When I Grow Up

The sun was still asleep when my alarm clock blared on my bedside table. When I opened my eyes I saw a white ceiling. Turning to my left I looked at my alarm clock; it read 5:30am. Time to get up; lucky me, getting stuck with the early shift this week, like all of the rookies.

Standing, my feet are forced onto the cold hardwood floor as I made m way towards the bathroom. Opening the door a small gush of cold winter air smacked my face, causing my eyes to open wide. Shivering, I showered and changed.

The sun was just starting to shine threw the kitchen window illuminating the flowers on the counter and blinding me as I walked into the room. Open books lay on the living room table from my late night studying; I had an exam on phobias in a few days so I had been studying hard.

With the sound of the coffee brewing I decided to make sure I had everything' all of my after-work clothes and workout clothes. Checking my bag I found all of my things in their places. Grabbing and pouring the coffee into a mug I brought the adieus bag's strap over my left shoulder and headed for the door.

I arrived at the station a little before seven; I was early. When I went into the locker room everyone was already there. I nodded at them and started to change. Not too long after I arrived out captain called the routine briefing meeting in the main conference room. Mostly it's just to give everyone their riding partners and assignments. The rookies are always with the same officer until they become full officers. These people are called training officers, they teach us the rules and test our abilities in the field.

My training officer had been on the force for almost 30 years, he's one of the most experience officers in the precinct. His car was usually fairly clean, no food wrappers or garbage. He was really helpful in showing me around and making sure that I knew what I was doing and confident in what I was doing. He also made sure that I was covered when I needed to go to class or take a test.

For the exam on Wednesday he promised to back me up and make sure everyone thought I took a sick day. Of course I called in sick that day but just in case everyone asked he promised to confirm the story.

Usually we just talked about work, he would teach me something new about the job and I would ask a million questions. We would respond to a few calls a day, mostly domestic calls, or hand out speeding tickets. That day was slow, not many calls and by the end of shift we hadn't arrested anyone, just given out a few tickets.

When I'd finished changing I headed home. No sense in going to the local bar plus I did not have anyone special to meet up with so I had taken the opportunity to study. Phobias, if you think about it, is actually quite an interesting topic to learn about. It makes you understand what people are afraid of and that allows you to try and help them. I headed over to the fridge where I pulled out left-over chili in a container. Placing it in the microwave I gathered my books from the living room table and brought them into the dining room. Getting the chili into a bowl and a glass of water from the refrigerator I sat down in front of my books for another long night of studying.