"No! I'm gonna be late for my first day of work."
"Thump!" I fell out of bed landing on my face getting up in a hurry.
"Oww! Oww!" I rubbed my face. "No time to waste!"
I quickly picked out the suit I prepared for today and dragged it onto my body while brushing my teeth.
"My socks! Where did I put them?" I said searching the kitchen.
"Morning Kazuma." Ami walked into the kitchen yawning. "What are you looking for?"
"My socks, I can't find them anywhere," I said still searching the kitchen.
"If I remember correctly, you put them in your shoes." She replied
"Oh no! Where're my shoes." I said tugging my hair in stress.
"They're on the shoe stand by the front door," Ami replied.
"Ami! Thank you so much." I hugged Ami tightly rubbing my cheek against hers. "What would I do without you."
"Let go! You need to get ready for where you're going. Here, let me help you." Ami offered. "You're tall so you're gonna have to kneel for me."
She properly buttoned my work shirt, fixed my tie so it looked professional, and set my hair nicely.
"There you go. Now you look professional." She said smiling. "Now hurry and put on your socks and shoes."
Ami was a sweet person maybe I was acting too harsh cause she looked childlike because of her height. I should apologize to her.
"Um... Ami." I called to her
"Yes, Kazuma." She answered
"I just wanna... I'm sorry for... Treating you the way I did." I said looking away in shyly.
"Huh. What are you talking about?" Ami asked.
"Well... Umm... I mean... Y'know... Like a-" Ami interrupted me. "You're already late. Stop talking and go." Ami said sternly.
"Alright, I'm going. See you later then." I said stepping out the door as Ami watched me leave.
"Safe journey," Ami said waving me goodbye.
I made my way to the nearest bus stop, barely making it on time. As I dropped myself into the nearest empty window seat almost exhausted. I looked outside and saw the city, it was beautiful. Not extremely crowded and filthy like the capital where I studied. The beautiful lush green trees that decorated the sidewalk looked as though they were running next to the bus which brought back innocent childhood memories. As the bus travelled onwards, people got on and off. From old to young, busy to nonchalant, children to adults and even a pregnant mother breastfeeding her child in the open. Which was a bit awkward because she sat right next to me and I was extremely tempted to look at her exposed breast but held myself back. This city was so much more heavenly compared to the hell area I lived in before while I was studying. Graffiti on every wall, gangs and gang violence, drug dealers on almost every corner, muggings at night and homeless people. I got mugged every other week until they started recognising me and forced me to pay 'protection fees' instead. Not to mention the rented house I stayed in was infested with rats and other termites breaking the house apart every second. I'm surprised it didn't collapse and kill me while I stayed there. Despite those things, since it was close by to my university and the cheapest place to rent, I dealt with it for years.
"Next stop! Ridgefield!" Yelled the bus driver. "Anyone for Ridgefield?"
"That's my stop sir!" I yelled grabbing the driver's attention.
"Waaah! Waah! Waah!" The pregnant lady's baby began crying from my shouting.
"Oh my God! I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to do that." I immediately apologized to her.
"Oh! Don't worry she'll calm down soon." The pregnant lady assured me. "I just hope she doesn't projectile vomit."
I was caught off guard and asked "Projectile... What?"
"Oh! It's just sometimes when she wakes up abruptly she vomits. No big deal!" The pregnant lady brushed it off as if this were a regular occurrence. "I'm probably gonna have to apologize soon." She added looking at her baby.
"Blegh! Blegh!" The baby vomited in my direction as if to get back at me, it hit my socks and my shoes making them all sticky, wet and smell disgusting.
"No! No! No! Not my only good work shoes." I panicked pulling my hair out of anguish. At the same time, the bus driver pulled over to the side of the road at the Ridgefield bus stop.
"Hey! Young man! Here's your stop." The driver called to me.
Without having enough time to dwell on what happened to my shoes I got up and exited the bus in my baby vomit soaked socks.
"Haaaa!" I long sighed. "Curse my luck." I looked down at my phone and immediately began sprinting. I was approximately 10 minutes away from being late; there was no time to lose. Luckily for me, I knew the way to work unlike when I first came here looking for my new home. I had an interview before living here and thus, I remembered the pathway to the establishment.
"Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! GAH!" I breathed heavily as I walked through the door. I approached a receptionist seated at a desk close to the entrance.
"Um. Excuse me... Wait! Give me a minute." I said still catching my breath.
"You sound like you've just run a marathon." She giggled.
"Basically," I replied laughing as well. "But seriously, my name is Andy Kazuma and I'm supposed to be at a meeting for new employees."
"Mr Kazuma. Let me check the system quickly." She began typing at her computer. "Oh! here you are, Customer Services Department. You're meeting room is right down the hallway the last door on you're right. Please sign here for attendance."
