Chapter One of "Two Peas in a Pod"

She stumbled through the hallway, her only thought being, I am so fucked.

What else could she be thinking about? The dog that she doesn’t have? Her boyfriend that she also doesn’t have? Her job that she might not have after this? Maybe… I don’t know, I’m just the narrator. But her face is showing a serious case of I just fucked up. So, I could only put two and two together. What’s the other two, you ask? Well, to sum it up, she’s in a rush.

She haphazardly threw her pajamas across her room and clambered on her work clothes. Yeah, that’s right. This little lemon drop is late for work. Her job’s not a typical McDonald’s job, or else she wouldn’t be rushing around to get there (To be honest, who really wants to work at McDonald’s?). However, this lady works at AECOM Technology Corporation. She’s in the big leagues. And has been since… about… a day ago. That’s why, if she’s late, her life could blow up in her face like a hydrogen blimp during the Hindenburg disaster. And, man, would that leave a scar.

So, there she is, fiddling with the buttons of her shirt cause the darn thing decided to not work today. Isn’t that just dandy? She skipped out on breakfast so that her morning fat wouldn’t trail after her while she’s running. The breeze mixed with the morning dew, causing a slight mist to be flung at her. This wouldn’t’ve been a problem if there wasn’t a toy truck in the mix. With a bruised eye and a practiced smile, she burst through the company’s entrance door with a minute to spare. She looked like she just got hit by a truck. And she did. A toy truck. A little word of advice… don’t live near kids. They’re nightmares on chubby legs. Anyway, she pushed past a bunch of her coworkers, finally punching in her marker at 7:00. Perfect. Right on time.

“Miss Williams!” Or, so she thought.



“Yes, Mr. McHolly?” She felt like she was a child in trouble.

“Atlas Williams,” McHolly began, flipping through a file that she guessed belongs to her, “Age 21, from business school, master’s in engineering and business… Quite the businesswoman. What’s our first rule here in AECOM?”

She gulped yet didn’t quite understand what he was getting at. “Never take a coworker’s lunch…?”

“Wha- No, the other one.”

Oh… Now she got it. “Come dressed appropriately.”

McHolly leaned forward in his chair. He remained relatively far from her, yet she could still smell his cheap aftershave. His black slicked hair fell a little in his face. McHolly was a rather handsome man, about in his early 20s. It’s a bit shocking that man was a boss. But “business” was a good look on him. “Exactly. Now, tell me, Miss Williams, what’s wrong with your outfit?”

She glanced over her clothes, taking in every flaw that she made. Her shirt wasn’t completely buttoned, her hair looked like the wind is blowing, and, of course, a violent purple bruise tainted her eye. She would explain everything, but then McHolly would catch her drift. Ya know, the drift of her nearly being late. And only God knows what McHolly would do to her. “Uh…”

“The correct answer, is everything.” – Had to rub it in – “Now, Miss Williams, you’re new here, and you have your moments of glory, so I’ll let you off with a warning. But next time-”

“Yes, sir,” she interrupted. She wanted to get to work. Her work would have to be up tenfold to gain his favor back. The first day and Atlas already messed up. Her sleep schedule was nothing like what this one needed to be. Wake up at 6 to get ready, possibly eat breakfast, and who knows? Maybe even get to work dressed appropriately. McHolly dismissed her. She scrambled out of his office like a rat in a kitchen. She done-diddily messed up. But it’s fine. He let her go. It’s all good. She can’t mess up like that again. Everything nearly crumbled like a cookie with too much flour. If she got fired, she wouldn’t know where to go. There’s a local McDonald’s. Why is she even thinking about that? She’s not even fired.

After struggling to fix her attire, Atlas made her way to her assigned desk. She kinda toured this place before she started working, but that was a month ago, and her memory’s as good as Dory’s. In other words, she was out of luck. At least she’ll get her hours in by wandering aimlessly through the place. The building was rather beautiful, the windows plentiful, allowing natural sunlight to bounce around in the semi-crowded space. A very peaceful glow emanated through the halls. If she wasn’t in a rush to work, she would feel tranquility. But not all good things have harmonious endings.

She finally made it to her desk, at least, she hoped it was her desk. The plaque had her name written on it, but she still wasn’t 100 percent sure. Someone could have the same name as her. Atlas is a common name. One in every hundred… thousand… million…? You get her point. Yet, she still sat down in the comfy chair, across from another’s. The person who belonged there wasn’t around. Okay, so, she’s got this whole section to herself. Albeit, space was small, it was bigger than her room. What a score. She sat down and got her things together. Today was gonna be long.

