Sara POV

Monday came around pretty quick, I was slightly nervous which was expected but I just hoped everything went okay. My last lecture of the day finished at 2 o' clock, when that time came I quickly packed up my notes, grabbed my bag and exited the lecture hall and out of the main building, heading for the car park. I climbed into my slightly worn out car and began my 10 minute journey home ready to start my first day at work at 4 o'clock. When I arrived home I went straight up stairs and into my bathroom, I took a quick shower before walking to my bedroom and following my usual hair and makeup routine. They said I'd receive my uniform when I arrived so I put on my underwear and pulled myself back into my skinny jeans, band t-shirt and converse that I'd previously been wearing that day. I went back downstairs and quickly made and ate a sandwich before grabbing a few things and my phone and throwing them into my bag before heading out my front door to my car. I drove fairly slowly down my road and took a left onto the main street before exiting right at a small roundabout which led me onto the road in which "Norwich Superstore" was situated. I pulled up in one of the staff parking spaces this time, grabbed my bag and more confidently then before, began to head for the entrance. I went straight to the customer service desk as I had done previously, this time I was greeted by a younger looking woman than the previous one I had met; she had messy, cropped, black hair and a few tattoos covered her arms. I didn't know why but she intimidated me a bit and I felt my nerves start to kick back in a little. I brushed my anxiousness aside and spoke

"Hiya I'm Sara Clement, It's my first day here today". The woman had a bored unimpressed expression on her face and without even responding to me she picked up the phone to call, well I'm presuming to call Stuart. I felt uneasy in the woman's presence and took a glance down at her name badge. "Lindsey" I read out in my head. I'll be sure to try and keep a distance from her I thought. Before Lindsey even had a chance to get through and speak to Stuart I saw him heading towards me with a friendly smile on his face, I turned and began to walk towards Stuart not saying a word to Lindsey as I left.

"Afternoon Sara, how're you?" Stuart spoke.

"Fine thank you" I replied with a timid smile.

"Good good, now if you follow me I'll give you your uniform to change into and then I'll take you and the other newbies on a small tour of the place"

Stuart led me into the staff area and we both took to the flight of stairs. When we reached the top there was a small door which he pushed and held open, gesturing for me to walk through before him. I walked through into a fairly large square space that had a narrow corridor to the back left which led to the canteen. To my right there was the admin office and to the left the manager's office. We walked forward a little more, this time finding staff lockers on the right in line with the admin office and the personnel office on the left. We stopped here as Stuart went inside the personnel office and returned a few minutes later with a small bag containing my uniform. He gestured for me to head down to the corridor towards the staff canteen where I'd find the staff toilets and changing rooms on the right and the meeting room on my left.

"Just pop in there and change into your uniform and then meet me and the others in the meeting room okay?"

I nodded and made my way to get changed. There were a few other newbies in the changing rooms and I felt a little relieved that I wasn't the only clueless bit of fresh meat here. I went into an empty changing cubicle and quickly put on my uniform. Smart black trousers, a white shirt, light green pinafore and a dark green, quilted jacket. The uniform was quite hideous but I had to deal with it. I smoothed over my clothes and looked down at myself, checking I looked okay. I exited my cubicle and the changing rooms then headed into the meeting room. It was set up like a high school classroom, small twin tables in rows from the front to the back of the room. Around 20 people had already filled the room, wearing similar yet all slightly different uniforms. I took a seat near the back and a few people trailed in behind me. I looked around, there were a few people wearing green aprons like me, others in burgundy, some in blue, some in orange and others just wearing the smart shirt and trousers. There was a range of people in the room both men and women, some looked like high school kids, a little younger than me and others a lot older , old enough to be my parents. A cute nerdy looking boy who looked around my age walked in, I realised that the seat beside me was the only seat left; he headed over and sat beside me. I smiled at him before he very politely extended his hand.

"Hi, I'm Ted" he said.

"Sara" I replied with a genuine smile.

"Nice to meet you "we both spoke in unison followed by a small giggle.

Before we had time to continue our conversation, Stuart was at the front of the room and began to speak.

"Okay guys so you are our newest batch of employees and we're thrilled to have you on board. Today I'll show you around the store and give you a guide of the general day to day running of things and then your supervisors will show you to your departments and show you the ropes from there okay?"

The room filled with a few muffled "yes's", "okay's" and nodded heads.

"Now I hope you are all aware of what department you will be working on nut just to check: Green aprons you guys are on Fruit&Veg and Flowers, Orange aprons you guys are the Bakers, if you're wearing Blue you're a Fish Monger, Red you're a butcher, Burgundy apron's you're on the Deli and if you're not wearing an apron then you're either a general shelf stacker or on checkouts. Everyone clear on that and knows where they're working?"

Again everyone agreed and nodded before Stuart clapped his hands and began to exit the room "everyone follow me!"

Everyone began to file out of the room, following Stuart like lost puppies.

"So why did you decide on a job here?" I hear Ted ask me as we head for the stairs.

"Oh I've just moved here for Uni and just need whatever job I can get to pay my rent"

"That's funny, the same for me" he chuckled. "What Uni are you studying at?"

"Norwich Uni Of The Arts"

"Oh cool, you're a creative one then, I'm just at Norwich general University"

"Sweet" I replied. I didn't have any friends at all in Norwich so talking to Ted was nice, he was so friendly and it was nice to just have a general conversation with someone.

