Little Differences

WARNING!!!

This story contains over 108,000 words in 19 chapters and is submitted as a single post.

I'm sure that I'll get as many complaints from people wishing that I had broken it up as I get from other people when I break a story up into several smaller portions. Earmark the corner of the page and come back to it later, or take the opportunity now to avoid this story entirely.

While this story exists outside of the Brandt family series (His Daddy's Car, Change, Searching, and Elements), reading those stories first will help you navigate, comprehend, and fully understand much of what transpires in this one.

There is a heavy reliance on character dialog to tell the tale. For those of you who pride yourselves on the use of pronouns and proper grammar, remember to look for those pesky little things called "quotation marks". They indicate SPEECH, which does not follow the same rules of grammar as writing. Got it? Good. Enjoy

Chapter One

"Are you shooting to be viewed more as a Geek or a Nerd?" Janelle asked.

Peggy considered the question before answering, "If I have a choice, I would choose 'Nerd' since 'Geek' still holds negative connotations for me due to its association with carnival performers who supposedly ate chicken heads and stuff. Unfortunately, people too frequently see the two as interchangeable, so I'll probably be labeled by some as one and some as the other. It doesn't change who I am on the inside."

"Thank God for that," Janelle said with a smile. "I'm glad that you already resorted to this subterfuge during your internships and you know how to handle the perceptions of others. I know that you're strong enough and have enough self-esteem to weather anybody's opinion of you, but I will still bury anyone that I witness showing you any disrespect, male or female."

Peggy laughed and said, "Then it's a good thing that we won't be working together at Armore. You'll be safe and secure at headquarters here in Atlanta while I will be working my way up from the bottom at the west coast offices. You kept my existing employee photo in the HR system, right?"

"It was a piece of cake," Janelle confirmed. "I hope that you falsifying your resume and me altering your employee record doesn't come back to bite you in the ass, or mine for that matter. I was the recruiter that recommended you for the position."

"Come on," exclaimed Peggy, "It's not like I'm claiming to have education or experience that I don't have. Who's going to care if I 'dumbed-down' my qualifications. I'm only twenty-four, and no one is interested in interviewing someone with a doctorate for a bottom-rung position."

"I know," admitted Janelle, "but people are going to catch on pretty quick that you're smarter than your resume and work history would lead them to believe."

Peggy nodded and said, "That's where my 'Nerd' persona has benefited me. Being viewed as intellectual but introverted, as many people perceive me, helps explain to them why I may know more about certain subjects than my documented education level would indicate. It will also explain my seeking an entry-level position and the lack of any signs of ambition on my part. I will be comfortable not having to make any decisions, and simply performing the jobs assigned to me."

Janelle studied Peggy and wondered for the umpteenth time how they had ever become best friends. Their bond had been built from an episode of shared grief. Peggy's mother and Janelle's older brother had perished in the same airplane crash when both girls were twelve years old. Other than the event that had introduced the two girls to one another, they had had virtually nothing other than their age and gender in common.

Janelle and her parents had just moved to Georgia from California due to her father being transferred for his job. Her sixteen-year-old brother, Eddie, had remained behind, staying with a friend so that he could finish the last month of his sophomore year of high school. The flight from Los Angeles to Atlanta had crashed into the Pacific Ocean seconds after taking off from LAX. All one-hundred-forty-seven souls on board perished. Peggy's mother had been on the same flight, returning home from a business meeting that she had attended in place of her husband. They had decided that she should go in his place because he had been recovering from the broken arm that he acquired playing in a club rugby match.

Although neither girl remembered seeing the other at the memorial service that was held for families in Atlanta, they each recognized the other when they wound up as roommates the first day at the Rabun Gap -- Nacoochee private boarding school. The school was in the northeast Georgia foothills of the Appalachian Mountains, outside the town of Clayton. It was a private coeducational college-preparatory school that they both started attending in seventh grade.

