“Now, let me hear that primary rule again.”

“Don’t dictate, facilitate.”

“Again. With more enthusiasm and without the boredom.”

“Don’t dictate, facilitate!”

“One more time.”

“Don’t dictate, facilitate!”

“Better,” Jenna Reynolds noted, allowing Naomi an exhalation of relief as her fingers kneaded into the twice peachy palm whose cupped form she current occupied. “I’ll hope that you’re more genuine with it when you’re actually on the job, though. Attitude is half of the work, and if you can’t be enthusiastic then the kids won’t be either.”

“I...I will be,” Naomi responded meekly. “It’s just…you’ve had me repeat it a lot…”

“And I can almost promise you that you’ll have to repeat a lot to your group because, you know, kids,” Jenna commented rather simply. “Be patient and roll with it. Again, this is half the job.”

Naomi nodded, not altogether unaware that the woman holding her was very obviously practicing what she was preaching in her calm, if sharp, lessons. The treatment was at least more preferable than the hot fury she had come to expect from the domineering young woman, even if it was ultimately no less degrading nor even for her own benefit. Already she was yearning for the return of Claire’s upbeat presence, but that was…very unlikely. While she had accompanied the two partly through their journey to the museum, feeding encouragement to Naomi all the while, Claire had eventually broken off to take care of some type of errand elsewhere, a spring clearly in her step.

To top it off, though, was the fact that she’d be spending the weekend at Jenna’s thanks to Claire going on a small vacation. And while assurances had been made in regards to her treatment, she was still nervous and still vividly recalled her past experience in Jenna’s grip.

“You didn’t forget your mints, did you?” Jenna suddenly inquired in an overbearing tone that just reinforced Naomi’s current read of her. “Or you lotion?”

“No, I have them,” she responded, reaching into the pockets of her crimson blazer and fetching the circular disk that housed the breath-freshening tablets and the travel-sized bottle of apricot-scented hand lotion that rested within them, presenting them timidly to the Omega for quick inspection before returning them to their respected confines. A wave of spearmint promptly overtook her, a result of the sharp sigh passing through the oversized lips above her.

“Alright, then,” Jenna continued, a clear hint of resignation slipping into her peaceful tones, “I guess this is it.” The words were coupled by a sudden of floating of the Alpha’s stomach as the Omega knelt at the side of the museum, where the staff and volunteer entrance awaited. “This should go without saying, but don’t make Claire regret giving you this opportunity. Be careful with everyone, you partner included. Beyond careful, really. And always pay be paying attention. To everything. Be nice. Be patient. Be enthusiastic. And above all else when you’re handling your group…”

“Don’t dictate, facilitate,” Naomi responded immediately and, this time, with genuine sweetness as she started to psyche herself up. She could do this. All of this. More than anything, she wanted to. Had to. If ever she was going to look into a mirror and feel anything but disgust again.

“Good,” Jenna stated as the hand that held her began to lower to the sidewalk, allowing Naomi to disembark from flesh to concrete. “Go right into that door, and the security guard there will point you to the meeting room. Your supervisor will be waiting there, along with all of the volunteers. Melinda will take care of you from there, got it?” Naomi nodded up to the kneeling woman, who took one last long, piercing look down at her before sighing again and rising up once more. “I’ll be here to pick you up when you get off, then we’ll head home. And stop looking like that when I mention our arrangement. You’re gonna be bored. That’s about the worst you should expect, so stop thinking about it.” Naomi nodded again, though Jenna didn’t seem inclined to believe that those words had worked.

“Oh, Naomi?” the Omega’s voice suddenly called just as she had turned and reached for the door’s handle, causing her to look back and up at Jenna’s face and the playful little smirk had formed upon it. “Something else that should go without saying…if you go to the bathroom, for the love of God wash your hands after the fact. ‘K?”

