Linda returned, tossing her ponytail smugly as she held a clipboard. "We're a bit short in the parking lot," she said, her voice cloyingly sweet, an insult disguised as delegation. "You wouldn't mind being deployed there, would you, Aurora?"
It hadn't been a question, so it required no answer.
Alice merely nodded, jaw locked tight, and turned on her heel. Linda smirked, victorious, and sashayed away in search of her next victim.
Alice crossed the open grounds toward the volunteer post near the gates, cones crookedly aligned, paper signage fluttering weakly in the wind. The sun had risen high enough to cast a glare across the pavement, warming the air, smothering her in heat.
The blue vest clung to her like a spotlight. A joke.
She stood by a sign that read "Parking Check-In" and felt, more than ever, unwanted. Unnoticed. Unimportant.
Until the engines purred in.
Then, the 'set' came.
