Chapter 4

 Mom leaves my room to give me some time to myself. I keep pacing around, trying to think, but everything is just so jumbled. I don't know what to do, I don't even know where to start. Do I have to present something, or do I just show up. How am I supposed to dress? Should I go formal, casual, or semi casual. Do they have a dress code? Do I have to do my hair all fancy?

My phone rings, scaring me out of my confused self. On the screen, it says Mr. Clause.

"Mr. Clause, yes, he'll know what to do." I said while picking up my phone to answer. "Mr. Clause hi, hello, how have you been?"

"Well, hi Melia. You answered pretty quickly." He chuckled.

"Yea, well, umm, I'm kinda in a web at this moment."

"Oh. Is it I web of ideas?" He teases.

"No. It's a web of insanity. Are you crazy!"

"I'm confused. What do you mean."

"First of all, I had no idea you were a consultant for Salomé. Secondly, why on God's beautiful earth would you mention me, of all people, to them and thirdly, do you want to see me die young, cause you're about to give me a freaking heart attack." I started to hyperventilate.

"Wait, ok Melia, calm down."

"Calm down? You're telling me to calm down? You didn't think to run this by me first? I'll have you know I have been doing nothing since I left college."

"Nothing?"

"NOTHING!"

"Ok, Melia, if you just let me explain-"

"Oh, you better explain." At this point, the anger started to boil up in me, but I'm trying to contain it out of respect for my professor.

Mr. Clause sighs deeply as he starts explaining himself. "The position at Salomé is not what you think. You won't be doing any designs or anything of the sort."

"So what the heck will I be doing then? Running errands for the CEO?" I say jokingly. I can hear Mr. Clause chuckle nervously. "I'm not running errands for the CEO, am I?"

"Well..."

With a blank smile on my face, trying my best to hold my composure and not lash out on this man, I take a deep breath in before answering.

"Mr. Clause, when I say this, do trust that I say it with the utmost respect -" I can hear him just waiting for me to crash out. "I might murder you."

"Come on, Melia, it's an opportunity to be at the Salomé headquarters. It might not be the ideal job, but think about how much you can learn while being there. You will be with the CEO at all times. All his meetings, all his runways, and even get to meet other designers."

"Yea, I definitely might murder you."

"Hey, look, he pays rather well."

All of a sudden, my anger slowly goes away, and my interest is peeked. "Go on."

"Your pay will be one hundred thousand annually."

ONE HUNDRED THOUSAND! Oh my goodness, that's a beautiful paycheck. With that kind of pay, I can finally pay off the rest of our debts and actually live comfortably. With that paycheck, I don't have to worry about not having rent on time or our bills. With that paycheck, I can afford mom's medications. It's not a bad deal, but what will I be sacrificing for it. It seems too good to be true. One hundred thousand annually just to run errands?

"Mmmmm, ok, that does sound nice, but before I agree to this you need to help me."

"Sure, what's up."

"What should I wear, what are they expecting of me, do I need to do my hair real nice, what's the CEO like?"

"Whoa, ok. You just need to dress in business attire. Having your hair straight or curled is fine. There's no specific way to have your hair done at that place. The CEO. Well, the CEO is a guy who knows what he wants, not afraid to express what he doesn't want and is very no nonsense."

The CEO sounds like a nightmare, but I guess that's what your personality has to be like if you want to hold the number 1 spot.

"He just expects you to always be on time and on top of things. That's all, and I know you're a person who's good with punctuality and being on top of things. That's why I recommended you."

"You can't cheer me up with your chamrs," he laughs on the other end. "Oh, what's the CEOs name?"

"Oh, his name is Vincent, Vincent Salomé."

Vincent, huh, sounds like a name befitting for a leaders position. So he has a name that matches his personality. How exciting. If what Mr. Clause says is true, then I should be perfectly fine. I mean, I did get employee of the year 3 times. This should be a breeze.I don't want to get overly confident, though. Doing that might make me make a fool of myself. I told Mr. Clause that I will talk to him later and hung up the phone.

So I have a week, I need some motivation. Maybe that book Samantha bought me has some pointers on how to survive it all. I should probably give it a read. Hmmmm, eventually, I'll give it a read. I have way too much on my mind right now, like what will I wear? I need to go shopping. Heading towards my bag, I take a look at myself in the mirror. Maybe I should finally do something about this brown hair of mine. I always wanted to try black cherry, with some layers, and maybe try bangs. I don't really know. I just have to see how the day goes.

I tell my mom I'm heading out and start my journey to the store. While I'm sitting on the bus, I look up black cherry hair, trying to figure out if I like it or not. My plans for my attire are a light grey pencil skirt, an elegant white button-up shirt, and some nice black stiletto heels. That's a good business attire look. I'm not sure if I should wear my hair up or down. I should probably curl it. I should probably think of how I'm going to get it done before thinking about how to fix it for the interview.

As the bus approached my stop, I stuffed my phone in my bag and came off. The first stop is a couple of stores to get what I need, then to the salon. The first store I went into, I found this really cute white button-up shirt with some frills at the front that I thought would compliment the skirt I have in mind pretty well. In the next store, I found a grey pencil skirt with buttons to the side, and finally, the next stop, the shoes.

I walked into the shoes store, and the stilettos were so expensive. Why did I think I would get one for at least fifteen dollars. All of these stilettos are for thirty dollars and over. I didn't budget for this. I tried to see if there was one I could probably get for at least twenty something dollars.

"Can I help you?" Asked an employee.

"Yea, by any chance, do you guys have some shoes that are more affordable?" I smile politely. I didn't want to come off as rude, asking for cheaper priced shoes.

"What's your price range?"

"I'm thinking about $25, maybe?"

"We have a clearance sale on the way back of the store. You might find some for that price." The employee smiled at me.

"Ok, thank you so much."

At least the employee smiled so I don't have to feel too bad about being cheap. I head to the back of the store to skim through their clearance. I found a box tucked away as if someone was hiding it. When I opened the box, it was some lovely red bottoms. I never thought I'd see red bottoms in clearance. These shoes are expensive.

I took a look at the price only to see a sticker marked twenty-two dollars. They must have mistakenly put a clearance sticker on this. That's why it was hidden. Someone realized and wanted to come back for it. Too bad for them cause they're mine now.

I headed to the cashier with the box. The employee scanned it and told me my total. I got some real authentic red bottoms for only twenty-three ninty eight. Can you believe that. I hurriedly came out of the store before they realized their mistake.

My next stop was the hair dresser. I decided to just go with the black cherry hair with layers. As I walk into the salon, I'm greeted with a smile.

"Welcome to Sharay salons. Do you have an appointment?"

"Oh, I needed an appointment?"

"It's ok if you don't, we're taking walk-ins today, so you're in luck. Follow me." She leads me to a chair with a sink. "You can have a seat here. One of the hair dressers will be with you shortly."

This salon is very fancy. I felt like I was in a restaurant. As I sat there waiting, a tall brunette girl with piercings all over her face walked up to me.

"What are you in for today?" She asked while chewing on her gum.

"I was thinking of dying my hair to black cherry and doing layers."

"Cool, have you ever dyed your hair before?" She starts to run her hand through my hair, trying to get an idea of what she's dealing with.

"No, this is my first time ever doing anything to my hair."

"Sweet, don't worry, I'll fix you up nicely. When I'm done with you, you won't even know who you are."

I smile nervously, hoping I actually like what she does to my hair and not look like a complete clown.