"Thank you so much." I signed then walked down the hallway entering the last door on the right. The room had a small podium with a lady standing behind and four other people sitting in a semi-circle with one empty seat left presumably for me.
"Good morning, I'm Ms Sterling and who might you be?" Asked the lady behind the podium.
"I'm Andy Kazuma," I replied closing the door.
"Oh! Mr Kazuma. Right on time, have a seat." Ms Sterling gestured to the empty seat. I nodded to all the other people present as a sign of respect as I sat down.
"Since we are all here. I'd like to start with some introductions and one food you enjoy the most. Let's start from this side of the room and move along." As Ms Sterling finished her sentence someone stood up.
"Not to waste any time, my name is Gerald Gordon. I am 24 years old and my favourite food is anything sweet, like ice-cream." Gerald Gordon sat after he introduced himself. He was quite tall and slender with a look of confidence.
"Ah... My name is Chelsea Brown but please call me Chelsea. I am 20 years old and my favourite food is pineapples." Chelsea sat down. She seemed timid and reserved. She wore a thick vest covering her work button-up shirt, thick glasses and had slightly messy hair.
"My name is Mary Jenkins, my friends call me Jenny. I am 23 years old and my favourite food is pizza. I also like to party in my free time and cute things" Jenny sat down crossing her legs. She seemed energetic and was clearly into fashion, as she had on makeup, bright lipstick, earrings and two bracelets on each arm. Also, she had six key chains attached to her handbag. A cutesy lion, unicorn, smiling emoji, lipstick, kiss face and heart keychains.
"Hello everyone, my name is Asami Anderson. I'm 21 years old and my favourite food is sweet and sour chicken. I also hope to become friends with everyone here." Asami sat down releasing a sigh of relief. She had long beautiful black hair with a cute star hairpin to the left side. She looked awfully familiar but I couldn't find out why.
"My name is Andy (voice crack) Kazuma." My voiced cracked. Everyone giggled which made me a little nervous, to say the least. "Um... I'm 22 years old and my favourite food is oranges." I sat down.
"Thanks for the introductions. Let me formally introduce myself. I am Ms Sterling, your supervisor. Today you'll be getting a rundown of your jobs." As she began explaining, a wave of sleepiness hit me and I was zoning in and out.
"Clap!" A thunderous sound woke me.
"Huh! I'm listening!" I jumped up in fright. Ms Sterling was standing in front of me hands clasped from clapping to wake me. Everyone in the room started laughing including Ms Sterling.
"Looks like someone didn't get enough sleep." Ms Sterling said walking back to the podium.
"I'm sorry, it won't happen again." I apologized
"Well! Now that we have had a good laugh, let's take a little tour. Shall we?" Ms Sterling began walking to the door. "Follow me please." Everyone got up and began following Ms Sterling as she walked.
"This room here will be our training room for the next week before you officially start working. Moving on, the bathrooms for our department is right here in case you have to go. This portion of the building houses the sales department, they sell products for other company while we deal with complaints from the customers. Over there houses who I like to call the 'debt collectors'. They remind persons about debts they owe. This right here is probably my favourite place here; the canteen. Buy your food here, vending machines and talk with friends." Ms Sterling stopped in her tracks and began looking around the canteen nodding slowly with a little smile.
"Well, that ends the basic tour for today. You can relax here and talk for a bit then head home. We'll start training officially tomorrow." Ms Sterling began walking away when she turned to me and said: "And make sure you get enough sleep." She left.
"Wow! She is so nice and fun. I like her." Said Jenny. We were all surrounding a table and awkward silence was imminent but Jenny kept staring at us one by one, which was uncomfortable.
"I'm leaving since we don't have to stay. Chao!" Gerald waved goodbye leaving.
"I'm coming with you too." Jenny followed Gerald.
"She really is colourful," Asami said looking at Jenny leave. She turned to me and said. "Does your voice crack often?"
"Lol, only when I'm nervous," I replied chuckling.
"Also, I hope the heatstroke didn't hurt you that day," Asami said.
"Oh!" I said remembering her. " You're the lady who came up to me and showed me the store, right.
"I thought you'd forgotten completely." She said twisting her hair.
"I'm good, thanks for the help at that time."
"No problem."
"Growl!!" My stomach roared.
"Oh yeah, I didn't have anything to eat yet," I said rubbing my head.
"Um... Excuse me... I know a good place nearby." Chelsea said shyly. "It's a ramen shop nearby."
"Really! Can you show me where to please?" I grabbed Chelsea's hand out of excitement.
"S... Sure N... No problem." Chelsea said blushing
I turned to Asami and asked. "You wanna come too?"
"Sure, why not," Asami said shrugging her shoulders.
"Lead the way, Chelsea," I said.
"Yeah... Just follow me." She mumbled.
As we were leaving the building Asami asked. "Um... Kazuma, if I may ask, what's that on your shoes?"
"Ah, long story short. It's baby vomit." I replied looking down.