I looked at the room around me. It was your standard lecture room, desk lined up along the legnth of it. At the front stood a large screen projector, a small desk to accompany it. The room smelled musky, as if it hadn't been used in a lon time. My suit was also beginning to become uncomfortable due to the temperature inside. Why did they even ask us to dress so formal?

All around me sat other people like me, some men, some women. We were all here for the same reason. We had applied for employment. For what you ask? Well, for the Companion service of course. The pay was good and required very little schooling and experience.

What's that? What is the Companion service? It's a service designed to give company to those who are struggling on their own, those who don't have friends, those that normally socialize with others but get lonely every now and then. Back to more important matters.

I glanced over to the person next to me. It was a woman, probably in her twenties judging by her appearance. Her golden blonde hair was pinned up on hear head, but a few hairs had escaped and were draping over her cheek from the heat. She looked as bored as I was for orientation to begin.

"Hi, my name's Martin, but you can call me M for short." The woman didn't even bothered turning her head to acknowledge me. Either she was zoned out and didn't hear me, or she just flat out ignored me. I repeated myself once more, this time soliciting a response. She turned to face me, keeping her head propped up with her hand. Without saying a word, she rolled her eyes and turned back around. Well, that was a waste of time.

The buzzing of the lights overhead were beginning to chew at my patience. Nobody in here seemed friendly in the slightest. Maybe it was because we were all growing impatient. Our supervisor had yet to show up, running 30 minutes late already.

As I glanced down at my watch, I heard the doors at the back of the lecture room bang open. A thin and slobish looking man came bolting past the desks and made his way up to the front of the room. He threw the bag down he was carrying and quickly took a seat at the table with the projector.

"Sorry for being late guys. Traffic was a little more hectic than I thought it would be." I watched as he scrambled to pull his supplies from his bag. He was a mess. His hair was ruffled up, his glasses hanging at a crooked angle. Was he really supposed to be our supervisor?

I looked around me once more. Everybody else seemed to have reservations about this as much as I did. Oh well, it's a job. You're going to get that with every kind of job. There's always guys like him.

"Yes, here we go." I saw the projector screen light up, a standard stock template lining the screen. It read, "Companion Systems Training Seminar." Wait, this isn't just orientation but training as well? I suddenly felt worse about my choice to place myself here.

"Welcome everyone to the companion service orientation and training class. I'm Mr. Beck and I'll be your instructor for today." Yep, this was definitely going to be a mistake. I could feel it.

"First of all, is anyone here familiar with the companion service itself?" I watched as a few hands went up across the room. No doubt we knew what it was, otherwise we wouldn't have signed up for the job. It was more apparent that nobody felt too inclined to answer.

After a few of the obvious expected answers, Mr. Beck moved onto the next few slides. They mostly covered the history of the companion system and how prestigious it was. Well, at least in their eyes it was. To us, it was just a job. I didn't have anything better to do with my life at the moment so I figured it would be an easy job that paid well. So far, nothing unexpected had occured.

I felt myself beginning to doze off as Beck droned on, at least until he came to the actual "training" slides. Honestly, the word training isn't as aptly fit as suggestions would be. We were simply expected to act as our normal selves, keeping in mind to avoid all illegal activities. This of course included anything that mirrored prostitution, robberies, etc. You know, the general kind of crime that somebody might dial up somebody shady to help with. 

There was one thing that caught not only my attention, but everybody elses well. Agents are not allowed to continue interaction with a client post service period, nor were we allowed to interact with other fellow agents outside of our work. It really didn't matter that much to me, but for some I could see that it definitely caused a change of opinion.

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After spending only 30 minutes on the slides, Beck turned and faced us all. "As for your salaries, you will be paid monthly. You are not allowed to accept any form of payment from the clients directly. Now, if there are any questions please raise your hand."

The woman next to me raised her hand, an annoyed look on her face, "So, what are we supposed to do if we bump into one our former clients on the street?" She raised a good question. I didn't give it much thought when it was brought up, but it was a very probable scenario.

