Chapter 9

The only thing worse than waking up to the sound of a blaring alarm, is not waking up to the sound of a blaring alarm…

...twenty minutes after you were supposed to be at work.

"Crap crap crap crap craaaaaaaap!" Anna hurriedly put on her deodorant and slipped on her uniform, grabbing a baseball cap on the way out of her room. No time to do her hair, no time to pack her lunch (which she should have done last night), no time to even brush her teeth. This was going to be a gross day.

There was, however, one thing that she needed to make time for: Elsa.

The curious puppy stared at her from her kennel. From the whimpering and pawing at her door, it was clear that the husky was just as restless.

"Hey girl!" Anna exclaimed as she opened the kennel. "Make this quick, alright? Please?"

Elsa raced to her pad near the hallway and did her business, meanwhile Anna grabbed her bowl and poured Elsa's breakfast in it. This would make her even more late, but her puppy shouldn't have to suffer for her lack of punctuality.

Her puppy, that sounds really nice to say.

If she did the math right, by the end of this week she should have paid off Elsa's entire adoption fee, which means that once the paperwork went through, the husky would be officially hers. And she could get her one of those cute metal name tags that are shaped like a bone. And a water bowl with her name on it. Maybe she'd even set up an Instagram account for her…

Nah, that'd be too cringey. Even for her.

Anna set down the bowl, and the puppy was on it in two seconds flat. Anna put her shoes on while she was waiting, hopping on one foot as she forced them on instead of tying up the laces like a normal person.

"Good girl," she said when the bowl was emptied. She carried the puppy in her arms and brought her back to her kennel. "I'll be back in a few hours, okay. If anyone answers the door, just tell them I'm not home."

Elsa settled onto her bed once again, and Anna locked the door behind her. With any luck, no one would have noticed that she was an hour late.

Someone noticed.

In fact, the worst person that could have noticed her absence was the first face she saw: Yelena.

The woman may have been getting up there in years, but she still had eyes like a hawk and the demeanor of one of those really intimidating looking dogs. Like a doberman, or a pitbull, or a chihuahua. And she was in charge of hiring for custodial and food handling positions at the shelter, which meant she was the closest thing Anna had to a supervisor.

For some reason, Yelena didn't like her as much. Maybe it's because Anna accidentally threw away her coffee on her first day.

"Yelena!" Anna yelped, hoping that she didn't sound too shocked to see her. "Hi! It's, uh...d-did you do something new with your hair?"

"You're late," Yelena replied, her grey hair looking exactly as it's always looked. "One hour late."

Anna sighed and closed her eyes, defeated, "I know, and I'm sorry. My alarm didn't wake me up this morning, it'll never happen again."

"That's one strike, Ms. Muenster." Her quasi-supervisor walked away, leaving Anna to stir in her shame all by her lonesome inside the break room.

Yeah, that sounds about right.

Anna clocked in and walked to the custodian's closet, her home away from home nowadays. She slipped on a pair of gloves and grabbed a scooper, trash bags, and everything else she'd need to clean the cat area. Which always seemed to be filthy no matter how much she cleaned it.

One strike, she had one strike on her record. During orientation, she was told that employees were under a Three Strike Rule. If they made a mistake that was deemed worthy of punishment (ex: yelling at the birds, stealing someone's lunch, getting to work an hour late), then they would get one "strike" on their record. Three strikes and they were fired.

The only way to remove a strike from your record is to go three months without getting another one, or if one of the heads of the shelter took off the strike themselves. Dr. Maren was one of those heads, unfortunately so was Yelena.

Anna scowled at her phone- her second alarm clock- which also didn't go off. This couldn't happen again, she wouldn't let it.

All day long, Anna felt this cloud of guilt and shame above her. Even though no one paid attention to her in the first place, she felt that every eye was on her, and every word spoken and every laugh shared was directed at her.

No matter how many times she told herself it would never happen again, and no matter how much she tried to bury herself into her work (not literally), she couldn't shake this feeling. Maybe, she wondered, if her punishment was more severe and if literally everyone else was in the breakroom to laugh and poke fun at her, then she'd feel better somehow?

It made no sense, obviously, but the thought of the guillotine blade above you feels worse than the decapitation itself. Probably, right? Anna didn't know, she'd never been decapitated before.

Maybe getting fired was her equivalent to getting her head chopped off. ...okay, she had no idea where she was going with this anymore.

On the flip side, she was also relieved that no one else saw her come in, because it meant no one would remember her being late. She hated being talked about behind her back, she hated gossip, so it was also a good thing no one knew.

All things considered, she was at least relieved when she got to the end of her shift without any complications...or so she thought.

As soon as she clocked out, she heard a knock on the break room's doorway and a very familiar voice. "Anna? Could I see you in my office for a second?"

Anna turned around and smiled at Dr. Maren, internalizing all of her frantic screaming, "Uh y-yeah! Sure thing!"