This is also the school where they were both first administered the Stanford-Binet intelligence tests. Peggy was embarrassed when teachers and staff at the school started making a fuss over her achieving a verified IQ score of 147, for a Stanford-Binet classification of "Very gifted or highly advanced". When she had cried about the attention, her father had insisted that her test results, as well as the rest of her academic records, be considered confidential, and had his lawyers threaten legal action for any breaches of said confidentiality. When Janelle saw how people reacted to Peggy's IQ score, she was thankful that she had only scored an IQ of 119.

Even in her grief, Janelle had quickly established her popularity among her classmates, due in large part to her friendly, outgoing nature, innocent beauty, and her participation in every activity offered to students. She wasn't loquacious, but she was certainly no wallflower either. Peggy had always been the quiet, shy, and bookish neutral-looking girl that people assigned to the background in most situations. As demure as Peggy appeared to others, Janelle knew that she was willful, had a fighter's heart, and possessed the tenacity of a mother bear protecting her cub. The fact that these two diametrically different personalities would bond like sisters and become life-long friends still baffled them both. They would each willingly walk through molten lava for the other.

Although they lived in the same town when not at school, the difference in their homes was as great as their personalities. Janelle and her parents lived in a comfortable three-bedroom house in a small subdivision about three miles from her best friend. Peggy and her father lived in a sixteen-room mansion on a gated estate along the Chattahoochee River, with a live-in housekeeper and cook. These differences were lost on the girls as they functioned as comfortably together regardless of which house they were in, flitting in and out of either as if both were their home.

Janelle's body developed faster, with larger breasts and wider hips than Peggy's, but the two girls grew to be the same five-foot-eight inches tall, so they were able to share a lot of their clothes. They even wore the same size shoe.

Janelle, as a cheerleader with a friendly, outgoing personality never lacked for attention from boys. She dated frequently but avoided any type of steady or exclusive relationship. She wanted to be firmly established in a career before even considering something more serious with a man. Peggy was far more selective in who she dated, focusing on boys who had enough between the ears to keep her intellectually stimulated for longer than it took to drink a cup of coffee. When she found someone that interested her, she would remain exclusive to him, even if it was not a mutually agreed upon arrangement.

The two friends shared an apartment in Athens while attending the University of Georgia, so the first time that they were separated for more than a few days was when Janelle entered the workforce, relocating to Atlanta in a condominium that Peggy's father had bought for them to eventually share. Peggy remained in Athens, Georgia, for one more year to continue her graduate studies towards her Ph.D. Peggy was so far ahead on her college credits by the time that she and Janelle had started at UGA, that her post-graduate work coincided with Janelle's underclass schedule. With her degree in hand after only six years, Peggy was finally ready to permanently join her friend at Armore but had recently chosen to do so on the west coast.

The geographic distance that would soon be between them weighed on Janelle much more than Peggy, which would confuse most people who knew the two of them. Janelle had always presented herself as the more self-confident one of the pair, but the two friends knew that Peggy was the one with the greater inner strength and confidence. To a large part, Janelle was able to exhibit self-confidence only because she had the strength of Peggy's friendship and support behind her.

Janelle watched Peggy packing the suitcase that was laying open on her bed. Her friend was always so confident and graceful. "Regal" was the term that Janelle had heard her parents use to describe Peggy soon after meeting her for the first time. In the almost thirteen years since Peggy had grown even more statuesque. She had a lithe dancer's physique, athletically slender yet shapely, and was a fashion designer's dream. Everything looked good on her, and while Peggy could light up a party simply by entering the room, she preferred to wear casual, unpretentious outfits that didn't draw attention to her.

Twisting a strand of her blonde hair around one of her fingers, Janelle watched as Peggy's hair fell over her left shoulder when she leaned forward. The long, wavy, burgundy-colored hair was such a dark shade of red that it often appeared to be black. Professionally trimmed to always fall just to the middle of Peggy's back when clipped into a barrette or tied into a ponytail, the lustrous hair appeared almost liquid when Peggy moved. Janelle wondered how Peggy would wear her hair once she got to California.

