Chapter Text
Newt groaned deeply and buried his face in his hands, rubbing away the headache already forming in his temples. He was too busy for this rubbish, he thought as he glanced back up at his email.
‘Knew you’d be pleased,’ the dark skinned man in the desk across from him chuckled.
Newt groaned again and glared at him. Sometimes his best friend made him wish he was as much of a hermit as people claimed him to be. Alby simply held his hands up in defence and smiled, getting back to whatever it was he had to do today.
Newt looked back to his screen:
From: Management
To: All
Subject: New Initiative
Hello all,
Recent times have been hard and it has been noted that general well-being within the work space has been declining. In an attempt to rectify this situation we are introducing a new plan. This plan hopes to bring about a sense of cromradery and safety in our building.
Each employee of Maze Co will be required, by the end of the day, to have filled out the short form available in the link below and will be allocated to another at random. Correspondence of once a day will be compulsory, subject matter and length are up to you.
Please direct any questions to my office.
Regards,
Director Janson.
Newt eyed the email as if it were personally out to get him. Janson probably was. He wasn’t sure what he’d done, but Newt was sure Janson hated him. He always had an overflow of work to do, all with ridiculous deadlines and impossible requirements. This e-pal thing was just going to take more of Newt’s precious time and he was sure there’d be consequences if he ignored it.
‘The sooner you do it the better.’ Alby called, shuffling some papers and popping them in his ‘out’ pile.
‘Why do I have to do it at all?’ Newt complained.
Alby was Newt’s higher up at work but they had known each other since they were in college. So Newt didn’t censor himself like he would with any other boss. He had complained about work and the director countless times. Enough times for Alby to know exactly what he was thinking.
‘Because, Janson personally wants to make you miserable.’
‘Bloody right he does.’ Newt grumbled, ‘where exactly does he think I’m going to fit this in between worksheets, meetings and report writing? The man is trying to kill me I swear.’
‘It’s one email, Newt. You handle emails in your sleep. You’ll be fine. Just do it.’
Newt grumbled under his breath before opening up the link provided. He was relieved to see it simply contained two boxes: email and pseudonym. He filled out the sheet and clicked complete quickly. Now time to get back to his real work.
######
Thomas arrived in the office dead on time. He was panting slightly as he threw his bag behind his desk and plopped down into his chair. After an annoying fight with his alarm clock this morning (in which he’d thrown a book at it, broken it and fell back asleep) he had gotten out of bed later than he would have liked. He’d skipped breakfast and hastily gotten dressed in whatever was closest, smelt alright and looked halfway professional.
A piece of wadded up paper hit the top of his head as he waited for his computer to log him in and he looked up sharply. Minho was sitting at his desk, scrunching up another piece of paper in his hands and smiling innocently. The half full trashcan near Thomas’s desk showed just how bored his Asian friend was already today.
‘You’re late, shuck face.’
‘I’m not late,’ Thomas replied, glancing at the clock on his computer as it ticked to the hour. ‘I’m logged in, it’s 9 am, I’m officially on time.’
‘Yeah, yeah, Greenie. You’re lucky I like you so much or I’d tell on you.’
Thomas threw the paper back at Minho, aiming at his smug smile for the nickname. Thomas had started working at Maze Co P.R. almost two months ago and he was, in no way, the newest employee there anymore. In fact that Teresa girl had started not long after he had, if anything she was the greenie. He supposed it didn’t help that his last name was actually Green though. Or that Minho was a sarcastic shit who had thought that hilarious.
Thomas ducked the returning missile as he opened up his emails. He spotted one marked important and clicked into it quickly. After reading for a minute he grinned broadly.
‘Pen-pals!’ he called happily over to Minho.
‘The correct term is e-pals, shuck face.’
‘Who cares what it’s called. It’s cool!’
‘You’re one weird kid.’ Minho said, mostly ignoring him in favour of finding the email himself, truth be told he never did much of any work until Thomas sat down for the day. ‘Well, look at that.’
Thomas was far too excited when he clicked the link provided. He hadn’t had a pen pal when he was a kid, as much as he’d wanted one. And the thought that he’d be talking to someone from the office he didn’t even know? Thomas loved to make friends; he had an ingrained curiosity that made him want to know everything about everyone.
‘Now for the hard bit.’ Minho muttered, grin starting to form.
‘What?’
‘Picking code names.’
This was too cool!
######
Newt was in the middle of sorting out a frustrating scheduling mistake, people always sent their problems to him to fix, when his email pinged.
