You Can Never Be Me.

At Brandon Corps, Jace sat at his desk, surrounded by stacks of papers containing design submissions from the design department.

As he flipped through them one after the other, the furrow between his brows deepened. "Not quite right... too plain... lacks creativity…," he kept muttering to himself.

Fed up with the whole mess, he pressed the intercom.

"Get the HOD of the design department to report to my office, immediately."

He glared at the heap of paper on his desk after he finished issuing his order.

"Does it mean there is no good designer in Brandon Corporation anymore?"

A few minutes later, two taps sounded on the door and Matt Quincy, the HOD of the design department stepped into the office.

"Good day, Sir."

"Are you tired of working here?"

Matt fringed at the iciness in that tone and stuttered a "no.. Sir."

"How come there is no design that meets the standard for the upcoming collaboration with Ajax?"

"You damn well know the importance of making a strong impression on the people we'll be collaborating with."

"Yes, Sir."

"Why then did your team come up with this trash? Did you go through them?" Jace asked, his expression as dark as the weather on a stormy day.

"The time frame was short sir, so I asked them to submit directly to your table."

"Do you consider that an excuse?" Jace roared, sweeping all the designs from the table to the floor. "None of these designs capture the essence of what we're trying to achieve."

"Brandon Corporation is known for nothing short of excellence and any design we are submitting should also represent the company's brand with excellence," Jace scolded.

"For this cooperation to pull through, we need something bold, something innovative... something that will make a statement, not these nonsense."

Matt bowed his head in remorse. "I'm sorry, Sir."

"I'm giving you one last chance to come up with something presentable by the end of work today. If not, consider you and everyone working in your department fired."

"Yes, Sir."

"Get out!"

After Matt exited the office, Jace leaned back in his chair, running a hand through his hair as he contemplated his next move.

"I guess I have to go for plan B in case they're not able to come up with something outstanding."

He knew that getting the perfect design that suited what he had in his mind wasn't going to be easy. But he was not ready to reach out to the only person that could give him that. At least not yet.

**********

"Charles darling, I want to discuss something very important with you?" Grace passed one of the blocks to Charles who was arranging them with a serious expression.

He paused and raised his ocean blue eyes to stare at Grace. After his morning tutor left, they were in the living room, trying to assemble a Lego set.

"What do you think about going to school?" she began.

Hearing the word school, Charles' hand that was about placing the block on the other pile froze and his expression clouded.

All his earlier enthusiasm was gone and he had returned to that withdrawn boy she met at the restroom a few weeks back.

He shook his head vehemently and after a while scribbled on his notepad, "No school!"

Probably out of the tension he felt, the words were almost illegible.

Grace forced a smile, this was way harder than she had imagined, but she still pressed on.

"I'm not talking about you going to school. I'm the one that will be going to school but I'm afraid I'll have to leave you at home for the period of time that I will be in school," she said regretfully.

"But if you want to go with me, I wouldn't mind, afterall, we all need to go to school some day," she added as an afterthought.

In order to see the impact of her words, Grace's gaze was trained on Charles as she spoke, but as soon as she finished speaking, Charles unexpectedly rose to his feet and dashed off.

Before Grace could catch up with him due to her ankle that was not perfectly healed, he had already banged his room door, shutting her out.

Grace stood at the door contemplating what to do when she heard a disdainful chuckle behind her. She didn't need to turn around to know who it was.

Grace scowled and concentrated on the important task ahead of her.

"Well, well, well! It looks like Miss Perfect here isn't so perfect after all," Regina taunted, her voice dripping with sarcasm.

Grace ignored her and raised her hand to knock on Charles' door.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you," Regina said.

"Unfortunately, you can never be me," Grace retorted coldly.

Regina's eyes glinted with amusement when Grace still went ahead to knock. "You should know by now that once Master Charles gets in this mood, it will take a whole day before he snaps out of it. But I guess you wouldn't know that since you're just a newcomer who claims to know everything just because you were given some privileges which only God knows how you earned."

"Not everyone needs to do something shameful to get ahead in life. But if that's how you operate, I'd advise you to change before it is too late."

Regina rolled her eyes, dismissing Grace's words with a wave of her hand. "Save your sanctimonious speeches for someone who cares. I'm better off without your lame advice. You should rather be more concerned about what Mr Brandon will do to you when he comes back."

"What were you even trying to do in the first place? Don't tell me you thought you could convince Master Charles into going back to school?"

"Nobody has been able to do so, not even his father. But I quite understand, it's always good to be proactive, especially on your first few days on the job," Regina taunted the more.

"I don't see how that affects you?" Grace retorted.

"You will soon see, my dear. Very soon."

Regina sauntered off, her mocking laughter echoing down the hall, leaving Grace with a bewildered expression.

"Is he really going to be locked in there for long? What am I going to do if he experiences another meltdown?"

"Charles," Grace knocked on the door, her voice a bit more urgent this time around.