The rest of Winters Saturday was spent unpacking and decorating. She must have had about a million boxes around her apartment, and it took as long as you'd expect to get everything unpacked. What didn't take as long as she expected was decorating. Most of what she had packed was clothes, bedding, bathroom utilities, and a few other odds and ends. Almost everything fit into her bedroom, so at least one room in her apartment looked like it was lived in.
In the end, Winter tried to go to bed early so she would get a jump on the morning. But she ended up staying up listening to the sound of the street below for who knows how long. She wasn't sure if the noise was calming or if it just kept her mind occupied in the quiet, but it was nice all the same.
Right now WInter was standing in front of her mirror and remaking her bun for what felt like the millionth time that morning. For some reason, it was either too loose, too tight, too messy, or looked plain ugly. Eventually, she got it down, but not without a few choice words at her white locks and a few bobby pins.
Winter quickly found herself walking out the front doors of the building towards her bug. Walking out the front doors Winter made sure to keep on her guard, making sure nobody was around that might try anything, but thinking about getting behind the wheel of her trusted car put some pep in her shaky steps. But when she put her hand on the door of the car, she thought about how it had broken down just two days earlier and her stomach dropped like a brick.
Hesitantly, like the handle might break if she pulled too hard, Winter opened the door and sat down. She could feel her hands shaking as she moved her keys to the ignition, even missing it a few times before the key found its mark. Winter knew she was being silly, the car had gotten her all the way here after Ruby had fixed it, and hadn't shown any sign of slowing down on the way. But still, what if something had changed? She didn't have the money for car repairs. Something like that might put her on the street… "Deep breath Winter, it'll be fine. I'm sure Ruby knew what she was doing… I hope she put that engine back together when she got home" Winter whispered to herself as she turned the key. The small bug roared to life like it was annoyed she hadn't drove it for so long, purring like a kitten that was excited to play. "Yes! Thank you! I owe you so many cookies!" Like a white streak of lighting, Winter and her bug were on their way to work.
Winter's job was close enough to walk to if she had to, but the thought of walking close to a mile in heels made a shiver go down her back. With the bug, it was a quick drive to the center of downtown. When she drove closer to downtown it was like night and day compared to her neighborhood. The downtown was filled to the brim with people coming and going with smiles on their faces and conversation in the air. Even with skyscrapers all around her, it also seemed like the city somehow brighter in this part of the city. Winter couldn't help the smile that formed on her face.
Winter followed her phones directions past small shops, cafes, and she even seen a small comedy club off the main road. Then, she found the building she was looking for and her smile died as quick as lightning. It was one of the biggest buildings in the city and looked like it was one of the oldest. It was sleek, red-bricked, at least twenty stories tall, and dripped with history and class. Pulling into the parking garage, she was intimidated, to say the least.
The lobby was just as magnificent as the outside of the building. It was made of stone that must have been chiseled by some kind of an angel and flowed like water. There was also gold. Everywhere. Where there wasn't intricately carved stone, there was gold. If you switched out the gold and stone for white and light blue, it would be just like home, and it felt like it too. Which for her Winter, meant a lot of anxiety and a pounding heart.
The elevator ride up wasn't much better. Important business people stood all around her, everyone talking over everyone else and trying to be the loudest one in the room. Winter stood there silently, twiddling her thumbs together among the yells. Then, the doors opened up on floor twelve. Winter waited for someone to get out first, but nobody moved. "Sorry, excuse me" Winter chirped as she quickly pushed her way out onto the floor. Someone swore, but she wasn't sure if it was because of her or something on his phone.
The room that Winter was standing in was odd, to say the least. Not to say that it wasn't fancy or anything, it was. But it was also kind of… not. The walls were an elegant white that had black hardwood from about a quarter of the wall down. It was a wide waiting room that had expensive-looking chairs lining the walls like a doctor's office, but also had chests filled to the brim with toys and small tables that had coloring books on them. When Winter took a few steps closer, she noticed that the tables themselves looked like they were stained with crayon lines.
Winter couldn't help but get reminded of when Weiss was born. The maids tried to keep her chaos to a minimum in the beautiful home, but Weiss always destroyed almost any room she was in. The result of the chaotic baby and the maids always left the house looking a lot like this room.
To the side of the waiting room, there was a woman with red hair that looked to be a bit older than Winter sitting behind a desk. She was looking down at a computer and typing lazily, clearly not in a big rush with the waiting room empty. Winter took another deep breath before walking over to her.
"Hello" Winter started, trying her best not to scare her. The woman looked up with a big smile, not at all shocked by Winter's presence.
"You must be Winter! James has told me so much about you!" She beamed as she stood up and walked out from behind the desk. "I'm Amy, the secretary here, obviously" She giggled as she held out her hand.
"Winter, nice to meet you," Winter said as she shook Amy's hand.
"James won't be here for a while, but he asked me to take you around for a tour and to show you where you'll be working. So let's get going!" Winter felt her jittery hands start to subside as soon as Amy talked. She had a calming air about her that was almost motherly, and Winter appreciated it.
"So this is the main lobby. It's ok right now, but kids can sometimes get a little intense before sessions and make the whole room look like a bomb went off. Plus the little ones love drawing on the tables. We tried using covers, but they always found a way under them, so we usually leave the crayon marks" Amy gestured to the tables as she walked the two of them to a door at the far end of the lobby.
Behind the door was a long hallway that seemed more like a maze then anything else. "So this is where most of the rooms are. There are a lot of offices here, some are storage, and then there are a few rooms that the people who own the building use. But we mainly use this hallway" Any said as she walked down one long stretch. There were rooms on both sides of the hallway, everyone had a plaque on it with someone's name following the word doctor.
The last door at the end of the hall had on the plaque, and Winter felt her pulse quicken "And this is where you'll be working" Amy beamed, standing beside the door directly to the right of . Winter couldn't help but realize that it was the only door without a plaque.
"It's mostly been used as storage the past few years, so it's full of random stuff. James says that you can use whatever you want in here for your office, and to move anything you don't want to the storage room down the hall" Any smiled at Winter for a few moments, but Winter was too nervous to open the door.
Winter was scared of what she would find in there, and what she would end up doing in this room. What if A kid didn't like the way she decorated it and hated her for it? Her mind was moving a million miles an hour while her body was frozen solid like ice. But Winters mind suddenly did a one-eighty as she thought of her sister. Weiss walking around her office for the first time, complimenting her on how amazing the room looked and how proud of Winter she was. That couldn't happen if she didn't open the door. So, with Weiss' picture in her head, WInter opened the door to her new office. Her new life.