Cecelia had always heard about how her mom and dad met at work. In fact, she knew the story so well that she could recite it word-for-word herself. To her, it felt like a true love story: two people, who started off as friends, knew that they were soulmates but didn't always know how to act on a fleeting feeling. When they were with other people, it was never right. But with each other, it felt like coming home. It just took them both a while to figure that out. Cecelia hoped that it would never take her that long to find her soulmate; she hoped that when they came into her life, she would just know it. As if love really worked that way, like in the movies she has watched a couple million times. Two people, both alike in dignity, in fair Sanford, where we lay our scene. Except, you know, less bloodshed. Cecelia wasn't sure that she would go as far as what Romeo and Juliet did in order to be with someone she loved, but she was sure that they do say love makes fools.
She is only sixteen years old and still managed to land her very first job as an intern at a local social media company. It felt like kismet when she told her mom about where the building was. Turns out, that's the building Cecelia's mom and dad met, at a company called Dunder Mifflin Paper. It had been shut down years ago, what with the internet taking off and people not really needing or caring about printer paper anymore. The building sat vacant for a while until the company, Buzz Words, came into the picture. It was what companies like Dunder Mifflin always feared would happen, the world would be taken over by the internet and there would be no more use for paper. Everything was digital now, which Cecelia's mom says is a great thing for the environment. But Cecelia still thinks that the internet killed romance in a way people could never imagine. Instead of sending heart-felt letters through the mail, now you could send off a text or email to anyone in a split second. People no longer sat and thought about their words before slapping them on their computer screens, tapping out the words with a clank on their keyboards. It was no longer my dearest, darling; loving words were replaced with please respond and send nudes. The internet killed paper, and along with it, romance. At least that's what Cecelia thought.
"Come on, stop daydreaming CeCe!" a screeching voice ripped through Cecelia's thoughts, coming from the gaping hole of her brother's big trap.
"Shut up, Philly-boy, I've been ready for fifteen minutes, waiting on you." She sighed, throwing her sling-back purse around her shoulder and heading for the door. "As always."
She stood there, holding the door open, waiting for her brother Philip to hurry up. He always took his time for everything, as if the world wasn't ready and waiting for him to do a damn thing. Phillip would have rather spent his time playing video games, his favorite being MMORPGs. But as fate would have it, Phillip managed to get an intern at the same place Cecelia had, despite being a year younger than she is. He always found a way to do that: get the same things that Cecelia had worked hard at. But he seemed to work less than she did, and with less care. While she was busy pushing her mind to the limit on what it could accomplish, Phillip seemed to do things without even thinking about them, as if it simply came natural to him. She both love and hated him for it.
Cecelia now found herself going to her very first job with her little annoying brother in tow, to a building where her mom and dad met, and subsequently fell in love at. She could feel the anxiety building up in her stomach like little butterflies. They were so persistent, in fact, that she was sure that if she opened her mouth too wide that they would fly right out. But those were the thoughts of a little girl, not of a sixteen-going-on-seventeen woman who was driving (driving! In her very own car!) to her first job ever. Her dad said that it was okay if she messed up because everyone screws up on their first job, but Cecelia didn't believe in messing up. She believed in getting it right the first time.
"CeCe! Watch out!" Phillip's screeching voice broke through Cecelia's daydreaming, forcing her to pay attention to the fact that she wasn't paying attention. So bad, in fact, that she hadn't seen the car that nearly clipped the front of hers as she was driving through a green light. The car must have really wanted to get to where they are going and couldn't wait through another red light. They ended up going on yellow instead of slowing down, like the law says you are supposed to do, causing them to barely miss Cecelia and Phillip. Cecelia could feel her grip on the steering wheel tighten so much that her knuckles turned white. Her heart was racing a million miles a minute and she felt like she couldn't breathe. She kept blinking, willing her eyes to focus—focus, dammit!-on the road ahead. This sometimes happened to her. A panic attack, the doctor called it. But if she could learn how to manage them, then she would be fine. Everything was fine.
Except it wasn't fine. Nothing was fine! Cecelia almost got hit by a car, in her new car (well, okay, used car but it was her first car ever), after only just getting her license. Cecelia doesn't remember how they got from Point A to Point B but she does know that they are now stopped at a red light. She can feel Phillip's hand on her shoulder, his grip firm but caring. She can hear his voice but can't make out anything that he is saying. No, shouting, Phillip is shouting at her.
"What?" she finally manages to say "What is it?"
"What is it?!" Phillip shouts. He is mad. No, upset. No, scared. And this makes Cecelia scared.
"Oh my god, I am so sorry Phillip! I didn't see that car, I swear, I really didn't! It was a green light, I was supposed to go. They weren't supposed to go at all! They had a yellow light, Phillip! You're supposed to slow down at a yellow light!" the words spilled out of Cecelia's mouth before she could think about them. She was scared and could feel the fear welling up in her whole body, like one wrong move would cause her to collapse.
"CeCe, take a breath" Phillip said, so she did "It's alright, it's okay. You're right, that car did have a yellow light. They weren't supposed to go. You did nothing wrong." Cecelia usually hated the sound of Phillip's voice, always grating on her nerves, but there were few select moments when it soothed her. "We're almost there, you go this sis."
