"GINGER! S-SORRY, I'M CALLING ELSIE GINGER! IF YOU HEAR ME, PLEASE ARRIVE AT THE PRINCIPAL'S OFFICE! I REPEAT, ELSIE GINGER."
Dee-Ding.
The woman in question jolted out of her chair and wiped the drool leaking off her lips on her coat sleeve. The speakers in her small cabin repeated the announcement, further propelling her consciousness into the land of the living.
"Argh," Elsie groaned, circling her shoulders and neck to crack them back into place. Her surroundings were a blur until she patted around the paper laden desk for her silver glasses and put them on. Another yawn was about to escape her lips when the announcement repeated again.
"Fuck, heavens, are you trying to deafen me?!" She grumbled under her breath and rushed out of the small dark cabin. The pens holding up her messy ginger bun bounced as she jogged down the empty hallways, tangled for their nonexistent life and beyond.
Elsie had always been just Elsie until her hair grew down to her shoulders and one of the kitchen maids compared its colour to the ginger tea that the principal loved. It was just an innocent comparison, for starters, an inside joke which blew out of proportion upon the arrival of Elsie Richardson.
Elsie Richardson was the same age as Elsie Ginger, though, what equalled them in name repelled the rest of their identities. Elsie Richardson was beautiful like a winter flower; a rare mixture of pale milky skin, hair as dark as midnight and eyes like the silver moonlight.
On the other hand, Elsie Ginger was a tall, lanky, malnourished ginger haired girl who had been abandoned on the orphanage's steps fifteen days after her birth. Unlike Elsie Richardson who was a war refugee heiress from some rich country.
Two weeks into Elsie Richardson's stay and the majority of Lily Orphanage had come to a common consensus to stop addressing Elsie by her name, the only thing she ever owned, and rather use Ginger.
Ten year old Elsie didn't mind, why would she, for when one shares their name with a goddess like Elsie Richardson it is blessing enough. She saw no profit in the petty possession of a name; who needed titular confirmation of those who abandoned her anyway? Her identity was associated more with her actions and efforts.
So, Elsie worked hard in her chores. Studied diligently during classes and ate well in the meal times. She was praised by her elders, still, on weekends, she would find herself swinging alone on the swing while the rest of her peers swarmed around Elsie Richardson to either hear her stories from the 'other world' or share their toys with her.
Even if Elsie Ginger would join the crowd of chattering kids around Elsie Richardson, she'd still be a background character to the protagonist she shared a name with. The thought wasn't emotionally taxing but a liberating one, Elsie gathered when she was thirteen while looking up at the summer sun. The woes of a protagonist were too many and the ones who lived best were the non-meddlesome silent side characters.
So, colour Elsie surprised when she sees a man clothed as a classic butler opening the door of the principal's office and greeting her with a curt bow as, "Young Miss Aureiless."
Elsie raised her glasses closer to her eyes as she replied, "Heh," before bowing even lower than the butler.
"Young miss, please, don't!" The butler gasped and flung himself to the floor, alerting both Elsie and the Principal.
"Mr. Polin, please get up! You're not required on the floor. Ging—um, Elsie, take a seat," the Principal ordered.
The ginger nodded awkwardly as she evaded the butler and took a seat in front of the Principal's glass desk. Mr. Polin, the butler, got up from his embarassing stance and brushed off the dirt from his pants before standing like an ominous presence beside Elsie's chair.
"Good day, Mr. Principal," Elsie waved awkwardly while the principal glared at Mr. Polin. The principal was a stout man with a strict set of eyes and a bushy moustache. His inset beady gaze had witnessed decades in Lily Orphanage and Elsie had seen his lush dark hair grown thin and grey within the twenty three years she'd spent there.
The Principal's name was Jonah, Elsie knew because he had told her so when he gathered her limp-self in his shaky arms. He was so afraid of a six-year-old's bleeding head. He was gasping and panting between his words, "Listen to me, hoi, look, my name is Jonah! Does it not sound like the Jonas Brothers? I love music like them. Do you think I would ever make it with Disney if I tried?" but he braved his fear to race her to the nearest hospital all the while keeping her awake. The scar on the left side of her forehead was testament to his bravery and their relationship.
"Good day Elsie," Jonah nodded and gestured a hand towards Mr. Polin in introduction, "He is the butler of the Aureiless household."
"Ah, ye— good day butler sir, I am Elsie," the ginger introduced herself, turning awkwardly in her seat to face the man.
"Ah, I've known you for ages, young miss," the butler replied fondly. His kind grey eyes crinkled as he smiled, "I am sorry I came too late. It's time you return home, young miss."
"Ah, I think there's been a misunderstanding. I think you're looking for Elsie Richardson...?" Elsie stated as she stood up, teeth ground together to avoid visibly cringing.
Home. Return.
They were all foreign words to Elsie. They would never be used in association with her.
"Please be seated Gin–Elsie, Mr. Polin is indeed looking for you," Principal Jonah clarified as he held out a photograph of her. "It has come to our attention that you have a family, Elsie, well — your grandmother passed away two weeks ago, may she rest in peace, but still, you have younger cousins. Three of them! And the whole Aureiless estate along with the Centurion Business to claim!" He slid a sleek file across the table and Elsie caught it before it could slip off the edge.
