Breathe in, breathe out.
It was Tessa's first day as an intern in the famous company, The Shadowhunters. She had moved all the way to London to do this job, but it wasn't actually difficult to let go of her life in New York. Her parents had died in a car accident when she was little, and her aunt, who had been taking care of her, had just died of a heart attack. All she had left was her cousin, Nate. He had always been like a big brother to Tessa, and she missed him now. But he had his own job and girlfriend back home, and she couldn't have asked him to come along with her.
She saw the office -which was called the Institute- as she turned a corner. Tessa held her breath in amazement. It was a huge church-like building with spires and it seemed to be at least a hundred years old. It was almost as if it had jumped out from one of the books that she loved. She stopped in front of its metal gates and just as she was about to push them, they opened for her.
Tessa walked through the big double doors. Her shoes clicked on the polished marble floor as she made her way to the receptionist desk, which was where the altar of the church would have been.
The lady behind the desk gave her a warm smile. "Good morning, what can I do for you?"
Tessa smiled at her nervously. "Hi, I'm Theresa Gray. I- um, well-"
"Oh, you're the new intern, right?" she asked, smiling sympathetically.
"Yeah," Tessa replied, beginning to feel less nervous.
"Well, just follow me then."
She got up from her desk with a card attached to a lanyard in her hand. Walking swiftly towards the elevators, she gestured for Tessa to follow her. Despite the old frame around the elevator doors, the elevators themselves were brand new and modern. With a ding, the doors opened and they walked in. The lady pressed the button for the 3rd floor and they ascended in silence.
As the doors opened, she gave Tessa the card in her hand and gave her directions.
"...and when you get there, just knock," she finished, seemingly satisfied with herself for relying all that information. "Now, you better get going. She'll be expecting you," she said as she gently shoved Tessa out of the elevator.
"Thank you. Wait, who am I meeting, exactly?"
Before the receptionist could reply, however, the elevator doors closed as they had been open for much too long. She heard a muffled reply, but it was unintelligible. With a sigh, Tessa turned to go through the winding corridors, as the receptionist had instructed her to do. She picked her way carefully, trying to not get lost in the almost identical corridors of the Institute. All the doors were glass, and they seemed out of place in the old corridors made primarily out of wood. Hanging on the wall were empty torches that were probably used for lighting at one point in time. Now, there were bright lights on the ceiling, which were also out of place like the doors.
As she was looking around her for any clues as to where she was supposed to go now according to the receptionist's instructions, a heavy body bumped into her. She looked at the man standing before her in surprise, having not heard him coming due to the carpeted floors. Before she could react further, he gave a huff and and walked off, grumpily shouting, "Watch where you're going!"
Tessa looked after him in shock for being treated so rudely, but any remark she was about to say disappeared with him as he turned around corner. She turned back around firmly in indignation and decided to turn left.
Finally, Tessa reached the door which was supposedly where the receptionist had tried to direct her to. She knocked a couple of times, and a distinctly female voice answered, "Come in."
Tessa slowly opened the door and stepped in. The room, just like the rest of the Institute, was a mix of old and new. The furniture were all modern and was an old fireplace that was currently empty as it was summer time. A bright lamp hung down from the ceiling, its light illuminating the whole room clearly. The desk was glass and stainless steel, and on top of it were stacks of papers and stationery. There was another tiny desk lamp. The woman sitting behind the desk seemed young, but her eyes carried much more wisdom. She stood up as Tessa entered, and Tess immediately felt her presence as a leader. She was tiny, much shorter than Tess, who was already taller compared to most girls. Her thick brown hair was in a tight bun and her small face was not unkind. Her dark eyes were bright and soft, releasing some of the tension that Tessa felt.
She held out her tiny hand. "Hello, my name is Charlotte Branwell. You may call me Charlotte," she said with a smile. Tessa took her hand, which was surprisingly strong.
"Hi Charlotte, I'm Theresa Gray. But please, call me Tessa."
Charlotte's smiled widened momentarily before she sat back down. She gestured for Tessa to sit in one of the chairs in front of the desk.
"Well, Tessa," she began, folding her hands in front of her, "I'm very glad you came here to work with us. As I understand, you had to move from New York to accept this internship. Well hopefully, we will soon be able to offer you a full-time job here."
