Once upon a summer morning, a girl with beautiful silver hair stared out of her bedroom window, watching the people outside like animals in a zoo. Some walked and some cycled. Some were in groups and wore backpacks, others were alone and carried suitcases. But they were all going somewhere. Places to connect with other people, whether consciously or not.
The girl, however, had no such privileges, and so she spent her days like this, watching from her bedroom window instead.
Until today.
The girl looked over her shoulder at the alarm next to her bed.
8:10AM
The walk took fifteen minutes according to her calculations, and she wanted to arrive perfectly on time. Meaning five more minutes to kill.
Still, the nerves were getting to her, so she slid off her spacious windowsill and walked downstairs. There, she spent the next five minutes nervously hopping up and down in front of a mirror, judging herself, wondering if she would fit in.
8:15AM
The girl walked out of her front door and joined the rest of the world during their morning commute. To her, it felt wrong, like she was pretending to be a normal human being, wanting to join the masses yet trying to avoid attention. It was working, though. Nobody looked at her funny, presumably not even recognizing her when she walked normally like this.
The girl gripped the straps of her backpack tightly and walked with a nervous look on her face, trying her hardest to turn it into a smile. Sometimes people would pass her on the sidewalk but not even glance at her, typically distracted by their phones. Others would look at her like they looked at everybody else, without lingering. Every now and then, an outlier would give her a passing glance, then look away before doing a double take. Those people probably knew, but they didn't make a big deal out of it.
8:25AM
When she reached a busy square, closer to the city center, a flap of hair on the top of her head stood up straight and started beeping and flashing an orange light. The girl froze in her tracks as the people around her stopped and looked at her like she was a wild animal that didn't belong here.
For the next couple of seconds, she didn't move a finger, and neither did a lot of the people who'd stopped to stare at her.
"Why now!?" she frustratedly whispered to her hair-antenna.
It had been six days since the alarm last went off. Six days spent sleazing around by her bedroom window, only for it to finally ring at the worst possible time.
The girl frantically looked around. Not only at the people who were making her feel exposed, but also to try and find the source of the signal. The girl had waited at home until the perfect time to start her commute, but that was assuming nothing would happen along the way. She wanted to arrive exactly on time, but at this rate…
Then, the flashing light on the tip of her hair-antenna changed from orange to red and started pointing somewhere at the sky. Slowly, it pitched downward until the girl could see the target with her own eyes.
A robotic insectoid creature three times her size landed in the middle of the busy square, finally taking the attention away from the girl and causing a massive panic. The flap on the girl's head started beeping faster and pointed straight at the creature.
Before she knew it, everybody but her had cleared the square, causing the creature to lay its eyes on her. For what felt like forever, the two stared each other down in silence, unmoving. The girl's body language suggested she was under stress, and her eyes were wide open.
After a couple of seconds of staring each other down, the creature finally moved, hunching down into a pouncing stance and making some strange, alien sounds. In a flash, it dashed towards the girl, brandishing its two claws with a clear intent to bring her harm. But before it had even closed half the distance, the girl's eyes emitted two red laser beams that cut the creature in half, the two halves of its body sliding by her on both sides, leaving a trail of guts on the street.
It took another couple of seconds before the alarm on the girl's head stopped beeping and relaxed itself, dropping back down and blending in with the rest of her hair. The girl looked up at the large clock on one of the buildings at the square to read the time.
8:28AM
The girl gasped and turned around to continue her commute.
"Sorry!" she yelled and started a light jog to make up for lost time.
8:30AM
Anxiously, the girl stopped in front of her destination. As long as she stepped through the door in front of her within the next thirty seconds, she would be exactly on time. And all that despite losing three minutes at the square. Let's just say the girl had her ways of making up for it.
At this point, the nerves and anxiety were back in full force, just like they were fifteen minutes ago. Once she walked through that front door, her first day would officially begin. The girl looked down to make sure she didn't get any of the creature's remains on her outfit, made a swallowing motion and slowly stepped towards the door, which slid open automatically.
