Anna Miller looked up from her V-Screen, eyes bleary. ‘What time is it?’ She thought. Glancing down she groaned. ‘3:30? It’s 3:30 already! I just started reading! I’ve only read… twenty chapt- No, that makes sense actually,’ She added reasonably. ‘Fuck. Now I’m gonna be grumpy at work.’

“Damn you Dynasty Driiiiiive,” She said dramatically while pointing a finger at the sky. She flopped back into bed with a sigh. “I guess I should go to sleep…” She mumbled before sniffing her armpit and wincing. “After a shower,” She concluded as she got up.

Walking across her small flat she carefully stepped over dirty clothes haphazardly thrown across the ground and a few old boxes lying about. Each box full of hundreds of dollars worth of old comic books.

After entering the bathroom Anna took a moment to look over herself in the mirror. An average face looked back at her. Dirty blond hair, round face, if one searched for ‘average caucasian woman face’ in Goggle they would’ve gotten Anna.

Her body was much the same. At five-four she was the exact average height of a woman. Not fat, not skinny, just average. Anna Miller looked so average people remembered her because of her complete lack of defining characteristics.

One thing she did have going for her were her pale blue eyes. They weren't particularly impressive or anything but they were unique enough that Anna felt a little better about her plainness.

A little.

Sighing, Anna turned and started the shower. The small bathroom worked quite well as a steam room too and soon she had a nice fog going. While washing her shoulder-length hair Anna thought about the most recent book she’d been reading on Dynasty Drive.

It was a novel that featured the world being changed by some all-knowing and omnipresent system. These stories were all the rage currently and while Anna couldn’t say that she disliked the stories; it was getting boring reading the same plotline over and over again.

Not for the first time, Anna contemplated writing her own novel. She quickly dismissed the idea as she had every time before. ‘I don’t have the patience,’ She reminded herself. ‘I would write one chapter, get bored, and go back to reading other stories.’

Stepping out of the shower she dried herself off and put on her pajamas. Falling into bed she pulled up Dynasty Drive on her V-Screen. ‘One more chapter couldn’t hurt, right?’ She reasoned.

Pawing at her V-Screen Anna eventually managed to hit the snooze button on her alarm. “Mmmm… Fuck!”

She shot out of bed. “Fuck, fuck, fuck,” Anna recited over and over as she raced around her flat to get ready. It was ten minutes later that she was out the door and running down the stairs.

Ordering an Auto-Taxi, Anna flung open the door to her apartment complex and sprinted out into the street. Almost immediately after she placed her order a car peeled out of the endlessly flowing traffic and pulled up in front of her. "Greetings Ms. Miller. Where are you-"

“Adams and Smiths Accounting Firm! Go now!” Anna shouted as she threw herself into the Auto-Taxi, interrupting the Computer Intelligence that ran the vehicle.

"Understood. Routing to Adams and Smiths Accounting Firm. Thank you for choosing Auto-Taxi number 57493." The pleasant-sounding synthetic voice said. "Could I interest you in any music for your-"

“No thank you,” Anna cut off gruffly, trying to get her hair and suit in order at the same time.

"Understood." The CI said calmly.

When Anna arrived at her work she rushed inside, barely even waiting for the Auto-Taxi’s doors to open. “Fuck, fuck, fuck,” She continued to whisper to herself. “It’s fine. As long as I don’t run into-”

“MILLER!” A rough voice shouted from behind her.

Anna jumped from fright before slowly and fearfully turning around. Before her stood a mountain of a man. At six-five and fifty-six years old, Bruce Wulf towered over almost everyone in the office. With a body built like a god of strength, a commanding presence that filled any room he stepped into, and a rugged handsomeness to him; it's no wonder that he’d been the topic of much swooning and gossip among the ladies at the office.

Shame he was happily married.

Of course, Anna wasn’t feeling like swooning right now. “H-hey bossman, uh, h-how's it hanging?” She nervously asked while backing away from the giant stomping towards her. “I-I was just-uh-coming back from my lunch break! Yeah, let’s go with that…” She trailed off as Wulf stopped in front of her.

“Miller…” he growled. “You are TWO HOURS LATE! Now I can excuse a lot of things, but a TWO HOUR ABSENCE IS UNACCEPTABLE!”

He paused and took a deep breath and started pacing before continuing. “Now, I can understand that this is a new work environment and that a transitory period is expected. However, it has been two weeks since you signed on with us and I expected that by now that you would’ve managed to get a grip on whatever you needed to in that time span,” He sighed. “If you don’t get your act together I’m afraid that you might have to seek employment elsewhere.”

