"Uhh hi Michelle." Adalyn said with a lot of nervousness.

"Yes?" Michelle said, looking up from her phone screen. This was sorta obvious, she had no idea what Adalyn looked like.

"I'm Adalyn." Adalyn said.

At this, Michelle's eyes widened. She got up from her chair and said, "oh my god! Hi Adalyn. Please sit."

Adalyn sat down in the seat opposite to Michelle's seat. As Adalyn sat down, Michelle sat down in her seat, with a glowing light in her eyes.

"So umm, how are you?" Adalyn asked, trying to create conversation.

"I'm great. How about you?" Michelle asked.

"I'm good, thanks for asking." Adalyn smiled.

"Adalyn, the picture you clicked is very very breathtaking." Michelle said while saying the word 'very' twice.

"Thank you so much Michelle. I feel honored to hear this from my idol." Adalyn said.

"I really can't wait to work with you." Michelle smiled. "Can I ask you a few questions?"

Adalyn got a little nervous upon hearing this. But she didn't let any nervousness show on her face.

"Yeah of course feel free to ask anything." Adalyn said.

"So, you're 17 years old right?" Michelle questioned.

"Yeah. I was born on 12th May, 2003. So I turned 17 this year."

"That's great. Can you tell me about your family?"

Adalyn and Laura usually refrained from talking about their family. Not that there's something to hide, they always got a little emotional while talking about Jacob. But Adalyn wanted this internship and she was determined to do anything.

"Yeah okay. Well, my mum's name is Laura Henderson. She owns this café. She has always supported me in whatever I did and I have always supported her. She's awesome." Adalyn smiled, which made Michelle let out a smile too.

"And what about your father?"

Adalyn's breath hitched as Michelle mentioned her father. But she wanted this internship so she didn't let a breath hitch ruin her chances to work with her idol.

"My father's name was Jacob Henderson."

When Adalyn said 'was', Michelle's eyes widened.

"Adalyn, its okay if you don't want to talk about your father-"

"No Michelle it's alright."

"Okay. But if you feel uncomfortable we can stop discussing about it."

"Okay." Adalyn continued, "he was amazing. He supported me and my mother a lot. He had always adored my mum's cooking so he bought this place for her. He had always loved my photography, so he was the one who bought me my first camera, when I was seven. He had his own business, but his passion was photography; he was amazing at it. I think I inherited that from him." Adalyn let out a small chuckle and proceeded, "photography was a mere passion for him, but for me its something I want to pursue. He had always supported me. And about my DSLR," Adalyn said while pointing to the camera which was now on the table instead of around her neck, "was given to me by my mum when I turned 15."

"He sounds like a great person. And your DSLR looks amazing." Michelle said in a comforting tone.

"Yes he was, and thanks." Adalyn smiled.

"Do you have any siblings?"

"No I'm an only child."

"And what about best friends?"

"I don't have much of a social life; I only have one best friend, Lorelai. She is more than a friend, she's like my sister. She has always been with me every step of my life. I really wanted her today with me, but some relatives of hers are coming over to her house, so she couldn't come. Lorelai was the one who took me to the place where I clicked the picture for my contest entry."

"Lorelai sounds like a lovely person who supports you a lot."

"She does. She loves to dance. I really support her for that."

There was a moment of silence which Adalyn decided to break.

"You came to Adelaide alone?" Adalyn asked.

"Yeah. I wanted some people with me, but since Ruel's London performances are nearing, they all had to prepare for that."

"Oh okay."

"You'll get to meet the rest of the members when we reach London. I am in Adelaide until the 10th of October. We both will go from here to London together on 11th, and the rest of the team will meet us there as they'll come from Sydney."

"That's alright. So can you tell more about this internship?"

"Well yeah sure. The first thing is that it is free and it is for two weeks and is in London. You knew this as this all was mentioned on the website." At this Adalyn nodded and Michelle continued, "so you'll be clicking pictures for Ruel in his concerts and photo sessions. I'm going to teach you all that I think you need to learn about. The way I work is that first I click loads of pictures and then I edit all of them accordingly. Then I choose the ones which are alright. The ones which are chosen are sometimes posted by me or by Ruel on our socials. You with me so far?" Adalyn nodded again.

"So, you have social media right?"

"Yeah I have Instagram, but I don't post much, just the pictures I clicked."

"Oh what's your username?" Michelle asked as she pulled out her phone and pressed on the Instagram icon.

"Its adalyn_henderson_03. All letters small."

Michelle typed in the username in the search bar and some users showed up. She selected the first one and asked her, "is that you?"

"Yeah that's me." Adalyn said after seeing the familiar profile.

"Well, your account is private so I can't see your posts. I just followed you." Michelle said with a smile.

"Okay that's cool. I already follow you." She pulled out her phone and opened Instagram. Surely there was one following request from Michelle. She accepted it. As Michelle was granted acceptance, she began scrolling through Adalyn's Instagram feed. She would gasp at the pictures often as each picture enchanted her.

"Whoa Adalyn. The pictures you clicked are so amazing!" She said as she scrolled more to see more posts.

