Standing with a vitamin water in one hand, playing with her curly brown hair in the other, Cheryl leaned on the cubicle wall. Sitting in the chair that occupied the cubicle, Laurie sat with a magazine in her hands as the two chatted for a quick break.

“Can you believe this? The new guy is skipping the work fourth party to uphold a camping tradition? Who the hell goes camping on the fourth of July?!”

Cheryl opened the bottle in her hand and took a drink. Laurie looked up at her, her golden blonde hair straightened and in a ponytail. Resting the magazine on her leg, she looked up and gave a strange look.

“Right?! How did he even manage to get out of it? Isn't the company picnic kind of a mandatory thing?”

Pointing at her with the bottle of water, Cheryl's face distorted to a level of annoyance that Laurie had never seen.

“Seriously! I've got at least two other parties I could be going to, not even to mention how we have to plan our family get together around me having to work. Twenty other people all have it off and I'm stuck here because Tom thinks it's 'Good for work cohesion' or whatever.”

Laurie set the magazine down on the desk to pick up a nail file.

“Don't we normally make the newbies bring the potluck stuff? We're gonna be down a dish for all of us thanks to that. What an ass hole!”

As she filed her nail a door opened on the other side of the cubicle and a man poked his head out. With a grin on his face, he spoke in condescending tones.

“Well girls, he wrote on his resume this is something he does every year. And if you wonder why he gets it off and not you, is because he's far more qualified for his job and definitely delivers as such. What are you earning yourself by bitching about someone else's life?”