"Why, you ignore them and under no means are you to acknowledge them." We all kind of wanted to feel shocked, but at this point, nothing was going to surprise us from this shady idea of a job. For me, that was fine. I never actually wanted to make friends from this. I just needed the money was all.

At Becks statement, I watched as nearly half of our class stood up from their seats and walked out. Apparently they were declining their employment. Suit themselves I guess. 

I looked around the room once more. Surprisingly, the woman next to me was still seated. She must have just asked out of curiosity instead of conflict.

"Very well then. Those who are left, please come down here and take these forms. Once you fill them out, you may turn them in to the assistant outside and we will get your paperwork in order. Class, dismissed." With that statement, Beck laid down a stack of forms on his desk he had withdrew from his briefcase.

One by one we proceeded down to the desk, each of us taking a form. I returned to my seat to fill it out rather than go outside. It was general information that one would expect from an employment form. While we had already filled out applications, this was more or less used to corraborate the information. 

As I flipped through each page filling out the proper fields, I felt someone nudge me on my shoulder. It was the woman who had rolled her eyes at me. What did she want?

"Um, I'm sorry about before, but could I ask a favor? I forgot to bring anything to write with, so would you mind if I borrowed your pen after you're done?" I paused for a moment. I could easily return the treatment I had recieved before and roll my eyes, but at least she had apologized. 

"Yeah, sure. Just give me a second to finish filling this out." She nodded her head and gave me a brief smile. Her face was fairly pale, a shallow complexion with a small forhead. Her eyes were a deep blue, resembling the hue of an azure crystal. She was actually kind of cute.

As I finished up the last fields, I flipped to the last page. It was an agreement about what Beck had mentioned before. "I hereby agree to the statements listed above and that I, as an employee of Companion Systems Inc., will refrain from any contact with other employees outside of work as well as previous clients of my own. Any violation of these terms will result in termination of employment and a ban from the use of the Companion system itself."

"Jeez, that seems like a mouthful doesn't it?" The woman had chimed in, reading from my page what she would soon come across.

"Yeah, you think they would encourage interpersonal communication among agents. I guess they just want avoid attachment between clients and workers I guess." I handed the pen to the woman. She took it with a smile, hurrying to fill out the form so she could return my pen.

I watched as she filled out her name on the form. "Abigail Walker. That's a nice name." She quickly glanced up from the paper and gave me another smile. At least it didn't creep her out.

After a few minutes she handed the pen back to me, having completed the form. "Thanks, I appreciate it." I slightly felt bad at getting annoyed at her before Beck had arrived. She was actually polite, a difference in what I had first assumed.

"It's no problem. Now let's go get these forms turned in." I grabbed my bag, and proceeded past the others who were still filling out the form. Were they havin second doubts? Oh well, if they've got the time to think about it then I guess they can.

As I walked out the door, Abigail followed behind me. A ways from the entrance, the assistant was sitting at a small fold out table. She wasn't noteworthy in appearance, a face you would think of when you think of an assistant that's tasked with simply taking up papers. After handing the forms in, she gave a nod and replied, "Thank you for your choice to be employed with Comapanion Systems Inc. We will contact you soon with your proper I.D. and schedule. Please keep in mind that you are not considered an employee until your I.D. is officially put into service."

I walked away from the table, and started to leave when a thought crossed my mind. I turned to face Abigail, who had just finished hearing the same statement. I tossed my hand up in a wave and threw the idea out of my mouth, "Um, for the sake of curiosity, would you like to go have dinner?"

I figured if we weren't going to be allowed communication outside of work, I would make the most of my time before being officially employed. Besides, what would it hurt to get to know a fellow coworker since we would be in communication with one another while at the main office?

Abigail let out a small giggle and waved the invitation off with her hand, "Sorry Martin, I appreciate the gesture but you remember what you just signed right? I'd rather not develop a bad habit before I'm even offically employed." Well, I tried. Wasn't the first time I had been declined anyways.

"Alright then. Guess I'll see you at the office soon. Take care on your way home." I waved to her, and walked down the corridor. Guess I'll be eating by myself tonight...