This is my first time writing a Golden Compass story so please be nice. The characters belong to me but the Golden Compass/His Dark Materials belong to Phillip Pullman :)

Read and Review and enjoy!

Beep beep beep beep be-

I shut the alarm up and went back to sleep. Then not a few seconds later it went off again. I groaned and rolled over.

"Come on, you can't be late for your first day!" Rookie, my raccoon daemon said, to my mind. Daemons speak using telepathy, but only to their people.

"I thought I said, I would choose when and how long the alarm would stay off for." I laid on my back and rubbed my eyes.

"If I let you do that, then we would never get to your job." Rookie walked to the chest of drawers and picked out my clothes for the day.

After a few more moments in bed, I got up and went to the bathroom. My wavy blond hair was a mess and I looked especially pale without some makeup on. I had no-one to impress, it was just nice not to look like a vampire. Also, being the pale-est person in the job of clothes shop assistant wasn't a title I wanted to have.

After having a shower and brushing my teeth, I went back into the bedroom and put on the clothes Rookie had picked out for me. I brushed my hair and looked in the mirror.

"How do I look?" I asked.

"Very nice. At least you don't have to wear smart clothes this time."

"Yeah, your right about that. Okay, let's go." I picked up my house keys and went downstairs.

"Aren't you going to have something to eat?" Rookie asked.

"We can have something on the way there." I replied and went out the door. I didn't have a car so we walked to the bus stop, which is a 3 minute walk down the road.

While waiting at the stop, a man with his cat daemon sat down and played his music loudly. I hope his daemon told him to keep it down him but the music didn't get any quieter.

Thankfully, the bus came before I and Rookie became deaf. I paid the fare and took a seat.

"What do you Molly will be doing tonight?" Rookie asked.

"Having a party, usually. I don't know where she gets the money for everything." I replied. I had met Molly while I was in college. She was the opposite of me; while I was quiet and liked my own company, Molly had maybe 100 friends and is very talkative. She also likes to throw parties whenever she can.

The bus stopped at the city centre and we got off and walked the rest of the distance to the clothes shop. On the way there, I brought a sandwich and a soda and ate them before I got there.

We arrived at the shop right on time and the shop manager led me through how to arrange the clothes and how to treat customers and when to go up to them to ask if they needed any help with anything.

I did the arranging clothes and treating customers correctly but despite Rookies prodding, I didn't go up to anyone to ask if they needed help. Call me shy, but it didn't look like anyone needed help with anything.

"Go and ask that man over there." Rookie said for maybe the 10th time today. "You could help him choose a sweater."

"He's fine." I said and folded up clothes that had been put untidily on the top shelf.

Rookie sighed. "Your not going to keep this job long, if you don't interact with people."

"I'm busy. Also if anyone needed help they would come to me. They might find it annoying, if I go up to them."

"It's called customer service." Rookie said, climbing up the clothes shelves and standing on top. "Look those people down there look lost."

I sighed. "Rookie, your standing on clothes which I need to fold up and keep clean."

"Go and ask them."

I sighed. He was not going to stop, unless I talked to someone. "Fine. Get down before the manager sees you." Rookie jumped down and we went to the two girls who were looking around the shop and were trying not to look lost. "Hello, can I help you?"

They turned around and look relieved. "Yeah, we're um looking for a pair of tracksuit trousers that have monkeys on. We came yesterday and they had some, but we didn't have money for them. We can't find them today."

"Have you looked in the trousers section?" I asked. "This is my first day, by the way."

"Yes we have." One of the girls said. The girl whispered something to the other girl, probably saying that they should find a more experienced assistant. "We'll look again, thanks." Then they walked off.

"See, this is why I don't talk to people." I said to Rookie and sighed, walking back to the clothes pile.

"Well at least if anyone was spying on you, they wouldn't tell the manager you weren't helping people."

"No, they will just say I failed in showing two girls where monkey trousers are." I said continued to fold up clothes, then once I had finished I went around the shop and tidied up any clothes I could find.

The day went by uneventful and when we got out, it was getting dark. I walked quickly to the bus stop. I didn't like being out when it was dark. The city of Clifton was the safest places to be after dark, unless you had safety in numbers.

Arriving at the bus stop just as the bus arrived, we got on quickly, I paid the fare and sat down. I yawned. "I don't think I'm going to the party, I need my bed."

"That's a good idea." Rookie agreed.

When the bus stopped off at our stop, we got off and walked the short distance back home.

When we were nearly at the house, I thought I saw a brief flash of blue. I turned around, but nothing was there.

"What is it?" Rookie asked. I shook my head.

"Nothing I thought I saw something." I said, and carried on walking. Then the blue flash appeared again brighter and I turned around. Rookie saw it this time and stared at where it had been. After several seconds, the light flashed again, this time almost blinding, that I had to cover my eyes.

When I opened my eyes again, there was a man in front of me. I stared down at him in disbelief. How on Earth did he get here?

"Breeze?" Rookie asked, sounding unnerved.

"What?"

"Where's his daemon?" After the initial shock, an even bigger shock took over. I looked around him but there was no daemon.

What do you think? I shall update when I get like 1 review :)

Thanks!