out and get it all done on time on top of their own work. Well, that's how they should do it, but it always ends up with Eliana doing it all whilst Rachel just does her regular role. 'My job title should just say I'm her personal assistant.'
But Rachel, the friend, was the best. She had been Eliana's friend since she was eight. Life was difficult for Eliana back then as she was the adopted daughter to two kind parents. The children in the community didn't understand Eliana though. They thought it was strange that her parents weren't her true parents, this coupled with her unusual appearance (her eyes were a bright fiery ember) made the children in the community afraid of her and she was often ignored by themRachel however did not judge Eliana like the other children and the two became close friends.
Rachel was a couple of years older than Eliana , and even in her young age had already grown a soft spot for children, she took Eliana right under her wing. Eliana could recall Rachel's first sentence to her, "Wow! Your eyes are so cool. They look like lava... Well, more like hot molten rock, but still, I've never seen orange eyes before?" and with that, it secured their friendship. An outspoken blue-eyed, light-haired girl made friends with the shy, insecure, dark-haired amber-eyed child.
Rachel is still the same in her older age, outspoken, confident and optimistic, the average happy-go-lucky girl, just with more partying, but the one thing she did for Eliana was build her up to be a strong independent woman who is confident in herself and her body. She bloomed under her guidance.
***
The shrill noise of an alarm echoed off the bedroom walls. The bundle under the covers curled up tighter with a groan of annoyance. "It's too early", Eliana thought 'I don't think I got to sleep till two and I had the alarm set for half five.' Eliana slowly poked her head out from underneath the covers with a small sigh. Turning to look out the window, she saw the dark grey sky, but it was only lightly raining at the moment. Maybe it wasn't going to be as bad as they once thought. Finally, getting the strength to swing her legs out of bed, she pushed herself up and made her way to the chair with her outfit already set out from the night before. Double-checking it was all prepared, she made her way to her bathroom for her morning routine.
Ten minutes later, she finally emerged from the steaming bathroom wrapped up in a dark green towel 'fifty minutes before I need to set off; I can do this.' dropping her towel, she stepped forward and started to get dressed.
' I do love this outfit.' She admired herself in the mirror as she finished off her attire with a bright red lipstick; A green tartan suit with a high black ruffled neck blouse with a thin green ribbon tie, and her high pointed black court shoes. Her dark hair fell around her back in its natural soft curls, with the top half plaited in a dutch plait forming a halo around her head. She had her wispy fringe framing the sides of her face that just made her eyes pop more against the dark colour. 'I look like a boss ass bitch, if I do say so myself.' and with that, she picked up her long black hooded coat, her black leather satchel with her spare bit of makeup and her tablet and picking her car keys from the bowl made her way out of the house.
***
The rain had gotten heavier in the last twenty minutes that Eliana had been driving; her wind wipers didn't stop moving, trying their best to keep a clear screen to look out of. The cars around her were driving slowly and carefully, making sure they're not the cause of an accident. She didn't have long to go now. All she needed was to turn right at these lights, and she'd be heading into the car park of her work. Looking over at the pavement, she saw the bus finally open its doors at its standstill position and saw a familiar head of mousey brown hair. Opening her window slightly, she papped her car horn and shouted out, "Amy!"
The young mousey brown-haired woman's head shot up at the sound of her name; looking around, she saw the dark green mini, and her eyes lit up in recognition. Quickly looking to her sides, she ran over to the car and smoothly got into the back. "Ana! Thank God, you arrived at the same time. I was not looking forward to walking in this rain for ten minutes." the soft-spoken voice exclaimed.
"It is lucky that I even noticed you get off the bus in this rain." Eliana's bell-like voice chimed in.
"Gosh, I didn't think this rain was going to get so heavy. I'm glad Rachel texted me now, saying to set off earlier than usual because of bad weather." The young woman said as she tried to pat off the water on her coat. "Did you get a text from her last night?"
