I stared at the folded square, my eyebrows furrowed slightly but a small smile broke onto my features. How funny? I may not be a brainiac but I did love to try and train my brain, I wasn't great at it but it was still fun. My curiosity and competitive nature got the better of me and I found myself racking my brain for any type of answer, coming up with nothing.
I tried to distract myself, serving customers, cleaning what needed to be cleaned and re-arranged our entire store room but nothing helped. The riddle burned in my brain and I couldn't seem to find the answer.
"What gets wetter and wetter the more it dries?" I asked myself out loud, hoping it would help but came up with nothing. Before I knew it my shift was over, Jeremy entering to take my place. Jeremy easily fits in with the scum bag population of Gotham, he was disgusting, only getting the job because his Uncle owns the cafè.
"Hey Alice, damn these day shifts do you well, looking fine." I rolled my eyes before smiling politely.
"Thank you, Jeremy. If you don't mind, I really have to get home." I replied, knowing that if I told him off I could get fired and this was the only thing keeping me off the street.
"You can't stay for a little while longer?" He pouted, his chapped lips pressed together in a disgusting smirk.
"No, I'm sorry, I have far too much to do," I exclaimed, gathering my things, making sure to collect the napkin along the way. I swiftly made my way to the door, bidding farewell to the gross co-worker and on my way to my car.
The car was the last thing my parents gifted me before they found out that I was no longer attending the education they had paid for. They refused to pay for anything else after that, saying that if I didn't want to improve my status that I should learn to be financially independent. The car was equipped with all types of fantastic technology my parents had concocted in the labs. Including a face scanner, intoxication reading and bullet proof walls and ceiling.
I pressed the call button on my car, it being connected to my phone and waited for my mother to answer. As much as they were disappointed in my choices they were still my parents and they loved to know I was ok.
"Hello, Joanne Morelle speaking." Mum's professional tone rang through the car speaker.
"Hey mum, it's Alice, just calling to see how you are," I spoke down the line.
"Oh Alice, I'm doing fine, work is stressful but that's nothing new." She sounded tired, but still positive as usual.
"Lex isn't working you too hard I hope, speak of, how is Lex?" I asked, having not seen the billionaire in a while.
"As he always is, he's been asking about you actually, you should call him. He's a good man." Mum had been trying to set me up with Lex Luthor ever since we were kids, my parents being the two most trusted scientists in the organisation.
"I will mum, how's dad doing?" My father was the definition of a workaholic, he is constantly consumed in whatever task he was assigned to and it hit him the hardest when he found out I dropped out. We hadn't had the same relationship since.
"Same as usual honey, he's been focusing on meta-humans with Lex a lot and that's the only thing he speaks about." She sounded happy for him but not thrilled about the topic.
"Well, that's dad for you. Hey, I'm going to have to say goodbye, I just got home." I explained.
"Ok honey, don't forget to call Lex, he misses you." I laughed at her.
"Ok mum, I promise I'll call him. Goodbye." I promised her.
"Goodbye, sweetheart." With that the phone call ended and I got out of my car, locking the doors with the scientifically created technology that Lex had insisted I get for safety reasons and he was far too hard to argue with.
I made my way up to the top floor of a nice enough apartment building, getting the rent cheaper because the previous tenant died in the room I'm sleeping in. But in Gotham, a ghost is the least of my worries and if it meant I got a decent apartment for a cheaper price I was willing to risk it.
"Honey, I'm home," I called to the obviously empty apartment, chuckling at my own joke. You have to be a certain type of person to laugh at your own joke about how lonely you are.
I continued around my apartment, not knowing exactly what to do with the free time I've been given, usually having to go to uni straight after work and vice versa. I plopped on the couch, turning the television on to some mindless show to try and keep me distracted from the riddle that was circling through my thoughts. It was only a few minutes before the show was abandoned altogether and I found myself with a notepad and pencil, scribbling down the riddle over and over in an attempt to solve it.
After an alarming span of time trying to work out the riddle it occured to me that I needed to shower, still smelling like coffee from today. I turned off the TV and hauled myself off the couch, noticing the sun being replaced by the moon and a dark sky in what I thought was only half an hour or so, obviously taking longer than expected to be working on the riddle.
I quickly made dinner for myself, it just being a sandwich because I couldn't be bothered making anything else and I just wanted something to eat before I had my shower. I scarfed down the food and made my way into the bathroom, throwing my clothes in a basket on the way and getting into the warm water.
Getting the dirt of today scrubbed off, leaving my hair to be done another day I hopped out of the shower, grabbing my towel and wrapping it around myself, trodding over to my room to change. I began to dry myself with the towel and changing into pyjamas. I picked up the now wet towel when it hit me. What gets wetter and wetter the more it dries?
A towel
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Hey hi and hello!
Hope you enjoyed the chapter and little Lex references, did you like BvS Lex? In this book he is the same age as the movie because I have the power to screw up the time lines ;)
I promise it is going to get more exciting! I've had this book in my mind for so long and I'm so excited to publish it.
~Mikayla
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Riddles on Napkins // E.Nygma
Fanfiction"From riddles on napkins to kisses on the cheek, my-my Edward how far you've come." Alice Morelle wasn't the brightest flower in the bunch, that being the sole reason she had decided against returning to the University that was supposed to giv...
