Walking to work was the most relaxing activity of my day. No one yelling at me, no nasty commander telling me to stop goofing off, and no Cecelia; flirting with almost every male fairy she came across. Even Maverick got some attention from her, and he was a thousand and fifty-year-old centaur. Centaurs didn't usually like to date outside of their species; it was a paranoia thing.
I stopped abruptly on the curb and waited for the light on the other side to turn green. I felt something run into me, forcing me to take a step forwards. I whipped around to see what had happened. There was a pixie sprawled on the ground, a little dazed, book in hand. He got up after a moment, pushing his overly-sized glasses up the bridge of his nose as he did so. It was then I recognized him from work. He was Maverick's assistant; he worked in the Tech department. "Hey, Julius," he said in his whiney voice. I could feel my cheeks redden. I hated my name; it sounded like some sort of Juice Company. He continued, "I'd love to stay and chat, but Maverick got me reading this book and I really can't stop… You see, Jane just eloped with Dylan, but she has a husband, Rick, but of course he doesn't know she's with Dylan, but he, (Rick), is really having an affair with Jane's best friend Sally, who thinks that Dylan is gay, and he really is and is having an affair with his boss at work…" he walked away, murmuring to himself, nose buried in the pages of his book. I shook my head to clear it of the sad, sad sight I had just witnessed. He needed a friend. I chuckled, I hated to think it, but it wouldn't be me. Hey, he's got Maverick, though.
I finally arrived to work. I jogged up the few steps and ran into the building. I really didn't want to be late; I was late yesterday. My alarm clock was broken.
As I was saying, I finally arrived to work, ran to the locker room and quickly changed into my LEP suit. I was just a corporal; but I was new. I had room to grow. My training officer said that I had great promise; I just needed to learn some discipline. I think I did fine without it. I walked quickly into the main office, only to find that I was about a half-hour early. My alarm clock was fast, too. I slapped my hand to my face, swearing under my breath. I needed a new alarm clock. At least it was better than being late, I thought, shrugging it off. I walked, slower now, over towards a coffee machine in the corner; might as well get the sleep out of my system. Something whipped in front of me and was pinning me to the wall. All I could really see was a shock of platinum blonde hair, but I could just barely see the black roots along the hairline. I could feel someone breathing on the side of my cheek, "Hey, Julius," she giggled. It was Cecelia. I shook my head saying,
"Hello, Cecelia. A little early for that now, isn't it?"
"Not where I come from, hot stuff." I could feel her smile. I scoffed, 'hot stuff'? How corny could it get?
"Ah, I see. Did Rodger turn you down this morning? Maybe he didn't call you after last night?" I laughed, trying to pry her off of me. It didn't take much after that remark. She made an irritated noise that would be written with an exclamation mark like, '"uh!"', turning a slight shade of pink, and stormed off along the corridor. She stopped in mid-step and spun around. Pointing at me she shrieked,
"I've still got Maverick! And don't you know how much bigger their horse side is compared to elves and sprites; especially pixies? Well, the answer is a lot; A LOT bigger. Hugely so," She winked and brusquely
walked off down the corridor, in the direction of the Tech labs. I sighed; poor Maverick. I also heard someone sigh along with me; a long, nasally sigh that lasted a lot longer than mine. I jumped suddenly, realizing that there was no one was in the room less than a minute ago when I came in. I looked over in the general direction it was coming from, only to see the very pixie that had ran into me while coming to work. He sighed again, this time adding,
"I wish she would notice me. You don't know how lucky you are sometimes…" He got up from the chair he was sitting in and wandered over the corridor Cecelia had just left out of. He sighed one last time, probably for effect, and headed his way towards the Tech department.
I sat down in a seat next to the coffee machine and checked my watch. It would have been helpful if I had known the time, but my watch had apparently stopped working. I guess clocks didn't like me so much. I looked up in time to see someone walking into the room. As they came closer, (for whoever it was, was moving very slowly), I realized that I could not see their face. They were carrying a load of books that ended far above his or her head, with a small contraption with flashing lights quietly bleeping at the top of the teetering mountain. I decided to help.
"Hello?" I asked, stepping over towards them. My greeting was returned by a quick, piercing scream and an avalanche of books, papers and hardware. After a few minutes of utter chaos, the books were all pushed off of us and I had time to see who was carrying them.
My heart stopped. Well, it felt like it. Either that or it skipped a beat. Maybe it sped up. I don't know, but something inside of me happened. I was looking at the most beautiful thing in the universe. I felt a spark run along my eyes and across my whole body. I had never felt that before; it was odd. She had beautiful, straight copper hair that was neatly cut at her shoulders and small square glasses which rested, now lop-sided on the bridge of her nose. My stomach felt like it was sinking and floating at the same time.
Something registered in my mind that we were both staring at each other. Maybe she felt this unusual lurch in her stomach, too? Maybe she felt the spark that seemed to jump from her eyes to mine; or maybe in this case, from my eyes to hers?