Chapter I: Pink Nurse
I stared at the hospital in awe, my stomach filled with butterflies. I nibble on my bottom lip, 'this is it, my big day. I needed to make a good impression.' My first day and I was already doing a 12-hour shift.
'A 12-hour shift' I think, my heart pounding against my chest, 'that a lot of time to make a big mistake.' I frown, my luck was the worst and walk to the entrance of the ER the sliding doors opening.
I stand there frozen, my nerves a wreck. I did my externship already. I was a good nurse in training at my externship. I also aced all my tests and also my practicals. I could do this and I was just about to enter until I had a man yelling from behind me.
"Get out of the way!" a man shouts and continues shouting, "Code Blue!"
His radio is going off on his shirt, the words a garbled mess, well to me they were. I'm sure he was able to make sense of every word that came out of his radio. He is administering space ventilations while the other EMT a small girl with pink hair pulled high is on the other side of the stretcher administering compressions. I notice how her small body is like a well-oiled machine moving up and down in the attempts to get the man's heart beating again while her partner tried to keep a supply of oxygen flowing.
I flatten myself against the doorway, and I gradually feel my face heating in embarrassment. I notice a code team rushing to the stretcher while many words are quickly exchanged between the doctor and nurses on the code team in a flurry. They travel through a few sets of double doors, the wheels of the stretcher squeaking horribly on the titles. The patient and the code team disappear down a long hallway which I assumed lead to the specialized rooms.
I glance behind me, the lights on the ambulance flashing red and white without sound. I take a deep breath and venture further in, extremely humiliated and nervous. I hoped I didn't see those EMT or I at least hoped they wouldn't remember my face since they were too focused on the patient in cardiopulmonary arrest.
I encourage myself, the time getting closer to the exact minute I start my first 12-hour shift. I approach a blond woman with a roman nose behind a desk which the words registration over her booth. Her eyes bare a bored expression as she looks at me, studying my form.
She finally asks, "What brings you in today?"
I mumble playing with my fingers, "For my first 12 hours shift."
She doesn't respond to me but picks up a phone instead, her fingers moving effortly over buttons without looking and then her eyes look past me. I hear the swish of the sliding doors and I turn my head to look back momentarily seeing a group of people entering. I look back at her becoming more nervous not liking the fact I was holding up potentially sick patients. I see one of her long fingers tapping her desk impatient while still being on the phone. She finally speaks, and I felt like its been forever even though I'm sure only a minute has passed; however, she only says two words.
"New nurse," she states and she hangs the phone up with a click. Her eyes finally focus on mine, "Phinks will be right out for you, he is coming from the double doors on your right," she states and points to the doors for visual instructions.
I nod my head while thinking her voice was so clear and easily understandable. Her short answers and lack of friendliness didn't bother me at all. But before I get too far from her, I hear her call out to me.
"Girl, good luck on your first day," she says with a half smile that is directed at me and I feel a little bit better about today.
And before I could get near the double doors she directed me towards, one of the doors bams open and a tall blonde man in green scrubs is holding the door open. He has a scowl on his face and one eye narrows at me as his brows furrow.
He looked like a gangster with poorly dyed blonde hair but still, he looked very intimidating and I felt myself shrink back. He could be a behavioral health patient who escaped and had killed a nice and kind looking nurse and stole his scrubs. He looks directly at Paku.
"Oi, you. Hanging up on me! Do you have any manners at all Paku? I'm very busy!" he yells and he even has a gangster like accent.
The blonde woman who helped me I can only assume her name was Paku now pretends not to hear him. The blondes glare intensifies after he yelled at her but the woman named Paku continues to ignore him waiting on other patients. The blonde man begins to tap his foot irritatedly and then starts grinding his teeth, as he folds his arms over his chest, the door he was holding with his hands being held open by his body. Finally, after registering her patients Paku looks over at him
"Do you need anything Phinks?"
"Do I need anything Paku? Is that what you say to me, don't pretend-" he starts to shout each word getting louder.
"How long are you going to make the new nurse wait Phinks?" Paku asks cooly her eyes returning to her computers as her fingers start to move across the keyboard without a single glance down. Phinks mouth is agape before his brain starts to put together what he wants to say but before he could shout, he is interrupted when she says snottily, "It's rude to ignore someone."
I glance between the two. But wasn't she just ignoring Phinks not even a minute ago... I look back at Phinks and his evil gangster glare is now directed at me. She had effectively pissed him off and now I would have to suffer a whole 12-hour shift with this man. How did a man like him become a nurse anyway?
"Yes?" I whisper shrinking back more from the taller man.
"You..." he states curling his lip before taking a quick evil sideways glance at Paku before spitting out to her, "Paku, I'll talk to you later. I'm too busy to deal with your shit."
Paku answers him almost immediately in that cold and deadpan voice of hers, "Do I need to remind you what Chrollo said?" she asks still typing away at her keyboard her eyes sliding right to left reading whatever was on her screen.
