Chapter Two
Miss Snootigan looked at her watch and glared at Rose when she came through the revolving door of Henrick's department store.
"You are late, Miss Tyler," she said contemptuously.
"Yes, Miss Snootigan, I'm sorry," Rose said sheepishly as she stopped in front of her. "The bus was late and traffic was heavy today."
"I will accept no excuses, young lady," Miss Snootigan said, examining the young, wet woman through her nez pierce. "Henrick's staff pride themselves on their punctuality. I expect you to do the same."
"Yes, Miss Snootigan," Rose said.
"Now hurry and get to work, time is money here," Miss Snootigan said dismissively.
"Yes, Miss Snootigan."
Rose hurried to the lift so she could go down to the basement and clock in for work. On the way there, her friend, Miranda, stepped out from behind a clothes rack and shook her head.
"Rose, you're late again," Miranda said. "If you keep doing this, Miss Snootigan will sack you!"
Rose looked at her friend. Miranda was a young Indian woman with shoulder length bobbed hair, deep brown hair and a thin, heart shaped face with a dimple on her right cheek. She met Miranda at Henrick's and the young woman had befriended Rose and taken her under her wing, showing her the ropes until she knew the clothing department blindfolded. Rose sighed at the disapproving look on her friend's face.
"I tried to tell her the bus was late and traffic was clogged. I can't control that, can I?"
"Yeah, well Miss Snootigan doesn't care about that. Leave your flat earlier next time or you'll be on the dole before you can blink."
Rose nodded grimly and hurried past her. She needed this job badly. She was trying to save up so she could get a flat for herself and the last thing she wanted to was end up being sacked because the bus was late. She got to the lift, got in and pushed the down button.
Meanwhile, the Doctor was casually strolling the streets of London while K9 and Frobisher followed behind him. He had a tracking device with a little spinning dish that went round and round and made the Doctor happy. He loved his little dish, especially if his little dish led him to adventure. At the moment, he was picking up a reading. While he was tracking whatever it was that was setting off his little dish, K9 and Frobisher were seeing the sights of London. Frobisher was wearing a tiny bowler hat and he was doffing it to everyone passing by him, wishing them a jolly good morning. He ignored the startled yells from the majority of people who were surprised to see a tiny, talking penguin tipping his bowler hat to them. K9, ever the faithful dog, simply followed his master while he absentmindedly pursued his prey.
Meanwhile, Rose had clocked in for work and was busy folding clothes and setting them out when she was approached by a tall, slightly chubby woman with ginger hair that went down past her shoulders. The woman strode up to Rose and stood there with hands on hips, waiting for Rose to acknowledge her.
"Hello, welcome to Henrick's Department Store," Rose said, doing the rehearsed welcome for the customers. "May I help you?"
"I'm looking for wedding dresses," the woman said in a testy voice.
"Um…well, I'm not sure where they are, to be honest," Rose said. "I work in the women's department. You probably need the bridal department."
"So…where is that? I'm in a hurry. I came over here on my lunch hour from HC Clements because I need to find a wedding gown for my wedding. You lot are supposed to know where everything is, so where is everything?"
"Honestly, I'm not sure," Rose said sheepishly. "I haven't worked here long and I'm not even sure if we have a bridal department."
"Oh, well isn't that just wizard!" the woman said, throwing her hands up in the air. "This place came highly recommended. They told me they had as much swag here as they do at Harrods but maybe I should have trusted my first instinct and gone there instead!"
"Look, let me get my supervisor," Rose said, afraid if this customer complained about her lack of knowledge she'd lose her job. "She can help you."
"No thanks, I'm going to Harrods now, good day, Miss Clueless!"
"No, wait; just let me find someone who can help…"
Rose trailed off when the women walked away in a huff. Rose sighed and shook her head before going back to folding shirts.
"What a real winner," Miranda said, sticking her head up above a clothes rack across the aisle from her. "I feel sorry for the person who agreed to marry her."
"Everyone's entitled to a bad day," Rose said with a shrug. "At least she found someone to marry; I'm still looking for Mister Right."
"Well, you're not gonna find him folding clothes, that's for sure," Miranda said, rolling her eyes. "Listen, my friends and me are going to a strip club tonight, why don't you come with us?"
"Nah…I think I'll give that a miss," Rose said.
"Give it a miss? Rose, loads of men are gonna be striping for us and if we're lucky, perhaps a few of them will…you know…"
"What?" Rose said, giving her a clueless look.
"Sex? You have heard of it, right?" Miranda said.
"Yes, I am nineteen."
"Uh-huh," Miranda said, walking across the aisle, "and you've never been to a strip club?"
"No, I haven't," Rose said.
"Have you ever been to any club?" Miranda said.
"Nope," Rose said putting a folded shirt on the rack.
"Have you ever had sex?" Miranda said, lowering her voice.
"Nope."
Miranda staggered back after hearing that one.
"Seriously?" she said when she got over her shock.
"I'm saving myself, for the man I know is destined to be with me forever," Rose said.
"Yeah, but…what if that never happens? You gonna remain a virgin your whole life?" Miranda said.
"I want to belong to one man and one man only. I have no interest in offering myself to just anyone. The man who will take my virginity will be THE ONE!"
"Ooookay…if you say so, Rose," Miranda said, turning and going back to her work area. "You keep dreaming of THE ONE, my mates and me are gonna spend the evening putting pound notes down men's g-strings and getting pissed out of our minds on lager and shandy. Have fun with the whole keeping yourself pure for your dream man thing."
