It had been almost a month since Jerry's HR regime had begun at work and it was just as awful as you'd expect. The work itself remained the same but he'd changed the rules with things we could and couldn't say so much that everyone just started to mumble and stumble their way through conversations like a junkie that's just had their fix.

One particular lowlight was him standing over to the side of me, watching intently as I explained to our newest customer the colour options for the van he was hiring.

"You can have red, blue . . . charcoal or snow," I groaned as Jerry gave me a thumb up from a short distance away. He wasn't officially my boss, but at this point he might as well have been.

"Isn't that just black and white?" The perplexed patron asked.

"You'd think," I nodded sarcastically.

Luckily it was just work that was now hell and nothing serious.

Actually, here's an unpopular opinion that might surprise you. I don't mind work.

Hear me out. Obviously if I was super rich and didn't have to work, I wouldn't. I would travel the world, buy a giant house and probably drink beer every day. I'm one of those people that imagine and plan what I'd do if I won the lottery without ever actually playing it.

The thing is, I don't enjoy work either. I go because I have to and I do my best to make it pass by quickly, then I go home.

It's a pretty mundane existence but it's what I've always been used to.

When I was at school, I was exactly the same. I was always in awe of these teen dramas on TV that portrayed life in a hugely different way to what I was used to. Of course, now I know that that's just so they could get more viewers and keep people engaged, but at the time, I wasn't so wise.

So as a result I waited and waited for an adventure to find me, like it did in the shows. It always starts as any other day but every day came and went and was as boring and dull as the one before.

I didn't go on any adventures because I was waiting for a purpose.

I didn't ask out any girls because I was waiting for the hot popular girl to realise that she was in love with the shy quiet guy.

I didn't study hard and work at school or sports because I was waiting for my random hidden talent to emerge by itself.

As you can probably tell by this little rant, none of those things happened. Life sucks, huh?

Don't get me wrong though, it's not all bad.

I had Joe and Evelyn by my side the whole time, as well as a few other lads that I hung out with. I also had a few pretty decent jobs, have a nice flat and lost my virginity when I was eighteen to a girl who was actually pretty tidy before having a few girlfriends that kept me grounded until they eventually fizzled out.

Nothing tragic; nothing brilliant. Just bang average.

Despite what I keep telling Evie, I am worried about the future. At twenty-eight years old, I'm nowhere near my deathbed, barring a crazy illness, accident or murder. But at the same time, I am nearing the stage where people start to expect things of you, like settling down and actually being an adult. It's fucking scary to think about.

Sometimes I wish I was Joe.

Of course I'm happy for him, he's my best friend. But I can't help looking at his life and wishing I had what he had. Basically, I'm jealous.

He's got the perfect life. Someone who loves him for who he is, a fairly easy but high paying job and of course a great friend like me!

Whatever, clearly me and my regrets have some issues to work out.

But sometimes, just when you think you've finally given up on all those unrealistic expectations, you get exactly what you've been waiting for all these years.

*

It came when I arrived at work on a Tuesday morning and for some reason, noticed that the Now Hiring sign was gone. Just how every great story starts right?

"Have you got somebody?" I asked Jerry who was standing by the coffee machine.

"Yes! And a female too! Not that I'm assuming that she's a girl or anything. We don't do that here."

"Of course we don't," I said with false sincerity. I'd learned now to stop arguing with Jerry and just let him say all his lines. He was doing a good enough job of tripping himself up. He didn't need my help.

"When does she . . . they start?" I asked.

"A week today! Friday is her last day where she is and then we've given her Monday off," Jerry answered, abandoning his own rules without even realising.

"Nice. I still don't see what she's going to do here. We barely have enough work for me, never mind two people."

"It's about equal opportunity, Michael. Jesus, where have you been?" He groaned.Indeed, now I was wondering where I'd been. Hopefully in my bed sleeping and all of this was a dream.

But a week later, I realised that this wasn't a dream. It was a dream come to life.

*

It was the first day for our newest employee and for some odd reason, I was in work early. Just in time for Jerry to tell me that I was to show her the ropes for the day.

I fixed myself a coffee and sat at my desk, making one for her too to show that I'm a nice guy. I just assumed she took it with milk and no sugar, like me. Sorry Jerry.

I heard the door open and in stepped Jerry, closely followed by the sound of heels on the tiled floor.

"Michael, I want you to meet Stacy. Stacy, this is Michael," He introduced.

"Hi!" The female voice said, outstretching a hand for me which I shook before looking at her face.

Fuck. Me.

I knew her. Not well, but I knew her. Stacy. Stacy Sinclair.

Looking into her large green eyes, I was instantly transported back to September 2002:

School canteen, in the queue, waiting to get a slice of pizza.