Once inside, nobody paid attention to her, just like on the street. People were either preoccupied or hurrying to get to their next meeting. Only one person in the room had their eyes on her: the receptionist. This was it. Time for the girl's first proper interaction with another person since the time she applied for this job a month ago. Although it gave her a sense of dread, now that the moment was upon her, she hoped that many more interactions would follow. After all, that's why she came here.
"M-My name is Jenny, I'm here for my first day…" the girl spoke timidly.
The receptionist gave her a strange look and chewed her gum, then replied.
"You look like the Sparkle Princess."
The comment made Jenny blush. Of course, the moment she talked to someone, they immediately recognized her. And they even called her by that stupid nickname.
"I-I'm supposed to meet Mr. Binks…" Jenny continued, ignoring the remark.
The receptionist looked a bit confused and there was a bit of pause, Jenny hadn't confirmed if it was really her or not, and she wasn't going to. The receptionist popped her gum bubble and then chewed it some more.
"Okay boo. I'll let him know."
Jenny sat down at the receptionist's gesture and waited until her manager came to pick her up. This time, she was spared another similar reaction, given she'd already talked to the man once before.
"Nervous?" her manager asked with a comforting smile as they walked through the office.
Apparently, it showed on her face. Jenny nodded.
Her manager laughed in response.
"I think you'll be just fine," he said.
The rest of the day went by in a flash. Jenny was introduced to countless people, to the point it overwhelmed her and she didn't know how to act. People across the office had varying reactions to her.
Most people by far gave her the same reaction as the receptionist.
Some didn't bat an eye at her, either because they weren't paying attention, or they didn't know who she was.
Others seemed intimidated and kept their distance.
The worst one was one of her direct colleagues. A posh-looking older woman who gave the impression that she either didn't know who Jenny was or didn't care but still acted particularly cold towards her. Maybe it annoyed her that the new young hire was able to perform her work so efficiently from her very first day and required almost no training. The contrast was especially clear whenever computers were involved, something the older woman had constant trouble with. Maybe the woman saw Jenny as just another computer…
Then came lunch break. A time when people socialized and talked about fun things not related to work. But Jenny couldn't find anyone to connect with during this time. It certainly didn't help that she didn't need to eat or drink, or that everyone else already had their established cliques that seemed impossible to become a part of. What seemed like the best part of the workday for many others, turned into a lonely hour-long reminder of all the good things she didn't get to have. And so, she spent the time alone, sitting on a bench outside, watching other people spend time together and feeling an aching void in her chest. Just like she used to do at her bedroom window.
5PM
Almost everybody left exactly around this time. Staying behind was meaningless, and so Jenny followed their example to fit in. There was precisely one colleague who, when he waved the others goodbye, included Jenny in his gesture. The older woman didn't bat an eye at her, and everyone else left in a hurry.
Jenny walked home in disappointment. That was her first day of ever working a real job and participating in society. She had higher hopes than this. Her most daring fantasies even saw her making friends and walking home with them. But no. Nobody she met today seemed like they wanted to be friends with her.
Jenny looked around her, at the people who went home from work, all in their own little bubble. How did people even make friends? Let alone lovers? They all had them, but Jenny felt hopeless at the idea of ever getting to that point herself.
When she came home, there was nobody to greet her. Not since her mom passed away. Jenny dropped her backpack by the door and went upstairs to collapse on her bed, aimlessly staring at her ceiling. When her ceiling bored her too much, she got up and took place by her large window and spent the rest of the day the same way she always did.
♦︎
On her second day, Jenny wasn't nearly as nervous anymore. But she wasn't very excited either. After all, she'd learned now that it was foolish to think she would make friends right away. But still, the people she was now mingling with were not as welcoming to her as she'd hoped, making the next couple of days as depressing as the first one.
No. It took almost a whole week before she had her first pleasant interaction with someone else. It was during lunchtime, and Jenny had taken place on her bench outside again, the same one she sat on every time. A young man approached her, looking about the same age as her.
"Yo," he said.
"Y-Yo!" Jenny responded anxiously.