“R-right,” Naomi sputtered out as embarrassed heat overtook her face, a snort of laughter thundering above her as she turned her reddened face away and took a few hurried steps into the building with the door closing gently behind her. She could swear she heard an exasperated sigh pass through with her, and if she were any less nervous, she might be inclined to believe that Jenna had simply attempted to lighten the mood with a joke.

“Naomi Sung, I take it?” an amused masculine voice inquired shortly enough, and Naomi lifted her eyes from her feet to the security station directly in front of her. The uniformed man stationed there, seemingly the age of her father, had a smile that matched as voice tone as he looked over his desk at her, having clearly overheard. Behind him, all manner of monitors were alight with various scenes within and outside the building.

“Y-yes, sir,” she responded, attempting to compose herself. “How did-“

“You’re the only worker an Omega would be bringing in today,” he offered softly, and the fading redness in Naomi’s face made a return along with the facing of her eyes toward her feet. “Anyway, you’ll want to just keep heading down the hallway. Take the first right you see, and then the meeting room will be the third door to your left.”

“Thank you,” Naomi murmured as she started shuffling her way through the halls. To her chagrin, the walk to the room through the fluorescent halls was not a particularly long one and her red face had only barely begun to recover by the time she found her destination. Behind the wooden door she could hear a number of people laughing and cutting up, which was soothing in its own way. She hadn’t heard a sound quite like it in a month, after all.

Not even at the mixed mall, she recalled sadly, the surprisingly sparse center she had visited the day before flashing through her mind along with the curt answer Jenna had given her upon Naomi commenting on how decidedly…un-busy it had been. But…that was she was here to fix. Hopefully. So with a deep breath and a nervous smoothing of her crimson skirt, Naomi reached forward and gave the golden doorknob a turn.

She wasn’t sure what she expecting as she stepped into the rather spacious room – she supposed she was expecting the cheery proceedings to grind to an awkward halt as she entered, for all the eyes within to turn to her with contempt and disdain.

The only thing that changed was that the conversations became louder, and while she noted a few eyes turn her way, they didn’t linger long. Gently closing the door behind her as she took a few tentative steps inward, Naomi found herself once again appreciative of what was before her. All of the Alphas present – at least a couple of dozen of them – had a Beta seated comfortably upon their shoulders as they all conversed in their assorted groups. It was very…serene, she supposed, looking at all these people that seemed to be friends.

As her eyes continued to sweep over the assembled persons before her, they soon locked with those of a wheat-haired woman standing near a podium toward the back of the room. An already-present smile grew wider, and the woman moved closer with a peppy, confident stride.

“You must be Naomi,” she stated perkily, offering a well-manicured hand to her that Naomi meekly received with her own. “Either that or I was given a wrong picture.”

“I am,” Naomi answered, more nervously that she’d have liked as they shared a short, gentle handshake. “Would you be…Ms. Melinda?”

“Not quite,” she replied with a happiness and good humor that was already proving to be contagious, and Naomi felt a smile appear on her face and the nervousness begin to fade, if only just a bit, even as some slight confusion hit her at that particular answer. “No “Ms.” Involved. It’s just Melinda.”

“Ah…okay.”

“It’s great to have you with us,” Melinda continued on, brushing past Naomi’s confusion. “We don’t usually get someone assigned to us so…early in their sentence. You must have made quite the impression on your warden to be cleared so soon.”

“I…I don’t really think so,” Naomi stated, the solemn words slipping out before she had even really registered them. Her body being honest, she thought.

“Really?” Melinda asked with a confused tilt of her head.

“Yeah. She just…cleared me. I wasn’t really expecting it, but I was-“

“Hoping for it?” Melinda cut in, her cheer softening just a bit with something that was more like...

That couldn’t be it, Naomi thought, though she did nod in agreement with the older woman’s guess.

“Well, I’ll say that the fact that you’re here now tells me you probably had the right kind of hope,” Melinda commented warmly, placing a hand on Naomi’s shoulder that made the girl feel as if she’d melt. “But I suppose we’ll see that for ourselves. Right now, though, we need to get started. Ready to meet your partner?”