As if sensing her friend's attention on her, Peggy glanced over at Janelle and grinned. Peggy's cobalt blue eyes were smiling, as they usually did when she looked at her best friend. Not as obvious in the artificial light of her bedroom, the silvery flecks around the iris of each eye would glitter in the sunlight and instantly draw a person's attention in the same way that a strobing light drew one's attention faster than a solid light would.

Peggy closed and latched her suitcase before asking, "Are you sure that you don't mind driving me to the airport?"

"I insist upon it," Janelle replied for the third time that morning. "I get to start driving your car even sooner this way."

Peggy was leaving her grey metallic Mazda Miata ND2 retractable fastback sports car with Janelle, with permission to drive it any time she wanted. Janelle loved the car and Peggy was glad that her friend would have it to enjoy in her absence.

Janelle added, "It gives us more time together. We're not going to see each other until I come out to visit you over the Fourth of July. You're not scheduled to start working out there for another two weeks. Are you sure that you want to get there so early?"

"The apartment is all arranged," Peggy said. "I still need to find a decent car, rent furniture, buy groceries and find more clothes to match the hapless Nerd image I will be trying to portray. I'm hoping to get all of that done and still have a few days to spend in La Jolla before I start working. Have you put in for the two weeks of vacation so that you'll be able to stay beyond the Fourth until my birthday?"

Nodding her head, Janelle said, "It's already approved. It's a shame that you're leaving almost your entire wardrobe here. All you've packed are your underwear, bras, pajamas, and a few of your rattiest casual clothes."

Peggy glanced down at the paint-stained sweatshirt and holey jeans that she would be wearing on her flight and asked, "Are you criticizing my sense of style?"

Laughing, Janelle said, "Stevie Wonder would criticize your sense of style right now."

Peggy set her suitcase on the floor and extracted the handle that would allow her to place her laptop bag onto the suitcase and strap the two together while she rolled them.

Placing an arm around Janelle's shoulder, she said, "I'm confident that you will make good use of any of my clothes that suit you while I am gone. We will see each other sooner than that if we Skype or Zoom every few days. Come on, we'll work out a schedule while on our way to the airport."

