~~~

The main headquarters of Regum were at 1939 Kane Avenue. This was something known by all who lived in Port Stanley. Not only was Regum one of the wealthiest pharmaceutical companies in the world, but Regum Tower, affectionately called The Blade, was an iconic part of the city's skyline.

Standing at a total of 1,934 feet, The Blade was one of the world's tallest buildings. It had an observation deck on its 100th floor, which was a popular tourist destination. While not required, it was heavily recommended to make reservations before going there. Otherwise, one might end up having to wait several hours for a free spot to appear.

The observation deck and the large elevator that led up to it were among the few parts of The Blade that could be accessed by non-Regum employees. The rest of the building had far stricter security measures in place. That said, the number of people who got to see the inside of The Blade was by no means small—doctors, researchers, lawyers, office assistants, security personnel, and janitorial staff. People from all walks of life ended up working at Regum.

Or, in some cases, interning there.

Nineteen people had been summoned to a waiting room on the second floor, all of them between 16 and 19 years old. About a month ago, weeks before the end of the school year, Regum had put up several flyers in many schools of the area, offering internships. Several hopeful students wasted no time in filling out their application forms and sending them. However, it was only these nineteen who were summoned.

There were magazines on the tables, a coffee maker by the wall, and two snack machines on the corner. They had all gone untouched. Everyone was too nervous, too busy with their thoughts to pay attention to everything else around them.

“Hey, can I have a mint?”

Well, almost everyone.

Amanda Collins blinked, both at the sudden question and the equally sudden intrusion of her personal space by a boy with blond hair. He was a reedy thing with bright blue eyes and was perhaps one or two inches taller than her, short for a boy. He wore an ill-fitting blue suit that looked to be of poor quality, most likely a cheap rental or a hand-me-down. The way he frowned and kept tugging at it had Amanda leaning towards cheap rental.

“I’m asking because I saw you across the room and thought to myself, ‘Hey, that girl has the right idea!’ There’s probably going to be an interview or something, you know? Well, of course you know. Mints. Minty breath. That’s smart.” He nodded a couple of times, each of his sentences accompanied by several hand movements. “So yeah, I breathed on my palm, and I think it smells okay, but it could smell better. So I go to the vending machine, but they don’t have mints, so I’m thinking you brought those mints with you, which makes it an even smarter idea. Kudos and all that. But yeah, can I have a mint? Please?”

Amanda blinked several more times at…. Whatever that was. Suddenly, she was feeling a lot less proud of having been called for an interview if this was who she was competing against.

“Here,” she said not out of kindness, but rather out of an eagerness to be rid of the boy. The way he kept scratching himself was getting on her nerves. The boy eagerly held out his hand, and she dropped one of her mints on his palm.

“Thanks!” He quickly popped the mint in his mouth. However, instead of going back to his seat like she thought he would, he plopped himself down next to her, feet shuffling over the carpeted floor. She instantly scooted away, not that he seemed to notice. “Name’s Tim. What’s yours?”

“Amanda,” she replied, her voice working on autopilot. Inwardly, she squirmed at the way he kept scratching at himself. It wasn’t as if he had fleas or anything like that. At least, she doubted so. Most likely, he was just wearing a really awful suit.

She still wanted him nowhere near her.

It almost felt as if the quality of her skirt and blouse would deteriorate just by spending too much time in his presence, a thought that she knew made her sound like those snobby rich girls she spent time with, but it wasn’t as though she could unthink it.

In her defense, she really wanted this interview to go well.

“Nice to meetcha, Amanda.” He waved at her while scratching at his neck. His skin there was already red. “Say, I don’t think I’ve ever seen you at Ulik.”

“John Ulik High?” Amanda tried very hard to keep the derision out of her voice. Judging by his lack of reaction, she’d like to think she succeeded. “I don’t imagine you would have. I go to AIM.”

“Oooh, the fancy school for rich people!” Amanda could swear she saw stars shining in his eyes. “Your family must be loaded!”

“I wouldn’t say loaded…” She began a little awkwardly. Really, her parents just happened to be good lawyers. It wasn’t as if they had a mansion or anything.

“Bet you live in Waynesville!”

“Well, yes, but…”

“Totally loaded.” Tim nodded to himself. “That’s where all the rich people live.”

Amanda felt this was unfair to the several live-in maids and butlers of Waynesville.

“Oh! Do you have a pool!? Tell me you have a pool!”

“Well, yes, but it’s a small one.” Amanda held her thumb and index fingers close together, which was in no way an accurate representation of her pool’s size.

“So lucky!”

“We both live minutes away from the beach,” Amanda felt the need to point out. Just about everyone in Port Stanley did, except for those in Kentland, which was a little more inland.

“Well, yeah, but you have to share the ocean. Everyone pees there, you know? But if it’s a family pool, then no one does. Except family. Is that better or worse? I’m asking because I thought I was going to say one thing, but now that I’m saying it out loud like this, it suddenly doesn’t sound right.” Tim shrugged his shoulders. “Anyway, I’m from Petersburg, so I don’t know a thing about private pools.”

Petersburg. It wasn’t what one would call a poor neighborhood. Rather, it was middle class. Lower middle class, but still middle class. At least, that was what she had heard.

She’d never had reason to go there.

“Say, did you see all the frogs yesterday? I was on my way home when the rain started. One dropped right on top of my head. I took it home with me, because why not? I’ve always wanted a pet, but it went and poofed on me. Do you think it was an Exceed that made it rain frogs? I mean, of course, it was, but I mean like a new super or something. Lord of the Frogs. That’d be cool.”

Amanda opened her mouth. First, to tell him it had rained toads, not frogs. Second, to tell him she doubted they’d be seeing any “Lord of Frogs” anytime soon. It had just been an Exceeding that got a little out of hand. Such things happened, though it had been quite a long while since one made the front page.

However, Amanda never got the chance to say those things. The door opened, and in came a blond woman dressed in a black business suit. She was tall, pretty, and managed to turn every eye in the room towards her just by walking in.

“Good morning, everyone!” Her voice was impossibly gentle, soothing even. “My name is Alice Steiner, and I’m going to be in charge of you for the day. We are very sorry you had to wait so long, but we are finally ready to begin.”

Amanda was pretty sure that was a lie. Most likely, they had made them wait on purpose just to see how they’d behave. Her parents would sometimes do that to new applicants.

“Please, follow me to the next room, and we’ll begin the examination.”

Wait.

Examination?