"Thank you so much Michelle." Adalyn smiled.

As Michelle scrolled through the posts, she kept on liking all of them. And because of that Adalyn's phone was vibrating a lot with notifications from Instagram, saying that michelleghunder has liked the posts.

After Michelle had liked pretty much each and every post she put her phone, screen down, on the table.

"So Adalyn, do you know about Ruel?" Michelle asked.

"Yeah I do, I really like his music. But to be honest, I came to know about him after you announced about your contest. He was mentioned in the guidelines of the contest and I was viewing them with Lorelai. As I came across Ruel's name, I asked her who he is and then she told me about him and made me listen to his songs. He's brilliant by the way." Adalyn replied.

"He was really excited about this contest. And when it was decided that you're the winner, he got extremely happy as you are his age mate. He's always had team mates who are older than him, so it's big that he has a team member his age now." Michelle said, but she left out Olivia in this reply. Their team doesn't really talk about her as it may affect Ruel.

"Oh that's great. I am really looking forward to getting to know him."

"Hi Addie I hope everything's going well." A familiar sweet voice came from behind. Adalyn turned around to be face to face with her mum who was smiling back at her.

"Yes mum all is well." Adalyn said.

"Oh Michelle meet my mum, Laura. Mum this is Michelle. Michelle, mum. Mum, Michelle." Adalyn said while gesturing with her hands.

"Hello Laura." Michelle said with a smile as she let her hand out for Laura to shake.

"Hello Michelle." Laura smiled back while shaking her hand.

"Your daughter is extremely talented." Michelle said.

"Thank you. I've seen the pictures you've clicked. You're extremely talented too." Laura said sweetly.

"Thank you." Michelle smiled.

"You must be hungry. What will you like to eat?" Laura asked the both of them as she handed them the menus. Well, only to Michelle. Laura already knew what Adalyn loves to eat here.

After looking around the menu for about 30 seconds, Michelle decided on some cinnamon roll along with some cold coffee. Laura went inside to prepare Michelle's and Adalyn's order. Michelle and Adalyn continued on with their discussion.

"So I've seen that you can click amazing pictures of nature. How are you at clicking pictures of people?" Michelle asked.

"I think I'm alright at that. I really like to click candid pictures; they're the best. People's front or people's side profile, it according to me really makes a difference. Lorelai has always been my model. I have clicked a lot of pictures of her. Whenever she isn't aware that I am clicking her pictures, she looks extremely beautiful. I click her pictures when she dances, I try to capture the grace she shows through her performances. Or sometimes she just simply poses for me."

"Can you show these to me? As on your Instagram account, you have only posted pictures of nature."

"Yeah sure I'd love to. Those are actually in my camera." Adalyn picked up her camera from the table and switched it on. She quickly accessed all the pictures she wanted to show Michelle. After that, she handed the camera to her.
Michelle held it with care as her right hand's thumb moved clock wise on the dial on the camera as she moved through the pictures.

"These are amazing Adalyn! You can click amazing pictures of people too." Michelle said, not lifting her gaze from the camera.

"Thank you Michelle. You have no idea how nice it feels to hear it from you." Adalyn said, not able to wipe the smile off her face.

Laura came to their table with their food; Michelle's cinnamon roll and cold coffee and Adalyn's white sauce pasta with garlic bread.

Michelle kept the camera back on the table and both of them began to eat. They indulged in a conversation; Michelle told about her experience as a photographer for Ruel and also about all the dumb things he does all the time. Upon listening so much about Ruel, Adalyn became more and more impatient to meet him.

They both finished their food within 15 minutes. They had a lot of fun discussions, which made Adalyn more excited about the internship. Michelle and Adalyn became good friends.

"I think I should get going now." Michelle said, as she got up the chair.

"Okay. It was so nice to meet you." Adalyn said as she got up from the chair and shared a small hug with Michelle. Laura came out from the kitchen and gave a small hug to Michelle too.

"Laura your café is extremely beautiful and the food is very delicious. How much do I need to pay for my meal?" Michelle asked while pulling out her wallet from her back pocket.

"Oh that's nonsense. You don't have to pay at all. You have done more than enough by choosing my daughter as the winner." Laura smiled.

"Are you sure? Let me pay for my meal." Michelle tried to reason.

"No no. It is not required at all." Laura said.

"Okay. Well," Michelle said while turning to face Adalyn, "I can't wait for the internship to begin."

"I can't wait too." Adalyn said.

"See you later Adalyn, see you later Laura. Bye." Michelle gave another hug to the both of them and went out of the café.

"Bye Michelle." Adalyn and Laura said together, as she walked out.

As Michelle walked out of the café, Adalyn and Laura began screaming. They were so happy for all that had happened and they truly can't wait for all that is to come.

But, the real question is, are they prepared for all that is about to come?

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Author's note
My longest chapter yet 🥵 but it was real fun. Michelle and Adalyn have started to get along don't you think? And don't forget to follow me for updates and to click on the star!

With love through health and sickness
Keziah