CinderEll

Chapter One ~ Guests

When Ell was a child, Christmas was her favourite time of the year. Her parents had always made sure to keep the spirit of Christmas alive by pretending Santa had come to deliver the presents, eat the cookies and feed the reindeer with the carrots Ell had left out for them in their backyard.  But her favourite part had always been spending time with her family as they sang along to Christmas songs and decorated the Christmas tree.

But nowadays Christmas was different. It was bittersweet for Ell as she found herself both morning her late parents deaths, and trying to celebrate their memory.

On top of all of that she also had to work harder than ever before to pay off her parents debt.

When her parents had passed away on Christmas Eve when Ell was just ten years old, her uncle took her in. Little had Ell known just how cruel of an uncle he would be as she'd only ever met him once before than.

He had immediately sent Ell to a boarding school far away and she hadn't heard from him since, that-is until he had picked her up from graduation and at just eighteen years old had placed the responsibility of her parents debt on her.

Ell couldn't bring herself to complain about this fact since her uncle had been kind enough to offer her a job in one of his Hotels so that she could work the debt off while she lived in his basement and survived on what little funds where left over from her work.

But sometimes it did get hard, especially around Christmas when things where very busy and Ell was overwhelmed by it all.

And it was a busy time right than, after the news had just come from the front desk workers that they where having the biggest guest they'd had in years, all hands where on deck.

Literally.

Ell didn't know who this mysterious 'big guest' was, but she knew better than to ask. Besides, they had had 'big guests' before. It was a luxury hotel after all. Ell just knew that she had to make sure to keep out of the way, and as long as she did that, it would all be fine.

She was currently assigned to the team that made sure all the guest rooms where of top condition, as well as making sure the hotel gardens where taken care off and pristine.

Ell loved gardens and roses, she hadn't had a lot of chances to be around them since she was a kid so when she'd been assigned the job to look after them, she'd been absolutely elated.

It was the one place that she felt she could truly be peaceful, even if it was just for a moment.

As Ell got busy making the new guests beds and fluffing their pillows, she jumped when her best friend, Abby tapped her on the back.

"Sooo, big guests!" She said excitedly.

"Do you know who?" She asked, wiggling her eyebrows.

"No idea." Ell replied with a small chuckle. Abby was certainly the more out-going of the two. Constantly loud, and always ready for a party. Where-as Ell was very quiet and kept to herself most of the time. She was glad though, that Abby had made such a point to get her out of her shell all these years because otherwise she probably wouldn't have had any friends at the hotel at all.

"Well I think it's some celebrity again."

Ell rose a brow and nodded as she continued her work around the room, everything had to be spotless. If there was so much as a single spec of dust by the time they had finished, they where screwed.

"Like Demi Lovato, ohhh or Harry Styles!"

Abby got excited as she started jumping up and down and clapping her hands.

"I don't know Abby." Ell said with a chuckle.

"All I know is that if we don't finish this room in ten minutes, miss Fig will have our heads in a basket for lunch."

At the look of realisation and terror on Abby's face, Ell giggled again as they quickly finished the room.

"Headed home?" Ell asked her friend when they where finally done with their work for the day.

"Yeah, good night!" She called as she began to walk off.

"Get home safe." Ell said as she too began walking towards her home.

Not that she'd really call it a home. The closest thing she had felt to a home since her childhood was when she was in the hotels indoor garden, but the basement she currently lived in which was damp and musty and cold, was certainly not a home to her. Though she did try to make the most of what she had. After all there where surely others going through much worse than her, so she really should be grateful.

That's what she'd always thought anyway. Her parents had brought her up to be kind, thankful and to do the right thing in every situation even if that kindness meant that you'd be left in the dust. It was worth it.

Ell truly beloved that and she hoped that one day she'd get the chance to be kind to others in some kind of big way, that way she could make her partners proud.

Ell yawned as she quietly unlocked her uncles penthouse door and snuck into her basement. She had a long day ahead of her in the morning, so she decided to go right to sleep, dreaming about the roses in her garden as she snuggled under the lone thin blanket on her bed.