Carly double-checked herself; the doctor was right, she did feel a jolty sensation in her chest, but that was about it, it was her rear that really stung as she patted it down, no doubt that was because she hit the floor hard. Carly felt doubts she would be okay, as the haunting words of her fortune still commanded her mind, but she would have to shake it off either way, she still had work to do. Brushing herself off, she rotated her neck all around and hopped in place, trying to shake free the bad vibes; Dr. Fuuga took notice.
"Are you, uh, sure you're okay to drive?"
"Oh, no," Carly replied, "I took transit down today, I think I should be fine." Carly fetched her little reporter's bag and begun to leave the room, Dr. Fuuga in tow. "Thank you for your time, Dr. Fuuga, I hope that Fortune can continue to make Neo Domino a better place to live, and good luck on that plant laser-thingy too!" With a childlike wave, which Dr. Fuuga returned, Carly left the building, looking confident and full of bluster as the doors opened to the world around her.
All that bluster melted away as the doors shut, Carly hung her head as she descended the steps of the laboratory, mulling over what she did wrong during the interview over what she did right. "Augh, stupid, stupid!" she chanted, "First you don't even pay attention, and then you go and break expensive-looking equipment? You go Carly, you're a real winner." Carly sighed as she hit the sidewalk level, she couldn't just go back to the office with literally nothing to talk about, she had to take off and go back home to at least see if she could make something the public would want to read. Carly whined and pulled out her holo-phone, shifting her way through her contacts slowly. "I'm gonna get yelled at..." Carly hit the dial button over her boss's name, and after a while, the short, middle-aged man appeared on the projected screen.
"Carly!" he shouted, with the ferocity of a tiger. "You're late! You were supposed to be at the office 30 minutes ago, why are you still over at the lab?!"
"I'm sorry sir!" she replied, "The interview went on a little too long, and then there was this accident, and uh, I-"
"Alright, whatever! Just get over here and get back on the computers! You got 2 days before we start printing next week's papers, I need that story ASAP!" Carly gulped, here came the hard part.
"Um, sir...?"
"What is it now?"
"If it's okay, could I just go home instead, and work from-"
"What?!" he shouted, not bothering to let her finish, "There better be a damn good reason why you can't work here like the rest of us!"
"I'm sorry! It's just that, well, I had a little spill on the floor over here, and I think I injured myself, so I was thinking I should probably work at home, where I can wrap a blanket around my injured little body, you know? Hee-hee..." Carly's boss didn't look happy. "Please don't fire me!" she thought.
"...Fine! You're cutting into your vacation time, but what do I care?" Carly pumped her fist in victory. "But! I want you here before we even open tomorrow, got it?! And what you have better be friggin' good!" With that, Carly's boss hung up, she could feel the anger from the other side of the line. Carly sighed and shuffled her way to a bus terminal; she sat down on the bench, and felt a little stinging pinch in her rear as she sat.
"Ow...!" Carly rubbed her backside, still feeling the dull pain from her nasty spill. "What kind of janitors do they have over there anyways? Today's just been nothing but horrid luck..." Damn Chee, why did she have to draw that one? Carly liked to believe she was a princess sometimes, cursed by a witch to have constant misfortune whenever she had something good happen to her; land her dream job, get a boss from hell, learn how to duel like a pro, almost get killed by a crazy psychopath, become head reporter for the WRGP, robots start destroying the city. Carly could only await the day with impatience her prince would come and break the witch's curse. Her strong, blond, duelist pro of a prince...
"Lady, you gettin' on?" Carly opened her eyes and fumbled around the terminal. She locked eyes with the bus driver before her, he was looking at her like she was a crazy person.
"Um, yes! Here you go!" Carly gave the elderly-looking man a wad of bills and took the seat in the far back of the bus; very few people were on, so at least she could daydream in slight solitude. The bus began to move again, and Carly went back to daydreaming about her fantasy lifestyle...
----------
Carly kicked open the door of her apartment and flopped over on the couch, panting and sweating; she ran about 15 blocks back home after she realized she fell into a nap on the bus and missed her stop. She moaned and groaned into the pillow, musing over the fact she'd have to move once more to get to her work-desk, the table. Her legs ached with serious intensity, she didn't want to move, but she had to, for the sake of her job.
"Come on girl!" she shouted, "These pains are nothing compared to the pains of unemployment!" Carly forced herself to get off the couch and stumbled slowly over to her table; she sat down on a most uncomfortable wooden chair and brushed away the empty cups of ramen from her special reporter's tool, the laptop. There it sat, the black prism that would make all her troubles go away, how she sung it's name with such bliss and glee; laptop, o laptop! Carly flipped open the screen, filling in her login info into the boxes; upon entry, the cute picture of the Fortune Fairies, all frolicking and playing amidst a soft, pink background shot up, small programs, word documents, and pictures dancing around the scene, bunched together in their labeled invisible boxes. Carly whipped out her notepad, opened the word program, and begun to record her thoughts.
She had a paragraph done in about 3 hours. The moon was already beginning to overtake the sunset. Half of what she had on her notepad were doodles and squiggles. Carly, for the lack of a better term, was totally screwed. The green-haired girl removed her glasses, revealing her beautiful gray eyes, and banged her head against the table multiple times, whining about her poor luck.
"This is it..." Bang! "I'm gonna get fired..." Wham! "I'll have to start blogging and living off candy bars..." No loud noise, just a slump. Carly felt a snugness in her back as she continued to slouch, which she determined to be her brown, fluffy vest. She removed the article of clothing and chucked it over to her couch, returning to her slump.
"Why do these things happen to me?" Carly thought aloud. "Is it just a big constant that Clumsy Carly needs to screw at least one thing up? One major thing that ruins her whole day?" Carly blamed herself for a moment, then started to blame everyone but herself. "Stupid boss, for giving me a tough assignment. Stupid Yusei, having to overwork himself and be so smart. Stupid Jack, for making me daydream about him..."
Carly tilted her head up, and her eyes danced over to the picture of Jack and her when they went to the amusement park together, squinting to make up for her lack of her glasses; Carly looked happy as a clam, whilst Jack maintained his dull stoicism that was trademark of his King persona. Yet, Carly knew, she knew that beneath that stoic man, the prideful man who's hurt feelings and ruined dueling careers on the way to the top, there was a kind man who put his honor and burning soul into his duels, into his daily routine, and would never seek to hurt a friend intentionally - that was the Jack Atlas she knew. Carly smiled and went back to slouching.
"Oh, I could never stay mad at you, Jack..." Carly shut her eyes for a moment and tried to power nap, by the time she woke up, she would feel refreshed as usual and power out her work, just like she's done in the past, just like Jack would have done. As Carly's senses begun to rest, she didn't notice the feeling of her shirt ripping, slight tears showing small areas of skin and her bra strap...
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