ON THE WAY DOWN
Chapter 1The office was dark and quiet as the young blonde woman unlocked and opened the front door. She flipped on the lights and looked around; all was as it had been the previous evening. The cabinets in the lobby were stocked full, the chairs sat neatly in a row, and the television had been turned off.
Elizabeth (Lizzie) McGuire smiled to herself. Had someone told her when she was younger that by twenty-six years old, she'd own her own veterinary clinic, have a beautiful home all her own, and be driving around town in a convertible BMW, she would probably have called them crazy.
As a high school student, Lizzie struggled to maintain a high GPA in the most advanced classes the school offered, and often punished herself for anything lower than an A. Her self-esteem had been far too low at the time, and a "bad" grade was something that could ruin even her happiest times.
But she kept her grades up, and graduated second in the entire senior class. She was quickly accepted into a host of colleges, finally settling on the University of Michigan, which was known for it's veterinary program. Once she completed college, she'd gone to work as an assistant to the best-known vet in Detroit for two years before moving to a town in Florida called Orange Park.
It was there that she'd purchased the moderately sized office and opened her own veterinary clinic, paying for almost everything with money borrowed from her parents. But that no longer mattered, as she'd paid them back everything she'd borrowed, with interest, from all the profit she received.
Lizzie headed to the back room to check on all of her overnight patients. Seeing that they were fine, she went back up to her office and sat down to review her list of patients for the day. She had an hour before the first appointment, so she looked through the refrigerator and had a cup of yogurt while she thumbed through a copy of Cat Fancy.
Half an hour later, one of Lizzie's assistants arrived. "Hey, Nicole," she greeted.
The younger girl, a veterinary student, uttered a sleepy "good morning" as she put her purse up in a cabinet.
"Up late last night?" Lizzie asked, flipping on the coffee maker and giving Nicole a sympathetic look. She knew all too well what kind of late nights were attached to college.
"Oh, God. I thought my head was going to explode, I had so much crap to study," Nicole said.
Lizzie smiled. "It'll pay off in the end. You could have just called and I wouldn't care if you came in a couple hours later. I can handle opening up alone. You know my morning patients are always the little guys."
This was set in stone in Lizzie's office. Unless the situation was very extreme or urgent, she only treated small pets, mainly cats, before 10:00 because dogs (and the occasional goat, surprisingly) were often feisty patients and required more energy than the early morning hours provided.
"Yeah, I know… it's just, I think it's kind of unprofessional, y'know? Nothing against the way you run your workplace or anything, I just am not comfortable with the idea," Nicole said, picking up the list of patients for the day and skimming over it. Only two appointments that day were dogs. There were six cat appointments, two birds, and…
"A horse?!" Nicole's face reflected the shock in her tone of voice.
Lizzie laughed. "The woman's coming from Middleburg, has a farm out there. Her regular vet is out of the country for a month and her horse just needs his teeth cleaned and filed. I told her to go ahead and bring him in, and we'll do it outside, obviously," she said.
At that moment, the bell on the front door jingled. "Okay then... That's Mrs. Rubenstein with that rotten, crabby cat of hers. I'll go ahead and get room one ready." Nicole hurried out of the office and Lizzie downed the last of her orange juice before putting on her white coat. Mrs. Rubenstein's cat was getting old, and had a tendency to bite or scratch anyone who touched her. Lizzie pulled a pair of thick bird-handling gloves over her hands and arms, then sighed before heading in to greet her patient.
"Good luck with this one, McGuire," she mumbled to herself as she neared the first room. Putting on her nicest smile, she opened the door and stepped in. "Good morning!"