"Daniel's a cool name... do I sense an accent on you?"

"You do!" Daniel chuckled. "I'm from the south."

"The south? Same here. Well, actually I'm from India but we moved to Virginia when I was four. Accent's are cool. When I was growing up I used to have a sick Indian accent from my parents, but the southern and New York mush have sort of jumbled all together."

"I'm from South Carolina," Daniel smiled, glad to have met a fellow southerner. "Do you ever miss Virginia?"

"Naw," Xavier shrugged. "Never really my home anyways... I'm much happier here, but I bet you're feeling homesick."

"You could say that again." Daniel grinned. 

"It must be lonely stuffed up there with Mr. Palmer all the time too. Have you even met any new people yet?"

"Just my roommate."

"I could introduce you to some of my friends if you'd like, that way I can make sure you fall in with the right people."

"You'd do that for me?"

"Of course!" Xavier smiled in confusion. "Come on. Mr. Palmer won't miss you if you're only gone for a minute."

Daniel followed Xavier through desks and he was hit with a jolt of excitement. Looking around the were lines and lines of desks and cubicles with people feverishly working. A woman in tall heels almost knocked into him crossing the walkway to get back to her desk. Each person seemed to bare the mark of a good hard worker as they typed. 

This is where it happens, he thought to himself. This where I belong.

Daniel wanted to write. Wanted to yell to people working on a story together and follow a trail of clues to the end of the story. He wanted to write a story that would change the world, a story that would change the way people thought. 

He wanted to blow the lid off a mafia organization, catch a politician in a lie, or end a campaign, but he couldn't do any of that trapped with a man who wouldn't let him do anything more than busy work. It was like a prison up on the penthouse. Daniel wanted to write. 

"This is Avery." Xavier stopped in front of a woman with a pink bob, hand of which she'd shaved off and added designs to. "She's Vice President of our team. Avery, Daniel."

"Nice to make your acquaintance." Daniel reached out his hand. Avery looked at it with an enamored smile, before pulling Daniel into a hug instead.

"No need for formality! Besides, if you're working up there with Mr. Palmer, you probably need a hug anyway."

"Thank you."

"She's a hugger," Xavier chuckled. "Oh, there's Manny!" 

"Hi, what's your name?" A tall black man approached the group with a similarly easygoing smile. He was dressed in a preppy manner with tight brown pants and a blue check short sleeve shirt. His hair was curly and puffed around his face framing it well.

"Daniel."

"Nice to meet you Daniel. Which department are you from?" 

"I'm an assistant."

"Cool, for who?" Manny shrugged good-naturedly. "You should be glad you're not--" 

"He's the new personal assistant for Mr. Palmer."

"Oh," Manny's face changed expression. "I'm sure that's great. Where are you from?"

"I'm from South Carolina."

"A southern boy?" Avery raised an eyebrow. "You're far from home."

"Hey, don't make him feel uncomfortable!" Xavier swatted playfully at his friend. "I was thinking of inviting Daniel out to drinks tonight."

"The more the merrier!" Manny grinned. "I'm sure you'll be needing one by the end of today anyway."

"Yeah," Daniel agreed knowingly. "He has me running all around the office."

"What are those you've got there?" Avery asked, gesturing to the paper folders in the boy's hands.

"Oh!" Daniel snapped back into action. "These are progress reports. Mr. Palmer wants me to hand them out to everyone on this floor."

"Give me those," Xavier took the pile and began rummaging through them.

"Hey! He's not going to like that."

"What the bull doesn't know can't hurt him," Xavier ignored, riffling until he found his file. "Here, Mine." 

Xavier opened his file and his face contorted slightly in anger. 

"These are so stupid." 

"Let me see," Manny took the pile and found his own folder. He looked much happier with his contents than Xavier had.

"This is just a stupid excuse for him to shit-talk us to our faces." Xavier crossed his arms defiantly. "Who even cares about this crap anyway."  

"Speak for yourself," Manny chided. "I think Mr. Palmer is trying to gently encourage us."

