Chapter 12

Standing at the door was Mr. Mortez, "So, how is it that my phytologists, struggled to find the cause of the rash for nearly 5 months, yet here you are, figuring it out in less than 5 minutes," Mr. Mortez's voice sounded somewhat threatening, but Lumae kept herself calm, "Well Mr. Mortez, you see, I actually made this exact combination when I was eighteen, and discovered how to fix it...," Mr. Mortez cut her short, "Do you really expect me to believe that we've been struggling for almost half a year, and you just miraculously came across the answer to our problem when you were eighteen. Tell me what your group did to our project, and you might just be able to see another day." Clearly noticing the threat in Mr. Mortez's voice, Lumae takes a step back, "S-Sir, I really don't know what you're talking about, I was really just obsessed with plants from a young age, which is why I was able to find a solution to this exact problem at the age of eighteen," Mr. Mortez then scoffed, turned around and didn't even bother to continue questioning Lumae. Not even a minute later, Jackson came into 'the forest', "Lumae! You won't believe this! We have finally perfected the formula for our new product, thanks to you!", Lumae smiles, "That's great Jackson."

Jackson then proceeds to go towards a pinboard with a lot of notes on the Roseus, taking them off neatly, "Now I just need to take these to get filed. You can go to Scarlett to find out what our new task is going to be. See you in a bit." Lumae heads towards the elevator and presses the "up" button. As she waited for the elevator to reach the 10th floor, she heard people talking down the hall, "Oh, but did you hear about that newcomer? Apparently, she was able to find a solution for the Roseus in less than 5 minutes". The entire group started laughing, until someone else started speaking, "Do you seriously expect us to believe that the newcomer is some sort of plant Einstein? Jackson probably did all the work and gave her the credit to make her look good". Everyone then laughed even louder than before. The elevator had finally made it to the 10th floor and Lumae rushed in to try and avoid the group, but she was too late.

A man with mousy brown hair stopped the elevator door from closing and walked in. As soon as he saw Lumae inside, he had a judgmental look on his face, "Speak of the devil". The group laughed once again and wanted to make another remark, but were stopped when Mr. Mortez stepped into the elevator, pressing the button for the 12th floor. Lumae at least didn't have to stay with that group for too long, since they got off on the 11th floor, leaving her and Mr. Mortez alone in the elevator, but he only spoke once the elevator doors were shut, "I'm sorry if I came off as threatening to you. There are just a bunch of other companies trying to either, steal or destroy our information. It has happened that a company once managed to frame us for plagiarism after getting their hands on some of our information, but we at least managed to prove that everything was ours and got out of that situation. I guess what I'm trying to say is, I'm sorry for acting this way." The elevator doors then opened, and Mr. Mortez left, not allowing Lumae to be able to say anything else. She really didn't expect to get an apology from Mr. Mortez at all, so she was quite shocked, but she pulled herself together.

She stepped out of the elevator and headed towards the secretary's office, where she found Scarlett, knee-deep in an entire heap of files, "Oh, hey May. What's wrong?" Lumae saw how Scarlett struggled to pick up a stack of files from the floor and bent down to help pick up half of them, "Jackson sent me to come and get our new assignment, "Oh, right. I've heard about your cool problem-solving skills. No wonder Mr. Mortez hired you on the spot. You truly have a talent girl," Scarlett starts searching for something in a file rack, but seems to be struggling, "Hmm, now let me see. I could've sworn that I put it right... Ah-hah, found it," Scarlett pulls out a green file and hands it to Lumae, "Here ya go. So before you start with this, usually you guys would first find information about the plants needed for this project online, then when you've gathered enough information, you guys can go on a little business, exploration trip, to go find the plants. Personally, that's the part where I'd say that I love my job, but unfortunately I'll always be stuck in an office, heh, heh," Lumae smiles sympathetically, "Thanks Scarlett, and I'm sure that you'll soon be able to escape this office and go to the beach or something", Scarlett laughs for a second then continues searching for a file, "Well, I've gotta get back to it, I'll maybe see you later," "Okay Scarlett, see you soon."

Lumae leaves the secretary's office and heads back down to the 10th floor, where she then met up with Jackson again, "Hey Jackson. This is our new assignment," "Oh, great. Now we can finally head home". Lumae was once again completely confused, "Wait, head home, but we hardly even did anything", Jackson came to a realisation, "Oh, yeah, I completely forgot to tell you. When we get a new assignment, we go home and do our own separate research, then the next day we compare our finding, choose the type of plant that would probably best suit the project, choose a location nearest to us and after a few days, go on a nice business trip in to go and find the flowers, bring them here, grow them for a few weeks, then use them in the new product and if the product has any problems, try to find a solution." Lumae was quite shocked about the amount of work they had ahead of them, "So basically what your saying is that, after today, we're gonna be seeing each other's faces every single day," Jackson smiled and jokingly said, "Yup, but at you don't have too bad of a view to look at," he makes a superhero stance, placing both of his fists on either side of his hips, lifting his head and closing his eyes. Lumae can't help but let out a laugh at his goofy gesture, "Sure, if you say so," Jackson breaks his pose and dramatically gasps, "Does thou think that I am ugly! Ye shall not get away with this!", Lumae once again burst out laughing, Jackson following behind.

As they were doing so, Mr. Mortez walked by, noticing how much they were laughing and, for some reason, he didn't like it, at all. Something about the two of them having so much fun together irritated him so much that he almost couldn't bear it. He didn't know why he suddenly felt the need to separate them. He was about to go into 'the forest' to tell Lumae that she had to move to another group. His hand was already hovering over the handle, but he stopped himself, since he didn't have a good reason to do so. He then retracted his hand and furiously turned to walk in the direction that he was already going in, trying to ignore the giggles coming from 'the forest'.