The travelling agency is comprised of many different people with many different interests and personalities, but they all had one thing in common — they worked there. Most of them were also not considered conventionally normal, but this was but a mere coincidence.

Out of all those people, only two were in the office when Thaught came in, Paul and Margaret, whose uniqueness came from the fact that they loved coming in the office as soon as possible and adored the art of chit chatting next to the water fountain.

They were brewing their coffee and talking about how espadrilles shoes were at the same time the best and worst thing to happen in modern fashion history. The topic was so interesting that they failed to notice Thaught's absurd entrance. They only saw her a few moments later, when they happened to turn their heads towards her.

“What are those!?”

“Jake?” Answered Thaught.

“No, this is Paul.”

“Nice to meet you, I'm Thaught.”

“You must be the new recruit Caterpillar was talking about. Seriously though, what are those?”

“Oh these? They are my new pair of shoes, you don't like them? They're Lans. It's a brand that makes shoes inspired by the number one cyclist of all time. I think his name was Eddie.”

“No, not these ones, I'm talking about these bad boys over there,” Paul pointed at the box that Thaught was holding.

“Oh, you mean those! These are coffee's best friends,” Thaught said.

Margaret had yet to say a word. She was carefully judging the situation until that point — analyzing Thaught, her personality, what she would probably like and dislike, as well as the potential chemistry she could have with the rest of the team. Suddenly, she brightened up and said with confidence, “I bet they are energy balls made from rolled oats and raisins!”

Thaught, shocked, looked at Paul and asked as calmly as she could, “Who is this? Does she work here? Can we get her fired? Please tell me we can get her fired,” while bending her wrist and pointing at Margaret with her index finger.

Margaret was the kind of person who is really shy at first but will talk to you about anything and everything, like how boiling tea inside a moving train could actually impact its time of arrival.

She was aware of her initial shyness and was actively trying to fix this lately, forcing herself to be more open to conversations from the get go. But what just happened was too much for her, she turned her back and ran straight to her office, hiding behind her computer screen.

You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

“I will assume these aren't oat balls then,” Paul said.

“You tell me,” Thaught said and opened the box, revealing a dozen of beautiful donuts, each one with unique decorations and fillings.

“I am more of a savoury guy, so I am not the best at 'playing what is that dessert', but I am willing to bet money. Not on something in particular — I have a serious problem.” He picked up a donut that looked like it contained a jam made of every single fruit the baker could get their hands on.

“That's the mumbo jam-bo,” Thaught pointed out. “Good choice!” She then closed the box and placed it on top of the office's kitchen counter momentarily. “Since it's my first day here, I brought these donuts to have a sweet start.”

“You did not have the sweetest of starts with Margaret. If you focus hard enough, you can still hear her trying to cry silently.” Paul took a bite out of the donut and got very confused by its taste. More confused than that time, almost a year ago, when he randomly saw a parade of Celt fishermen playing trombones outside his apartment. He detected the taste of strawberry, kiwi, avocado, grapefruit, and coconut, all combined in that donut's jam.

He was still spending his weekends trying to find where these Celts came from, what was the parade for and how to find them again but it seemed like every relevant information had been deleted from the internet and the local library refused to give him access to the forbidden zone.

“You are right, I should go apologize,” Thaught agreed.

“How did the Celts end up in New Bork, though?” Paul mumbled.

“What?” Thaught said.

“What?” He replied.

When Thaught approached her, Margaret was still trying to stop her tears while opening and closing random spreadsheets to make it seem like she was working.

“Look, I know what I said was kinda mean,” Thaught apologized, “but what you said was also kinda dumb, so I guess we are both at fault here. Anyway, I'm sorry,” she said, and left a heart-shaped donut on Margaret's desk.

“Thank you,” she said while wiping the tears off her face. She picked up Thaught's gift as a way of accepting her apology.

“All I wanted was to make you feel part of the team,” Margaret continued, “you know, like when hockey players slap each other's butts but a bit more business-casual.”

Margaret had now calmed down and peace had finally been restored in the travelling agency.

“Also, thank you for the donut, very thoughtful of you,” she continued, and was about to have a bite. “Wait, did you bite the donut to shape it like a heart?”

“It was for a good cause.”

Thaught then walked around the office. It indeed looked a lot like a classroom except for the blackboard, which was demolished and a new room had been built in its place, with a glass door that had a wooden tag on it saying 'Crowner'. Even the desks were school desks accompanied by small school chairs that had clearly not been designed to be used by anyone who grew past fifteen years of age. But they came in different colors, green, red and yellow specifically, which made up for the reduced comfort.

The desks were put in two lines, with one line facing and touching the other, making for a big rectangle in the center of the class. Thaught had walked three whole circles around this rectangle with the purpose of finding a desk with her name on it, but there wasn't one.

“Paul, it seems that my desk has not arrived yet. I need a desk so I can place my donuts on it. How else are my new coworkers going to come and chat with me and tell me how cool I am for bringing donuts?”

“You don't actually have a desk. I am not sure what will be your day-to-day tasks exactly but you can discuss it with Caterpillar, corporate assigned him as your manager/mentor. I think he is in his office right now,” Paul said and pointed towards Mr. Crowner's office.

“Caterpillar, huh? Diversity has come a long way,” Thaught murmured and started walking towards Caterpillar's office.