Looking at you side ways

3

She woke up before the alarm went off feeling slightly nauseous and slightly excited. [i]It was always this way on the first day of school. [/i]She got up and shook her head.[i] It wasn't school anymore. It was the first day of her internship. [/i]She jumped in the shower.[i] She didn't want to be late.[/i] She actually got there early and was assigned to a short orientation group showing the interns around the hospital. This part was first come, first served. She didn't see Cristina or anyone familiar from the mixer. The person giving the orientation said that all the interns were mixed in the orientation groups. She didn't pay a lot of attention. [i]She felt like she knew SGH inside and out from when her mother worked here. [/i]After it was over, they were told to report to the intern locker room at 0800. She had half an hour to grab something to eat and get coffee.

Mark, Derek, and Burke had returned from their orientation to the locker room. Burke was loosing up a little talking about sports. Addison and Cristina walked in next and found their lockers. Addison was fixing a mirror inside her locker and Cristina was trying to stuff all her junk inside. Mark and Derek had their backs to the door and missed Meredith walking in. She immediately went to her locker. She had checked it out earlier.[i] She wanted to feel like she belonged.[/i] Cris's locker was next to hers.

"Hi Cristina," Meredith said softly.

"Hi there yourself" replied Cristina.

Cristina looked on as Meredith made a quick change artist look slow as she got into her scrubs and put her lab coat on.

"In a hurry?"

"I guess I am a little excited," she replied honestly.

Cristina gave her a funny look.[i] She had immediately liked Meredith last night. She looked all business. She came late and left early. She wasn't a kiss ass, that was for sure. Cris had been hoping for a good colleague and now was thinking that Meredith might even be a friend. She seemed very unpreteneous and honest, if not a little naïve.[/i]

Addison glanced over at the other two women and thought smugly that they were not competition. [i]They both had on little or no makeup and were in the process of pulling their hair back into ponytails. Two short scrawny little bitches,[/i] thought Addison fluffing out her hair.

Meredith said to Cristina, "Only six out of twenty."

"Yeah, I hear one of them is a model. That's going to help with the respect thing."

"Which resident did you get assigned to?" Meredith was finished and shut her locker waiting for her name to be called.

Cristina replied, "Vincent DePalma."

"The Nazi, Me too."

Addison had gone over to where Derek, Mark and Burke were. She started flirting with them all.

Cristina said, "Meredith, I am going to call you Mer. Do you mind? Three syllables are just too much."

Meredith laughed and said, "No, and I will call you Cris."

"Great. I am a woman of few words. Look at those smug ones." She inclined her head over to where the other group was standing.

Meredith glanced over at their backs and thought to herself, [i]Oh the popular kids. Here it goes again.[/i]

Just then, Derek and Mark turned around and were astonished to see the little vixen from the previous night. In the locker room. [i]She was an intern? No way, [/i]thought Derek. [i]Without the sexy dress and the makeup she looked like she just graduated from high school.[/i]

Mark recovered more quickly. He walked over to her and lightly but boldly ran his finger across her embroidered name on her lab coat.