With a frown etched on her forehead, Elsie flipped through the glossy printed pages revealing her as a heiress to some mainstream business family. She couldn't help but scoff as her eyes turned to the calendar on Principal Jonah's desk. Though, to her surprise, it wasn't April 1st but August 21st.
"Is this a prank for someone's' YouTube channel?" Elsie scratched her head, "Why are you doing this to me? I have stuff to do. I was almost done with the arm modification I was working on. I finally got the base code correct, embarassing, I know, but I was calibrating it with—"
"Elsie, hold it."
Principal Jonah interrupted before she could flow down the river of explaining her current project.
"Please don't shun us, Young Miss. Consider your life as a long and strict boarding school experience, if it comes to that," Mr. Polin pleaded from behind her.
Elsie clenched her jaw. 'Please don't shun us?' the words made her heart thunder in its cavity. She wasn't the one shunning people when bullies decided it was okay to use her as target practice because her head looked like a basketball. She wasn't shunning family when a boy threw a stone at her after she forbade him to litter the orphanage grounds. She wasn't the one pushing away when coming first in class got her snickers and scorns of, 'ginger alien,' or 'gingerbot.'
"That hurts—" Elsie choked out words, "If you put it that way. It's quite rude of you, Mr. Polin."
"I understand, young miss, but the circumstances never availed kindness in your favour. But I am here now and a family awaits you," Mr. Polin said gently.
"Do I have a mother and father?" Elsie sucked in a harsh breath for Principal Jonah seemed to have missed mentioning them.
"You have cousins, money and a fiancé!" Mr. Polin clapped, suddenly, making Elsie jump in her spot.
"I have a fiancé?!" She repeated with exasperation rivalling having solved the infamous trolley problem. Her head jerked between Mr. Polin and Principal Jonah.
"Ah, yes, all the familial connections and wealth shall be inherited only after the maritial vows are taken, did I forget to mention that?" Principal Jonah chuckled, "Ha, it's in the file."
"Wait, how even? Why did I n— No OnE aSkEd mE aBouT iT?!" Elsie scowled, "I refuse. I wish to stay here at Lily. I won't go."
"I'm afraid it's not a choice, G-Elsie, all the funds we have been receiving to function have been sponsored by the Aureiless Estate. We would crumble if the aide isn't delivered on time now that your grandmother isn't anymore...it rolls off so weirdly, your grandmother," he repeated, "it's so odd."
"Odd indeed," Elsie dropped back into the chair.
"The Aureiless estate is truly magnificent, young miss, you'll come to love it. You are also the legal guardian to your cousins so there's that to look forward to," Mr. Polin pushed his case.
"It's not like I have a choice," Elsie dragged her words. It was truly, quite magnificently, an extraordinary event in her life — something only protagonists witness — but instead of reeling with joy, Elsie heart was sinking under a burden.
Family. Money. A Fiancé.
Everyone wanted that; an idealistic life casually dropped into their arms one fine afternoon.
But the offer gnawed at her heartstrings like an open knife. Elsie wasn't one for attachments but she liked the bubble of consistency she had formed at Lily — waking up in her small cabin, eating at the mass, contesting for shower, working on her experiments, ignoring the rude comments and being constantly called ginger.
"Wah," Elsie patted her chest to calm her raging heartbeat, "I don't think I can do it. I'm certain you have the wrong person. I—"
"Young Miss!" Mr. Polin interrupted with a loud intensity, his call commanding attention. When his grey eyes were certain, he supplied with much conviction, "Your fiancé is incredibly hot!" and raised two thumbs-up in commemoration.
Elsie isn't exactly certain how but it happened in quite a blur. The principal and the butler clapping after her hypnotic agreement. Mr. Polin claiming that all the stuff from her cabin had already been unloaded. Principal Jonah reassuring that there was no need for a goodbye by saying, "A farewell is what the body needs. The heart truly remembers and never forgets."
Maybe she slept during the drive to the Aureiless estate because she had zero prep time when the gigantic doors opened in her face and the lap of luxury greeted her when she was in a yellowed lab coat marked with dried drool spots, a washed out navy jeans and worn out chunky loafers.
"Is that the new owner?"
"My word, she looks shabby."
"I heard she's a legitimate child..."
"Doesn't look like her, do you think they made a mistake?"
"Mr. Polin never makes a mistake!"
"Do you think the kids would like her?"
"She's in for a hell of a time!"
"Language!"
"Just to be sure, I am here because my experiments will have more exposure in the capital city..." Elsie squeaked as she closely followed Mr. Polin through the foyer of prying eyes and unashamed whispers.
"Of course Young Miss," the butler made his way into the living room after instructing a train of curtseying servants to settle Elsie's stuff in her room. "Please, come in, your fiancé and the kids await you."
Mr. Polin's words ran a chill down Elsie's spine. She wiped her clammy hands on her overcoat, realised how yellowish and dirty it was and took it off to hand it over to Mr. Polin. Underneath she had a dark green top which seemed way more appropriate for first impressions. Elsie licked her fingers and ran them over her hair to tame the wild locks and prayed to all Gods above for not having any visible eye boogers.
Mr. Polin, standing at the door, urged her to enter.
Elsie nodded and obliged.
Though, upon entering the rosy living room, Elsie did not find the three kids but a man she never thought she'd see again. The bane of her existence and the object of her three-year-long spiral of rejection.
"YOU!"