Moving to Manhattan (1)

*Knock* *Knock*

A fisted hand lightly struck twice on the solid yet fine grey door on the darker side. The hand dropped and the owner patiently waited until the faint sound of 'come in' came from the other side of the door.

Taking a deep breath, the same hand stretched forward, slim fingers touching the silver handle and twisting it down to push the door inside the room. Polished black office shoes, belonging to a male stepped in carefully. Hardly a sound of the steps was heard.

Shutting the door, the owner of the office shoes, a man furthered his steps, walking briskly to the office desk situated opposite him on the far end of the room. He stood at a respectful distance and waited for the gaze of the man behind the desk.

''Yes.'' Dark indifferent eyes looked up from the wide screen of a laptop.

''Sir, I have the government's report of the investments.'' The man said to the owner of those indifference eyes, his boss, a man of peerless achievements. He was the personal assistant of such a man, a position that might seem enviable to the outside, but only he knew how much he gritted his teeth in anxiety to walk on eggshells with such man every single day of his life.

''Leave it here.'' His boss instructed, returning his gaze back to the lighted screen of the laptop. The personal assistant did as such with a file that was brought along, but still remained on the same spot, seeming to have something to say to his boss.

''What is it?'' The same indifferent eyes glanced to him.

''Sir, I receive reports about a university from Syracuse. Apparently, a public university will be visiting the Central park zoo and Bronx zoo.'' Though the animals of both zoos were obviously of no concern to his boss, the organizations running them were, since his boss was a major shareholder in both.

This also gave his boss some leverage in knowing what happened in and out of the organizations and zoo. Earlier in the day, he received each call from both the directors of Bronx zoo and Central park zoo, about a university coming for a field trip.

Though this wasn't the first time, and an actual occurrence since both zoos had always received visitors, and the directors would always let him know of the visitors, especially if they were educational institutions.

When he heard the name of university in Syracuse, he suddenly remembered that his boss had ordered him to be regularly donating to the same university yearly, starting from the last two years.

The money was no small amount, but that wasn't a major thing when the person attending the university was.

His boss was married, wasn't he?

And the person attending the public university was his boss's wife, the madam. Though, the couple had always been estranged and the last time he saw the madam in the boss's office was about two years ago.

''….which university is it?''

''The Madam's university, sir.'' The personal assistant answered immediately. In his mind, he couldn't help but wonder if his boss and madam were truly distant, like a couple not in love.

He knew a little story of his boss's love life and the famous twin sisters of the Anderson family. He also knew how much the boss loved the late young miss of the Anderson family. He remembered how much his boss smiled whenever the late young miss would come to the office.

But….

For his boss to even take a pause before asking.…when did his boss ever hesitate before speaking his mind? Didn't that mean his boss had some feelings for his current wife, the Eldest young miss of the Anderson family?

The boss had even instructed him to be anonymously sending donations to the public university in Syracuse.

'I'm confused….' The personal assistant thought, knowing how hard it was to understand his aloof boss's actions. If his boss actually had feeling for the madam, why doesn't show it like he had done with his first love?

''Do you have an idea of the hotel the university booked?''

''I will look more into it, Sir.'' The personal assistant said with a bow, knowing it was time to leave his boss's office. Well…it was more like a feeling since he had been with his boss for some years now.

Turning around, the personal assistant went straight for the door in a brisk manner knowing how much his boss hated dragging feet on the ground.

Just as his fingers were about to reach the silver handle, his boss had something to say, which rarely happened.

''Speak to both directors and tell them to treat the students of the university properly.''

In other words, the madam must be comfortable during her field trip.

''Yes sir.'' The personal assistant nodded before leaving the office with several thoughts about his boss's love life.

****

*Two weeks later*

''Emma Wilson.''

''Yes.''

''Jack Lee.''

''Right here.''

''Andrew Millers.''

''I'm here.''

''Davis….''