Tessa nodded timidly. Charlotte smiled again. "It's okay to be nervous, Tessa. It's your first job, so it is perfectly understandable," she added. Tessa already liked her boss. She was beginning to let go of some of her nervousness. She gave a smile to Charlotte.
"Good. So, first things first. I'm sure you know what we Shadowhunters do, but let me give you a detailed recap.
"You may know Shadowhunters as an elite group of people who have excellent skills in different areas," she explained. Tessa nodded. Everyone knew that the Shadowhunters were talented and it was incredibly hard to be a member if you weren't born into a Shadowhunter family.
"What you might not know is that one of the main areas is fighting. It may seem odd, but trust me when I say that it is needed. If you do get the job, you will know more about this," Charlotte added. She paused as if to let the information sink into Tessa's brain.
Tessa had to fight the urge to ask her about it, but she knew it would be of no use, and she had to make a good impression. Instead, she asked, "What are the other skills?"
"Oh, music, arts, literature..." Charlotte trailed off with a wave of her hand.
Tessa had perked up at the mention of literature and was eager to find out more when she had the chance later on.
"Anyways, as I was saying, they have many skills. However, our company does not only consist of these members, but there also are many different departments in which non-members can work. There's the Department of Education -which is responsible for teaching the Shadowhunters-, a Law Department -which makes sure that all Shadowhunters follow the Accords or rules-, and many more."
Tessa widened her eyes in wonder. This company was almost like its own government. No wonder the Institute is so gigantic, Tessa thought. It had to fit all these people.
"You, my dear Tessa," Charlotte continued, "will be my personal assistant. You'll be learning a lot, and hopefully enough by the end of your internship that we can hire you immediately."
Tessa let out the breath she was holding. She was infinitely relieved that she would be working for Charlotte, instead of working in a completely new environment. She gave Charlotte a grin and Charlotte returned it with a smile.
"So, the first thing you'll need to do is to sort out these-"
Charlotte was interrupted by the door being swung open none too gently. A man -the same man who had bumped into her earlier- was standing in the doorway, a wicked grin on his face.
"Charlotte," he began airily, "I thought you should know that Church has taken it upon himself to shred the couch in the library into tiny little pieces of fabric and fluff. Of course, I-" he stopped, as his eyes noticed Tessa's presence for the first time. "Wait, have we ever met before?" he asked rather rudely.
Tessa raised her eyebrows. "If by 'met' you mean 'crashed into in the corridor without anything close to an apology', then yes, I suppose so," she replied.
Without missing a beat, he replied, "I guess our 'meeting' really had a big impression on you for you to remember it in detail. Of course, it always happens with every girl who lays their eyes on me."
Tessa snorted. "So they're all appalled by your unfortunate character?"
He opened his mouth to argue again, but was cut off by Charlotte. "Alright, enough you two," she said in distress. Tessa felt a twinge of guilt for Charlotte, but it was overwhelmed by her immediate loathing of this man.
Charlotte took a deep breath as Tessa and the man continued to glare at each other unyieldingly. "Why don't you introduce yourself?" Charlotte asked the man.
"Fine," he replied, straightening his posture. He took a few large steps toward Tessa and held out his hand. Tessa looked at his outstretched hand like it was a turtle that was playing guitar in a peruvian folk band. "What I'm doing is trying to introduce myself to you by offering you my hand. You should respond by shaking it," he said with a smirk.
Tessa felt the blood rise to her cheeks and stood up, glaring at him with as much hatred as she could muster. She took his hand, which was surprisingly warm and comforting. Her eyes softened a bit. "I'm Theresa Gray. Call me Tessa," she replied curtly.
"Hello, Tessa," he said with an almost genuine smile, which took Tessa by surprise. "I'm William Herondale. Please call me Will."
Hello! I hope you like this so far. I'm not sure if something like this has been done before, but yeah. This is a Wessa fanfic by the way, if you haven't noticed.
Also, by writing this I'm kinda procrastinating from updating my other doctor who fanfic. *sigh* i'm sorry.
So because of that, I don't know if I should continue this. I'll continue it if I get at least 1 review. I don't really wanna give an ultimatum, but if there's no interest then I'm not gonna continue this. (It doesn't even have to be a good review. I appreciate all input and criticism!)
Anyways, THANK YOU FOR READING! Please Follow, Favorite, and/or Review! :)
DISCLAIMER: I do not own The Infernal Devices.