"I got more than a text", she sighed. "Mr Cameron dumped more documents on her last night, but you know she had her first date last night with Rosa? So she sent me the documents to do at ten," She heard Amy suck in a harsh breath. "She rang me about half eleven, seeing if I got them, and mentioned how Mr Cameron dumped them on her just after she left for her date. She had to sneak away to send them as she didn't want to be seen working in front of Rosa, which I guess is insulting, especially on a first date." Finally turning right at the lights, they headed down the long road to the car park. "She ended the call with the weather forecast saying her phone had been pinging like crazy with all the notifications."
"Wow... It sounds like you had one hectic night!" The amber eyes quickly looked back at her in the rearview mirror with a snort. 'She could say that again.' Eliana had always liked Amy since the first time they met in Rachel's new marketing team. Amy was probably one of the kindest and purest humans she had ever known; it wasn't a surprise why the young children always stuck to her like glue. She made working feel like a game, not just for the children but the team too. "I heard from the men's team that Mr Cameron could be forced into early retirement?" but she was also the biggest gossip.
"Oh?" Show a tiny bit of interest, and you get everything in return with Amy.
"Yeah! They said Mr Cameron came into their room the other day 'effing and jeffing' from his head-board meeting." This confused Eliana because if there was a meeting, shouldn't the other team managers have been at it? "The board called him in for the conference, the clients have been complaining about his conduct. He's been a bit pushy to our young female talent." Mr Cameron can be a bit inappropriate with what he says to the female staff, but he's never been pushy with them. "It seems he believes that the young talent would be too scared to say anything, but actually, they said something to their parents straight away." There's that generation change that's been biting him on his backside.
"I guess his hate for change has finally hit back at him."
"Totally! And guess what?"
"What?"
"Rachel could be one of the top contenders for the position!" This really did make Eliana turn around in her seat to look at Amy's beaming face.
"You're shitting me?"
"So, vulgar! Are you sure the church raised you? But nope! I am not kidding." Amy's Cheshire grin could tell her that she was having way to much fun with this and could barely contain herself for the chaos she was about to bring to the team's room.
" Okay, don't tell me anymore. I want to hear it all with the girls."
"Okie Dokie, Artichockie!"
***
The office room was cheerful and animated when the two arrived. It seemed everyone had got the message about the weather and had come early to beat the rain. Looking around, Eliana noticed that only one person was missing, and that was Rachel. Making her way over to the table, giving her greetings to the other girls, she noticed the doe eye girl making her way over. "Annie! You need to go and run to the conference room. Rachel is already there. There's meant to be this big meeting at ten past seven!" Looking up at the wall clock, Eliana saw that it was five past seven. "Take your stuff, Rachel did, you don't know how long it will be."
"Thanks, Fatima!" She called out quickly, running out of the room. As she got out, she could hear Fatima shouting after her just to call her Tammy because she hates her name. The other girls just laughed and said it was never going to happen; Eliana always called people by their proper names.
Quickly, making her way into the room, she silently made her way over to the tall light-haired woman. "Do you know what this is about?" She whispered out the side of her mouth.
"Not a clue", Rachel huffed out "a tannoy went off at ten to seven about it. Most of the staff still weren't in the building by then because of the rain. To say, none of us start till seven." Eliana looked up slightly at Rachel, noticing her face was ticking with a bit in irritation. She also caught sight of her nose, a slight tilt to the side. She could already feel the tiny bit of guilt eating her up inside. Jab! A boney elbow suddenly poked her in the side. "Stop it. It's already been ten years, and it was an accident!" The sharp, nasally voice hissed at her.
Rachel didn't always have a nasally voice. It happened during one of their high school's netball torments. Eliana caught the ball when she saw this massive brute of a girl charging straight at her. She panicked and threw the ball away. The problem was, Rachel wasn't prepared for a ball to come flying at her face.
"Sorry!" Another jab in the side.