Cecelia nodded, loosened the grip on the steering wheel, and drove the rest of the way. It wasn't always like this. Cecelia blames the fact that they moved back to Scranton, Pennsylvania in the first place for her nervous tendencies. They used to live in Austin, Texas. For most of her life, they lived in Austin. Even though her mom and dad says they used to live here, Cecelia doesn't remember that. She was too young for it to make an impression. Or maybe it was that it was too boring to warrant remembering, as Phillip always says. At first, Cecelia disagreed. No place could be that un-entertaining, as long as you know how to entertain yourself. But the longer they lived here, the more she believed Phillip. Scranton was one of those towns that simply didn't have a lot going for it, which was surprising when a social media company like Buzz Words opened a building here. But Cecelia understood why. A place like Scranton was boring enough that nobody in town would even know what type of company Buzz Words even was. Most of the residents were old school, the kind of people who still wrote love letters through the mail. If they were on social media, they were on Facebook, where all of the older generation seemed to congregate. They certainly wouldn't camp outside of Buzz Word's office building, waiting to get a glance of a celebrity who was visiting for a story. The town of Scranton was all about old time hospitality and not giving a crap about who is famous or not, as long as they tipped well, smiled, and were kind to the locals, they were good enough to be left alone if they wanted to be.
Cecelia pulled up to her new office building, waiting at the gate as a security guard walked out to her. They didn't have a fancy guard tower like some of the buildings in Austin had. It was just a guy sitting in a chair, next to a fence tall enough to keep people out. The guard walked over and asked for her identification.
"Oh, well..." she stuttered. She didn't have identification because this was her first day. They hadn't given her any yet.
"It's our first day" Phillip said over Cecelia's shoulder, leaning from the back seat so the guard could see him "We're the new interns? Phillip and Cecelia Halpert. I'm sure if you check the records, you'll find us."
The guard simply nodded at him before walking away. Cecelia turned to Phillip before giving him an awkward one-handed hug. "Thank you." he nodded a return before sitting back in his seat.
The guard returned and waved them through, hitting a button that opened the gate. They sat in silence as the gate slowly opened with a loud screeching noise, before it eventually stopped half-way through opening. The guard rolled his eyes and sighed, moving to open the gate the rest of the way by hand. Cecelia couldn't help but to laugh and shake her head. Why would a social media company as big as Buzz Words have a broken gate?
Cecelia found a parking space in front of the building, although it was the furthest away from the door. There seemed to be quite a few cars here and she wondered if they were late. The clock in her car was broken. Her dad said that he would fix it but so far, he hadn't. She knew that he would eventually get to it, as long as she reminded him about a hundred times. Phillip was so much like him in that way.
As Cecelia and Phillip begin to head to the front door of the office, Cecelia notices that the guard at the gate is now full-on running towards them. Before they reach the front door, the guard opens it for them.
"After you, Phillip" the guard says, in a mocking tone.
Phillip looks at the guard with a shine in his eye which means he is up to no good, before saying "And your name is?" he outstretches his hand in a greeting.
The guard smiles a stupid little grin before answering "Phillip."
This causes Phillip, Cecelia's brother, to let out an uproariously loud laughter, the kind that Cecelia remembers from her childhood. The one he lets loose when they are playing a board game together and Cecelia makes a move, followed by Phillip beating her. He always laughs this way not when he finds something particularly funny, but when the situation warrants a loud noise to let everyone know that Phillip is the biggest king lion in the forest. It's a challenging laughter.
"Well I guess we'll need nicknames, then" Phillip laughed, the guard's face filling with an unusual smile.
"How about Phillip One and Phillip Two?" Cecelia provides, before her brother can think of a clever nickname for himself.
"Well, whose Phillip One and whose Phillip Two?" the guard asks, completely serious.
Cecelia lets out a chuckle before pushing her brother to move inside. This is fun and all but she wants to get inside in order to figure out if they are late for their very first job, ever. As the two move towards the elevator, Cecelia dares to look back and notices the guard looking after them, with a sort of sad smile on his face. As if they just ruined his day. She shrugs it off, figuring he is just socially awkward, before getting on the elevator. As she waits for the doors to close, she watches Phillip Two move away from the door and back to his "station" at the gate, a fold-up lawn chair.
Cecelia lets Phillip go ahead of her, seeing as he walks faster than she can and always complains about how slowly she is moving. It's not that she is doing it on purpose, she just likes to take in every detail of her surroundings. Like how right after the elevators, there is a small hallway with a sign on it. It looks like the company just printed out a bad copy of their logo and tapped it over an already-existing sign. Cecelia can just barely make out the edges of what the old sign is. Could it possibly be the old Dunder Mifflin sign? Before Cecelia can peak behind to see for sure, Phillip clears his throat, letting Cecelia know that he is waiting for her. She is the one they hired first, after all. If it weren't for her, Phillip wouldn't be here.
She moves past the sign, pushing back the nagging need to see if it's the old sign or not, and opens the door leading into the main office area. There, she is immediately greeted by a cheery woman with black curly hair tied into a tight bun atop her head. Her brown skin seems to emphasize the ruby red lipstick she's wearing, something Cecelia knows that she could never pull off. She is beautiful in a way that Cecelia never could be, looking like a boss babe whereas Cecelia looks like a child playing in her mother's clothing.
"Good morning!" The woman at the front desk calls to them in a cheery tone, making Cecelia immediately frightened of her. It was something about the way she said it, like she didn't really mean it. Like it's not a good morning at all and this woman would rather be anywhere else but here. Cecelia swears that she notices the woman rolling her eyes but it is a split second that she isn't sure that she saw it at all.
"I'm Berry, like a strawberry without the straws. I'm the front desk receptionist." Her smile fades into a straight line. "You two are late and are in SO much trouble!" Berry laughs, like those mean girls at school that Cecelia used to avoid. The girls who seemed to be perpetually acting, as if there were cameras around them twenty-four seven. As if anyone cared.