“Y-yes!” Naomi replied with an eager nod and smile, earning herself a small snort from her supervisor.

“Well, all right then. Right this way.”

Together, the two deftly maneuvered across the room and between the various talkative groups that littered it. Not forgetting the lengthy lectures both Claire and Jenna had given her, she was especially attentive so as to avoid bumping into any of the occupied Alphas and potentially cause an incident involving the Betas seated comfortably upon the shoulders of the various men and women. More than once she caught one of them moving slightly from her path – hers, not Melinda’s, she easily noticed that – so as to limit the possibility even further.

“She just got here right before you did, actually. Just got her checked in when you walked in,” Melinda noted as they approached the podium, and a small band of chuckles erupted from her. “Probably a good thing she hasn’t had a chance to mingle yet, honestly, I don’t think we’d get through to her otherwise.”

Naomi just nodded. Was her partner popular or something, then? Honestly, as they approached and began to round the podium, she was more than a bit nervous. She had no idea what her partner was like, what she thought of being partnered with…with someone who had done what Naomi had. How she would feel about her, or act. Truth be told, she had no idea as to what to expect. The last day had been such a blur that she hadn’t even thought about the matter until now. But with each microsecond that passed, her anxiety grew and multiplied, until soon she was expecting the worst.

Which was why the cheery, affable little voice that suddenly rang up to her came as such a shock.

“Oh, hey there!” it called, with an energy that Naomi doubted its owner could possibly be…well, who it must be, as her eyes darted to the greeting’s source. Reclining along the incline of the podium, dressed in a crimson pantsuit matched with her own ensemble and wearing a smile that contrasted beautifully with her dark brown skin while putting Melinda’s cheery showing of teeth to shame was a girl. A Beta. Her age, maybe just a little older, and holding a tablet that soon found itself hugged to the girl’s chest with her left arm.

“Hi,” Naomi responded simply to the peppy greeting even as the girl’s right hand reached upward. Towards her. Open as if to receive something. Naomi just stared blankly for a moment at the little appendage, unsure of herself, until it finally hit her. Gingerly, with more care than she was sure she had ever displayed before, she brought her own right hand to bear against the little woman, at least in part. Extending her index finger, the nervous Alpha carefully maneuvered it into an attempt to dock its tip with the offered hand. And she almost did. But she just…couldn’t quite do it. As the fingertip halted mere millimeters away from her apparent partner’s hand, she found she couldn’t move it any further.

This wasn’t a doll. This wasn’t training. This was a Beta. A real, live Beta, with real, live consequences should she err; should she hurt her. Like what she had done that last time she had touched a Beta. Like what she had done to Claire’s brother…to Corey. And she knew from that how easy it would be. To hurt her. And…and she didn’t want to do that. Not again.

This was a bad idea she thought to herself, her doubts becoming palpable weight inside her gut. This was a bad idea. She wasn’t ready for this. Hadn’t earned this. She should just tell Melinda that it would be best for her to be sent back to Claire, to continue with her current sentencing, because she just wasn’t-

“Making me work for it, huh?” that voice spoke up again, this time imprinted with more than a little good-natured teasing. The sheer energy of it served to draw Naomi from her thoughts, but it was what accompanied it that washed them away. A little presence at the tip of her finger, so very light but with a power that seemed impossible. She didn’t know what to think as she felt the woman’s arm begin to move – nor when her finger began to move with it, in perfect tune, as what felt like an electric tether guided her into shaking hands.

“Naomi, right?” she inquired, and Naomi could almost swear that some part of her actually felt honored that this smaller woman deemed to recognize her. So much so, at least, that she simply nodded dumbly in response. That in itself seemed to earn her a laugh from the Beta that seemed to reverberate inside her in spite of its volume.

“Well, Nay,” the young woman started, looking her square in the eyes with her own glittering brown set, “I’m Rachel Nichols. Let’s make this a great first day for you, ‘k?”