"Sorry for calling you all here so suddenly this morning." A man in a bright blue suit announced. "We would like to tell you all that after your first week back at work, from the Easter holidays, that Mr Cameron is retiring from the company." The murmuring grew louder across the room. "But furthermore, we already have a few candidates picked out to take over Mr Cameron's job." Rachel's hand quickly grabbed hold of Eliana's. "Miss Summers and Mr Fairbank. Could you please stay behind with your seconds? The rest of you are free to go."
The hand holding Eliana was becoming unbearably tight. But she didn't care. She was holding back just as tight. They watched the room empty, baring the five head-board seats and Mr Fairbank with his second.
"Now that everyone has left, why don't we all sit down and talk." Oddly enough, out of the head-board members, only the man in the blue suit sat. The two friends sat across from the two men facing their heads down the table at the Man. " I am Mr Cameron Jr. Mr Cameron is my father. I don't want to be president of the company; I enjoy being on the board rather than taking over my fathers work. The behind-the-scenes work is more my thing than being the face of the company," he chuckled, his voice was low and soothing. "So that's why I'll be hiring a president and vice-president to run things while I'm away"
Both pairs, Eliana and Rachel, and the two men, Mr Fairbank and his co-worker, were nodding along. Rachel dreamed of having Eliana always by her side. She was her best friend, her work spouse. But Rachel knew that this amber-eyed woman was meant for more in life. All she could do was hold on tight now until she no longer could, and then she would have to let her friend fly free.
"But first, Mr Fairbank, could you please bring out the documents that I sent out last night?" The pair looked as though they didn't have a clue on what was going on. Whilst Eliana efficiently got out her tablet and loaded them up. She had received a sneaky low high-five from Rachel under the table. Mr Fairbank turned to frown at his associate. "Is there a problem, gentleman? I know I sent it quite late last night, but it was sent to you through your emergency email that we use for this reason." a light bulb suddenly went off for both women.
"I... I'm sorry, sir, I didn't check my emails last night..." Mr Fairbank stammered.
"Well, it's morning now. Have you at least had a look at the documents?" Mr Cameron Jr. sat up straighter, his face still frowning at the men. "The ladies have got everything sorted and ready. They show no confused expressions about what is going on. So why are you two acting like this is such a surprise?"
"If I may, sir?" Mr Fairbank's second raised his hand. "Mr Cameron usually lets us have until the end of the day to do it" 'Well, he's just dug himself a hole.' Mr Cameron Jr. thought slowly clasping his hands together, raising his dark bushy eyebrow at them.
"And you just automatically thought it was my father in charge and did what you usually do. So you did notice the email. You just chose to ignore it till a more convenient time for you?" Both men swallowed deeply. "But if that was so? Why have the ladies got everything ready?" he questioned the two men? Turning his head to the girls, he tilted his head slightly to the side, asking for one of them to answer.
"We always automatically do the work from Mr Cameron first." Rachel said.
"Why?"
"Mr Cameron has had it out for my team since the moment we started up. He shoves his paperwork on us in tight spots hoping to trip us up. It's mostly all Miss Abbott that does the work he sends, allowing me to focus on the team and our projects. But Miss Abbott still contributes quite a bit to the projects. She's the one that finishes and perfects the final piece." Eliana looked touched by these words; she thought she just kept getting the short end of the stick. But to know that Rachel does appreciate it makes her feel a little bit better, but she would still prefer not to do it.
"You sound as though you are trying to promote Miss Abbott for your position?"
"I wouldn't be where I am today if I didn't have Miss Abbott by my side. She pushes me to work harder and better but still be a kind person to all of our team. So yes, if it's possible, I would push Miss Abbott in front, and I would be her second." Rachel was sure of this.
