12 days of Christmas in Paris (Illinois)

Day 2

Amelia couldn't say how long she was there in the park on this hiking trail, the very one that seemed to overlook the city of Paris, Illinois. She had her earbuds in and her playlist going, surely, she was not gone that long. It was only when she was in the middle of that Old Dominion song when she decided to check her phone for the time, she shrieked out in surprise seeing she had only ten minutes until the start of her shift. She hated how the time really flew when she was secluded to moments of quiet time or reading a good book. 

She immediately turned and sprinted back the way she had come toward the entrance of the trail, and then down the road toward the parking lot where her little Volkswagen Beetle that sat waiting for her. She swung the door to her back seat open, throwing in all her gear and hopped into the driver's seat of her car. She put her keys into the ignition, saying a small prayer for the old bug to not have one of her fits, which would make it even more evident of her lateness to the start of her shift at Betty Janes. Thank you, Father, she thought as she peeled out of the parking lot leaving behind marks on the pavement heading toward her apartment complex that wasn't far.

As she pulled up outside of her apartment building, she didn't even bother to shut off her car, just flung her door open and ran up to her apartment; however, she remembered she would need her keys to get into her apartment, so she doubled back to shut the car off, grabbing her keys. Finally, unlocking her door, she ran down the hallway to her bedroom and into her walk-in closet where she pulled out a pair of dark jeans, a floral blouse, and a pair of black flats. She proceeded to peel off the leggings and tugged those dark jeans over her hips. Ripping the elastic out of her hair, she ran a brush through her tangled locks while pulling her flats over her heels. She pulled her hair into a messy bun and marched into the kitchen grabbing a cold bagel from the fridge. 

Frantically, she searched for her keys, her cat Bennett, seemed to not want her to take off again without filling up his bowl for the day, so he decided to sit on them, but as Amelia shooed him searching for where she could have thrown her keys upon entering the apartment, the keys were revealed under his butt. All the while, Amelia still had clenched between her teeth the bagel hung as she slammed the door behind her. 

She climbed into the front of her car, threw everything into the passenger seat, except the bagel. She was over the moon thrilled that the ole bug still started up without making a fuss in this cold Illinois weather. It was getting to be time to retire LADYBUG soon, but today was just not the day to deal with all that. Blowing on her hands to warm them up, she pulled out a pair of gloves out of her purse that she had thrown in there three days prior. The weather forecaster mentioned that the temperature was plummeting soon, and she was incredibly proud for paying attention and remembering. Amelia's favorite part of these gloves was that they depicted her favorite part of the Christmas season on the outside palm. One reindeer and a snowflake. 

Unfortunately, she could not look at them as much as she would have liked. Immediately, she backed out of her parking spot and began her drive into town. She had attended school here most of the year, and winter break had only just begun, she was enjoying being back in this small town full-time. Edgar country was a tiny community of 1,600 people, honestly being one of the smallest midwestern towns in all the Midwest. The center of town was straight out of any hallmark movie, which made Amelia both roll her eyes and love this town more than anything. Tiny, two, three story municipal buildings and vast parking lots made up their downtown. A couple off shooting roads contained family-owned restaurants and shops, a reality office and the famously known Betty Janes'. The quaintest, most adorable bakery on the eastern seaboard, though Amelia had to admit she was a bit biased. 

Betty Jane's is where Amelia is currently employed as one of their four staff members to help put herself through grad school. At Betty Jane's, you have mothers and grandmothers who run the kitchen and high school students help in the small dining area of the bakery. Betty Jane's was a staple of faith and hope in Edgar County long before Amelia moved here during her sophomore year of college. Now that she was in grad school, she had gone from frequent customer to full-time server. The community of Betty Jane's has quickly become family to her. 

She pulled into the gravel lot, she quickly grabbed her apron from the back seat and ran inside. She tossed her coat and purse in the breakroom, avoiding the onslaught looks from fellow co-workers as she ran into the dining room. She grabbed a notepad and pen from her apron and headed for table four. She had almost made it when Betty came out of the storeroom to the left, where they kept extra napkins and silverware as though she had been waiting for Amelia to arrive.

Without breaking her strife, Betty whispered, "Thanks for working late," she patted her on the shoulder and continued into the kitchen. Amelia looked after her and heaved a sigh of relief. She knew Betty and Jane had adored her just as much as everyone else, she still felt terrible whenever she arrived past her scheduled start time. Despite this, she was beyond grateful that they always understood. And as always, Amelia was happy to work a little later that night and turned to head towards table four.