A/N: All characters are fictional characters, although one in particular is based loosely on a real person, just to get a base. Also, for budget estimates, I had no idea what was a reasonable budget, so I made an amount up, thinking it would be on the low end of a reasonable budget. If anyone has information on it, please let me know (preferably, in the form of a review).

Pieces of a Puzzle

July 16, 2003

Random fact about me: It used to be customary for me to start a new journal when I felt I reached a new “chapter” in my life. When I was younger, I did it when I had my birthday. As a little kid, what else can you really think of as a chapter?

High school was a second set of chapters. Not only did I finally feel like one of the big kids, but I also moved on to bigger and more mature things. I switched my style of journals. Heck, I even started calling them journals instead of diaries. These chapters seemed to last anywhere from two weeks, in my junior year, to the entire year, my sophomore year.

College was a new chapter, and my style of writing also changed once again. Instead of writing every day, I would only write when there was time and when there was something to write about, such as meeting a hot girl or passing one of my classes.

Here I am, though. I graduated over a year ago with a Bachelor’s in Architecture. I never realized how hard it would be to get a job in the field, though! Every single place I went to said that I was qualified except for the fact that I didn’t have any experience. Talk about frustrating!

But now the days of penny-pinching are almost over, as I start working for Imperial Principality, San Francisco Bay Area tomorrow. Indeed, this is a new chapter in my life, as well as a new set of chapters. Once again, I feel I must keep with tradition and change something about my journal writing to reflect my change in sets of chapters. Hence, I created this weblog. As the chapters change, I will be changing my usernames, though they will likely be as boring as the current one: PaidClayton, to symbolize the fact that I actually have a steady job! It was a difficult decision to decide to put my life out there into cyberspace so that anyone could read it. The deciding factor was that maybe it is time to let my friends (hopefully that is you, or it will be you) get into my thoughts a little bit more, and hopefully understand my point of view.

Ever get a weird feeling in your stomach? The one that you can’t explain, but you know you should do something because it would be beneficial in the long run? That’s exactly the feeling I have right now. Maybe it will be important to me soon in the future for people to know what is actually going on inside my head.

Just like my college days, I don’t plan to update every day. I may sometimes update several times a day, or I might not update for a month. It all depends on where my life goes.

Also, if there are things that I don’t want certain people to know (either too early or at all), I won’t be posting that up. Which means this journal might not be 100 honest, though I will try to be as honest as I can. After all, if you can’t be honest with your friends, who are you friends with? Certainly not yourself.

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Clayton rolled over in bed, squinting his eyes shut, as his alarm clock continued to go off.

“Shut up already…” he mumbled while slamming his fist down on the clock, without even bothering to look at the time. “6:30 is too early for any sane person to wake up…”

The next time Clayton registered that it was daytime, he did look at the clock- 7:58.

“Wonderful. First day of work, and I’m already risking being late.”

Clayton pulled himself out of bed, pulled on his suit, and looked at himself in the mirror. His soft brown hair looked like a mess piled on the top of his head, and his pale face sparsely contained freckles on the cheeks, possibly only two or three on each cheek. Clayton quickly pulled a comb through his hair twice on a side to make it seem a little more in control.

A final look in the mirror commenced, and Clayton was ready to go. He grabbed his briefcase, pulled a breakfast bar out of its box, and quickly walked down the steps towards the bus stop. He had been quite lucky originally to find an apartment building close to a bus stop on a major route, and now he had found a job that was next to a bus stop on the same route.

“What a relief that I won’t have to deal with traffic every day,” he thought as the got to the stop at the same time the bus pulled up. Showing his bus pass to the driver, he found a seat about halfway down the aisle and sat down.

“8:32. Good thing the bus was late this morning as well,” Clayton mused before staring off into space through the windows.

Two stops later, Clayton was jarred from his thoughts by a woman that had just gotten on at the stop.

“Excuse me, do you mind if I sit here?”

Clayton nodded slightly and went back to staring out the window for another three stops before the bus rolled in front of his new work building. Looking upwards, he clearly saw large silver letters spelling out the words Imperial Principality. The woman next to him stood up and started to exit the bus, and Clayton ended up following her out. Once he was on the sidewalk, he turned to get a last look at the woman, who had started walking away from the bus stop. Almost as though she knew about the eyes on her, she turned around, smiled and nodded at him. Clayton smiled back, turned, and walked into the building in order to start his first day of work.

