Bree flopped down in her seat at her workstation. Between oversleeping and what seemed like catching every light red, she was amazed she got to work on time. Working customer service at an insurance company wasn't exactly her dream job, but it paid the bills and she found she was pretty good at it. She brushed her blonde hair to the side and adjusted her headset and turned on her computer. Within just a few minutes, she was already taking her first call of the day.
The morning was pretty uneventful. Bree helped a few customers out with various problems, nothing major. She took a sip of coffee she brought with her from home, and transferred another call in which the customer accidently dialed into the wrong department. She listened in as she overheard a coworker complain about their supervisor, and another coworker bragging about how wasted they got over the weekend. Bree shook her head gently and simply rolled her hazel eyes.
"Good morning Bree."
Bree turned around in her chair and saw her supervisor standing on the other side of her cubicle wall.
"Good morning Carol. How are things?"
Carol had been Bree's supervisor for four years and was the one who hired her right after she got out of high school. She was a kind, older woman who always pushed her employees in positive ways. Bree had seen other supervisors on the floor and was glad Carol was one of the better ones.
"I need a favor from you. I'm expected to be on a conference call any minute, but I need to have these forms for the sales department turned into the supervisor down there, Mark. Do you think you could run these down and hand them off?"
Carol knew she could count on Bree. Ever since she hired her, Bree seemed to be one of the few employees she could rely on. Bree took her job seriously, sometimes a little too much, which caused some friction between her and some of the other girls in the department. While Bree at first just considered working there a simple job, she really blossomed into the model employee, and stopped thinking of working there as just another job, and started treating it like a career.
Of course, with Bree taking her job so seriously all the time, Carol had to constantly remind Bree to take some time off every now and then. Bree lived alone in a two bedroom house and didn't have any close family and never spoke of a boyfriend from what Carol could remember. Bree mostly filled her time with working, but Carol couldn't deny her drive and determination and always awarded her with some of the top raises, which helped Bree afford her own place.
"Sure thing." said Bree
"Thanks." Carol said as she handed off the paperwork to Bree.
Just then, Carol's phone started ringing and she left. Bree took off her headset and headed down to the sales department on the third floor. While most of the employees took one of the elevators, Bree always took the steps. She liked to stay in shape as much as she could and tried hit the gym a few times a week. She constantly repeated to herself sitting at a desk for eight hours a day was unhealthy, not to mention all of the sugary snacks and soda vending machines found on every floor.
Bree walked into the sales department and was greeted by a sea of chaos. People rushing back and forth across the department and overlapping phone conversations rang through the air. While she always pushed herself to the limits with helping people in her department, it was nothing like sales. While her position was regulated to helping people with various problems, the people in this department was there to do only one task and had a tight quota each one had to fill. If there was one department which always had open positions, it was sales.
Making her way through the department, Bree had to stop and ask twice where she could find the supervisor named Mark. She eventually found her way and Mark spotted her and the young man waved her over.
"Hey there. Thanks. Carol just messaged me saying you'd be down." Mark said in a rushed tone.
"No problem. Glad I could help."
Bree smiled and turned to leave, but stopped as her eyes caught someone. She pointed out from Mark to a young girl with black pixie cut hair sitting at a computer.
"Is that Madison?" she asked Mark.
"Yeah, her name's Madison. New girl. Started last Monday. You know her?"
"Oh yeah, we went to high school together. Do you think it's okay to stop and say hi?"
"Sure, but not too long. She's still in training."
Bree walked over to Madison's cubicle just in time to hear Madison cry out in disgust and take off her headset and slam it down on the desk and put her face down into her hands.
"Better watch out." Bree said jokingly. "I hear they make you become a sign spinner on a corner if you break one of those."
Madison looked up from her hands and her frustrations left her.
"Bree? Oh my God!"
"How it going?" Bree smiled.
"It's...going." Madison looked Bree over. "Wow, you look fantastic. How've you been? It's been, what, like five years?"
Bree laughed. "Yeah, something like that. I heard you moved away after you graduated?"
"Yeah, left with my parents, but I missed it back here, so I moved back a few months ago."
"That's awesome! I don't want to hold you up though. When's your lunchbreak?"
"I go at noon. I've got an hour."
"Me too. Hey, I usually eat in my car, but let's catch up. I'll meet you down in the cafeteria."
"Okay, see you then."
Bree left Madison's cubicle and headed back to her own department. Madison was a year older than her, but they had a class together in high school. Bree and Madison weren't really friends, but knew each other and got along whenever they saw each other in the hallways. Madison always seemed to hang out with the more popular girls, but Bree always seemed to be a loner, which never bothered her that much. She did have a few friends, but no one she was ever close with. She didn't come out of her shell until she started working and had to actively talk to customers over the phone.
