Heartstopper Future

Chapter 10: Preparation

Date: Sunday 30th June 2024

Charlie’s POV

I have my interview tomorrow and I am absolutely terrified. I am in no way prepared for it, and it’s in less than 24 hours. 

Nick has said that we will spend today getting me ready for it, which has helped calm me slightly, apart from the fact we still haven’t started and it’s already 11am.

Luckily, Nick comes in to the living room at that moment (where I am sat) and asks “Do you want to start preparing?”

I nod, eagerly, before getting off the sofa and we head up to his room so we can be on our own, without anyone intruding.

We begin by reviewing the notes that we have on the schools, ensuring that I know everything, so I’d be ready for anything. We then go over my resume, making sure it’s complete and doesn’t have anything missing, before going over the job description so I know exactly what they’re looking for when they ask me questions.

By the time we have done all this, it is 12:30 and we decide to stop for lunch, and then continue after. So we head downstairs, into the kitchen and start preparing lunch. Surprisingly, Nick lets me help out quite a bit before insisting that I need to sit down and rest and let him take care of everything.

Once Nick has finished making lunch, he brings it over to the breakfast bar, where I am sat, patiently waiting, and we begin to eat. I slowly make it through lunch, knowing that every bite I take is going straight to the baby as I don’t eat enough for there to be any left over for me. I know this could be considered a bad or unhealthy way to look at things, and may not even be true, but the way I see it is, at least I’m eating.

After lunch we spend some time practicing interview questions, so I know how to answer what they ask. Nick starts off by asking some fairly easy questions, getting harder and more open ended as we go along. Luckily, I am able to answer all of them fairly well, and I slowly begin to get the hang of it.

We planned to spend a couple of hours doing this, however, we ended up spending nearly 5 hours on it, and only end up stopping because Sarah has made us dinner and has called us down.

When we get downstairs, Sarah is putting the plates of food on the table, and invites us to sit down and eat with her. We accept, gladly, and shortly begin to eat. It tastes amazing, although it always does as Sarah’s such a great cook.

Once everyone has finished, we help Sarah clear the table, wash and dry up, and put everything away. As Sarah is there Nick doesn’t seem quite as concerned about letting me help, (although he is concerned, don’t get me wrong) but I think it’s because Sarah has been pregnant before (obviously) meaning that she knows how much is too much, and will stop me if she thinks I’m doing to much.

Once the kitchen is back to it’s normal, pristine condition with everything cleared away, Nick and I head upstairs to prepare the last few things that need to be done so I’m ready for tomorrow. 

I google what you need to take to an interview so I have everything, and the common things that come up are: copies of your resume, a list of references, a notepad, and a few pens, so Nick begins hunting down a small notepad and pens while I find the copies of my resume – by find I mean get out (I already knew where they were).

When Nick returns with a notepad and pens, we begin to plan my outfit. I end up trying on multiple things until we settle on a nice suit with no tie – not too casual, not too formal – and begin to plan out the timings for tomorrow.

We work out that I need to leave just after 10 if I want to get there 10 minutes early just in case.

We then decide to get ready for bed, so we can just watch movies until we fall asleep and it doesn’t matter, so we strip down to our boxers and I put on a jumper and we get into bed.

While we’re lying there, cuddling and watching movies, Nick suddenly breaks the silence and asks “Hey, Char, are you going to tell them about your pregnancy tomorrow?"

“I don’t know. I haven’t really thought about it.”

“It’s just that, I don’t think it’s worth telling them. Like, I know they aren’t allowed to discriminate because of pregnancy, but I just don’t want you to not get this job just because you are pregnant.”

“I know what you mean, and I probably wont tell them, at least not until the later stages of the interviewing process or not at all as I don’t really want to tell them and then have a miscarriage. I think I want to wait until I’m out of the danger zone first before we tell anyone else if that’s ok with you. I mean, if I do miscarry, we can tell people after but, telling everyone the baby died after announcing the pregnancy would hurt too much. Sorry, I was rambling, and that probably doesn’t make much sense.”

“It does make sense, and I agree with you. How about when you get to 12 weeks we meet up with all of the people we’re close with, at once so no-one feels left out, and announce it then?”

“That sounds good. It will also mean everyone who has a problem with it cant have a problem with it as there will be too many people there who will support it.”