ISLA The next day at work, I walked in cautiously, still feeling the residue of yesterday’s chaos clinging to me. I expected the usual tension, the gossips, the cold stares at work but what I found made me pause. Everyone was… different. Even the mean ones, the very people who had made my first days a nightmare were approaching me with smiles that looked so obviously forced, their tones unusually polite. “Good morning, Isla,” one said cheerfully as she passed my desk, a warm, almost nervous edge to her voice. Another, who had been particularly harsh before, dropped a cup of coffee nto my table with an apologetic tilt of her head. “Here, I thought you might need these first,” she murmured, avoiding my eyes. I raised an eyebrow, blinking. “Uh… thanks,” I said cautiously, my fingers brushing over my paperwork. Even the ones, who usually kept to themselves, stopped to offer small words of encouragement, the kind I hadn’t heard since I’d started. It was strange, jarring, even. I cou
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