The team was gathered in the room they usually met in, waiting for their first team challenge. Finally, Chetty's face appeared on the screen.
"Good morning, interns, today marks the first of several challenges through which your teams will show their merits. While internally dog folding a new product, a number of Googlers reported a bug that disabled their audio. All two million lines of that code are in the source files. Your job? Find the bug." With that, Chetty's face disappeared and they all immediately moved away from the computer monitor, grabbing markers.
"Okay, so we should start by looking over the user reports really quickly", Mary Jane said she headed over to the glass wall.
"Scan the logs for any red flags!", Yo-Yo added, grabbing a marker as well.
"See what exceptions were thrown", Stuart said as he joined the others.
The five of them got to work, writing down codes that probably looked like gibberish to the untrained eye. "I always start by drawing strategies to skip through the code", Lyle informed, trying his best to help the interns out. He wanted his team to do well and would help them out in any way that he can.
Behind them, Billy and Nick were uttering some bullshit that was no help to anyone. It was starting to aggravate Mary Jane slightly, but the men thought that they were helping, so she tried her best to ignore them.
"A fly? Like a fly!", Billy was saying.
Mary Jane had stopped watching where she was going as she wrote, bumping into Stuart. "We've gotta stop meeting like this", she mumbled, turning around. They tried to move away from each other, but they only ended up tangled in each other's arms. "Oh, uhâ"
"I'll goâ"
"Let me justâ"
Neha turned to face the two of them with furrowed brows. "Lovebirds, so not the time! Break it up and get back to work!"
Mary Jane realized that her hands were rested on Stuart's chest, her cheeks turning red as she quickly stepped away. "Sorry about that", she mumbled, awkwardly clearing her throat.
"Boggles my mind that no one has a notebook out right now. You guys are so focused on writing down this gibberish, maybe it's helpful, maybe it's not, but I guarantee you that what we're saying is helpful", Nick said loudly, causing everyone to give him odd looks. Why couldn't he just be helpful or be quiet?
"Guys, we're looking for a bug, not a password. They're two totally different things", Lyle sighed.
"Keep going with that human interaction you had! Go, go!", Nick said encouragingly to Billy, completely ignoring what Lyle had just said. They continued talking about nonsense â bugs and flies and something about Jennifer Lopez? It was beginning to really confuse the rest of the team.
"Would you two please stop?!", Yo-Yo yelled, finally snapping. It seemed the boy just couldn't take it anymore.
"No, we're working!", Nick shot back.
"No, we're working!", Yo-Yo yelled.
"Yeah, you guys are just kind of... mumbling nonsense", Mary Jane mumbled. She hadn't wanted to say it, but the men had begun to seriously frustrate her while she was trying to work.
"Yeah, and that's a sharpie, genius", Stuart said, nodding towards where Billy had begun trying to write on the glass.
"That's my fault", Billy sighed, licking his fingers before trying to wipe off the ink. It obviously didn't work since Sharpies were, well, kind of permanent on everything but skin. ( And even then, they were a bitch to get off. )
"Look, guys, I'm sorry, but you're not helping, you're saying lots of words that mean nothing really fast. To find the bug, we need to scan the logs and review the code until we find the programmer's mistake â it's the only way", Neha explained.
"It's not a trick question, you guys. You just have to try your best to do it and stop making it so confusing for the rest of us", Mary Jane added.
"Except, what if it's not the only way?", Billy wondered, causing the rest of the group to sigh in sync.
"Go", Nick encouraged once again. Mary Jane sighed. They were never going to get anywhere.
"You said that someone programmed it, that means that some person in this building wrote that code!"
"Human being!"
"Let's just give him a name. Let's just call him Tony."
"Tony."
"Let's just say that Tony likes... kayaking!"
"Kayaking."
Stuart looked annoyed. It seemed like everyone was aggravated with the two men now and just wanted them both to shut up. "All of a sudden, me and Nick become friends with Tony. We're throwing a few beers back, we're doing a little kayaking, next thing you know, we're talking about audio bugs!"
