This is a picture of Elissa.

Soon after I was in the kitchen, with an apron, preparing food.  Since when do the guests have to make food?  That's what I thought as I rolled out the dough for a pie crust.  It was hard, considering I don't bake or cook often.  I usually come home so late I eat a frozen dinner, like a frozen pizza.  Mmm, that's all I could think about at the time, a delicious frozen pizza and a hot warm bath after work, not a meeting that went horribly wrong and me cooking and baking!  "Lena?"  I looked up to see Mrs. Meade rushing towards me.  I groaned, kicking myself in my head.  What did I do?  "That pie crust is way to thin, darling.  It won't hold up any sort of pie." Mrs. Meade said gently and patiently to me, "Have you ever made pie?"

I blushed bright red with embarrassment.  She would know if I lied.  "Um, n-no, I haven't.  I'm sorry, Mrs. Meade." I replied.

"That's alright, my dear.  I should have asked before assigning you a station.  Perhaps you'd prefer to help out my daughter, Elissa." Mrs. Meade offered.  I knew there was no way I could back out of helping Mrs. Meade so I just nodded.  I followed her to a room in the back of the kitchen.  There, a girl about sixteen or seventeen was piping frosting onto gingerbread cookies.  "Looks easy enough." I breathed to Mrs. Meade and she patted me on the shoulder, before leaving.  I awkwardly moved deeper into the room and the girl looked up.  

Elissa was the definition of drop dead gorgeous.  She had long curls of platinum blonde hair, skin as white as snow, sparkling pale blue eyes, and a rosebud mouth.  She had on peach lipstick with a nice shine to it, a boxy grey sweater over an army green long sleeved shirt, dark denim jeans, a grey and black checkered infinity scarf, grey wool socks, and dark brown blundstones.  Somehow she had avoided staining any of this, while I was two hundred percent sure I had flour stains up to my shoulders.  Elissa looked up at me and asked, "Are you Lena Davis?"

"Um, yes.  How did you know?  Geez, this girl is very blunt.

"Mom talked about you." Elissa said, continuing to pipe frosting on her cookies.  She had an accent, but I decided to ask her about it later.  "Was it all good things?" I asked, with a laugh, trying to break the ice.

Elissa looked up and smiled, "She said that you seem like a very hard worker.  She just thinks you're so young and shouldn't waste your life away to boring office work just yet." 

"That's what she said?  I thought that she was upset because I thought that the resort didn't have a dry cleaner." I laughed.  

Elissa laughed as well, "Lots of people think that at first, but this resort has plenty of things, you just don't notice it at first.  I had to explore a ton when I came here to learn every nook and cranny." 

"Wait, I thought Mrs. Meade, your mom, worked here for a long time.  Wouldn't you-?"  I shut up because I sounded like I was assuming, and the one rule Mr. Kingsley taught us at work was:  Never assume.  It makes you look like the bad guy if you're wrong.  Elissa just smiled again, and replied, "My parents died when I was five.  I'm from Russia.  I lived there in an orphanage for ten years until Mrs. Meade wanted me to come home with her when she visited.  She said I remind her of her daughter, who's off at university.  I'm trying to get into university right now, I sent in my letters in October."

"Wow!" I exclaimed, gaping, "That is quite a story.  I hope you get into whatever university you want to go to."

"Thanks!" Elissa giggled, before saying, "I suggest we get to work."

"Yeah." I agreed.  She handed me a frosting bag full of vanilla icing.  I hesitated, unsure what to do.  "Just pipe it out in any way you want to on the gingerbread men and women." Elissa told me, "A few flaws are okay, the children still eat them."

"Okay!" I said and began piping.  As I got into it, I found I focused more on more on every little detail for the gingerbread men and women.  "And you're going to have a bow tie... And you're going to have frosted braids..." I murmured, addressing each gingerbread cookie as they were being frosted.

"Are we done yet, ladies?"  I looked up to see Mrs. Meade.  Then, I looked at the clock.  Wow, I've been here for over an hour!  I guess I got super into it!  But, don't take your eyes off the prize, Lena, remember what you're here for, I told myself.  I looked at the stacks of cookies and then at Elissa.  She nodded and said to her adoptive mother, "Yes, I believe we are."

"That's great." Mrs. Meade said with a twinkle in her eye, "Because I believe our guests are here."  

I smiled at the thought, not realizing it.  "Can I go say hi?" I found myself asking.

"Of course, Lena.  Here, give me your apron." Mrs. Meade said.  I passed over my apron and dusted myself off.  I waved good bye to Elissa and then stepped towards the lobby.

But nothing would prepare me for who these guests really were!