The older man's face bloomed into a giant smile along with the four people behind him. "Good! Because both of you are going to be the joint boss!" he announced to the shell-shocked girls. The two men started sputtering and shouting out at the man. Mr Cameron Jr. Turned to look at them. "You two are only here because you are who my father favoured to take over, so we had to have a look at you at least, but you couldn't even be bothered to look at some documents, and that was the easiest part!" the two men ducked their heads. "The board had already picked out these two young ladies months ago. The feedback we got from other staff and clients has always been excellent; even when they are busy, they help out other teams. Plus, we've been watching my father dump all his work on them, and they still get everything done and have never been late with a project. So yes, these two ladies. Miss Summer and Miss Abbott are going to be partners running this company. That is what the head-board decided."
***
The two girls walked back in silence to their teams office; neither knew what to say or how to react to this information. They are still shell-shocked.
"Hey..? Are you two okay?" Amy asked.
"Yeah, you two look really pale... We aren't in trouble, right!" the women in glasses spoke.
"I mean, if we were in trouble, wouldn't the guys' team already be here making fun of us?" Fatima inquired.
"You three shut up and let them talk!" Eliana shouted, already having enough of her team for the day.
"Uh... me and Elli have been made partners to run the company?" Rachel questioned herself, still not fully believing that this was happening to them. The room's silence was deafening until they exploded.
"WHAT?"
***
"We will officially be announced as the new bosses in three months; this allows us to finish the projects that we are on now and to search for new members for the team. It will also give us a chance for the two of us to train two of you to take over our position." Rachel explained to the girls calmly once they had all settled down and stopped shouting.
Eliana still hadn't said a word; she was still lost in her thoughts about the whole thing. She should probably ring her parents to tell them the good news, but she was travelling back home to them tomorrow so it could wait. This was Eliana's first job, and she hadn't expected to be in it as long as she has been. Eliana especially didn't think she would be up for a promotion to be running the company. She always saw herself travelling and helping people, but when Rachel came to her about the job asking her to join the team, well, it was too good to pass up. Also, her parents really wanted her to have a good job that was still close to them. They didn't want their little dove flying too far from the nest. Even though all Eliana longed for was just that.
"How are you, Ana? You haven't said a word since you came back in." the red-haired woman asked, " I mean, you're white! And you're already naturally translucent!" 'harsh but true...' Eliana couldn't catch a tan no matter how hard she tried. She just stayed milky white only her cheeks flushing with colour. She didn't even burn red; nothing happened at all. And don't get her started on fake tan. Even the lightest tone still turned her orange.
"Hey, look! Her eyebrow twitched. I think you hit a sore spot, Rowen!" Amy cheered.
"But she is the whitest-white girl I have ever seen, and I'm ginger! I've always been the beacon in a group, but she beats me. Ana is still shades lighter than me, yet she doesn't look sickly with it, plus her hair is black. How is it not washing her out?" Rowen always got pretty heated with this topic because Eliana doesn't burn, and she burns when it rains.
"Moving swiftly on... But really, how are you?" Rowen asked Eliana
"I don't know? I didn't expect this, and I hadn't even come to think about moving up the company much less becoming someone who's going to run it." she pulled at one of her dark curls, fiddling with it. "I honestly didn't think I was going to be here this long..."
Ding dong.
"Can Miss Summer and her team please come up to the roof door? Thank you." the tannoy announced.
The roof? They all thought like one, taking a quick look out at the pouring rain hitting the window.
***
Reaching the roof doors, Eliana saw the five board members and a few others talking to one another with the door wide open. 'I'm glad I put my coat back on.'
"Ahh! Miss Abbott?" Mr Cameron Jr. called out, "Do you have your tablet on you? We just want to check some dates." Eliana doesn't go anywhere without her satchel of wonders. She has always been prepared for everything and anything since Sister Helen planted it into her hands, telling her 'always to help others.' It did make Eliana the group's mum, even though she was one of the youngest. Reaching in her bag, she pulls it out, opening it, and handing it over.
"Yes, this date will do perfectly!"