For most of the time, she worked painstakingly hard and relentlessly tired over documents. However, for an embarrassingly long time, she distracted herself with mindless games, some that were on her computer and some that were just made up on the spot. For instance, the Water Challenge. It’s where she took an object and tried to make it into the cup of water without spilling any water. Gradually, the object got bigger and bigger. She got to the extreme boredom of throwing a rubber band ball into the cup, surprising herself with the amount of water that splashed out of the cup. She might’ve been too bored to fully grasp the consequences of throwing a large ball into a cup of water that was on her desk full of papers. Yeah… So, she had to ask McHolly to point her in the direction of the manager. Her embarrassment grew too big to ask McHolly himself for new papers. He told Atlas that the manager’s name of her department was Sebastian. Odd. That name matches the one on the plaque on the desk in front of hers. But that guy didn’t come in today. Still not wanting the embarrassment to sink in, she decided to create her own documents. Of course, it showed to be rather difficult. The ink on the papers spread throughout the other parts of the dead tree. In the end, she only obtained one-third of the document. Wanna know some better news? She’s gotta turn it in. Today. After work. Boredom’s a female dog.

As she panicked over the fact that she screwed up, yet again, her mind drifted into a different world. Atlas randomly pondered over what this Sebastian character looked like. Were his eyes as green as the grass, did his hair shine like flames, did his work ethic triple hers? Probably. He’s the manager, for crying out loud. If he was a bad employee, he wouldn’t even be here. Yet, Atlas was still here, by some miracle. She continued her work when she heard a loud thump from the opposite end of her desk. Her soaked papers flew all over. He groaned before he reached down and gathered her papers for her. He gave the papers a confused look, handing them slowly to her. His confusion was understandable. Papers were wet with God knows what substance (water, obviously, but he doesn’t know), and they just fell from her desk. He extended his hand to her. “You must be new here. I’m Sebastian.”

Ah… So, this is her manager. She eyed him up and down quickly, trying to get a better sense of her manager. His blue eyes were the most prominent part about him, apart from his short, dark, and slightly curly hair. She gripped his hand. “Atlas. You’re the guy sitting across from me, huh?”

“That’s why there’s a sign there.” The comment caught her off guard. He’s got some banter. She gave him a sweet smile and turned her chair back to her desk without properly ending the conversation. He’s not the only one who could play this game. Without anything better to do, she opted to organize her desk, at least make it look presentable to her new manager. He might be an uptight guy. What kind of party-pooper cracks a sarcastic comment? He might be too professional. If her desk isn’t organized, then she’ll get the boot. Yeah, but he was late. That’s not professional. Perhaps, she’s making too many assumptions. It’s still early days. Hopefully, what she expects is wrong.

Atlas glanced up at him, only to see him being as productive as her. Great. One Atlas apparently wasn’t enough. Her manager was here. She’s got to let her work ethic shine as bright as the morning star. People need to be able to see her abilities from miles away. But it’s kind of hard to do so when she’s stuck behind a desk for most of the time. McHolly said that in two days, she’ll finally be with the big guys. Yeah, she’ll still have a desk, like Sebastian, but most of the time, she’ll be designing buildings and other cool things. She can’t wait. In fact, she would be over the fucking moon if she never needed to do paperwork again.

“Ya know,” a modulated voice comes from across her desk, “for a person who’s only had good things said about her, you sure do get distracted easily.” She flung her pen across the floor, one that she didn’t know she was even playing around with. Flustered only from the fact that she had been caught daydreaming, she fell out of her chair trying to reach the pen. After successfully completing her mission, Atlas shot him an angry yet embarrassed glare.

“I’m not distracted.”

Sebastian chuckled, biting down on his lip. “So, staring into space while twirling a pen isn’t being distracted? Wonder what you were doing.” Now, of course, she knew that he was being playful. That he wanted to see her limits. Well, if she had limits, then he did too. Why not test her waters and play the game that he’s just itching to join?

“Guess you were distracted too.”

“Oh, yeah?” – he raised his eyebrows in a playfully challenging way – “How?”

She shrugged, a smirk playing on her lips. “Caught you staring.”

He sat there, shocked while pink tinted his cheeks. Hah, got him. Atlas settled back in her chair, tossing him a small glance, and continuing with her work. By “work” she meant that she kept pleasing her carefree side with Googling stupid facts. Boy, oh, boy was China big. Approximately, 9,600,000 square kilometers. She did the only logical thing and converted the metric units to customary units. In which she got… 3,700,000 square miles. Believe her, this was more fun than it sounds.

After the exciting exploration of China, Atlas started to get tired. Tired of sitting around, bored out of her mind. She pulled out her lunch and grabbed her pulled pork. With the given rice, she decided to entertain herself by annoying someone else. She flicked individual grains of rice at Sebastian. One got in his hair, another in his coffee, and the last one hit his eye. He threw his pen down. At first, she thought it was in frustration. I mean, the girl was tossing rice at him. If his grin didn’t prove her otherwise, then his next actions sure did. He took a piece of rice that she hit him with and threw it in her cup. They went back and forth, the objects hardly escalating in size. However, Atlas didn’t look at what she was grabbing. So, she picked up a pen and chunked it in his cup. Coffee splashed all over his papers, evidently soaking them.

“What the-”