1 What? Not on Earth? (1/2)

In a small cubicle, a lone figure sighed as she tapped the stack of papers into order, before setting them aside. It had been a long day, and all she was looking forward to at this point was dinner, and some light reading before bed. She stretched before glancing at the clock. Right on the dot, the minute hand ticked onto the large number twelve: it was 5:00 pm now.

Quickly, she grabbed her bag and logged out. Her boss didn't like his workers going overtime, and she wasn't going to give him an opportunity to scold her. Since the time clock was nearby, she just managed to punch out before it hit 5:01pm.

It was Friday. Most of the other schedulers had finished their alloted 40 hours earlier that day and left. But, since she was a new scheduler, she had to stick to a strict time clock for one more month. As things were, she was still on a probation period. Thus, she found herself walking down the hall to the door alone.

As she strode by the boss's office, she overheard him speaking about her in a loud voice. Her boss, though strict, was good-natured. His only fault was that he had no notion of 'indoor voice' and spoke loudly no matter where he was.

This was a cause of embarrassment for many schedulers on her floor, whenever they had the misfortune of having him speaking to someone outside their cubicle. Even his whispers were almost deafening. Thus, she could clearly hear his words through the closed door.

”What, the rookie? Yeah, I think she's okay. She's a bit slow on the uptake, but she's punctual, and polite. She's a bit quiet, though, and doesn't speak unless she has to. She could also use a better wardrobe.

...Yeah, I mean it! She has that newsboy haircut. If she wasn't wearing a skirt at that interview, I'd be almost certain that she was one of those wimpy introverted social-anxiety type of boys. You know, the pale kind without glasses? She wears pants and sneakers to work every day. No, I know there's no dress code, but still...Haha! Heck, she doesn't even wear makeup-can you believe that?!” His words at the end were crystal clear.

The makeup-less girl scrunched up her face. 'Well excuse me for having sensitive skin! It's better than caking colored mud on my face every day. At least you can be certain that MY face isn't drawn on me.' She internally huffed. 'This is a scheduling job, so why look nice when nobody's going to see it?

I'd rather use that time to sleep in instead.' She yawned, remembering the light novel that she had stayed up late the night before to read.

She turned around to stare at her Boss's door, a bellyful of fire held inside. 'Nice to know that I'm appreciated, BOSS. Hmmph...more like Mr. BS! Bleeeh!' She mentally made a face at him before she sighed and let her anger slide away as she continued on her way to the door.

Holding a grudge against your boss for speaking his thoughts was like holding a grudge against God for having you be born to your parents: it does nothing to change the situation. Thus, she could only discard the useless thing(grudge) to make room in her head for her beloved stories awaiting her at home.

Watching the ground in front of her as she walked, she thought to herself. 'Maybe I should look for a different job? I know I only took this to pay the bills, but maybe I've made some sort of mistake? Or is this just first-job jitters that I'm going through?'

She was frowning at the ground, so lost in thought that she didn't notice herself walking straight into a vertical magic circle that formed in the air in front of her as she walked out the door.

...

The first thing that she noticed was the change in the pavement. The usual, cracked concrete sidewalk was nowhere to be seen. Instead, the young woman was surprised to see that the ground was paved with cobblestones.

'Cobblestones? I thought these were only used in Europe. I don't remember hearing anything about them replacing the pavement here. Come to think of it, I didn't hear any construction noises either!'

Her vision moved from the cobblestone pavement to eye level as she looked up. In front of her was a quaint village square, paved in cobblestones, with a stone monument in the center. The houses were a mixture of wood and white wall with painted wooden shutters...she remembered that style. It was the Tudor style! She remembered it because she had thought it was quite cute in a storybook picture. People in medieval clothing walked here and there throughout the square, going about their business.