The Watcher came to me in one of my darkest hours, offering to guide me towards a better life. I was lonely and misunderstood back home, so even though I was a little doubtful at first, I accepted her deal. She told me that I would find everything I was looking for in a little suburb called Newcrest.
I'm Adrienne, and this...is not what I was expecting. At all.
"Is this some kind of joke?" I wondered out loud, turning around like people with cameras would come jumping out of the bushes at any moment. I would have felt better if it was all just a prank, but as the seconds ticked by and no cameramen revealed themselves...
Don't despair, a gentle voice said, almost too quiet to hear.
Have faith. "It's kinda hard to do that when I
don't have a house but yeah, okay, I'll give it a shot."
Well, first thing's first, the Watcher had said something about some kind of knight statue I had to purchase because...well I don't really know why. I couldn't get a straight answer out of her, but apparently it's really important.
I looked through some local job listings on my phone and applied for a position as a Cadet, but I don't start work until tomorrow which doesn't help me right now. So I took a bus over to a neighboring suburb called Willow Creek to visit their park. The Watcher told me that some people find frogs pretty valuable, and that it was an easy way to get the extra cash I needed for the knight statue.
It was really gross- I got so much mud between my toes!- but her advice worked and I managed to scrape together enough for the statue!
After I bought that useless scrap heap and dumped it in my family inventory to never be seen again, I decided I would spend the rest of the day meeting the locals. After all, if I'm going to live here from now on I should get to know some of my neighbors and maybe even make some friends! I'd heard there were a few clubs downtown so I hit one of those, finding a few cool guys who loved to dance almost as much as I do!
"So you're the one who bought that empty lot down the road?"
"Yeahhh, it was...kinda an impulse buy. I guess. But it's great to meet you, I'm Adrienne!"
"Dominic. This is Joaquin. You know, you should drop by the nightclub in Windenburg tonight and meet the rest of us. You'll fit right in."
"That would be awesome!"
After dinner- which was really only some stale bar chips but hey, they were free!- all three of us took the train to Windenburg. The guys introduced me to Jade and Candy, who were even more curious about my choice of residence than Dominic was.
"So like, you're completely broke?"
"Yep."
"And, like, you don't even have a bed?"
"Nope."
"Whoa. Where are you, like, gonna sleep? You could come stay with me, I totally wouldn't mind!"
"Thanks, Jade, but I think I'll be okay."
I was getting pretty tired so I said my goodnights and headed upstairs. I only meant to rest for a little while, maybe look up some of the other venues nearby to see if there was anywhere I could squat for the night, but I wound up falling asleep right there! What can I say? The couches were really comfy.
I felt a little grimey when I woke up in the morning so I walked over to the gym to take a shower and have some breakfast before my first day of work.
The layout of the place is pretty inconvenient, but at least the view up here is nice!
I wasn't too nervous about my first day of work before, but when I started putting my uniform on I started getting all jittery. Being a cop is a big deal, y'know? I'm responsible for a lot of peoples' safety now!
By the time I actually got to the precinct I was a nervous wreck. I may not look it, but believe me when I say I was having an emotional meltdown on the inside!
I headed to the lab to get my very first assignment. The forensics guy didn't pay much attention to me when I walked in, which I was thankful for. I don't think I can hold an intelligent conversation right now...
"Hey."
Oh, Watcher help me. "Y-Yes?"
"You just got hired, right? What's your name?"
"It's...It's Adrienne."
"Huh. Well,
Adrienne, if you're as gutless as you look then you're not going to last a week here. You should probably just quit now." He smiled meanly, turning back to his work.
I felt my whole face heat up; what kind of person just says something like that to a total stranger?? I wanted to say something, maybe tell him where he can shove his unwanted opinion, but I swallowed my anger as best I could and turned back to the computer. I'll just have to be the best cop I can be to prove him wrong!
I jotted down all the details of my first case in my little notepad. I get to assist a senior detective on a vandalism case. I'm pretty relieved that I get to work under another detective at first! I probably wouldn't have known what to do if I was assigned to a case by myself. We got to the crime scene, and I helped the other officers take witness testimonies. Eventually, someone handed me a camera and taught me how to take pictures of the evidence too!
After we got back, I logged all the evidence I found in the computer. The mean lab tech from before didn't acknowledge me at all this time, he just ignored me, which I was completely fine with, thank you very much!
After I was done with that, I wandered around a bit to see if anyone needed help with anything.
"What do you think you're doing, rookie? Already slacking off on your first day?"
"Um..."
"Give her a break, Kailyn. The guy in forensics already gave her a hard time this morning."
I blushed a little. "You know about that?"
"Oh, darling. Gossip travels fast around here, you'll see. I'm Detective Lai, and this is Detective Singletary. You can call me Khloe, though."
Singletary scowled, crossing her arms. "You can't coddle the rookies, Lai, they'll get soft."
"Don't mind her," Khloe said fondly, "she's all bark and no bite."
Singletary stormed off in a huff at that, much to Khloe's amusement. We chatted a little while longer, and I admitted to not being sure what else I should do today. She suggested I process some of the suspects in holding, saying that it might make a good impression on the chief.
I glanced at the clock as I escorted the suspect back to her cell, noticing it was already 5pm! My first day had gone by so fast, I hardly noticed it at all!
My cell phone rang just as I was walking out of the precinct. It was Dominic, asking if I wanted to go to the Humor and Hijinks festival with him and the gang. I didn't have any other plans, plus it sounded really fun, so I told him I would meet them all there!
We all decided to join the jokesters, even though the punch tasted a little funny. After a while though, everyone seemed to migrate towards the arts center and it was just me and Dominic left.
"You're not gonna ditch me, right? You guys are the ones that invited me!"
He wound up ditching me too. I couldn't bring myself to be too bummed about it though; I met some new people and got to eat something that wasn't cereal for once, so it was still a really fun night!
I slept at the nightclub again since I couldn't think of a better place to spend the night. The couches there are a lot more comfortable than a park bench even if they smell really bad. Like Buffalo Wing Tea that's been left out waaay too long.
I walked over to the gym to take a shower and have breakfast again before work. My routine is a little weird, but it seems to be working out okay for now!
When I got to work, I was sent out on a patrol to Oasis Springs. It was mostly quiet except for one fight that I broke up pretty quickly. I just chatted up the locals for the most part, trying my best to instill a positive police presence on the community.
"Aren't you hot in that uniform? We're in the middle of a desert, you know."
"Trust me, you do
not want to know how sweaty I am right now. It's like a flood inside this jacket."
After I got back, I headed into the chief's office. I figured she'd want to hear me out on my suggestions for new uniforms that won't put all the officers at risk for heat stroke.
"Hi, Chief!"
"Lovelace, if you come in here uninvited like that again you'll be scrubbing inmate toilets for a week."
"Bye, Chief!"
Well, other than being threatened with cleaning duty, it was a pretty good day! To make it even better, I also got a promotion! I guess the chief didn't hold too much against me for walking into her office unannounced.
I used the money I'd been saving up to start construction on a small house. It's not much, but I'm sure with lots of hard work I can fix it up really nice!