Dr. Maren smiled and disappeared back down the hallway. After taking a second to make sure no one else would enter, Anna let out a shaky breath and muttered to herself, "Hoo boy, okay. Okay okay okay. This is fine, everything's fine. Everything's gonna be juuuuust fine."

Everything was gonna be fine.

Walking down to Dr. Maren's office almost felt like a walk of shame, even though everyone else was too preoccupied with their jobs to notice her. But this couldn't be a walk of shame, because everything was gonna be fine.

Dr. Maren was probably just going to tell her she was doing an excellent job, and give her an Employee of the Month award and her number.

Anna figured that extremely wishful thinking would cancel out the tantric anxiety rattling the rest of her brain.

She got to Dr. Maren's office and knocked on the open door frame just as the doctor had done before. "Hey, you wanted to see me?"

Dr. Maren looked at her with another smile, continuing to type away on her keyboard confidently. "Yes, I did. Could you shut the door?"

Oh boy, she just asked her to shut the door. No big deal, all meetings are private whether they're good or bad. She probably just wanted to comment on how cute her baseball cap looked and how it brought out her eyes. And she didn't want anyone else to hear that in case they got jealous. Yeah...that was totally it.

Anna shut the door and sat down in the same chair she'd been in three weeks ago when this new chapter started. She had no idea what to do with her hands, so she folded them in her lap like a princess meeting a foreign ambassador.

Dr. Maren stopped typing and leaned forward on her chair, resting her hands on her table like someone who knew exactly what to do with her hands. "Well first of all, I just wanted to check up on how you were doing."

"Uh what do you mean?" Anna mentally kicked herself for fumbling on such an easy question. That was definite firing material.

"How are you doing with the job? And adjusting to Elsa living with you?"

"Oh! Yeah, Elsa's been great! I mean she eats a lot for such a tiny puppy, and I swear she pees more than she breathes, but other than that things are fine. And this job is good too- I mean, it's great too! I love coming in every morning and just, you know, cleaning and saying hi to all the animals. I finally realized why the nozzle on the window cleaner rotates."

Dr. Maren chuckled, her deeper voice making it sound sweet and rich like...caramel. Yes, her voice sounded like melted sugar. "I'm glad to hear that. Being a first-time owner can get pretty hard, and you've got quite a challenge on your hands with a husky. And working at this shelter takes some time getting used to also."

"Eh, it's more just getting used to waking up at 5 in the morning. I haven't done that since college."

"Ah yes, those were the days," Dr. Maren gets this wistful look on her face as she stares at her three college degrees on the wall. "Staying up to write ten-thousand-word essays and drinking espressos to keep you awake because it's already 4 AM and you have a 7 AM class."

Anna giggles, thinking about her one degree in her room. "Yeah...I don't miss those days."

"Me neither."

Oh my goodness, they were bonding over something. This was nice, and a wonderful step in the right direction, and Anna wanted to do everything she could to keep this bonding moment going. But she also just wanted to skip to the part where Dr. Maren tells her that she knows she was late, and gives her another strike because her baseball cap looks stupid.

"Well in any case, I called you in here because…" Ah crap, here it comes. "...this is your third week working here, right?"

"Yes. Yes it is." And quite possibly her last.

"I thought so. That means if I did the math correctly, you should fully pay off Elsa's adoption fee by the end of this week."

"Eeyup, that's correct too." Oh dear, she was gonna give her a third strike just for saying "Eeyup".

"Good! Then I will get all her papers in order and have you sign them before your next day off. Soon you will have official and complete ownership of Elsa."

Anna isn't even exaggerating when she replies with "Nothing would make me happier."

Dr. Maren nods as if that was the answer she wanted to hear. "Oh, and…" Nowhere it comes. "...you will be staying on with us after the end of this week, right? If not, I'll need to go ahead and cancel the order for your nametag."

"I get a nametag?! Uh, I-I mean of course I'm staying on! I like working here! And any excuse to keep s-uh, keep getting free coffee is a plus." That was an awful correction, but way better than saying that she'd take any excuse to keep seeing her.

Not sensing the screw-up, hopefully, Dr. Maren replies, "Okay, then I'll make sure that order goes through and that we schedule you for next month. Sounds good?"

"Sounds perfect."

"Perfect," she repeats. "Well, that's all I had for you. You're free to go, I'm sure Elsa can't wait for you to get home."

"And I can't wait to see her." Anna stood up, this time her internal screaming was for her excitement in "getting away with her screw-up". And for having a successful conversation with the prettiest vet in the world. "Thanks, Dr. Maren. I'll see you tomorrow."

She walked back to the door, eager to go home and pick up Elsa (after she peed) to tell her the good news.

"Oh, one more thing."

Anna turned around and said, "Yes?"

The smile on Dr. Maren's face turned into a knowing smirk. "Make sure your alarm is on this time," she said with a wink.