My Life Coaches are the Seven Deadly Sins

As I laid in bed, I couldn't stop talking about the party. It had been… magical. I usually hid in a corner when I went to parties, I'd talked to, exchanged numbers, been invited to peoples homes…

"Sounds like you had a great time Max, see, talking to five people, for five minutes, you went way above and beyond!" Pride congratulated punching my arm with his hoof. A moment later a full grown man toppled on top of me.

"Oof!" I groaned as Pride pushed himself up, then checked himself out. He looked like he should be on some TV show as an overbearing CEO or prince. Black hair, black eyes, a serious if somewhat thoughtful expression as he leaned back.

"Well, that was much faster than I anticipated." Pride gave a small nod.

I burst into laughter. I couldn't help it, a CEO super star, trapped in a horse doll. I clutched my stomach as I started to wheeze. When Pride raised a brow, I went into another fit of laughter that had me teering up.

"Is my appearance that amusing?" Pride asked cocking his head.

"It… is… pretty… funny." Ace murmured propping his head in his hand. "Wait until… he sees…yawn, our other… forms."

I wiped the teers away as I cuddled Ace, "Oh, there are other versions? What are they like?"

Mai walked over, tail brushing over my leg, "That Max, you'll have to see to believe. We could show you, but that would be no fun." She informed as she circled around my pillow before finding a spot to lay down.

"How did Ire show up like that? If you haven't gotten merit from me?" I asked turning to the Tasmanian devil doll. Still looked like a mouse to me, but, whatever.

"We have merit we can use, but the cost is expensive if you have… unlocked the skill for us. If that makes sense." Reed explained as he popped his head out of the sheets.

"Yeah, think of it like, before you unlock a form we have to pay… ten merit a day for human form. After you unlock, its one merit a week. Eventually, as we influence your everyday life, merit will come more naturally." Lily explained with a sigh as she settled in beside Mai.

"But like this I can see you?" I asked laying back down.

"Yes, but the human form is a bit inconvenient. Once you unlock all of us, we get a more convenient way for you to see us, without anyone else seeing us." Pride informed as he glanced at the bed. With a sigh, he changed back to his horse doll form.

I coughed to cover my laugh. "Thanks Pride, today was… just… I don't even have the words."

Pride patted my cheek with his hoof. "Good, because going forward, you should make the effort to say something to three people. It doesn't have to be a full conversation. Just, a greeting, or a compliment. Until you know everyone's name in the center, that will be our goal."

I wanted to hide under the blanket… but the high from petting a wolf, a timber wolf! If greeting people, having conversations could lead to more opportunities likes this… I'd talk to everyone and their mothers!

I glanced at my lunch of left overs, it had been a mad house all morning. Athena had crashed for one of the Primary care clinics. I was pulled to help make paper check in folders. Patient names, dates of birth, providers, time of appointments, notes from last appointment, double checking insurances, seeing if they had Medicare and if so adding the questionnaire for each patient! There was more, but I was on auto pilot. Erika then drove the stacks of folders to the other facility.

Needless to say, I hadn't spoken to anyone unless it was about the folders all morning. Thankfully, the breakroom had three other people. Two I'd only seen, and a nurse who was here for their weekly rotation on triage call.

"Has life been crazy for triage today too?" I asked taking a bite of my still too hot chicken wings. The mac n cheese was still cold… le sigh. Could not win! Well… free food is always a win.

John gave a sigh, "Like you wouldn't believe. One of the pharmacies went out of business so we are rerouting over six thousand prescriptions. Patients are losing their minds."

"How does that work? Shouldn't we have gotten notice or something?" I asked using my fork to separate the chicken from the bone to help it cool faster.

"Nope, we didn't know until patients came in with pictures of a sign on the door. Problem is, not all pharmacies take everyone's insurance. Even if we had a list of which pharmacies accept which insurance, the providers have to sign off on every prescription. So the providers are swamped, meaning appointments are also running behind. One of the facilities has a three hour delay for appointments. Which led to the increase of patients just going to the walk in clinics." John complained as he sat down with his now piping hot food.

"Can not catch a break today. One of the patients threw their purse at one of the providers today. That's why we had security remove them. That made things so much better." One of the others added as she ate her salad.

"It's not even Friday the 13th. Is today over yet?" The other agreed scrolling on his phone.

"Yeash, when it rains it pours." I agreed as I finally started eating my still very hot chicken.

"Tell me about it. They pulled two of us to help with primary charts, so we're basically reeding patient information to providers before each appointment. Now we have over two thousand voicemails." The girl complained stabbing her food.

"We have to respond to each call or voicemail within forty eight hours, so overtime was approved. Yay." The guy sighed, "I'm sighing up for three extra hours. I get an extra break but… ugh."

"I thought about it, but I still have work tomorrow. I also had overtime last week. I need a vacation, not overtime." She sighed.

"Tell me about it, I've been working 50 to 60 hour weeks for over a month now." John stated as he popped in his headphones.

To be honest… I was a little envious… overtime would be really nice. I glanced at the bikes I'd been looking at online… good bikes were still over $200. Really good bikes that were good for street and dirt went for over $400. I could probably get something cheap. I just need it to get me too and from work. I scrolled up to bikes that were only like $80 used.

"Buy nice or buy twice. Not to mention, not all bike shops offer maintenance. Insurance is probably a good idea." Reed whispered from behind me. I almost jumped out of my skin. Give a guy some warning!!!

I glanced at the others, Reed reached over my shoulder to keep scrolling. He finally stopped on a bike that was over $500, insurance was $18 a month. It was nice. "Its supposed to be temporary." I whispered as I leaned over my food. Luckily, none of them seemed to notice.

"Used means you can't get insurance, and no returns if something goes wrong. What happens if a wheel pops off or the chains break? You could get seriously hurt. Some things you just don't buy used." Reed reminded as he continued to scroll to other options.

"At home." I whispered as someone walked in. The guy looked up confused.

"You say something?" He asked glancing at my phone… that was still scrolling without me touching it.

I locked my phone screen. "Was just looking at bikes, bus commute is kinda…" I trailed off. He nodded.

"Yeah, taxies are expensive. I think Larry keeps his file room. You could ask him about his." He offered.

"Uh, which… which room is Larry in?" I asked sheepishly. Honestly, I didn't know either of their names either. John was labeled… labels were good. Lots of faces. After scarfing my food down, I went off in search of the mythical Larry. No, I did not yet know why he was mythical.