This choice: Belinda's appetite increases, along with her consumption of neuro-feul bars... • Go Back...Chapter #8Appetite increase by: expandor   Belinda was surprised when she woke up at 6am, still sprawled out on the couch. She vaguely remembered eating far too much and passing out, and was surprised she had slept right through the night. Usually, she was a terrible sleeper, tossing and turning all night and waking up exhausted. Today, she felt oddly rested. Maybe it was those neuro-fuel bars?
Whilst she waited on her first pay cheque for the new job, Belinda was stuck with her old wardrobe. She felt like shaking things up and wearing something more flashy, but for now, her old grey shirt and black skirt combination would have to do. She was starting to feel more confident in herself, and for the first time in a while, she put some more effort into her makeup and hair. She'd been so tired and fed up for the last few months that she had forgotten just how pretty she was. Since Jamie left, it had been hard to recognise that.
-----
Belinda arrived early to her new office, the first time she'd arrived early for about three years. Her predecessor had left most of her things behind; including an abstract art print of what seemed to be a cow (though Belinda also guessed it might be a dog) and a few plants which looked like they hadn't been watered since the last fiscal quarter.
She grabbed a coffee and sat herself down in the comfy leather chair, strumming her fingers on the desk while she waited for some direction. Were they just...expecting her to know what to do? She peered around the door, and noticed some of the other staff arriving, but no sign of Megan or Charlotte.
"Maybe I just...wait for something to happen..." Belinda muttered to herself as she switched her computer on and stared at her inbox. "Aaaaaaaany time now..."
She adjusted her glasses, glanced down and spotted a neuro-fuel bar left on her desk, which she unwrapped and ate. The same familiar tingling from yesterday travelled through her body, leaving her feeling more energized.
When it hit 8:30, an email finally arrived from Megan. Her first official task arrived shortly after. Megan had emailed her a folder of reports, most of which detailed recurring issues with servo calibration and neural integration tests. It wasn’t exciting work—more like sifting through data for patterns and identifying weak spots in the process—but she powered through it. By mid-morning, she had already compiled her notes and forwarded them to the engineering team.
Satisfied with her efficiency, she reached for one of the bars sitting in a neat stack on her desk. It was supposed to be a mid-morning snack, but by the time she was done reviewing her notes for the second round of reports, she’d eaten three. She barely noticed until she looked down and saw the crumpled wrappers next to her keyboard.
“Oops,” she muttered, tossing them into the bin. But the hunger gnawing at her stomach hadn’t gone away, and when lunchtime came, she found herself reaching for another bar instead of her packed lunch. She read the wrapper, wondering if she had eaten too many, but they didn't give any advice about how many you should eat in a day.
By late afternoon, the wrappers had piled up again, and it hit her—she hadn’t actually stopped to eat a proper meal all day. Her body felt jittery, her thoughts strangely sharp but scattered, like her mind was running a little too fast for comfort.
“Okay,” she said aloud, pushing the bars to the far end of her desk. “That’s enough. You’re just going to power through the last report and then get something real to eat.”
Sure enough, however, she had been powering through her work without even realizing just how much she was getting done, which was a first for her. These bars really did seem to work.
As she was responding to an email, she noticed Megan appears in her doorway. The attractive, dark haired woman looked imposing in her fashionable purple business suit, but Belinda noted an entire box of energy bars under her arm. "Everything going okay?" Megan asked.
"Oh yeah, I think so," Belinda said. "I wasn't sure what I was really meant to be doing so far but...don't seem to have any problems yet."
Megan nodded approvingly. "That's what I like to hear," she hoisted the box of neuro-fuel up under her arm and headed off.
Her bosses weren't exactly the most sociable people, Belinda realised, but she wondered what Stacey had been complaining about all these years, this job didn't seem too hard at all...  indicates the next chapter needs to be written. |
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