Prologue

“So what do you think?”

 “Well it’s not what you’d normally wear. But I say gorge! You can totally work the orange.”

“Yeah? Well I didn’t choose it. Sam got it for me. So I’m morally obligated to wear it I guess.” Laura said while trying to gather her chestnut curls into a bun. 

“Aw… I bet he gave some soapy-ass speech about how you light up his world like the sun!” 

“Well no…” Laura began to disagree, but feeling defeated under Mackenzie’s gaze, then added: “But he did say It brings out a side of me that I keep to myself. Basically saying it unveils my fiery soul!” uttering the last sentence with heavy mockery.
They both smiled at that.

It went silent for a while. Just Laura finishing her make up in the dim light of the room before Mackenzie looked up from her phone to speak again:“ Do you think Claire will win this time?”

The 25-year-old took her time carefully putting on mascara before coming up with a response: 
“Honestly, I don’t think she’s ready yet. Also, I feel really bad for that kid Aden! The poor guy pours his heart into his projects only to get zero votes because he just transferred to our department.”
“While no matter what she does, Claire’s always in the top five. Kind of not fair don’t you think?”

“Well the jury is in charge of choosing the winning project among the top five. So no matter how many votes each of them has, the jury makes sure the winner is the most qualified. That being said, networking is part of the job, isn’t it? Aden should step up his game.”

Before Laura could argue with that, her cellphone rang. When she answered, Claire was already laughing at the other end: “Where are you?” She screamed over the crowd. “Car broke down again or something?”

“Ah, no. I’m at Kenzie’s, actually. She’s driving” Looking back at said driver, raising her eyebrows, she continued through gritted teeth: “We’ll be there in… 30?”

She was expecting to be yelled at, but surprisingly, Claire let out another laugh, “Okay, fine. But not a minute more! You don’t wanna miss what’s going on here. Rebecca’s wearing an orange sweater. Like… bright orange! It’s hilare.” then she hung up.

Standing there, looking in the mirror, Laura suddenly felt an immediate urge to change her outfit.