"I-Is this your spot?" she asked him, just about ready to get up and leave.
The young man raised his hands in surrender and smiled.
"No! Not at all!" he said.
Jenny relaxed a bit.
"May I sit with you?" he asked with a pensive look in his eyes.
Jenny stared at him with her eyes wide open for a second before processing his question, then furiously nodded.
"Yes! Please!" she said and scuddled over.
And sit with her he did.
He carried a sandwich from the cantina, which he unwrapped and gave a flirty look to. Then, he turned to face Jenny, who stared at him in anticipation. After a second of staring each other down, the young man squinted his eyes like he was checking her out in great detail, before holding out his hand and speaking up.
"I'm Saturn."
Again, Jenny needed another second of staring at him with her eyes wide before she understood that he just introduced himself.
"Jenny!" she said and accepted his handshake.
"I know," Saturn responded with an excited smile.
Then, he moved his hand to his head and gave her a salute.
"Big fan."
♦
After that first encounter, he would visit her at her bench during lunchtime more often. One time, when they walked back together, he showed Jenny where his desk was, so that she could find him anytime. Sometimes they would even attend meetings together, and Jenny would excitedly take place next to him. She didn't care much about her work at all, and neither did he. As a result, he was always fidgeting with random items or drawing doodles to try and make her laugh.
"So, you don't have to eat or drink ever?" he asked at another lunch break.
He looked nervous about asking her, perhaps for the first time since she'd met him.
"Nope. I only have to plug in and charge," she answered.
He continued: "That's gotta be pretty convenient, guess you don't uh-"
"-You don't poop?"
He was interrupted by a new face that'd joined them lately. One of Saturn's close friends: a girl called Plural.
Saturn looked away but he seemed curious about the answer.
"That's correct!"
Jenny looked proud as she answered Plural's question.
Plural was roughly the same age as the other two, and evidently, she wasn't the prudish type. Jenny hadn't met her before Saturn introduced her, but that was because she worked on a different floor. Plural was in fact a manager but didn't look or act the part at all. Jenny could see why she and Saturn got along so well.
"No kidding... so you're that... Sprinkle Princess, was it? I think I've seen you on the news!" Plural continued, realizing she was talking to a celebrity.
Jenny didn't correct her and pouted, looking at the ground.
"I almost couldn't believe it when I saw you last week. Took me a while to build up the courage to talk to you," Saturn added.
Jenny looked up at him in surprise. After all, he didn't look nervous at all when he first approached her.
"W-What?" he asked her when she kept looking at him.
"I didn't think I was that special," Jenny replied.
"Are you kidding me? You're a hero, Jenny! Not just here, but across the world! Don't you know there are online communities about you?"
Jenny looked away, more embarrassed than proud.
"Did you know she once took down a government run by lizards?" he leaned forward and looked past Jenny to address Plural.
"That sounds made-up..." Plural replied.
Saturn turned to look at Jenny like he wanted her to weigh in.
"It's not made-up... but it's okay. I wouldn't believe it either," Jenny said, forcing a smile.
Saturn's expression shifted, suggesting he took the hint, and he took another bite of his sandwich.
"You know, you're pretty cool, Jen!" he said.
"Ditto!" Plural added and put her arm around Jenny's shoulders.
Her smile was genuine now. Before Jenny knew it, she'd made two new friends in her new life.
♦
It was the last workday of the week, and the company had drinks at 5PM. It was a monthly thing, and it was Jenny's first time joining one. However, not only was she unable to participate in the act of getting tipsy, but neither of her two lunch buddies were anywhere to be seen. Meaning she was all alone, surrounded by strangers who either paid no attention to her or gave her weird looks.
What was she supposed to do? She felt wrong to just join in on other people's conversations, especially with her being… special. This was completely different from her normal work, where everything made sense and all she had to do was complete tasks.
Now, she didn't know whether to be happy or annoyed when someone approached her and it turned out to be the old woman who'd been giving her a hard time. She probably wasn't about to start being nice now.
"Can you please leave?" she put the emphasis on please like it was third time asking. She looked tipsy already.
