“If you’ve got any questions you may ask me anytime you want. I’ll be sitting a few desks away from you, so it won’t be hard for you to find me.” Kara said with a bright smile on her face, showing of her teeth which were so bleached that it almost seemed scary. She guided you through the building with ease, as if she knew it better than the pocket of her own jeans. To be honest you were quite jealous of that at this moment. It was always hard to be the new one. No matter where your new start happened to be, no one liked it to be seen as the new kid who wouldn’t be able to find her way towards the bathroom on her own or who would press the wrong button on the coffee machine. But you had been trying to get a job for months now. After you had graduated from high school you had known that you wanted to get into the working industry as fast as possible. You wanted to make sure you could earn your own, steady amount of money so you could start looking out for your own apartment, maybe buy a small car in a while. Living with your parents wasn’t exactly easy, but now that college was over, you had the chance to finally start living your own life, by your own rules. At least it was now, now that you had find this job. When you had been invited on a job interview, here at this company, you had been extremely excited. So far you had only heard good thing about it, the employees were treated with respect and the salary was great for a starting job. 

Although it had been one of the secretaries that had done the interview with you and not the CEO himself, they had seemed quite pleased with you. Only a few days later you had gotten the confirmation that the job was yours and that you could start next money if you wanted. For days you had bragged about your success against your family and friends. But secretly you had become more and more nervous about your first day at work which was coming closer and closer every day. And now you were here and everyone was greeting you with a smile as they came over to introduce themselves to you. They all ensured you not to worry about things too fast. That their boss wasn’t a bad guy and that he would give you enough time to get used to the job before he would start expecting things from you. No pressure. All the small offices all really looked alike and the sound of people typing away on their computers filled the room. On one hand it was all very strange, but in a certain way it already felt really familiar. “Before you get settled.” Kara ended her long one sided conversation by arriving back at your still empty desk. It would still need some nice decorations before you would actually be able to make it feel like yours, but that would be concerns for later. First you thought it was maybe better to get used to all the rules and all the routines, and then you’d be able to focus on all the other stuff. 

“The CEO would really like to speak with you before you officially start your first day here at the office. Don’t be nervous. He does these kind of things with all his new employees, to get to know them better and to know what kind of people are working for him. There are no right and no wrong answers. So relax.” She said when she saw the nerves written all over your face. Quickly you forced a tight smile to appear onto your face, one that looked real enough for a person like her, who didn’t know you well enough yet to know what your real smile looked like. The thought that you were going to meet the person who ruled over every single thing that was happening inside of this building, the one who could speak for every single person who worked here. “Does he know who I am?” You asked her as she began to take you with her through the large room again, towards an elevator. As soon as the doors opened with a soft ping, two women and three men walked out. All of the nodded their heads as you when they saw you, greeting the stranger they had never seen before. They had probably been through this process many times before. In a company as large as this, there was probably a constant stream of new people over here. The two of you stepped inside of the elevator, so that you were the only ones inside and you twisted your neck slightly when Kara started humming a happy song beside you. Secretly you wanted to ask her to shut the hell up so you could prepare yourself and think of what you were about to say to your big boss. But you weren’t able to think straight. 

Instead you stared at the numbers that were letting you know which floor you were on and you watched them change into a higher one every second. When you arrived at the fifth floor your heart was beating fast inside of your chest and the palms of your hands were sweaty. Your cheeks turned red when you wiped them against the side of your jeans and you realized how disgusting that actually was. As soon as the doors opened Kara stepped outside, she walked through a modern furnished hallway with large paintings hanging down the walls. The two of you passed several doors with name tags on them, what made you believe that these offices belonged to important people. The sound of your heels hitting against the tiles resounded through the hallway and you were just starting to think about a way to talk yourself out of this when your colleague suddenly stopped and turned around the face you. You almost bumped into her, stood face to face with her but you held back just in time and took a step back. “This is it.” She said softly, pointing towards the door at your left, painted in a metallic grey color which made it look very uninviting. This wasn’t exactly helpful. When Kara placed a hand on your shoulder and gave it a soft squeeze you almost felt an invisible connection with her. The fact that she was this supportive of you and she really wanted for you to succeed made you feel all warm inside. “Good luck. This office could use some more strong women like us.” She said with a wink before she left you there on your spot and she walked back towards the elevator. 

Now here you were, standing in the hallway all by yourself like a loner and not being able to find the courage to lift your hand and knock on the door. What if it would all go wrong? They could all tell you that their boss was a nice guy, but that didn’t mean you had to believe it. Inside of yo