It was one month into my first year at the academy and unlike primary school; it wasn't cool to take a packed lunch. It had taken me three weeks to convince my mum to stop packing one for me.

It was a dull green room that reminded me of a hospital wing so I wasn't exactly confident in the food so pizza was what I had at every lunch time. Just one slice! Partly because I didn't want to eat much, but mostly because I was a tight bastard and didn't want to spend much money every day.

I got my slice (pepperoni), and wandered off into my corner to eat in peace.

School eating times was a really weird thing for me.

Because they lived so close to school, Evelyn and Joe always went home for lunch. My house was too far so I was stuck by myself. Of course, some of the guys in my class did ask me to sit with them but for every nice guy in my class, there were at least two assholes, and that's not fun.

So instead, I chose to eat by myself, standing up in a corner, then walk around the school or outside if it was a nice day and wait for my best friends to come back to school.

It didn't seem as tragic as that at the time, trust me.

Anyway, on this particular day, I was munching down on the pizza when, for some reason, my spidey sense kicked in and I looked up, looked around and found a target.

Amongst the sea of kids in the canteen, one stood out to me. It was like a painting that had thousands of people in black and white and one girl in the centre in full colour.

She was petite, had shoulder length, auburn hair and big bright eyes that attracted me straight away. I didn't know who she was but she gave me a feeling in my stomach that I'd only felt once before. Either this pizza was off or I had romantic feelings for a girl I'd never seen before in my life.

My small amount of money was on the latter.

I stared for what didn't feel that long but it really must have been because suddenly, her own sixth sense kicked in and she knew someone was leering at her from across the room. She looked up and stared straight at me and my corner.

I quickly pretended I was looking all around the room and not just at her, while taking another bite of my pizza. Now, we know that that isn't exactly the smoothest move to make but hey, I'd just turned twelve and didn't have a fucking clue about anything.

So naturally, I made an arse of it.

In biting my pizza, I tried to take it into my mouth but the cheese and base separated, so I looked like a lizard or some shit sucking up his food. I mean, this pizza was literally hanging out of my mouth. I was like a dog stuck in a car on a hot day.

I looked around for a miracle but once again only found her.

Our eyes locked and I started to sweat. What would someone cool do in this situation?

I finally sucked up the rest of the pizza so that my pepperoni tongue was no longer showing.

So whatever a cool person would do, it certainly wasn't that.

She laughed. Giggled actually. I don't know how I could tell, but I just knew. Her perfect teeth were on show and I saw two dimples at either side of her mouth and the cutest of button noses. Since when did I notice things like cute noses?

Finally she looked away and rejoined her friends' conversation and I finished my pizza slice and bolted out the room and dashed to the nearest bathroom to wash my face in case there was tomato all over my chin. There was.

Between deep breaths and thoughts and memories of her perfect face, I thought about what I could do. I couldn't think of anything. All I could think of was her.

But who was she?

Unlike the shows on TV, in our school you got put into a class and you all had the same classes at the same time. It was only once you got to third year when classes got changed up with your subjects. She was obviously not in my class so I didn't know when I'd get to see her again. From that day on, that corner of the canteen was my corner.

Back in present day, I was still staring at Stacy. At least there wasn't pizza on my face this time.

"Hi!" Was all I managed to say.

She'd obviously changed a bit in fifteen years but it was undeniable that it was the same girl. Her face was a little fuller and her hair was longer but most other things remained the same.

"I can't wait to get started! What do we do first?" She asked.

Good question.

"I'll leave you guys to it. If you need anything, give me a shout!" Jerry said before skulking out of the room.

"We won't!" I called after he was gone.

"He's a little . . ." She started.

"Intense? Annoying? Creepy?"

"All of the above."

"All of the above," I agreed.

An awkward silence then fell on the small room and I suddenly came to the disheartening realisation that she didn't remember me at all.

With nothing else to do, I gave her a quick rundown of her duties here which really didn't take long. Only up until lunch in fact, where I had the strangest craving for some pizza . . .

___________________________________________________________________________

Alright so this chapter is a bit of a strange one in my head so I'd love some opinions on it.

The first part, I feel is really strong in terms of actual writing. But for some reason I don't know if I like it. Is it too much? Let me know any thoughts please!

However, the second half was so much fun! I got completely in the zone and wrote it non-stop. It was truly a throwback to my early Wattpad days where I wrote for hours on end and never got writers block. Damn I miss those days!

Anyway, lets get to the actual story. What do we think? We've now met Stacy, our last main character and we'll get to see a lot more of her going forward. And how adorably cute is young 12 year old Michael!? Definitely not a ladies man!

As always, any votes and comments are hugely appreciated and I will take absolutely everything on board!

Thanks readers!