"I mean this in the best possible way… I just can't- I'm simply uncomfortable with you around, you know? You must know."
Jenny couldn't find the words to respond, so the woman took it as a sign Jenny just didn't understand what she meant.
"Everybody here feels the same way, sweetheart. I'm one of the nice ones. Most people don't enjoy seeing a gun barrel pointed their way all day."
The woman subtly pointed at her own two eyes.
"Can we at least have this?" she gestured her hand around her like this was her birthday party.
Jenny believed her, the woman made sense. Cartoonishly evil delivery and all. With the exception of Saturn and Plural, who were oddballs in their own way, she didn't feel very welcome here. Did she really speak for everyone?
"S-Sorry!" Jenny ran out, ashamed to have made such a fool of herself by trying to fit in, and she felt a bunch of terrible emotions churning inside of her.
When she reached the building's exit, she saw Plural coming in. Jenny stopped running and slowed down as she approached her.
"Hey, Jen! What's up?" Plural greeted her with a smile until she noticed the state she was in.
"What happened?"
Jenny didn't say anything, just looked up at her with a sad look on her face. Plural took a second before she took Jenny in for a hug, the first hug anyone had given her in a long time.
Jenny closed her eyes and felt Plural's heartbeat through her chest, wondering if the girl really liked her or if she was just pretending because she wanted to hang with Saturn. Did he really like her? She had a hard time denying that one, he'd given her a lot of evidence that he did.
They moved to the parking lot to sit on the hood of Plural's car as Jenny explained what happened.
"That bitch!" Plural didn't seem entirely sober either.
"I'm sorry. I should've been there with you. I'd have so much shit to say to her," she looked annoyed.
"Where's Saturn? Wasn't he with you?"
Jenny shook her head. She didn't know where he was. Hadn't seen him all day.
Plural grabbed her phone and texted Saturn telling him to come to the parking lot. Jenny could see on her screen. She had Saturn saved as "DO NOT ANSWER". Plural called him a slur Jenny had never seen before. He replied with three dots and nothing else.
"Aren't you on the same floor?" Plural asked.
Jenny nodded. It took two minutes for Saturn to come walking out the door with a beer in hand. He paused in his tracks for a second when he saw them, then approached them again.
"You left her alone! Now look at her!" she said to Saturn and pointed at Jenny, who looked perfectly fine at this point.
He looked at Jenny, then back at Plural. Probably trying to think of something clever to say without it being at Jenny's expense.
"Where were you anyway?" Plural continued.
"I had this dumb workshop with the whole team on the sixth floor all day, just got out," he said, pointing up at the building. When he looked at the beer in his hand, he followed up: "After, you know…"
Jenny jumped to his rescue by setting the record straight.
"I'm okay, guys. I'm happy to have you two."
Plural gave her a hug in response.
Saturn asked: "So what happened exactly?"
"I tried to socialize and got told off by… drinker..." Jenny replied and looked away when she said the last part.
"I wouldn't call that 'told off'!" Plural said, then continued as if she spoke before completely processing Jenny's words: "What do you mean 'drinker'?"
Saturn chuckled and said "Barf drinker. It's what we call this insufferable bitch on our floor. Me and some others anyway, Jenny's almost there."
Plural couldn't contain herself and burst into laughter.
"You need to learn to stand up for yourself, Jen! We can't always be there to protect you!" she turned to Jenny, like she forgot all about what she just reprimanded Saturn for.
"How do I do that?" Jenny pouted and asked.
"We should blow up her car! Which one is it?" Plural turned to Saturn, like she'd already moved on from her last train of thought.
Jenny gasped and worriedly said "Won't she get angry?"
Saturn chuckled and said "Red Clio" as he pointed to a nearby car.
"I don't wanna upset her more…" Jenny said.
"She wouldn't know it's us!" Plural said.
Jenny gave her confused look.
Saturn was still looking at the car and got a big smile on his face as he put his bottle on the ground.
"What is it?" Jenny asked.
"I got something better! Give me a sec," he said as he ran back inside.