~~~

Tim had not been expecting a classroom (because that was exactly what this room was. It even has those small desk-chair thingies!) or a multiple-choice test.

He wasn’t complaining, though. Far from it. Even though the test was fifty-pages long, that was still preferable to an interview. Best of all, there were no essay questions anywhere to be seen, and all questions had the same set of answers! Strongly Agree. Agree. Neutral. Disagree. Strongly Disagree.

Do you consider yourself to be a team-player?

Do you work hard to achieve your goals?

Have you ever been called lazy?

The questions went on and on like that. The trick, Tim knew, was to pick the center choices as little as possible. Agree, Neutral, and Disagree were all varying shades of useless. Regum was one of the biggest companies in town. This was not the time for false modesty. They didn’t want someone who agreed he was a hard worker. They wanted someone who strongly agreed he was a hard-worker!

Middle choices would just get lost in the pack. Of course, if Tim knew it, it was safe to say everyone else did too. So really, it all evened out again.

Maybe that was the trick? They were already assuming everyone would pick the extremes to look good, so more points would be given to the center choices to compensate? Tim considered that for a moment, puffing some air as he spun his No.2 pencil. He scratched his neck and tugged at his shirt before deciding to just keep picking extremes. There was no point in second-guessing himself. He tended to mess up when that happened.

