Deck the Halls // 5SOS

Chapter 3 - First Day & The Alleyway Hero

• Paige •

I woke up a little bit earlier than necessary to make sure that I was dressed-to-impress for my first day on the job. I already knew that people would be skeptical of my skill because of my age, but I was determined to show them that I was capable. I decided to go with something simple; a white blouse with a high neck and ruffles and a grey pencil skirt. I slipped into some comfortable back heels and headed out. I hailed a taxi to the office, a huge and somewhat intimidating glass tower. I paid and thanked the cabbie and made my way up the concrete steps into the main lobby.

I went straight to the front desk, which was manned by a middle-aged woman with her brown hair pulled into a tight French twist. She gave me a smile as I approached.

"Hi, I'm Paige Adler, I'm the new journalist," I said, tilting the sentence up like a question at the end. She nodded and tapped the keys of her computer.

"Alright, Miss Adler, you'll be on floor 3, your desk partner will show you around," she replied, handing me my ID badge.

"Thank you!" I said, and I headed towards the elevator.

I spotted the cubicle with my name almost right away, accompanied by the name of my desk partner, Sophia White.

Upon entering the corner cubicle, I spotted Sophia right away, tapping the keys of her laptop rhythmically. She had wavy hair that was somewhere between ginger and blonde that was pulled into a side ponytail and blue eyes. She wore a grey blouse and black dress pants, As I walked in semi-awkwardly, she smiled up at me.

"You must be Paige," she said in a friendly tone. She didn't look to be all that much older than me, maybe a year or two. "For your first assignment, you're going to be helping me with an article that I'm working on. This'll be sort of a practice run so that Mrs. Jacobs knows what kind of assignments to give to you in the future."

She explained the assignment to me very throughly, providing helpful tips and generally being polite and kind. If I could continue to work with Sophia as my desk partner, I could tell I'd be on a good path.

The general idea of the article was an overview of the most popular new winter fashion trends, why they had so much appeal, and how to pull them off in different ways. We summarized the appeal of long coats, tailored suits, and monochrome color schemes, and showed off ways to wear velvets and rain coats with any body type.

"When does the article need to be finished?" I asked Sophia when we were about halfway done.

She placed a picture next to some text on her laptop screen and replied, "We'll need to have it finished up and turned in for editing by the end of tomorrow. I think we're making good time and we'll be able to look it over and fix up any mistakes before we turn it in tomorrow. The editing team likes it when you look it over before you turn it in, makes less work for them."

"Sounds good!" I replied. I didn't want to jinx anything, but this job was turning out to be more play than work. I had enjoyed every minute of talking about how much I adored this season's winter wardrobe with Sophia.

"Just so you know, Mrs. Jacobs wanted you to go to her office for quick introductions before you leave for the day," Sophia added. "She told me that she's really excited to see what you have to add to the team after reading your application letter!"

"Well, that's good to hear!" I replied. "I'll head over there now."

I took the elevator up a floor to the level of Mrs. Jacobs' office. It was very minimalist, black and white with touches of shiny silver metal here and there. I was incredibly embarrassed to find that someone was already here, speaking with her.