Learning to save

1.

Kaycee's POV 

I looked up at the sign in front of me taking a deep breath. I was finally here after graduating early high school at 16, 4 years of college pre-med, and 4 years of medical school and I had reached my dream, I was here not as a visitor but to work as a resident. I was accepted for the surgical program at UCLA Medical Center. 

" Hello I'm here for my surgical residency program," I said approaching the recipient at the front desk 

" Yes welcome to UCLA! Can I please get your name?" 

" Kaycee Evans." I smiled

" Ok here is your ID badge have that on at all times, the locker and break room is down the hall to the left an attending will assign you to a group in a half-hour." She smiled 

" Thank you so much," I said pinning the badge on my white coat and walking to the locker room. 

I opened the door and headed to the locker number that was on my badge, putting my bag in it. Changing quickly I put on my first official white coat with my name on it, along with my navy blue scrubs that matched the rest of the interns.  Attendings soon walked into the room calling names and residences followed. 

" Irwin, Clifford, Evans, Hemmings, and Hood " I sat up and followed the tall lady out the door.  There were 4 guys and only 2 girls in my group but they all seemed just as nervous as me calming me down a bit. 

" My name is Dr. Clark I will be your surgically attending. Your shifts last 17 hours, you'll be sleep-deprived and underpaid learn to deal with it.  I already don't like interns so please avoid pissing me off for the future of our relationship." She handed us each a pager. 

" These are your pagers when they go off you will run to whatever you are paged, this isn't medical school anymore your patients are real-life people, not rubber dummies. Lastly, I do not tolerate laziness, lateness, or disobedience you will do as I say without hesitation. Ready for your first day?" She asking walking into the double doors of the surgical ward. 

" Assignments Irwin and Evans labs, Clifford and Hood paperwork, Hemmings and Brown patient histories in the ER" We all looked around trying to find our partner 

" No patient contact?" One of the guys asked 

If looks could kill I would have to do chest compressions right now. Deciding not to stick around I quickly tried to find my partner to escape the situation. 

" Evans?" he asked making me nod

" Irwin?" he nodded back 

I grabbed the stack of the lab's to be sent out on the nurses' platform and handed half to Irwin. 

" Hi I'm Kaycee nice to meet you," I said walking next to him 

" Hi Ashton nice to meet you as well." 

" Clark seems intense" I laughed making conversation 

" Yeah just a bit" he laughed 

" What are you going to specialize in?" he asked me 

" I want to go into neurology. How about you?" 

" Trama or general haven't really decided yet There's a wider range of cases, get a little bit of everything," he responded

We walked for a few minutes not finding the lab just empty hallways. 

" Were lost aren't we" I laughed 

" Definitely" he nodded 

" Hold on I think that lady gave me a map when I came in" I put down the bin on the floor checking my pockets. I smiled and pulled out the paper 

" Uh we aren't even on the right floor," I said making Ashton laugh 

Twenty minutes later we had finally found the right place and sent in the labs for testing, with nothing else to do we opted for sitting on the floor waiting for them to come back in. 

" Do you know any of the other residents," I asked 

" Nope, all my friends from medical school went elsewhere to different states You?" 

" No, I went to an out-of-state college. You went to UCLA?" 

He nodded " Where did you go" 

" Columbia" 

" Oh, a New York girl how does California compare?" 

" People are nicer, less traffic, pizza isn't as good though " he laughed 

" I'm sure"

" Clark's labs are ready" A nurse called and we sat up grabbing the stack of papers heading back to her office. We walked in mostly silence till we reached her office. 

" Here you are Dr. Clark," Ashton said placing the papers on her desk. 

"You're on call till further notice with the rest of the interns" We nodded and high-fived at our break. We headed back to the break room seeing the other residents in our group. 

" Hi guys I'm Kaycee" 

" Michele" 

" luke" 

" Calum" 

We sat talking and getting to know each other for a while. I was glad mostly everyone in our group seemed nice, I thought I would feel out of place being with all guys but I felt included in our group. " I heard last year she fired a resident on the first day," Luke said 

" She scares me," I said honestly making the others agree 

"it's only been 5 hours into our 17-hour shift" Calum pointed out making us groan 

" I wanna help a patient the other's are already scrubbing in and we just deliver labs" Ashton groaned out 

Right as he finished all of our pagers went off making us run to Clark's office. 

" Normally I would have not let residents in the ER on the first day but there were several cars in a crash today, you are to help with sutures only if a patient requires more care page me or another attending. If I find you doing anything other than sutures there will be repercussions " 

We all hodded and made our way to the ER excited to be able to actually help patients for the first time in our career. Once we got there all our excitement faded seeing crying kids, people yelling, fighting, and all the staff running around. 

" Oh, shit..." Luke said reading all our minds