Many minutes later, he had the test finished but did not get up from his seat just yet. People who finished early were those who either really knew their stuff or had just half-assed it. At least that was Tim’s experience with such things.

As he waited for the minutes to pass by, he found his gaze drifting to the people around him. From Sweaty Pete to his left to Big Suzie seated in front of him. Those were probably not their real names, but he needed something to call them in his head, and the names fit. Big Suzie probably had five inches on him, and Sweaty Pete, well, yeah. Poor guy. Unlike him, his suit did not look rented, which made it doubly sad how uncomfortable he looked in it.

Seriously, the questions were not that hard. It was just an invitation to brag about yourself! With some layers of psych test thrown in, sure, but those were easy!

Near the front of the classroom, Tim could spot Amanda’s ponytail bobbing up and down. She was probably filling out her test with meticulous focus and double-checking every answer. Yeah, that sounded about right. Amanda struck him as the overly serious type.

Honestly, he wished her the best. It wasn’t every day that he found someone willing to put up with him for a few minutes. It was the reason he was glad there hadn’t been an interview yet. Tim knew he’d probably end up bombing anything that required interaction with another person. He was super prone to rambling, so he’d always end up saying a few words too many, something he knew could be off-putting.

Just a little, though.

Barely a smidge.

To his left, Sweaty Pete stood with his test in hand. Either he had finished the test, or he had given up. Either way, if Sweaty Pete was done with this, it was probably a good time for him to finish too. Tim walked to the front of the class and handed in the test to the examiner, who was sadly not the pretty suit lady from earlier.

Then again, if it had been her, it probably would have been too distracting for everyone.

“Good job. Go through the door and walk down the hallway to continue,” the examiner said once he received their tests. He nonchalantly placed them on the finished pile.

With a wave to Amanda, Tim closed the door behind him and followed after Sweaty Pete.

~~~

“This is not what I was expecting.”

Tim was inside a cylinder.

It was like one of those big glass things they had in airports—the ones for metal detecting and stuff. However, you only had to stand in those for a couple of seconds. Tim had been in this one for the better part of ten minutes, posing and even jumping a couple of times.

It was a good thing he had gotten in here before Sweaty Pete.

“So, is this like a metal detector or something?” Tim asked as he was made to take another pose. Good thing he had taken off his suit jacket before getting inside this thing. The itching would have driven him crazy by now. “Because, you know, you usually pass through those before going into a building, so going through one now kinda feels weird.”

“It does look like an airport scanner, doesn’t it? But no, it is nothing of the sort,” the pretty blonde lady, Alice Steiner, said. She had a clipboard in her hands, but she didn’t seem to be writing anything down. Weird, since it was just him, her, and the machine in the room. Sweaty Pete was waiting outside. “However, this is a simple health check-up. The machine you are in happens to be one of our latest models.”

Tim blinked at the plexiglass tube around him.

“Simple? Wait, are we guinea pigs? Are you using your interns as guinea pigs? Is that it? Because I am pretty sure that’s illegal and stuff.”

Rather than looking offended, Alice laughed. “Nothing like that. The machine you are in has already been approved for public use. Starting next year, you’ll see many like it in hospitals all over the world. Since we have it, it seemed like a waste not to use it. In the event of being accepted, you will be placed under Regum’s health insurance, so it is best to get the testing out of the way. Oh, but even if you are not chosen, we will mail you the results, so you may discuss them with your primary care provider if you wish to.”

Had anyone else just told him all that, Tim would have had at least a dozen different questions. However, the smile on Ms. Steiner’s face was so blinding, Tim actually had to look away. It was like she radiated kindness or something, to the point he had to take what she said at face value or feel like a heel.

And not a cool heel, but like, some sort of super lame heel that never clicks with the audience and stuff.

Or worse, a face that gets pushed too hard.

A couple of tests later, some written, some not, Tim was walking out of the building with a complementary energy drink. He wondered, for a moment, if he should wait for Amanda. The thought was dismissed easily. Waiting until she got out would be either creepy or nosy. Even he could see that, and if he could see it, it was a definite no-no. Besides, he’d meet her again, provided they both happened to get the internship.

So he probably wasn’t meeting her again.

Tim could live with that. Meeting another person with the patience to listen to his ramblings was bound to happen again. Eventually.

Maybe in college.

With that happy thought, Tim made his way to the bus stop.