"Yeah, I actually think it's a great idea", Stuart nodded, making everyone turn to look at him. Had he officially lost his mind? That was definitely not a good idea.
"Good, great!"
"Finally!"
"Dark and stormy feelin us!", Billy exclaimed with a smile. Mary Jane let out a snort, looking away when Stuart shot her a glare. She couldn't help it if it was the perfect way to describe him.
"No, yeah, feelin you, big time, buddy", Stuart continued. "You know what? Why don't you two go right now and find the programmer?", he suggested.
"Stuart!", Mary Jane hissed.
"Great idea!", Billy cheered.
"Yo-Yo, who's our man?", Nick asked, snapping his fingers.
"Uh..." Yo-Yo looked around the room, confused, before he spotted an X-Men figure near one of the computers. "His name is... Charles Xavier!"
The others had caught on to Stuart's plan and were joining in, adding on to what he he had been saying in order to keep it going so that they could finish the task without the two older men. "Nick, write this down!"
"Uh, he's a professor!", Neha added. "At... Stanford! Yeah, just a few miles away from here, actually!"
"Guys", Lyle said warningly. He knew that he needed all of his team members to participate, especially if they wanted to have a chance at winning.
"And he's in a wheelchair!"
"Got it! Stanford, wheelchair."
"Uh, oh, he's bald!"
"Might be with his best friend who likes to wear a metal helmet."
"Come on, hit us, hit us!"
"He has a British accent!"
"British? Okay. Come on, Billy, we're going!", Nick said, heading towards the door.
Mary Jane quickly shook her head. "You guys, I really don't think that you shouldâ" But the two men had already run off.
"Finally, we can actually get the job done now", Yo-Yo sighed in relief.
Mary Jane turned to face the rest of the team with a glare, crossing her arms. "That was a really rotten thing to do", she spat. "What's the matter with you?"
"We couldn't get any work done here with them around", Stuart sighed, adjusting his glasses.
"It was no use anyway", Lyle mumbled. "Graham's team already won anyway, see?", Lyle said, gesturing towards the monitor. Sure enough, it displayed that Graham's team had won the challenge.
Mary Jane huffed, crossing her arms as she plopped back down. "Great, I lost to my sleazy ex boyfriend", she grumbled. Hopefully, the next challenge would be better.
~G O O G L E~
Lunch time came around, and Team Lyle was sitting together around a table in the quad. Billy and Nick approached, asking Stuart to scoot over, but the boy simply slid so that neither of the men could sit down.
Mary Jane, who was on his other side, gave him an incredulous look. She didn't get to speak up, however, because Stuart and Yo-Yo beat her to it. "Sorry, doesn't look like there's enough room." Stuart gave them a sarcastic wink and smile.
The two men walked dejectedly away. Mary Jane glowered at her teammates. "You guys are some rude ass bitches", she pointed out.
"Come on, MJ, no one wants to actually have them around", Neha said. "They're just making it harder for the rest of us!"
"I do", the redhead huffed. "They're nice men who haven't done anything but try. Yeah, sometimes, they can get a little annoying, but they're doing their best and at least it's not totally boring when they're here."
"MJ, come on", Stuart sighed. "We're better off without them."
Mary Jane stood up. "No one is better off without anyone." With that, she grabbed her tray and headed over to where Billy and Nick were sitting with some guy she had never seen before.
"MJ! MJ, come on, come back!", Stuart said, attempting to get the girl to rejoin the group. She didn't even look back.
"Smooth move, genius", Graham snorted. He had been on his way to tease Billy and Nick about his win, but, when he saw MJ storm off, he couldn't help but to come and boast a bit. "Maybe you should try actually learning something about my little Janey before you try and trash talk the old geezers to her, eh? If you did, I'm sure you would actually understand her." With that, he walked off, followed by his team who were more like loyal servants or puppies at this point.
February 24, 2019