Samantha huffed as she wrung out her jersey over the sink once more. Thankfully, this wasn't the first time she'd come back from P.E. to discover her clothes dumped in a puddle in the locker room, so the nerdy girl was pretty used to it.
She'd rather not be used to it, of course. Why did Beatrix have to be such a bitch? That stupid, stuck-up cheerleader had been harrassing her all year for no reason, with stupid, petty things like this. It sucked. Beatrix sucked. High school sucked. Graduation b

Kicking her shoes off, Sonja collapsed onto her couch with a groan. Another long day of work complete.
“Lillie, you there?”
An affirmative ding echoes from deeper inside the house, shortly followed by the quiet footsteps of Sonja's robotic maid.
“Welcome home, my lady!” The robot, Lillie, greeted in her usual soft voice. “Is there anything you require?”
“Yeah, can you get me a drink?”
“Of course, my lady!” Lillie replied cheerily, but w

Maria absentmindedly shifted, tapping a frustrated rhythm against the side of her chair as she stared out the train windows.
Today had sucked. First she was called in at 6AM on her off day to manage some accounts someone had fucked up, then the regional manager showed up for a surprise visit, and then when she sent her intern on a coffee run, the girl never came back. That was her third intern this week! She didn't earn her position just to let someone else eat all the pretty young hopefuls. Not

Franziska had not been a popular girl in high school, and she had expected little different from university. She was, simply, a rather plain girl – aside from her bright ginger ponytail, numerous freckles and extremely pale skin (all sources of past mockery), she had no particular distinguishing features. Teenagers can be petty creatures, and no matter her interests or friendliness, sometimes 'looking funny' can be all it takes for her to spend her entire high school life as an outcast.
An

Checking her tablet once more, Valerie felt a tingle of excitement.
Working with the tax department didn't sound like a dream job for most, and when she started a decade ago, it had been pretty darn boring. Back then however, it had been a desk job – go through reports and filings, figure out who owed what, send them a bill. Simple maths.
When the 'household population tax' was implemented six years ago, that changed real quick. Suddenly, getting an agent to make in-person visits and colle

Turning on the camera, Freya smiled warmly.
“Okay, today is Valentine's, so for this episode we're going to be going over some techniques and tricks to make your special meal feel extra good. We're going to focus on some entry-level stuff, but there'll be a few things that I think even the veterans should know, so hopefully there's something here for everyone.”
Stepping back from the camera, Freya gave a moment for its focus to adjust to the rest of the room. Her workplace looked as

Vivianne stifled a yawn as she got out of bed, barely resisting the urge to go back to sleep. Tomorrow's the weekend, she reminded herself. Almost there.
The teen was a terrible morning person at the best of times, so when she noticed the scent of bacon wafting from the kitchen, she gave up on getting dressed and immediately started shuffling towards it.
As Vivianne stumbled into the kitchen, dressed only in her underwear and a half-buttoned shirt, her mother silently watched her daughter out of

Aefryllis did her best to suppress yet another deep sigh, as the annoying girl in her kitchen continued to pester her.
“I mean it’s just, wow, you know? All my friends are gonna be sooo jealous when they find out I met a real elf!” The girl continued, oblivious to Aefryllis’ mounting frustration.
“Yes, you’ve said that. Can you please just – yes, thank you,” the elf responded, gently pushing past the girl (whose name she didn’t even bother to