1 Chapter 1 - Marcella Hartley

My eyes snapped open to the sound of shrill cries. I sat up and looked to my left where my bedside table sat against the wall and with one swift slap, beat the offending item into silence once again. My now silent alarm clock showed 6am, today was the day of my big interview with the tech company I have wanted to work for since I finished college.

If this interview failed I would be a laughing stock after moving away from my parents to live in London two weeks ago with the sole purpose of working at that same company.

With 2 hours till I had to leave my apartment, I began to get myself ready. Climbing out of my nice warm bed and padding over to my bathroom, I didn't bother to close the door properly as I lived alone. The hot, steaming water felt refreshing as it made its way down my back; relieving my stress along the way.

After 30 minutes I felt that it was enough and made my way out of the bathroom to get myself dried and dressed. Partnering a plain white blouse with a dark grey pencil skirt and jacket, I decided that it was good enough for me and preceded with my hair. This was the worst part. Not that I was bad at doing my hair, I was actually rather good at styling my hair and often had my mother or sister asking me to do their hair for them also. I just felt like it was too much effort since my hair was thick, reaching my waist and it was hard deciding which was the best hairstyle to choose which often lead me to keeping my hair down or having it in a bun. This time I chose the bun which I placed on the top of my head as with autumn moving in the weather had gotten colder and the last thing I needed was the wind blowing my hair into one big bird nest before reaching my interview.

A swipe of mascara, a light dot of blush and a touch of orange flavoured lip-balm was all I needed to complete my look. I wasn't one of them girls who liked to cake my face in makeup, there was nothing worse than looking like a clown. And really, who wants dirty patches on their nice clean clothes from the makeup that accidentally gets rubbed off?

Putting bread in the toaster and setting the kettle to boil, I sat at the tiny table in my tiny kitchen with a big sigh.

"Come on Marcy, you can do this!" I cheered to myself in hopes of pumping myself up for the big day with little to no avail.

Once the toast popped and the kettle boiled, I made my breakfast consisting of buttered toast and a nice hot coffee. Nothing extravagant but it was all I needed.

With ten minutes till I had to leave I pulled on my small heels and long coat, grabbing my long strap handbag before exiting my apartment to face the potentially life changing day that I had ahead of me.

My apartment wasn't too far from the office building so if I kept my pace up then I would be able to reach there in 20 minutes. My eyes remained glued to the ground for most of my walk, avoiding pedestrians through my peripheral vision until I arrived infront of the giant glass building.

My mind went blank. So empty that you could almost hear the echoing wind passing through my skull as I stood there still as a statue.

Taking a deep breath, I put one step infront of the other until I reached the huge, glass, automatic doors. With a big gust of warm air fanning across my face, I stepped through the doors until I reached the main reception area.

Just the entrance alone was spectacular. The way the sunlight shone through the large glass windows lit the reception with a golden glow that ricocheted off every shiny surface to further light the room. White marble floors were polished to perfection that I'm positive if I got down on my hands and knees I could see my own face in it. There were two dark brown, leather sofas on either side of the doors with deep mahogany coffee tables to match. The reception desk was sleek and silver, long enough to fit two people with room to spare.

I continued walking till I reached the reception desk where a tall brunette sat with bee-stung lips and breasts that looked likely to spill out of her shirt if it was any lower cut. While typing away on her computer she didn't seem to notice me standing there so I faintly cleared my throat in hopes of catching her attention. But of course it was a failure. I breathed in ready to try again but a bit louder when her chocolate brown eyes snapped to mine glaring holes through my retina.

"I heard you the first time!" she snapped at me.

Oh shoot. Who peed in her Cheerios?

"I'm sorry, I didn't think you had heard me." I apologised with my head slightly angled down as to avoid her laser beams.

"Of course you didn't" she replied which nearly had my eyes bulging out at the tone of voice she used. How rude! "Now if you aren't in need of anything, I'd like to get back to more important things" she continued.

"Erm... Actually I'm here for an interview, I was wondering if you knew where I had to go." I interjected raising my eyes to look at her again.

She let out a big sigh as if I was the bane of her life and answered short and snappy,

"The intern interview? Twelfth floor. First door on the left."

Before I got chance to say anything else she averted her eyes back to her computer to continue typing.

Oh boy, if the rest of the day goes as well as this I'm in for a super duper day (cue eye-roll).

I muttered a small 'thank you' and made my way towards the elevators that were stationed on the wall at the far right side of the reception desk. A few seconds after pressing the button, the elevator arrived and I stepped in. It was silent in the tin box death trap. I pressed the number twelve and closed my eyes hoping the journey was quick and I could get out soon. Every floor I went passed the speaker let out a 'DING~' so it wasn't hard to tell how long it would take and it gave me something to focus on to distract myself.

When the big, heavy doors opened I felt relieved and took a big step out onto the floor. It was a small room with two dark sofas - similar to the ones in the main reception - with a tall plant between them and connected to the room was a corridor filled with doors which I could only assume was the one the reception is spoke about.

As my feet took me further forward I took the biggest breath my lungs thought was possible. This was it. All my hard work had finally led me to this. I raised my hand and knocked on the door, waiting for the reply with my heartbeat racing.

"Come in!" a cheery woman's voice shouted from the other side.

It was now or never.