Jenny gave Plural a questioning look.
"Maybe he's getting C4 from a supply closet," Plural said.
Jenny grabbed Plural's hand and rocked it back and forth with a worried expression. Despite the impression she gave off, she was feeling happy. She felt safe with these two, the complete opposite of how she felt before at the drinks.
After a minute, Saturn returned with a crate containing some supplies from the warehouse. Jenny was happy to see it wasn't a bomb.
"Boring!" Plural exclaimed.
"You don't even know what this is for," he replied.
"Not making a bomb, that's what I know."
"Better," he said. His eyes went back to the red car, then at Jenny. He grabbed a heat gun from the crate and pointed it towards the car, prompting her to come with him.
"One of the guys told me about how he replaced the badges on his car with black ones the other day," he explained as they sat down at the rear of barf drinker's car.
"These are stuck on with adhesive, and you can take them off with some heat and floss."
He had a heat gun with a battery and started heating up the 'o' in the big 'Clio' letters that were displayed in the center of the hatch. He handed a box of floss wire to Jenny. She accepted it and had a look in her eyes like she was about to jump out of an airplane.
"It's okay," he put his hand on her shoulder and gave her a reassuring look.
"She's never gonna find out it's us. I don't even think she'll notice."
Jenny's hands were shaking as she took out a bit of floss wire and wrapped both ends around her thumbs. She felt like a criminal, but at the same time she felt companionship in having two friends as her accomplices. Saturn turned off the heat gun, pointed at just the 'o', then started heating the end of the manufacturer's name on the side of the hatch. Jenny ran the wire behind the letter and started moving it left and right, cutting through the warm adhesive and taking it off in no time. She had her eyes wide open and looked like you'd see a bead of sweat run down her forehead at any minute.
She did the same on the 't' of the manufacturer's name Saturn had heated up. He put the heat gun away and grabbed a spray bottle next, spraying the areas where the letters came off, where some adhesive was still left. He also sprayed the back of the letters in Jenny's hands. He rubbed the spots on the car with a towel, and the remains came clean off. Plural didn't seem to find it boring anymore and watched with great interest. He handed the towel to Jenny and she cleaned the adhesive off the letters.
Saturn gestured Jenny to give him the 'o', which she did. He gave her back a tube of glue, then looked at her with a proud expression. She looked at her two friends and then nervously looked away from the car. Saturn showed Jenny the 'o' and snapped it in half, sounding like it was made of cheap plastic. She nervously looked at the remaining 'Cli' text and made a swallowing motion. She put some glue on the 't' and stuck it roughly where the 'o' used to sit, then sat back down to admire the masterpiece. Plural and Saturn grinned at each other and then looked at Jenny, who had a faint proud look on her face.
"Any bets to how long she's gonna take to notice?" Plural asked.
"No idea. I kinda wanna be there to see it," Saturn said.
Jenny looked back at the car one more time, closed her eyes and stuck out her tongue.
Saturn was the first to rise, putting the items and his bottle in the crate.
"Can't leave any evidence behind," he said as he got up and took the crate back.
Plural and Jenny stood up, Plural gave her a thumbs up.
"I'm proud of you!" she said.
Jenny couldn't suppress a smile back and started hopping in place.
♦
"So what do you like to do in your free time, Jen?" Plural asked her.
They were walking home together when Plural stopped to lie down on a grassy hill to look at the night sky on a whim. The other two had joined her.
"I uh…"
Jenny was hesitant to answer completely honestly. She was aware of the kind of social life people of her age were expected to have, but she didn't have any of that and it was kind of embarrassing. The truth is that she was lonely.
"I like to look at people… from home…"
She couldn't help but answer honestly anyway. Maybe her purity dial was cranked all the way up. This prompted a giggle from the other two, but not in a mocking way, almost reacting to her like a cute animal. She wasn't sure how to feel about that.
Saturn and Plural exchanged looks, and Plural gave him a subtle nod.
Saturn sat up and said, "Why don't you join us on Saturday? We're going camping in the wilderness."
Jenny's eyes widened in excitement.