FIRST DAY

Jaleen paced back and forth, doing her best to avoid the barrage of people walking past her on the crowded sidewalk. She was weaving through the crowd and hoped that she didn't look suspicious. Her clothes were non-descript and plain, like she was instructed. Jaleen was waiting for her new employer, and she hoped she hadn’t been tricked. With the economy in the toilet, when a job reached out to her without her applying, she took it with no hesitation. They had a whole onboarding process on Workday. She was an hourly employee for a cleaning service. Fresh Starts was the name of it. She apologized as she bumped into someone and bowed her head down to avoid their hostile gaze. She just needed to make herself as unseen as possible as she waited, but each person walking past made her want to go home. But she didn’t have much more savings to cover rent, and she didn’t want to be homeless with her cat, Captain Marble.