As if he was reading my mind Ted spoke again "Listen I don't really have any friends here in Norwich and since we're going to be working at the same place maybe it'd be cool to hang out sometime" he asked with a sheepish smile on his face. "In a strictly friendly way!" he blurted out after.

I chuckled to myself. "It's okay Ted, I'm gay anyway but I'd love to hang out with you, it'd be nice to have a friend."

"Cool, great!" he replied with a smile on his face. I felt like Ted was going to make a good friend and somehow after only knowing him for not even half an hour, I felt a little less lonely in Norwich.

"Okay Guys!" I heard bellow around us. We all snapped our heads out of our conversations and stopped walking to look up and see Stuart had stopped us at the store entrance/exit. He turned and motioned to the left side of the front of the store "This is the floristry department, I believe we only have one person joining here which is you Sara" He said looking at me. I nodded and smiled. "You'll collect flowers and plants from the warehouse and put them out on the shelves for sale; you'll also arrange flowers and make bouquets as well as keeping the department in clean and tidy nit okay? I nodded and agreed again. "Now the floristry department has its own till to sell the handmade bouquets okay? And lastly here's your chiller, every department has a chiller, here's where you can keep left over flowers etc. etc." he said as he opened a small door next to the till to show everyone. It was small and contained shelves on the left and right for boxes of flowers and a metallic sink on the back wall. Stuart then motioned us around the rest of the store. We continued up the left side of the store and the different departments spread right around the back of the building. We walked through the grocery department, past the fish counter, meat counter and bakers stopping at each one to let Stuart speak and brief everyone on the different departments, we took time to watch the existing employees and how they worked and getting an idea of what jobs they were doing. We stopped at the final department, the deli/meat counter. By this time I had grown incredibly bored, my briefing was right at the start of the tour and I'd spent almost an hour looking at departments and listening to different information that I didn't need to know. "Okay so there's 2 of you joining here, umm Taylor and Hayley" I heard Stuart say as I let my eyes look around the store in a different direction to everyone else, my boredom showing. I sighed. "You'll be working with one of our most hard working employee's" Stuart continued "she should be around here somewhere".

I looked up slightly curious, my eyes moved to the entrance of the warehouse which was situated in between the butchers and deli counter. Just before the entrance there was another, smaller door on the right hand wall which I believed to be the deli chiller. I saw the door move open and a woman of similar frame to me began to exit the chiller.

"ahh here she is, everyone this is Tegan Quin"

My eyes locked on to Tegan and I felt my jaw drop open, she was... she was beautiful. Her hair was similar to mine, except a little shorter around her back and sides and her longer hair had a small curl to it, she looked adorable. She looked older than me 22, maybe 23, maybe even older but I couldn't break my stare from her even as she greeted everyone, even as Stuart began talking again. I felt my heart race a little in my chest, that little excited feeling you get when you see something intriguing or attractive. Stuart began to lead to group away and I watched Tegan as she continued with her jobs. I slowly began to move with the group but I dragged my fit a little and still kept moving my head back up to look at Tegan. She crooked her head round in the direction of the group and our eyes met. The sides of her mouth curled into a smirking smile, I blushed a little and gave a small, timid smile in return before turning and continuing with the group. The smile remained on my face, it barely faded for the rest of the day.

Stuart finished up the tour of the store and then took us back up to the meeting room where our department supervisors were waiting for us. I met my boss Ellen and watched as Ted met his checkout boss, we were then all led down to our departments for our final induction hour. I was shown in more detail the jobs I would be doing and shown how and when to do them. I wasn't thinking about my job at all though, I was thinking about the girl from the Deli counter, Tegan. She was memorising. I wanted to talk to her, know everything about her.

An hour quickly passed and it was agreed with me and my boss that I would work a full day Sunday and a Wednesday and Thursday evening after uni.

"So that's your hours sorted then" Ellen spoke. "Here's your locker key and your badge that you'll use to clock in and out of work"

"Thank you" I said with a smile as I took the items and put them in my bag.

"Okay then Sara; look forward to seeing you on Wednesday for your first proper shift!"

I nodded and we said our goodbyes. I exited the store and hopped into my car. I was excited for Wednesday, my excitement causing me to drive fairly quickly. I wasn't excited to work, I was excited that I might get to see Tegan again or even talk to her. I had a feeling that I was going to enjoy working at Norwich Superstore more than I had anticipated.

I arrived home just after 7 o'clock and made myself a microwave ready meal before settling on my sofa in front of my TV to eat it. My smile was still plastered over my face and I felt happy, I felt content. I felt at home. I finished eating my highly innutritious meal and prematurely to my usual bed time headed up stairs to sleep. I stripped myself of my clothes besides my underwear and pulled on one of my baggy t-shirts before crawling into my double bed and under the sheets. I lay down with my eyes wide open, still smiling at the gorgeous site I had seen earlier. I'd been in Tegans's presence for no longer than 5 minutes yet I hadn't been able to get her off my mind since, all I wanted right now was to get a little closer to Tegan. I let my thoughts flow and fizz through my mind as my eyes drifted shut and I fell into well deserved slumber.

I hope any of you reading are enjoying the story so far, I'm not sure how good or bad my writing is so reviews would be much appreciated and I'd welcome any suggestions to the story from you guys. I'll try and update as regular as I can but yeah hope I'm doing a good job)