"Don't you bring boss into this, you shitty no good woman! Whatever just wait when you need something!" he shouts grumbling his last sentence quietly.
It seemed he had forgotten all about me and I look back at Paku who had stopped typing. I narrow my eyes trying to discern what I am actually seeing. I notice in the glass reflection of her booth I can see what she is viewing on her screen but I really can't believe it... She is watching youtube videos of kittens so she is purposely annoying and antagonizing the blonde man. I just can't believe Phinks hadn't seen it like I did. Maybe he was seriously dumb? I feel his stare on me and look back up at him.
"You... You what the hell are you smirking about? Huh?!" he asks sneering still having one side of his lips pulled back menacingly.
"O-hh n-othing, n-othing a-t a-ll" I stutter, the butterflies in my stomach back in full force.
"It better be nothing," he states huffing and pulls his lips in a straight line as if thinking before he asks, "You... What's your name? You never told me."
"Its its um Piper, my name is Piper Vanner. Your name is Phinks right and I'll be shadowing you right?" I ask after answering him, my words still jittery.
Though right now I felt sick to my stomach, literally sick to my stomach. I always got so queasy when I first started a new job or anything new without my friends or family. If I could crawl out of my skin I would definitely would. I could only pray right now I didn't get sick. It would be so embarrassing if I did. I didn't even know where the bathrooms were or anything at all really. The hospital was huge and I knew I was going to get lost. I would have to go pee soon, I really shouldn't have drank so much coffee.
"I told you my name already, don't be like that witch woman fucking god damn ignoring. I'm always so busy type type typing away..." he bitches before he continues mumbling my name many times in a row, "Piper Piper... Piper... Piper..." He pauses several times before he shouts "HA! I know, it's perfect. I am so brilliant." he says to himself and he reaches for his chin rubbing it proudly as he closes his eyes and a smirk replaces his frown.
He definitely didn't tell me his name, I overheard it... Wait... No... He was going to give me gross chores wasn't he, just cause I couldn't control myself from smirking after realizing what that woman was doing. I heard about this from other people that they give the new nurses all the grossest chores or tasks to do to bully them and also welcome them to the workplace. It was like a hazing. He was probably going to tell me to sponge bath some old disgusting men or do manual disimpaction, or even empty colonoscopy bags. I was aware I would be doing a lot of chores like that but I also wanted to be learning new things and helping others other than squeezing poop from a bag like toothpaste.
"Pip that is your new name, your original name was too long," he states humming pleased with himself.
"Oh, I see... Thank you..." I reply not knowing what else to say to him.
"Great. I'm going to show you everything. I'll have to get you a name badge... And I'll have to show you where the vending machines are and the gym too! Man the gym here is great, we got treadmills, awesome weight area, bikes, those big balls, and a lot of other things," he says excitedly especially his words pertaining to the gym.
Did he not realize I wasn't an exercise person or an athlete. Did he not get a good look at me?... He gave me eye contact, he did look at me. So he must have saw I was overweight. I was chubby, had a round face from my big cheeks from my weight, my thighs rubbed against each other when I walked, and I hardly had a waist. Was he making fun of me?... I didn't think so... I think he just liked the gym and liked talking about his hobbies and what he is passionate about. He was one of those.
"Thank you, I will be in your care," I say quietly.
"Oh Oh. I almost forgot but we got a pool here too! It's awesome. Boss lets us use it after the physical therapy patients are done for the day. Cool huh? I mean boss is a pretty awesome man. There is no one better than him from his handsome good looks and his skills." he rambles on excitedly before he realized we weren't in the same spot.
"Hey come on Pip," he says loudly waving me forward towards the door he was leaning against.
I mean what else was there to say to the man but a thank you once for my name change and for his information and help for today. My original name was too long? My first name is five letters long. How is that long? And did he seriously rename me? I can't believe I was stuck with a complete weirdo and I follow behind him unsure how my day would end.
And boss... I remembered I was hired by an individual with the last name Lucilfer. I don't recall the man's first name only his last name, I don't think he told me. He could be speaking about a completely different person then the person who hired me. The woman had called the man Phinks referred to as boss as Chrollo and Chrollo didn't sound like a last name either.
I was 90 percent sure I was hired by the person in charge of the nurses but I could be wrong, I was just so nervous during the interview. Phinks could be speaking about the practice manager for the ER or someone more important like the director and not the head of the nurses. And oh god that interview was so bad and I can't believe I got hired.
I walk through the doors and I am greeted by many different noises, sounds, and sights. And once the door closes behind me the busy ER is revealed. Nurses are speed walking from one hallway and turning into another hallway, doctors are walking by with their noses in their Ipads looking at patient charts and not really paying attention to where they are going, and lights above patient's rooms are flashing alerting nurse the patient needs attention.
Even though I worked in the ER as a student and during my externship, this was really starting to feel overwhelming and I start to pray more that I would survive this day without any mishaps or killing anyone...
Though little did I know a pair of curious grey eyes were watching me from the nursing station. They belonged to an individual who literally wheeled people to the infernos of hell.