"I'd like to gently beat his a-" Xavier stopped himself. "You can't give these out to everyone. You'll get like.. like jumped or something."

"Don't listen to him, he's just pissy because he didn't reach his word quota and Mr. Palmer tore him a new one over it." Avery assured Daniel. "He said it himself, nobody cares."

"I'm just looking out for our new friend," Xavier defended. "Besides, nobody does care... they just get angry."

"You're the only now with anything to be angry about," Manny joked. "You should get moving. Mr. Palmer really doesn't like when things are late."

"I know... Thanks you guys.. It's good to meet some new people, I like... I'm excited for tonight."

"Of course." 

...

Daniel sat down at his desk with a sigh. The time with Xavier and his friends had been a good reprieve, but he'd needed--- as usual-- to head back to reality. Mr. Palmer was in a meeting in his private conference room when Daniel came back upstairs. 

The boy soaked in the momentary peace while he could, sure to look as busy as possible when it sounded like the meeting was ending, so Mr. Palmer wouldn't think he was idle and give him more work. 

After a few more minutes the glass doors to the conference room opened and Mr. Palmer walked out with his client. The suited man who'd been with Daniel's boss was escorted to the elevator promptly and with no depth of emotion in parting, as Mr. Palmer did all things. 

When Mr. Palmer came back again he noticed Daniel and waisted a valuable second on a grunt of recognition that the monumental task of figuring out the names of literally everyone on the writing floor had been completed. 

Daniel hadn't expected anything less and went back to the stack of papers that never seemed to dissipate on his desktop.

As he worked the hours ticked by, and finally the clock in the hallways chimed, alerting him to the fact that it was five, and therefore time to leave.

He was glad to have made it through a day without needing to go outside in the rain or do anything too strenuous for now reason. Five o'clock was becoming an extreme time of relief for the boy. 

Daniel gathered his coat and flipped it on, stopping to fix the collar, then walked away from his desk with a smile. He'd made it halfway to the door before he realized he should probably say goodbye to Mr. Palmer before leaving. He doubted the man would appreciate it, but his southern morals decreed that such must be done. Besides, he'd stayed until five on the dot, and Mr. Palmer might think he'd left early if he came out and saw Daniel gone.

With a tentative hand, he knocked on the glass door, and Mr. begrudgingly looked up from his work. 

"If you don't need anything else, I was going to head out," Daniel stated. 

"I can think of a lot more things for you to do, but then you'd want overtime," Mr. Palmer sighed. "You gave out the reports?"

"Yes sir."

"To everyone?"

"Yes sir."

"Anyone upset?" 

"No sir," Daniel lied, hoping to spare Xavier from the man's wrath. "Nothing of note."

"You were gone a while."

"I didn't know any of the names... it took me a while to figure out where everyone sat. I'll be quicker next time, I promise."

"Next time," Mr. Palmer scoffed under his breath. "Did you meet some of the writers."

"I did!" Daniel smiled. 

"Maybe that why it took you so long."

"I-"

"Well I suppose being able to market yourself to people is good. Hold on to those connections, they might help you in the long run."

"Thank you?"

"You're free to go," The man waved Daniel off, immediately going back to his work.

The boy stood there awkwardly for a moment. He wished he knew something about the man, some random fact that would make small talk easier. He wanted to make a connection. Then at least Mr. Palmer could feel bad when Daniel was inevitably kicked to the curb. 

"H-Have a nice night," Daniel offered feebly. 

Mr. Palmer looked up again and stared at him for a while. An awkwardly long while. As if he was pondering what was the proper response to the simple greeting. 

"You too."

Daniel's eyes widened, but he said nothing and scurried out of the office before the man could shout "Just kidding!" 

Daniel had arranged to meet with Xavier in the lobby, and he was more than ready to blow off some steam and have a better night than his day had been. 

"Hey." 

"Hey," Daniel greeted Xavier. "Where's..."

"Hi boys," Avery greeted as she approached with Manny following behind her. "Are you all ready to get out of here?"

"Of course." Daniel smiled. "I've been ready to go since I got here."

"Let's go."