Janelle placed her arm around Peggy and silently followed her out of the room.

~~~

"Your direct manager is in a meeting," the HR representative explained, "but he is sending one of the team leads to escort you. You will need to be escorted everywhere in the building until your new employee badge gets activated by security. That usually takes about two hours on a Monday morning."

Peggy nodded and said, "I understand. Thank you."

Although Peggy had anticipated the onboarding process with human resources to be routine, the guy that had guided her through all the paperwork and employee policies had made her feel unwelcome and unappreciated as a new employee. He hadn't smiled once and had exuded an air of impatience over tasks that he obviously felt overqualified to be dealing with. She sensed his indifference to her immediately upon meeting him and accepted that her frumpy appearance likely contributed to his attitude.

Her long hair was stacked indiscriminately on top of her head and held in place with several bobby pins. Her thick-framed eyeglasses had tinted lenses that dimmed the color and glint of her eyes. Under an oversized pale green man's cardigan sweater, she wore a blue polo shirt tucked into a khaki skirt that was too big for her waist, which resulted in several bulges of fabric under the bright orange leather belt. The grey fabric deck shoes contrasted with the white crew socks that she wore at an uneven height. She didn't think that she could look more like a Nerd if she had worn a superhero costume.

"Ah good, you're here," the HR representative said as someone stepped into his cubicle. "Jamaal, this is Peggy Arthur. She is joining the business data analyst team this morning and Bruce volunteered you as her escort."

Peggy turned and smiled at the friendly face of her escort. "I'm pleased to meet you, Jamaal," she said as she rose and offered him her hand.

Jamaal smiled back and took her hand into his. Not only was the contrast in the size of their hands obvious, but her pale skin against his darker skin tone also made Peggy's hand look too delicate to shake by the big black man.

He gently squeezed and said, "Welcome to Armore. Did I hear right? Your last name is Arthur?"

Peggy hesitated for a second before saying, "Yes, my name is Peggy Arthur."

"Hey, maybe we're cousins or something," Jamaal chuckled. "My last name is also Arthur."

Peggy's laugh was interrupted by the HR representative, "I have other new hires to see, so good luck, Peggy. Thank you, Jamaal."

Recognizing their dismissal, Jamaal led Peggy out of the cubicle and down a long hallway, giving her a brief explanation of the different departments as they passed them. He also pointed out breakrooms, restrooms, and other facilities for employees to utilize along the way. Reaching a stairway, he led her to the second floor into a large open area where hundreds of call center employees sat haphazardly around the space. Some sat with other employees at tables, some sat on couches and some wandered around holding a laptop or tablet while conversing with someone through their wireless headset.

Waving his arm to indicate the entire space, Jamaal said, "No one has assigned seating here, even the managers. Some people tend to find themselves in the same spot every day, but when one of the managers sees that, they'll generally ask the person to move to someplace different. The only exceptions are the managers, who tend to stay in the same general area so that their employees know approximately where to find them."

"So, I can sit anywhere?" Peggy asked.

Jamaal nodded and said, "In theory, yes. There are currently two other business data analysts and they're probably better suited to explain the seating arrangements for that team than I am. I'll take you to them."

Peggy followed Jamaal across the total expanse of the second floor to a four-person workstation. All four seats were empty, but there was a closed laptop at one spot. There was a sticky note on the lid of the laptop with Peggy's name written on it.

"I guess that this will be your initial spot," Jamaal told her. "IT has left your new laptop here anyway. Oh, here come Russ and Kevin. They're the other two analysts on your team."

Peggy glanced in the direction that Jamaal had indicated and saw two men walking toward them. The taller one was almost as dark-skinned as Jamaal, but even larger. He looked big enough to be a lineman on a professional football team, but one look at his face made Peggy think instead of a great big teddy bear. His eyes denoted intelligence and kindness in equal portions. The shorter man had a more serious, almost studious air about him, but once more, his eyes told Peggy that there was an impishness within this man that she would enjoy. Both men smiled broadly when they saw Peggy standing near their work area.

"You must be Peggy," the larger man said in a deep, baritone voice. "I'm Russell Mason."

"Hi," Peggy glanced at her feet, extended her hand to Russ, and said, "I'm Peggy Arthur."

"More nepotism?" The shorter man grinned. "Jamaal already calls all the guys here 'Brother'. Now he's bringing his other relatives in too?"

While Peggy giggled but kept her glance downward, Jamaal said, "The funny man here is Kevin Hardee."

Peggy extended her hand and said, "Hi Kevin. I'm pleased to meet you."

"It's nice to meet you too, Peggy. Have a seat and we'll all get acquainted."

Peggy set her backpack down and pulled out the chair at the spot that had her laptop. Before she could sit, Jamaal said, "I'm going to leave you with these two trouble makers for now. I'll be over by the whiteboard if you need rescuing or anything."

"Thank you, Jamaal. I'm sure that I'll be safe here."

"So, tell us about yourself," Russ said as both he and Kevin got their own laptops set up.

Peggy glanced up and opened the lid on her laptop. There was another sticky note on the keyboard that listed her user name and temporary password. She hit the power button to start the booting process before responding, "I'm not very good at talking about myself. Maybe it would be better if you both just asked me questions about what you would like to know about me."

It became clear from the questions that each of the men asked which one was more personable and which one was more work-focused. Russ asked questions like, "Where are you from?", and "Have you found someplace to live out here?" Kevin asked questions such as, "What databases do you have experience creating reports from?" and, "How familiar are you with Crystal Reports?"

"Bruce will explain his expectations to you," Russ informed her, "but we can assume that they will be similar to Kevin's and mine."

"What are those?" Peggy asked.

Kevin answered first, "Until six months ago, our roles didn't exist. There were people with the title, 'Data Analyst', but their responsibilities were simply to generate reports for the customer accounts and internal teams that they were assigned to support. For example, I used to be the data analyst responsible for the Simonsen IT support desk and the internal teams that support that account. All I did was create reports and ensure that they were run and distributed to the appropriate people or groups."