The next day, all of the interns were up bright and early, gathered in the room where the helpline was ran. Mary Jane bounced her knee up and down in anticipation. She was so gonna crush this.
"Good morning, welcome to the Google Helpline", Chetty began. Mary Jane turned her head to where Stuart was sitting next to her. She gave him two thumbs up, smiling brightly. 'You got this', she mouthed before logging in like Chetty instructed. "The Google Helpline is open... now!" With that, the phones immediately began ringing off the hook. Chetty took a seat.
"Hello, this is the Google Helpline. My name is Mary Jane and I will be assisting you today, how may I help you?"
"You're saying you're locked out of your gmail? Well the good news is..."
"But, I'm gonna play a hunch here. Delete all of your cookies. Did that work? Great!"
"Glad I could help", Mary Jane beamed, even though she knew the person couldn't hear her.
"The problem is, you probably have too many gmails open at the same time."
"It's not a problem! You're gonna click the gear icon, then settings, then advanced settings..."
"Yeah, you can actually have the same tabs open across all your devices!"
"So, the browser keeps opening windows, and you're telling me that's from Amazon?"
"You'll have to sign into Google Wallet and update your credit card expiration date."
"Well, the counter sync problem occurs when you switch time zones. Are you on vacation?"
"Your device probably isn't compatible with Google Play."
"Okay, see that box at the bottom of the window?", Mary Jane asked. "Great, click that twice for me."
"Time's up!", Chetty said. A few people finished their calls before everyone stopped talking. Well, except for Billy. He was doing more singing than talking.
"So soon?", Billy asked in surprise. "Man, i was just getting warmed up here!"
Everyone in Team Lyle shared high fives, proud of themselves for how well they performed in the event. "Please, submit your log files so that I may review your work later", Chetty instructed.
Mary Jane happily clicked the blue button. After their conversation last night, she and Stuart stayed up practically all night, helping each other out. He quizzed her while she gave him tips for handling the phone lines. If it wasn't for each other, they both might have failed. She made a mental note to thank him later.
"Happily, just click the blue button", Nick grinned, clicking his own button.
"Where's that at?", Billy asked, confused.
"Click the blue button, upper left", Nick instructed, pointing to the top of Billy's screen.
"Mine's not blue, mine's grey", Billy frowned. Mary Jane had a sinking feeling that this was going to be bad. The team turned to look at Billy, who kept trying to click his button, in worry. Everyone else's had worked, so that meant it was most likely something wrong on his part or with his computer. "Up in the corner? It won't work."
"The blue one", Mary Jane frowned, leaning over to get a clear look at the screen.
"Mine's not clicking, mine is grey. Is anyone else's grey?", Billy called out, still clicking. It was no use, it just wasn't working.
"Did you not hear my opening remarks?", Chetty asked as he walked over to where Team Lyle sat, mostly towards Billy.
"Yeah, no, I heard most of your opening remarks, it was justâ I was getting in the zone, i was pre-gaming", Billy explained.
Chetty simply sighed. He looked very annoyed and disappointed in the man. This was the first time Mary Jane had seen him look anything but bored. "I was very clear that you had to log into your account, so that I could review your work later", he pointed out. The team exchanged nervous glances, becoming even more worried now.
"Well, the good news is that you got to review my work now. You don't need the instant replay, because you were right here to see the touch down live in person." Billy tried to get Chetty to look over his slip up. Mary Jane hoped that the man would have mercy on them, but it was clear that Chetty was a stickler for the rules.
"I don't really understand that analogy, but I do know that attention to detail is a paramount importance here and my instructions were explicit. If there's no recording, then it's as if you didn't even show up today", the man continued. It began to look more and more bleak for Team Lyle.
Stuart ribbed his head and sighed. He should have known better than to get his hopes up. Mary Jane threw down her pen, sighing heavily. Neha slouched in her seat. Yo-Yo did what was expected of him at this point, beginning to pull at the hairs of his eyebrow, which was already half gone.
"Except I did show up. I'm sitting right here, Chetty", Billy frowned.
"Well, according to your log, you're not. And, since every intern must complete the challenge to be scored..." Everyone in Team Lyle sighed at once, bracing themselves for what they knew was coming. "Your team will, unfortunately, receive a score of zero", Chetty finished.
Mary Jane's face fell. "Zero?", she repeated numbly.
"Well done, Mr. McMahon. Perhaps more studying, less pudding", Chetty said, patting Billy on the back before walking away.
