ignite ➝ Doctor Who¹

I

Waking with a start, it took Penelope a few seconds to gather her senses together again. But she still didn't need very long to identify Jackie shouting at someone upstairs.

When Rose disappeared Jackie had been round the entire building, knocking on doors and handing out flyers with her daughter's face on. She recognised the younger Tyler, being only 21, Rose was two years below her and they went to the same school. Plus they lived in the same block so bumped into each other at doors and lifts and the like.

Shaking away the fog that had tried to settle on her tired brain, she forced herself out of bed to get ready.

See now, Penelope Adaams had done very well in life up to a point. But had experienced almost nothing but failure since entering the big, wide world. The idea of going into debt for higher education scared her, a lifelong debt for something she might not use, so she opted out. Settling for early work life. Although, that would require her to get a job first, as she barely managed to scrape by on the salary from the bookstore. Her mother told her that she shouldn't be afraid to ask for the pay rise - she'd definitely get it! But your mother was supposed to support you unconditionally so it didn't really motivate her in the right way.

Finally slipping on her shoes, she cast a final look towards her kitchen before deciding against eating anything and continuing on with her day, not forgetting her keys this time. Locking her door and walking down the corridor, she shoved her keys in her bag, ignoring the urge to cringe as she heard them clash against her phone.

Pushing open the double doors with her shoulder, she rearranged the inside of her bag as unhapazardly as she could without further scratching her phone. Stopping briefly to press the button for the lift, it took her until the lift was two floors away to figure it all out.

The doors opened for her and she smiled, excited as always to make her way to work. That smiled faltered slightly at the other people in the lift, shifting to a politer one, before stepping on.

The man on her right bounced on the balls of his feet, seemingly too full of energy, and the girl she didn't get a proper look at, but she swore that she was the spitting image of Rose Tyler. The man coughed slightly and she turned around.

"What floor?" She smiled politely, not meeting his eye.

"Oh, sorry, ground floor please." She could tell that he nodded and she turned back around, waiting for the lift to start moving again. "Thank you." She kept herself quiet, not knowing why the lift felt so stuffy with awkward silence.

Reaching her floor, she stepped out, trying to continue on her way, when the man called out to her, causing her to turn back around.

"Hey, who are you again?" The doors started to close and she smiled apologetically, finally meeting his eye for a split second before doors put a barrier between them.

Feeling all too relieved, she carried on to the book shop, not worrying about it now, knowing that she would probably never see him again after today. Or at least long enough for him to forget who she was.