The group of girls stood awkwardly at the side, not understanding what was going on. Mr Cameron Jr looked at them with a large grin. "We want your team to execute a new promotional campaign for the company. It is to show how we are going in a new direction and evolving. It will end in a big charity party, celebrating the campaign and Miss Summer and Miss Abbott's hand over. What better way to do that than to show off your team's work!" he said, passing the tablet back over. "We are up here because we have plans to turn the roof into an outdoor area to relax, especially for the kids who are getting too cramped and agitated inside a stuffy room. But this is also where the party will be!" he spread his arm out towards the entrance showing the torrential rain. "I know it's horrible. But who of those with coats on would like to join the contractors and I outside to plan it through?"
The girls other than Eliana all took a step back simultaneously with a nervous giggle. Even the board group looked a little bit unsure, but Eliana wasn't sure if that was from the rain or Mr Cameron Jr's grin. The contractors were just snickering at the bunch, being used to seeing sights in terrible weather. Eliana Imagined herself putting her big girl pants on; she slipped her bag under her coat and pulled her hood up, walking up closer to the door.
"Well done, Miss Abbott! Taking one for the team, you are going to be a great boss!" Mr Cameron Jr cheered along with Amy and Rowen, letting out some whoops in the back. He held out his arm for her to slip hers in so they could both shelter under the umbrella and made their way out, the contractors following closely behind.
They had been walking around the roof for about five minutes, and Eliana could already feel the water seeping through her coat. The brolly was not helping at all, and the wind had started to pick up, making it flutter about; Mr Cameron Jr gave up quite quickly on holding it and decided to fold it away. The older man shouted over the noise of the rain, telling them what he would like, a raised area with actual grass for a soft play area, the ground in a shell patterned flagging, but most importantly, that the whole roof perimeter set-up with a tall glass fence. He wanted it to feel open but safe.
Eliana really was trying to focus on what they were saying, but something felt wrong. This is the first time she had ever felt nervous in a storm. She could feel the goosebumps rise all over her body. But the group she was with didn't seem to feel that anything was wrong. Her dark hair blew harshly in front of her face, making the men notice that the winds were starting to get rough. They saw the group inside the doorway waving for them to hurry up and get back in. Fighting against the wind, they started striding back to the door. Thunder began to rumble in the black sky, making the hairs on the back of Eliana's neck stand up 'it's right above us', she thought, trying to push herself faster against this wind.
Rachel noticed something was wrong the moment she caught sight of Eliana's eyes. They were glowing. That was not a good sign; any time they had lit up before, it meant the she was panicking badly, and Eliana didn't often get scared in storms.
The group in the storm tried to move faster, but the wind pushed and pulled them harder the more they tried to make their way forward like it didn't want them to leave the roof. The thunder rumbled louder above them. It wasn't passing them by but staying directly over them, watching them as its clouds started to light up.
Eliana was petrified. she noticed that even though they were moving their bodies, they weren't moving forward; they were stationary. Her amber eyes glanced up to the sky, and they widened in fright. The sky was glowing white behind the clouds, she was trying her hardest to move whilst her friends were crying and pleading for her to move. She could see them trying to push through the door but the wind wasn't letting them out.
"ANA! Come one!" She heard Rachel scream in anguish.
The thunder gave a monstrous roar; the lighting struck down straight on the roof with a powerful flash right next to Eliana. The force of it lifted her in the air, flinging her backwards to the edge. She could feel the power whisking her back, but her eyes couldn't see, only capturing the black dots from the flash. Screaming was all she could hear, not realising it was her scream. There was a sudden lurch in her stomach, the feeling of it dropping. 'I'm falling!'.
As her body flew off the edge, the storm got ready to strike again. The clouds cleared up a small section in the sky where you could see the bright white sun glaring through. The energy darted around behind the storm cloud bouncing off each tiny shimmer of sunlight, rapidly forming an immense glowing orb of lightning. It hesitated, just for a moment as it watched the dark-haired woman fall, and then it struck.
"ELIANA!"