From: Padawan
To: TheGlue
Subject: ‘Sup!
Hey!
I’d introduce myself but the whole point of this seems to be anonymous and you’ve got to admit, that’s cooler. I will tell you a bit about me though. I’m a guy, I work for Maze Co, I’m still early 20s and I always wanted a penpal, even though my shank friend keeps telling me this is technically an e-pal.
Talk to you soon, hopefully,
Padawan
Oh excellent, an enthusiastic one. Newt would have to shut that down quickly, before it got out of hand. And Padawan? Who was this guy? Obviously a Star Wars freak, and while Newt had to admit he loved the series himself, why would he go for Padawan when he could be a Jedi?
From: TheGlue
To: Padawan
Subject: “‘Sup”?
Hi,
I don’t exactly have time in the day to play this stupid bloody game some idiot personnel manager came up with. I’ll return the favour of introducing myself but only so our allocated one email a day will be easier to get through. I’m male also, I work for Maze Co too (obviously), like you I am under 25 and listen to your friend, it’s an e-pal.
Til tomorrow,
TheGlue
He switched tabs back to a table of meeting times and personal schedules, working through the problem, finding free spaces and rearranging people to fit his needs. He was damn good at his job, he worked hard to get to where he was and he was second in charge of this branch which meant he was allowed to move people around himself. Generally when he was finished more people were pleased then displeased and he got a pat on the back.
He hadn’t made much progress on his current predicament though when his email pinged again.
From: Padawan
To: TheGlue
Subject: It’s a form of greeting :P
Too busy to send a few short emails a day? Sounds like a load of crap. This’ll be fun, you’ll see. Like I said I always wanted a penpal (both of you can get lost it sounds better) and this is a great opportunity to take a load off. Looks like we have heaps in common too so it should be easy to get along.
How about each time we send an email we ask a question about the other? It’ll make getting to know each other quicker. My question for you is: What’s your favourite colour?
Reply soon,
Padawan
Newt felt his temper rise ever so slightly. A load of crap? He was a complete bloody stranger, he had no right to say that! And what was he doing that he could reply back so quickly? Obviously not his work. Newt had half a mind to ignore him and half a mind to blow the system and find out who Padawan was so he could punish him for slacking off. Unfortunately his brain wasn’t working very well so Newt ended up typing out another reply.
From: TheGlue
To: Padawan
Subject: It’s a stupid greeting.
Hi,
Yes, I’m too bloody busy. Unlike some people I have a lot of work to do in a day. I do not see any enjoyment being gained from talking to a stranger who insists on calling this by the improper name (e-pal sounds better because it is correct) and I do not need to ‘take a load off’.
Your question is ridiculous and I am not going to tell you my favourite colour because we are not friends.
Goodbye,
TheGlue
‘You’re yelling at your e-pal, aren’t you?’ Alby smiled at him accusingly.
‘Well maybe if he wasn’t such a bloody idiot.’ Newt grumbled.
‘I hope you’re not using your go to curse word. It’s one hell of a give away. And how is he being an idiot?’
Newt cursed under his breath as he realised that in fact, yes, he had used the word bloody in both emails and, yes, it was a dead give away, him being the only person in the office who used it every second word.
Instead of explaining his predicament to Alby he simply forwarded the chain of messages to his computer. Newt had more important things to do than discuss this random, lazy, Star Wars freak.
‘Padawan hey? Interesting choice. Why not go for Jedi?’ Alby mused as he read.
‘Exactly!’ Newt exclaimed absentmindedly.
‘Well he seems fine to me. Don’t know what your problem is.’ Ably said when he was done reading it through for the third time, just to be sure he hadn’t missed any slight on Padawan’s part.
‘What do you mean? He-’
‘Is an enthusiastic bloke, who is obviously excited to talk to new people, who you are shutting down. Pretty hard too I might add.’ Alby levelled a commanding gaze his way. ‘Newt, I know this isn’t an ideal situation for you. But maybe he’s right; you’re always so tense. Maybe this’ll help you take a load off. I think you should be nicer to the kid.’
Newt had to begrudgingly agree with him. The guy was obviously excited, and Newt had snapped at him pretty quickly. He hated when Alby spoke sense in his serious voice, there was no getting around him, suppose that’s why he’s the boss.
‘Fine. I’ll say I’m sorry in the email tomorrow.’
‘That’s all I can ask from you.’ Alby gave his friend one more smile before turning back to work. He had thought long and hard to come up with a scheme that would improve workplace relations and he really hoped this worked. Not just for Newt, but for all of them.