"Come on, Chetty, you're not gonna trip us with a technicality, he's right here!", Nick pleaded. He tried his hardest to reason with the man, but it was no use. Chetty just kept walking.
It was already bad enough that the group had lost and been embarrassed in front of all of the other interns, but Graham made his way over to them with a smug smirk. "Oh, Billy, Billy, Billy, what have you done?", the annoying bastard said, looking down at the team. "It's you lot I feel bad for. Especially you, Janey", he said, nodding towards the redhead. "Some of you are probably pretty intelligent. You deserve better, I'm sorry", he said, turning to walk away.
Mary Jane clenched her fists, standing up. "Okay, you know what Graham?", she called out, making the boy turn back around. MJ tucked her thumb inside her fist like her mother had taught her to avoid breaking it. "I'm getting really sick of your shit", she said blankly before rearing back, punching him square in the nose. Team Lyle stared at her in shock. Oos went around the room.
"Ms. Hiegler!", someone yelled in disappointment. Mary Jane looked like she was about to hit the boy again, but Stuart grabbed her before she could. Team Lyle quickly left the room, heading to an office that was smaller than their usual meeting spot.
"Whoa, MJ's a total bad ass", Neha praised, giving her a high five.
"Is your fist okay?", Stuart asked, grabbing the girl's hand.
"Awe, he cares, my ship is sailing", Neha said, placing a hand over her heart. The others gave her weird looks.
"My fist is fine", MJ chuckled, pulling her hand back. "Not like I've never punched anyone before."
The group all took a seat around the room, dejected and disappointed. "Well, that's great", Stuart spoke up, his voice dropping with sarcasm. "Another win for team Graham."
"There's only one challenge left. Even if we do it absolutely perfectly, it won't be enough", Yo-Yo said, picking at his right eyebrow once again. At this point, the boy was about to only have one left.
"Yo-Yo's right. We're screwed. Billy fucked up and now we're all screwed... But we all deserved this win, even Billy. You guys did amazing today, alright?" She was trying to raise their spirits, but even she didn't feel like being joyful or hopeful. It was over. They had lost.
"We had em too", Neha sighed.
"We did, but it's just a little hiccup, a little adversity, right?", Nick said, trying to make it seem like his best friend hadn't royally screwed up that day.
"No, Nick. Come on, face it. Look, Billy's a great guy and everything, but he kind of blew it for us all today", Stuart said. Billy had come into the room the moment the boy said that.
"Yeah, I know why you're saying, butâ"
"The kids are right, Nick", Billy finally spoke up. When Stuart looked up and realized that Billy had heard him, he looked guilty and angry. "I just wanted to let you guys know that I did study last night. I tried my best. It's just, uh, today on the phones... it's my fault." The group looked sadly at the man, feeling guilty for the conversation they were having before. "He was right when he said you deserve better", he continued, looking down at Stuart. "I'm really sorry that I cost you." With that, Billy left the room, leaving the team to sit in silence.
Shortly after Billy left, Stuart stormed out of the room. Mary Jane looked around the room before sighing and rolling her eyes when she saw that no one was going after him. "Stuart!", she shouted, getting up and running after the boy. "Stuart, wait up!", she called out, her sneakers squeaking against the linoleum tiles. "Come on, Stuart, stop, please."
Stuart sighed, stopping in his tracks. Mary Jane caught up, reaching out to touch his shoulder. "What, MJ?", Stuart sighed.
"Talk to me", she frowned, stepping in front of him. "Tell me what's wrong."
"I screwed up", he said, looking down.
Mary Jane shook her head, gently cupping his cheeks. "You didn't do anything wrong."
"Yeah, I did. He heard me, MJ", Stuart frowned, but he didn't make any move to back away from her.
"Stuart, it wasn't your fault. Billy was just upset already."
"Yeah, and I made it worse!"
"Stuart, listen to me", Mary Jane said, forcing him to look at her. "This is not your fault, none of this is. You did nothing wrong here. I mean, yeah, you didn't have to say what you did, but it was a feeling and you expressed that. And, I hate to say it, but it was what we were all thinking."
"Iâ yeah, I guess you're right. I'm sorry", he nodded. Mary Jane pulled him into a tight hug, causing the boy to stiffen for a moment before hugging her back.
February 25, 2019
I guess I'm just on a roll â or
I'm quite bored. Or maybe it's
just because I just rewatched
this movie. Who knows? ð¤·ð½ââï¸