I walked onto the patients floor to check on patients and to see how their treatment was going. I saw other people in residency walk by. I smiled at them but didn't talk to them. I only talked to them when I needed to.

My first day here, I met everyone doing residency, but never connected with anyone. It's not like I tried, though. I was more determined and studious than most of them, even though I would have a guaranteed job here once I finished my residency.

I walked up to my favorite patient at the hospital. She's an elderly patient who got admitted a few months ago. I usually talked to her before rounds so we could have a one-on-one conversation.

"Good Morning, Ada." I smiled at her.

"Good Morning, Ms. Rodriguez."

"Oh please, just call me Naomi." Her formality to a young adult always surprised me. Usually older people forget their manners when they hit a certain age.

She was one of the nice ones so I always felt guilty whenever she said Ms. Rodriguez. I made sure that I changed my last name on my ID card so no one would know that my father owned the hospital. If they knew, the team would think I got in because I'm the daughter of the owner. The doctors and supervisors would either go easy on me so they wouldn't lose their job or test me on things I didn't need to know to prove that I'm not smart enough to be here.

I don't have the time or patience for any drama that might ensue.

We talked about her life and her kids and grandkids. She may be in her 60s, but she acted as if she just turned 20. She was and still is a daredevil. She once jumped out of a plane, something I could never do. However, once she found out she had cancer, her kids made sure that she got the care she needed. She said that once she is cancer free, she'll go back to her daredevil ways.

I appreciated my talks with Ada. She's always a friendly face and on some days, this is the only sense of calmness I get around here.

Minutes pass and when I checked the time, I saw it was time to do rounds with my team. I exchanged goodbyes with Ada and made my way to where the teams were.

As I walked to the teams, the small hairs on my neck stood up. My hand went to the back of my neck as I tried to brush the feeling away, but it lingered. I glanced behind me, wondering what this strange feeling was, but I saw no one in particular looking my way.

Weird.

I hurried to the teams and once I got there; I looked at the charts of the patients we'll talk to today.

As I was reading, Julia walked toward the teams.

Julia

Julia and I engaged in a simple conversation the first day of residency, and then the next day I heard her saying absurd rumors about me. She didn't like me for some reason. I would say she's jealous, but I'm not that full of myself.

I continued to look at the charts, but I tuned into Julia's voice. From the corner of my eye, I saw she looked at me.

"God, she should've been kicked out by now. You know she's not smart, right. I heard she only got a 503 on her MCAT. Pathetic, really."

I chuckled softly, not surprised by her lies. I'm actually quite proud of my MCAT score, 521. Though your MCAT score doesn't decide what hospital you do your residency at. It's a multitude of factors that decide and I'm surprised she even came close to meeting all those factors.

Once the teaching physician and supervising resident arrived, we did our rounds. Rounds consisted of discussing all the patients on our service and discussing his or her discharge plan. Most people think rounds are boring, but I like rounds. It gives me an insight on my patients' lives and treatments.

Rounds last about 2 hours, though it sometimes felt longer with how loud all the residents talk.

Once rounds end, we dispersed to check on certain patients who we needed to talk to further, get tests for, talk to their primary physician and so on. I tried to make time for my notes for each patient but didn't have much time for that in the short hour we have for individual tasks.

After the in-depth conversations, we headed to the large conference room to discuss different patients' needs and learn more information from the lecturer. This is where I took most of my notes and the only time we're given to sit and take notes.

I took my notes adamantly, but the moment I heard the lecturer say "lunch break", I rushed out the room and got my bag from the locker. This is the only time we get to ourselves and I always made the most of it.

I walked to a popular coffee chain near the hospital and ordered a drink and a chocolate croissant. I got my ticket and walked to a table. Most of the people doing residency stayed in the hospital, talked to their friends, or got snacks from the vending machines so it rarely got crowded here.

Once I picked up my order and sat down, I took out a book from my bag and opened it up to the page I left off on. I got the book from the library about a week ago. I usually didn't have a lot of time to read so I tried to make time during breaks or other free time I got. But I'm a fast reader, I got this book last week and I was already on page 250.

As I read my book, I got a weird feeling again. Like the one I got before rounds. I tried to shake it off and continue reading but after 2 minutes I realized I was re-reading the same page multiple times, not remembering anything on it.

I sighed and closed my book. I took a sip of my coffee and looked around the shop.

There were only a few people present. A businessman typed away on the computer, a middle-aged woman read a magazine, two teenagers who either went here for lunch or didn't go to school at all, and a relatively young man on his phone.

This is dumb. I'm letting my paranoia take over me.

I continued to eat my food and focused on my book. I'm at a really good part.

Ten minutes before my lunch break ended, I got my trash and threw it out. I opened the door and the chimes on the door rang. I walked a few steps toward the hospital when I heard someone else leave the shop.

I instinctively turned around and saw the young guy walked out of the shop too, but was going in the opposite direction of where I was going.

Whatever.

I walked back to the hospital with my drink in hand. I got to my locker and put my bag away and quickly finished my drink.

At 1pm, I was back on the patient floor talking to new patients and writing their admitting orders. Basically similar to what we had to do with the patients in the morning.

At 3pm, I took a bathroom break and headed to the employee bathroom. I did my business and walked out of the stall. I suddenly got a text from Sophie.

Soph❤️💕🖕👩‍❤️‍👩- Done with school

Soph❤️💕🖕👩‍❤️‍👩- Getting something to eat

Soph❤️💕🖕👩‍❤️‍👩- What do you want in your bowl?

I slightly chuckled. I won't even ask how she knew I would want a bowl.

Me- My usual and don't get me a drink. I'll get one myself.

Soph❤️💕🖕👩‍❤️‍👩- Okay

I put my phone away and washed my hands. I exited the bathroom and got back to work.

•~•

Honestly most of these medical terms I looked up so if any one you have gone through residency and I said something wrong or didn't write it the right way, tell me. I've never gone through residency so I don't know much about it. Hope you enjoyed the chapter.

Thanks for reading,

NN😊