“But Sir-” Anna weakly spoke up before being cut off again.

“NO BUTS! You have missed several hours of work, come in late for nine consecutive days, AND have shown a severe lack of enthusiasm and drive that we wish to promote in our workspace.” He was almost shaking by the end of his tirade. “No more mistakes Ms. Miller.” He finished before turning back around and continuing on his way.

Anna deflated. She eventually found her way to her cubicle and sat down. ‘Fucken hell…’ She thought as she placed her head down on her desk. Anna wanted to get mad at Bruce, but she couldn’t. Everything he’d stated was true. She had missed several hours of work, she had come in late for nine days in a row, and she had been a bit of a downer in recent days. ‘I really need to get my act together.’

“Heeeyyyy, Annaaaaa. Sooooo, Hooows it gooooooiiing?” A humored voice spoke.

Anna sighed. “Hey, Cary. Well, I just got yelled at by bossman. Soooo… not great.” She mumbled while keeping her head down on the table.

“Damn, how the hell did you get Bruce of all people to yell at you? Did you kill his wife or something?” Cary asked impressed. “I didn’t think anything could rile that man up into raising his voice, much less yell at you!”

“I know. I’m soooo happy I’ve managed to entertain you Cary, but if you excuse me, I have to get back to work.” Anna grumbled before finally raising her head from the table.

Leaning over the side of her cubicle was Cary Federova. Five-six, blond-haired, blue-eyed, and beautiful. She had the form of a supermodel and every movement she made seemed to exude grace and poise. She was the very definition of a Russian beauty.

She was also a major bitch.

Cunning, manipulative, and seemingly psychopathic at times, people in the office tended to give her a wide berth. She was a heartbreaker and used her body to get what she wanted. She was the top dog, the queen bee, the queen of the castle, and, for some reason, she seemed to like Anna.

Perhaps it was the fact that Anna was so mundane compared to her and therefore made her look better. Maybe it was some sort of protective instinct that was buried in her psyche. It could be that she just found Anna amusing to be around. Whatever it was Anna didn’t know and she didn’t particularly care to find out.

They had become friends of a sort. Cary was an outgoing extrovert and loved to interact with people. Usually for the end goal of manipulating them, but we’ll ignore that.

Meanwhile, Anna was the introvert that Cary was always pushing to go out and have fun. Cary sort of acted like a social mother; guiding Anna through social situations and social life.

“You’re doing it again,” Cary said, flicking her nose. “Getting lost in your thoughts is not a great way to end conversations.”

Anna glared at her while rubbing her nose. “Shut up, go on, shoo. Go get back to work. I definitely need to,” She said as she looked over to the pile of forms and charts she needed to fill out.

Cary giggled as she walked off, waving over her shoulder. “Whatever. if you need any help I’ll send over Dave. He owes me a few favors,” She called.

Anna just shook her head as she dived into her work, filling and filing paper after paper. Hours passed as she put her business degree into practice. Forms were filling her pick-up bin at an impressive rate, but Anna, not for the first time, wondered why they used physical forms at all. ‘Wouldn’t it be much easier to organize and fill these out if we just did these online?’ She wondered.

Eventually, the workday was over and people started heading home. Anna sighed and looked at her work bin that had been refilled several times that day. As she watched, a Service-Droid came by and filled her work bin once again. With a groan, Anna slammed her head onto the table. “Fuck me…”

“I would love to.”

With a shriek, Anna jumped out of her chair spinning around only to find Cary standing behind her with an amused smile on her face. “Don’t do that!” Anna complained, hand over her heart. “You know I get scared easily.”

“I know. That’s why I do it,” Cary said as she rolled her eyes. “But look,” She continued, “Me and some of the girls are going out tonight to have some fun, aaaannnd I was wonderiiinnng if you wanted to come!” She finished with pep.

Anna just shook her head. “Sorry, no can do. I need to catch up on work, first off. Second off, there’s no way I could enjoy a night out with you and ‘the girls’,” Anna said, making quotation marks.

Cary’s smile didn’t falter. “C’mon girl. I’ll just get one of the boys to get your work done. They all owe me favors anyway. As for the girls… well,” there was a pause as she thought things over. “Yeah, nothing I can do about that.”

Finally, Cary’s smile fell off her face leaving a small frown in its place. “You know, if you don’t get out of your comfort zone you’ll never have any fun in life. The world is meant to be explored and discovered. You can't do that from your apartment or from this office.”

“Trust me… I know…” Anna responded as she slouched into her chair and swiveling back around to her desk. “... I know.”