… … … … … … … … … …

The elevator ride up to the twenty-third floor was relatively uneventful enough, save the feeling of butterflies in Clayton’s stomach. When he reached his desk, Clayton saw that there was already a memo on his desk.

“Mr. Mathis,

Please head down to marketing on the fifteenth floor. I will brief you there.

-Barbara Rosario”

After reading the note twice more, Clayton turned on his heels and headed back to the elevator. Upon reaching the fifteenth floor, he nearly ran into Mrs. Rosario.

“Ah, Mr. Mathis. Please, come with me. You’ll be working your first project with a Miss Jennifer Hayes. Ah, here we are.”

She opened the door to a separate room with four desks, each with one person working there. Although three of the people there were talking on the phone or working on the computer, the single woman in the room looked up at the entrance of her boss and the young man walking with him.

“Mrs. Rosario, this is the man I’ll be working with?”

Clayton did a double take at seeing Miss Hayes. She looked oddly familiar. Indeed, she gave him a look like she vaguely recognized him as well.

“Miss Hayes, this is your drafter, Mr. Mathis,” Mrs. Rosario introduced the two.

He reached forward with his outstretched hand and a small smile. “Clayton.”

She accepted his hand, gave a small smile of her own, which Clayton couldn’t help but notice was a beautiful smile. “Nice to meet you, Clayton. Feel free to call me Jenn.”

Mrs. Rosario told Clayton a few details about the project at hand. “You two will be working with clients in San Jose, who wish to build a new shopping center. However, this is not a commission from the city, although all paperwork has been filed with the city. You two will be working with the client to try to build a store that works for him, both area and budget.”

As she walked off, Clayton pulled a chair up to the other side of Jenn’s desk.

“You were the man I sat next to on the bus this morning, weren’t you?” she asked him.

“I guess so.”

“Do you always ride the bus here, or was this your first time?”

“Both, actually. It’s my first day here, but both the company and my apartment are on the bus route. Makes commuting a lot simpler than having to drive here,” Clayton responded.

“I can imagine. Alright, let’s get to work on this.”

Clayton took out the map of the area where the building would be built while Jenn gave him more information. “I’ve talked to the client, Mr. Farrall. He bought the land in hopes to build a market of fresh food. In that case, he needs a large, open store, though a small storage room, also rather open.”

Clayton thought a bit about what that would mean in design. “Lots of windows, I’m guessing. High ceiling will probably mean that it can only be one story high, though I will have to check with the San Jose’s building codes for their earthquake codes. Possibly something that breathes better than brick, though I don’t know if that will put him outside of his budget.”

Jenn nodded. “Mr. Farrall will still need to talk to his loan advisors, but he’s guessing he can get a loan of about a million.”

“More windows will be cheaper than something more breathable than brick.”

The two of them continued to talk about the project for a couple more minutes before Jenn suddenly stopped him. “It’s after one. How about we take a break for lunch?”

Clayton wasn’t sure he quite believed her. Had it really been four hours since the workday started? It must have felt like about half an hour, tops. Jenn was clearly knowledgeable about her job, and made his job very simple, though in no way was he taking a break and letting her take all the work. Checking his watch, Clayton saw that it, in fact, was about quarter after one. “Yeah, I guess lunch would be good.” Looking around, he saw one of the men in the room had takeout Chinese food, another was out, and the third looked like he had cafeteria food. I thought I had gotten out of all aspects of school, he thought. I guess I’m stuck with mostly cafeteria food for lunch again.

“You said this was your first day on the job, right?” Jenn pulled him out of his thoughts. When Clayton nodded, she continued. “Well, I haven’t been here long either, but I do know a couple of restaurants in the area that don’t make you feel like you’re back at school for mealtime. Do you wish to join me?”

“Sure.” Clayton grabbed his coat, decided that it would be safe to leave his briefcase in her office, and followed his teammate out the door.

July 17, 2003

Well, this job is turning out to be better than I ever imagined it to be. I was immediately assigned to a project with a woman down in marketing. She’s a great lady. Jenn. Jenn Hayes. We work so well together, it’s amazing how easy the job seems, even when I have to work for several hours without a break. It’s like I forget the concept of time when I am around her.

For those wondering (Blake…), I am not planning on asking her out. Office relationships simply don’t work. But, wow, I can’t wait to see her again tomorrow.

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