Rose ignored her. She knew she wasn't behaving like a typical young woman but she was convinced that there was someone out there who was destined to be with her and she didn't want to whore herself out and catch numerous diseases that she might pass on to her true love. She thought of herself as a good girl and that's how she would stay until THE ONE came along. She smiled as she imagined the fun she would have with him on their wedding night. Saving herself up for that one night of bliss would be worth it. Miranda could shag all the man whores she could get her hands on if she wanted, she would wait for her Prince Charming instead.
She worked for a few more hours before she noticed it was her lunch hour. She hurriedly folded the few remaining clothes she had and set them out before she took the trolley with her back to the lift. When she got to lift, she entered and hit the down button. As she went down, she thought about what Miranda said earlier and shook her head.
"Miranda can settled for shagging man whores, I want something more," she declared as the lift door opened.
As she got out of the lift, she burst into song again…
I want mooore, I want more than Henrick's or lagers or shagging man whooores!
I want moooore!
I know there's someone out there for me. I know when I meet him; I'll be thrilled as can be.
And I know he'll appreciate my purity!
I want…
She stopped singing when she suddenly heard a loud squeaking somewhere up ahead of her. She was standing with the trolley at the beginning of a long concrete corridor that led to the break room, boiler room, janitor's cupboard, storage cupboard and other things. As far as Rose could tell, no one was in the basement with her.
"Hello?" she said loudly while she looked around, "is someone here?"
She let go of the trolley and slowly walked the corridor, calling out to anyone who might be there.
"Hello, is someone down here?"
She heard more squeaking and froze.
"Miss Snootigan?" she called, "is that you?"
She waited for a response but she didn't hear anything. Suddenly, she was beginning to get extremely creeped out. She decided to go on to the break room before she freaked herself out.
"Come on, Rose, it's just the department store basement, nothing sinister about that," she told herself as she walked towards the break room. She froze again when she heard the squeaking, except now it was closer. She swallowed hard and looked back at the lift. She was now halfway down the corridor and suddenly the lift seemed like miles away from her. She chided herself again for being such a fraidy cat and hurried towards the break room. To her relief, she reached the break room without incident but to her horror, the moment she entered it, she froze when she saw a giant 7 foot rat raiding the refrigerator at the back of the room. Rose stared at the rat in disbelief. So far the rodent hadn't spotted her since it was busy going through the fridge eating everything in sight. Rose started to back out of the room, praying the enormous rat wouldn't see her. But just as she reached the doorway, she let out a big burbly fart. Rose winced at that and the rat stopped rummaging and turned around.
"Um, hi," Rose said in a small voice when the rat stared at her with blood red eyes. "Go ahead and eat, don't mind me. I…was looking for the loo. It's obviously not here, so…bye!"
She gasped when the rat let out a roar that sounded almost like a lion. She turned and ran back down the corridor to the lift while the rat roared and chased her. She called for help, although she wasn't sure how much help she'd get unless someone went to the sporting goods department and grabbed a gun. But that would take time and time wasn't on Rose's side right now. She looked over her shoulder and gasped when the rat was right behind her and seconds away from overtaking her.
"Help, someone please help me before the giant rat kills me!" she cried out in desperation.
Then suddenly, someone opened the janitor's cupboard beside her. Rose gasped when someone seized her arm and pulled her inside. Rose felt a hand clamp over her mouth.
"Easy, I'm here to help."
Rose noticed the owner of the hand was an extremely handsome man. The man let go of her and grabbed a large bottle of bleach from a shelf behind him. Rose gasped and pointed at the rat who was now slowly coming into the room, growling under its breath.
"Oh God," Rose said, backing up to the shelves as the rat came closer.
"Here ya go, Ratty, have a drink!" the man said before he ran up and poured the bleach in the rat's face.
The rat howled with anger and reared up on its two legs. The man ran around the back while Rose seized a broom and began to smack the rat's face with it.
"Oi, I'm back here!"the man said when the rat started walking backwards on two legs to get away from her.
"Sorry," Rose said.
Then suddenly, she and the rat froze when Rose heard a loud zipping sound behind the rat. To her surprise, the rat's body seemed to fall away, revealing a metal skeleton underneath and in the center of it, controlling the beast, was a teeny tiny green alien that was about the size of a smurf. The smurf sized alien blinked in surprise with his large black eyes while the man came around the skeleton and put his hands on his hips. The alien gave him a sheepish grin when the man cleared his throat loudly and gave him a pointed look.
"Go away," the man said, leaning in until his face was inches away from the alien.
The alien swallowed hard, nodded and Rose stepped back in shock when a bright green light enveloped him, the skeleton and the rat skin and all of them disappeared.
"Corvalians," the man said, shaking his head. "Pranksters. They like to dress up as giant rats and terrorize people. They think it's funny."
"Um…who are you?" Rose said.
"Oh, I'm the Doctor, nice to meet ya and you are…"
"Rose Tyler," Rose said, unsure about the strange man.
"Rose, nice name. Well, gotta go. I discovered the thing my little dish was tracking and I have to get back to sightseeing. Nice knowing you and…try to stay away from giant rats in future. Ta ta!"
Rose watched while the Doctor left the room. Suddenly, something told her to follow this man and she called out for him to wait while she ran out the door.