BFDI Prequels | A BFDI Fanfic

Chapter 21: Shattered Expectations

There was a lot that Pen expected on his first day of work. A new cubicle, some other coworkers, the occasional gurgle of the water cooler, maybe even a small yoyleberry bush in the corner. And although his mental picture of the first day of work was already shattered by his non-existent house keys and a boss who insisted on using the full speedometer, he was still determined to make the most out of the recent trend of unfortunate mishaps.

YoyleNet Inc. was none of these things.

The moment the elevator stopped on the 14th floor of a generic office building, Pen knew that working at his new job was nothing like what he had envisioned. For starters, there were no other objects there other than him and Pencil. The space itself was a lot smaller than what he imagined, only about as big as the living room in his apartment.

"So, what do you think?" Pencil asked.

Pen shrugged. "It was a lot smaller than I expected. Both in terms of area and employee numbers."

"What, did you expect a full floor of office space and a dozen of objects here?" She responded.

"Kinda. I never even knew they rented out rooms this small in these buildings."

She laughed. "Neither did I, but apparently they do. Lucky for me, it was also the only office space they had available on such short notice. Who would have guessed that you needed at least a month's time in advance to get a proper room?"

"Wait a minute, you've only had this place for less than a month? Where was your business originally?"

"Nowhere, actually. Before this, I just did some freelance work at home. The entirety of YoyleNet Inc. is only 2 weeks old. It isn't even registered yet!"

Pen decided to stop asking questions, in case Pencil would tell him that the entire building was built in half a day or that he was being employed illegally and he would be locked up for working under a corporation that technically did not exist.

"Anyways, from what the superintendent told me, the male bathrooms are down the hall and to the left. If you want you can try logging into your workstation."

It was not hard to locate his workstation, on the account that there were only two of them, and one was obviously Pencil's. The small framed photograph of her and someone else he didn't recognize gave it away. Pen moved over to the opposing desk, which was blank of all substance sans of a monitor and a few peripherals. Under the desk were a computer and a small waste bin.

He pulled over a swivel chair from the hallway. Which he assumed was not being used by anyone from the large sign reading "Take a Chair, Leave a Chair" over the small collection of various chairs in the hallway. It was soft, but not so soft that you would sink so far into the seat and contact the base. The backrest was a bit loose, but Pen figured he could simply fix it later.

The next step in Pen's first day of work was to, of course, start up his computer. Something he had done so many times over his life that in less than 15 seconds he had finished turning on the PC, setting up his account, and even downloaded a copy of the Yoylese dictionary. Entirely pointless, but he had the time and not much to do with it. Pen didn't even read Yoylese.

"Alright, Pen," he said to himself, "time to do something productive."

<=======>

"Hey, Pen, I'm back! And guess what I got?" Pencil excitedly asked while waving a large paper bag back and forth.

"Wait, you were gone?" Pen wondered, "How long has it been?"

"Um, about four or five hours? Not too sure. Have you been working this entire time?"

"Maybe? I tend to lose track of time whenever I'm working"

"Well in that case, why don't you come and have some late lunch with me? I decided to pick up some stuff at the Yoylecake Factory."

Pen found it funny that Pencil would choose the exact same place they went to yesterday, but cake is cake, and he wasn't going to complain about baked pastries slathered in cream and icing.

When Pencil opened up the bag and pulled out a round plastic box, he noticed it was the exact same cake that Pencil had been eating when they met: yoylecake.

"Aren't yoyleberries poisonous or something?" he nervously asked.

"What do you mean?" she responded.

"They said on the news that yoyleberries are causing people to turn into metal. And yoylecake is, well, made of yoyleberries."

"Oh, that! I think it only applies to berries that have been harvested in the past week or so. I asked Pin about it and she said the berries she uses are frozen and have been around for a while now, so it should be safe."

"Oh okay. Can you cut me a slice?"

Sitting around a low table in the back, they ate off of paper plates Pencil had found at a nearby Walmart. As the old adage goes, Walmart has everything. Pencil also got two cups of coffee. After trying the cup she had given to him, Pen was slightly shocked to discover that the cup he had was exactly the one he had during the interview. How she knew was beyond his knowledge.

"I asked Pin about your order," Pencil clarified between mouthfuls of the moist cake, "she remembers almost every order placed since she first opened."

"How did you-" Pen stopped himself, afraid that Pencil would pull his entire familial history out from thin air. "Never mind."

She smiled. "Don't worry, I'm not some insane hacker or something. I'm just good at reading expressions."

Pen was suddenly a lot less confident about his privacy.

Over the next half hour, they slowly finished off the remainder of the small cake, seldom making conversation. Pen thought about how strange it was to be spending what he expected to be a very productive day sitting around and having cake and coffee. He always assumed Pencil was a very commanding and efficient person. If life had taught him anything, though, it would be to never base your perceptions of someone solely on assumptions.

Then, she stood up, wiping a crumb off her painted surface. "Alright, breaktime over. We still have a good few hours until 5 o'clock, so why don't we-"

She was cut off by the door exploding.