paper rings | meredith grey

a hard days night | 1

riley woke up to her alarm in a hotel room, she's only been living in seattle for 2 weeks and was currently looking for an apartment. she got out of bed and got ready, once she was ready she headed to the hospital.

inside the hospital, all of the new interns were standing inside the OR with the chief.

"each of you comes here hopeful. wanting in on the game. a month ago you were in med school being taught by doctors. today, you are the doctors. the seven years you spend here as a surgical resident will be the best and worst of your life. you will be pushed to the breaking point. look around you. say hello to your competition."

riley looked around her, someone caught her eye, they looked at eachother for a couple of seconds before breaking eye contact.

"eight of you will switch to an easier specialty. five of you will crack under the pressure. two of you will be asked to leave. this is your starting line. this is your arena. how well you play? that's up to you."

riley was ready for anything, she thought she was ready for anything.

~

"martin, robinson, bond, parkins." one of the residents called.

"only six women out of twenty." the same person from earlier said. riley couldn't help but blush, she had never spoken to her before, but there was something about her."

"yeah. i hear one of them's a model. seriously, like that's going to help with the whole respect thing?" another female replied.

"you're cristina, and you are?" the blonde asked

"riley, which resident are you assigned to? i'm with bailey."

"the nazi? yeah, me too." cristina was about to answer when a male intern walked over to the three.

"you got the nazi? so did i. at least we'll be tortured together, right? i'm george o'malley, uh, we met at the mixer, you had a black dress with a slit up the side, strappy sandals..."

the three women exchange looks, "were you listening to our entire conversation?"

george looked down at the ground, "now you think i'm gay."

"uh-huh." riley and cristina said while walking away.

george continued to talk to meredith, riley wasn't jealous, she didn't know meredith, she had just met meredith, she had nothing to be jealous of.

"o'malley, yang, grey, stevens, sloan"

meredith ended her conversation with george and caught up with the two.

"bailey?"

"end of the hall."

"that's the nazi?" cristina said.

they were looking at a short woman, who didn't look intimidating.

"i thought the nazi would be a guy." george said.

"i thought the nazi would be... the nazi" meredith added

"she doesn't look scary, people say she's scary but maybe they're lying." riley joined in

"maybe it's professional jealousy. maybe she's brilliant, and they call her nazi because they're jealous. maybe she's nice." a blonde came up from behind the rest.

"let me guess, you're the model." cristina said, earning a laugh from riley

the blonde gave the two a look and turned to dr bailey.

"hi, i'm isobel stevens, but everyone calls me izzie." she said, she was too cheery.

bailey looked izzie up and down, obviously not impressed.