~~~

The bus route to Tim’s home was needlessly circuitous. Taking the subway would have been faster but also more expensive. He’d already wasted enough on the suit, which just. Wouldn’t. Stop. Itching! He’d taken the jacket off as soon as he’d gotten on the bus, but the pants had to wait until he’d made it home.

The sigh of relief that left his mouth then was palpable. He didn’t even bother changing into anything. Tim just went over to the fridge and served himself a glass of cold juice, still in his underwear.

That was when the doorbell rang.

Cursing under his breath, Tim dashed over to his room and grabbed some pants. It didn’t take long. He lived in a small apartment.

“I’m on my way,” He yelled when the doorbell rang again. “I’m on my…way.”

Tim’s face fell as soon as he opened the door. Standing there was Mr. White. He was an old friend of the family, a tall man with dark hair and muscles that would have made Tim feel inadequate if his thick beard wasn’t already doing that. However, Mr. White was not what caused Tim’s mood shift.

The woman slung over his shoulder did that—her and the scent of alcohol lingering all over her body.

“You can put her on the couch,” Tim said, opening the door all the way to let Mr. White in. The older man grunted and made his way in, carrying Tim’s mother over his shoulder. Tim could have opened the door in his underwear, and he still wouldn’t have managed to feel more uncomfortable. “Did she…?”

“Just showed up drunk,” Mr. White replied, gently laying his mother on the couch.

Tim let out a breath through gritted teeth. “I’m sorry-”

“Not your fault,” Mr. White said in a gruff voice while grabbing a blanket lying around and placing it over his mother.

“It’s because of the anniversary.” Tim looked away, holding his elbow close to his torso. “She always gets worse around this time.”

“I know.” Mr. White stood with his hands on his hips, looking at his mother with a frown on his face. “Believe me. I know. Robert was my friend, but …”

“Are you going to fire her?” Tim asked, his voice small. Mr. White shook his head in negative.

“No, but there’s only so much I can do to cover for her. If she keeps pulling stunts like this...” Mr. White sighed and looked away. “Jesus, I shouldn’t be telling you this.”

“No, it’s okay. It’s not your fault.” It was hers. “You’ve always been helping us out. You’ve done more than enough. Seriously.”

“I need to get back to work,” Mr. White said after a moment of silence. “Just…tell her I said she needs to get her act together.”

“Will do.”

The large man left and closed the door behind him, leaving nothing but silence in his wake.

~~~

There was a subway station one block away from The Blade. The ride to Waynesville Station only took twenty minutes. From there, it was just a relatively short walk to her house.

Provided she got the position, transportation was not going to be an issue.

Amanda found her home empty, just as she knew it would be. She had checked her messages before getting on the subway. Her mother’s meeting was taking longer than expected, and her father’s case had gotten a bit complicated. It was nothing unusual. She understood. Things happened. Her parents were busy people with very important jobs.

It didn’t bother her.

She grabbed a frozen dinner from the fridge and put it in the microwave. It had been her father’s turn to cook today. He had promised to make spaghetti and meatballs. A simple dish, but it was his specialty. No one could make it like him. The ingredients were all in the kitchen, so she could probably try to make something if she really wanted to, but Amanda didn’t feel up to it.

Her parents were going to come late. They’d have eaten by then. If she made something for them, they’d only end up forcing themselves to eat it. She’d just be making trouble for them.

Amanda sighed.

She… she still had some summer homework she hadn’t finished yet. Maybe she should focus on that?

Yes, that sounded proper.

~~~