A middle-aged man could be seen calling out lists of names right from the printed papers in his grasp. In front of him was a large crowd of excited students and behind was an orange and black school bus.

Another like him was doing the same, but the difference was the lecturer calling out the names was a female. She had a crowd of students in front, and a school bus right behind her back.

''Calla Anderson.''

''Yes.'' When Calla's name was called out, she signified by raising up her hand, and replying with a small 'Yes.'

Luckily for her, no one tried to anything funny. Or perhaps, their minds were more focused on the field-trip rather than on harassing her.

Anyway…she could pass through the crowd without any problems.

''is this all, Calla?'' The female lecturer, whom she recognized as her parasitology lecturer, eyed the bag pack on her back and the lack of a suitcase in her hand, unlike most students.

''Yes ma'am.'' Calla nodded, believing that just the bag pack was enough for a five day's field trip. Actually…this wasn't her usual bag pack. Unlike the bag that she always carried to the university, the one currently on her, a proper bag pack with multiple spaces which was very suitable for a field trip.

''…If you say so...'' Her parasitology lecturer seemed hesitant to let her go, but she eventually did, knowing that time was no one's side.

''...'' Wordlessly, Calla made her way to the bus, and stepped into the vehicle with the small set of stairs. Turning to the side, her eyes took in the seated students murmuring to themselves. Each one of them could be spotted with anticipating smiles and twinkling eyes.

''Are you going in or what?'' Before Calla could even take a further step, someone called out, seeming annoyed from behind her.

''....'' Not wanting to attract unnecessary attention, Calla moved deep inside the school bus, until she got a nice seat by the window that attracted her attention. Before sitting down, she slid off the thick straps of the bag pack off her shoulders and sat down on the seat, placing the bag pack on the side of legs underneath the window.

'It's a bit cold.' Calla rubbed her hands, moving them closer to her lips to warm them up with her breath. If she had known it would be this cold, she would have worn her winter gloves.

'Winter should be freezing if fall is chilly like this in the morning….' Calla made a mental note to sort out clothes for warm winter clothing. If she didn't have enough, she would have to go to the thrift store. She did save up money to spend on herself during winter, particularly the Christmas season.

'I hope the pet shop will be fine. Jenna should be able to handle the animals and the shop with Miss Lola. I hope she's patient though….' Leaning her head against the cool glass of the window, Calla worried about the state of the pet shop, particularly the animals.

Jenna was a good colleague, but she was bit hot-tempered. From what Calla had learned over the years working with Miss Lola, the pet shop was more than selling toys, foods and several commodities for pets.

The animals were the most important.

From cleaning, to feeding, to their health care, walking.…just making sure that the animals were in the best condition for the customers.

Calla could not count the number of times she had packed smelly poo from several cages. Though, she was a patient person and did the work well, unlike Jenna, who couldn't cope everything.

There had been a time when Jenna wanted to fight a fat cat that was lazy to come out for a walk. Calla really did not understand how Jenna got so angry over the fat cat.

But…that was Jenna. She was someone not with patience, and that was what worried Calla the most.

''Finally, everyone is inside.''

''Time to hit the roads to the big city.''

''You mean NYC.''

''Whatever, I just want to see the famous time square.''

''You do realize this field trip is for our grades right?''

Tuning out of the voices from the excited students, Calla changed her position from the window, to relaxing her weight on the seat. The seat on her right side was empty, which wasn't much of a surprise.

It could either be that her course mates really did not want to seat with her as she expected, or there were no more students since this population inside this bus and the population of the other were the last batch of zoology students going for the field trip.

''Wooohooo, let's go!''

''Manhattan! Here we come!"

''New York City!''

As the students expressed their enthusiasms, the bus began to move with the bus driver taking over the wheels.

Calla decided to have no more thoughts, and just take this journey to Manhattan as moment to just rest, even if it was for some minutes.

'I guess Miss Lola will be able handle Jenna…' She ended her thoughts, shutting her eyes to sleep, amid the eager voices of her course mates.

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