[Reflective Rhapsody]

Dean was surprised to find an unknown teenager in his kitchen. He walked in to start the coffee on his way to his computer. He switched on the light and jumped when he saw her. She had long, straight, snow-white hair and her eyes glowed with faint red energy.

"Good afternoon, Dean," she said. "My name's Rhapsody, from Sharp Development," she pointed at the red pair of scissors stitched onto the front of her white blazer. That put him at ease as far as having a stranger in his kitchen. He didn't know why she was there; but, he hoped it was because of the complaint he filed.

"Hi," he nodded at her. He continued to the counter to switch the coffee maker on, then he sat down at the small, two-person kitchen table. Dean lived alone and he was happy for it. He had an ex that disappeared as soon as the multiverse was discovered. In the back of his mind, he joked that she couldn't get far away enough from him; but, he didn't feel bad about it. Now, he was free to do things he always wanted to do without someone else always chattering away or trying to hang on his arm. "What can I do for you?" he asked.

"You submitted a complaint regarding your supervisor, Daniel. I'm here because of that," she said.

"Great, I'm glad somebody's doing their job," he nodded, then chuckled. "It sure as hell ain't Daniel."

"What leads you to believe he's not doing his job?" Rhapsody asked.

"Every time I see him, he's just gossiping and hanging around. I never see him do any work; but, he always expects mine to be on time?" Dean chuckled.

"I see," Rhapsody nodded. "That was all listed in the complaint, do you have any other evidence to report?"

"Yeah, he's always singling me out!" Dean said. His voice changed to a lower, mocking tone. "Dean was late today, so we all gotta work a little harder. Dean's report had some of the numbers in the wrong place, so we're a little behind today," he mimicked his boss. "He even pulled me into his office and told me 'I could be doing better'. What an ass!"

"Okay, I've got it," Rhapsody nodded. "I'm sorry to tell you that you're not Sharp Development material, Dean. We're letting you go."

"What!?" Dean jumped to his feet and stared down at the shorter girl. "What do mean? That asshole is the one not doing his job!"

"Just because you don't know what his job is doesn't mean he's not doing it," she said.

"Huh?" Dean asked. Rhapsody nodded.

"If you paid more attention, you'd have realized that 'every time you see him' is on a schedule. It's his job to check in with the employees; that's why you see him chatting. And that's the only time you see him, correct? He's working the rest of the time."

"He's always picking on me!" Dean replied.

"If that were the case," Rhapsody giggled. "It's not necessarily against company policy. But, all communications are monitored by Sharp Development. We've seen no evidence of bullying; he's only trying to get you to do your job better. Something you've proven incapable of," she smiled.

"I can do better!" This was the best job Dean ever had. He hadn't realized he was close to messing it up.

"Oh, can you? Starting when?" She asked.

"Today! I'll do better today!" Dean hoped that a company that was stretched across the multiverse would operate better than the corrupt corporations on his own Earth. But, they were obviously exactly the same; protecting their favorite workers. It was a pain; but, he could work around it.

"Well, if that's the case, you're still fired," she replied. "You're already late for work today."

"Because of you!" He didn't hesitate to shift the blame. It was entirely her fault that he hadn't gotten to the computer to log in yet. "I came in to turn on the coffee maker and I've been talking to you ever since!"

"It's been close to five minutes already; it's not that long," she said.

"Long enough to be late!" Dean replied.

"Technically, yes," Rhapsody nodded as a black portal opened in the air next to her. "But, not when it's 12:30 and you were supposed to be logged in at 12:00," she grinned. "You won't be able to log in to our servers anymore," she said. She turned and walked into the hole. "Feel free to apply again when you get over thinking everyone else is the asshole."

***

Thank you for reading! I’m responding to prompts every day. This is story #1896 in a row. (Story #086 in year six.). This story is part of an ongoing saga that takes place at a high school in my universe. It began on August 22nd and I will be adding to it with prompts every day until May 26th. They are all collected in order at this link.