By: April Feng

The dark-haired secretary hummed to herself, tapping her long red acrylics in a rhythmic pattern on her office desk. Her workspace was littered with office papers she needed to file and other small trinkets from students. She sighed. Her desk really needed to be cleaned out. Glancing at the old grandfather clock sitting across from her desk, she smiled: the new student would be arriving any minute now.

Right as the thought passed her mind, a freckled boy with fiery red hair and square-rimmed glasses walked into the building. He shuffled over to the front desk, where the secretary was sitting. She greeted him, then motioned him over into the back workroom space of the office. Being a new student, he would have to first take an ID picture. A chair, a green screen, lighting pads and several cameras were set up for the fairly typical looking photo ID booth. The boy sat down, placing his glasses next to a couple of barrettes and a lone hair tie that was on the secretary’s desk. However, as he smiled for his picture, a vaguely fruity scent passed his nose. Immediately afterwards, he slumped to the ground with a thud. The secretary slid him neatly off the chair and into a nearby storage closet.

She continued humming as she walked back to her desk. Sitting down in her chair once more, she reached for the glasses and repolished them, then spritzed herself with an additional layer of perfume. The glasses glinted in the light as the secretary went back to tapping her fiery red nails.