Chapter One
I watched in annoyance as another huge group of interns walked into the hall. Great, I thought to myself, more people to compete with. There were already so many interns that I was beginning to get nervous about my chances of getting a job here.
Google was such an amazing place to work, from what little I'd seen of the place I could already tell that this was somewhere I could see myself work here, this was somewhere I could really grow as a programmer. I looked down in annoyance at the stupid multicoloured hat I'd been given, shoving it into my bag and making my way through the unrelenting crowd.
My stomach rumbled, reminding me that I hadn't eaten breakfast this morning due to nerves. I stretched onto my tiptoes to see where I could find food and wasn't disappointed when I saw a cafe. I started off in that direction and quickly got into line behind some old guy. He was nervously bouncing from foot to foot as he glanced around, he caught my eye and attempted to give me a smile. I decided to be nice for once and smiled back.
Unfortunately he took this as an invitation to start talking to me. "There's a lot of people here, huh?"
I tutted and looked behind me, feeling irritated as I decided there was no way I could get out of this without leaving the line, and there was no way I could do that without my stomach ache rumbling throughout the rest of the day. I sucked in a breath through my teeth before turning back to him. "Yeah, well it is Google." I drawled, nodding my head slowly and awkwardly, feeling more and more irritated the longer this guy looked at me.
He chuckled and nodded, rubbing the back of his head. "It sure is, listen do you-" Thankfully whatever he was about to ask me was interrupted by the cashier calling for the next in line, which happened to be him. He smiled apologetically before going up to the counter. From this point I decided to ignore him and reached for my phone that was in my back pocket, a bad habit I had but couldn't break. Trust me, I'd tried but my phone always seemed to make its way back there. It's like I had a magnet on my ass.
Unlocking the screen I decided to snap a picture and post it on Facebook and twitter to make my limited number of friends and followers jealous.
First day at Google, not too shabby.
I would have come up with something better but the old guy had finished clearing out the cafe and was walking away with his arms full of food and drink, I shook my head in amusement and walked forward to order a bagel and tea. I fumbled with my bag in an attempt to find my purse.
"Don't worry love, I've got it." A British voice came out of nowhere, making me look up from my bag. A boy was standing in front of me, smirking. It had clearly been him speaking but from one look I knew he wasn't someone I wanted to be friends with. Something about the way he was looking at me made me feel incredibly uncomfortable. I was about to deny him when he cashier called over to to in an exasperated voice. "It's free!"
I raised an eyebrow in surprise, clearly someone had been saying those words all day but I wasn't complaining, I reached past the British boy to grab sugars, a small pot of milk and a stirrer stick. As I pulled back I noticed that the boy had closed his eyes, I pursed my lips in slight disgust as I noticed he was taking deep breaths through his nose.
"Did you just-" I began incredulously.
His eyes slammed open. "No! No! I wasn't doing anything." He raised his hands, maybe to touch me but I didnt stick around to find out. "Come back!" I rolled my eyes and hurried through the door, trying to get as far away from the creep as possible. I found myself walking back into the foyer not entirely sure of where I was supposed to be going.
Finally however I figured out the way to a room where a lot of interns were, checking my phone for the timetable and making sure I was actually in the right place. I stood on my tiptoes once again to try and find a seat there weren't very many places left. I had a choice of the old guy from earlier, some really fat kid, a guy who was compulsively texting and a small blonde girl who was biting her nails.
I had stood there for too long and someone had sat next to the blonde so I made my way over to the guy who was texting. He didn't even look up as I sat down and that suited me just fine. Since I was sat at the edge of the row I had a better opportunity to see the rest of the interns, twisting to see those behind me I quickly regretted it as I saw the creepy guy from earlier was making his way down to where I sat.
I sighed and buried my head in my hands. "Oh crap." Phone bow glanced over at me with a frown, twisting in his seat to see what was happening before snorting under his breath. I sneered at him. "Shut up." I hissed at him, feeling an immediate rush of hatred towards him and the creep who was steadily moving towards me. I thought about making a run for it but it was too late at this point. I was resigned to my fate.
"Hi again." I rolled my eyes at the British voice and pretended I couldn't hear him. "Excuse me. Hello?" I jumped when I felt a tap on my shoulder and reluctantly took my eyes off of phone boy's smirk before turning to the creep. He smiled innocently at me and leant his hand on the back of my chair, which brought him into closer contact then I would have liked. I suddenly regretted wearing this dress as I could have sworn I saw him trying to get a look down it, I shifted uncomfortably under the weight of his stare.
Finally I cracked. "Can I help you with something?" I asked irritably.
He grinned wider, the glare from his teeth practically hitting me in the eye. "I'm sure you could." He murmured, l scoffed and pushed him away.
"Whatever you're thinking its not happening." I smiled sweetly at him before turning my attention to the guy next to me. "Would you mind switching places with me?" He took his attention from his phone and sighed, obviously as irritated by me as I was by this creep.
Before he could reply the creep caught my attention again, making me miss the way phone boy was glancing appreciatively at my legs and chest before heading back to his phone and typing a bit more frantically than before.
"Listen I'm sorry, can we start over? I think we got off on the wrong foot." He smiled again but I was done listening to him.
"No thanks. Can you go back to your seat please and dont talk to me again." It may have seemed a bit harsh but I wasn't one to give second chances, his creepiness wasn't going to fade and I wasn't here to make friends or anything else. Plus my instincts were usually right and they were screaming at me o get away from this guy.
Phone guy snorted again, this time loud enough for both me and the creep to hear. Creep turned to him and sneered. "I would have thought a loser like you had other things to do than eavesdrop on private conversations."
I blinked in extreme irritation."This isn't a private conversation, this is a rejection. Now go back to your seat." I hissed. This guy just wasn't taking a hint.
He narrowed his eyes at me and leant closer, making me hit the back of my head on the chair and groan in annoyance and slight pain as I tried to move my face away from his. "The names Graham sweetheart. Make sure you remember it." And with that the creep finally decided to leave me in peace. I rubbed the back of my head with a frown and slumped down in my chair, pulling the bottom of my dress down a bit more as I did so.
"I'll remember it when I file for a restraining order." I muttered. Phone boy glanced over at me again and seemed about to say something when everyone's attention was drawn to the front of the room.
An Indian man stood in front of us, scanning our faces and seemingly looking for something inspiring. I don't think he found it from his unimpressed facial expression. "I am Roger Chetty." He introduced himself, hands behind his back as he paced up and down. "I am head of the Google Intern Program. Welcome to Google. This will not be your average internship, oh no. You will do what we do, and we will watch how well you do it. Now, you represent the finest schools, your intelligence and achievement is well noted." Mr Chetty's eyes scanned over us again and when his eyes met mine I gulped. "But to excel as this internship you're going to need far more than brain power. What you're going to need Googilness."
Everyone chuckled at this except it seems, me and phone boy who was still periodically checking his phone, I smiled when I saw he got a text from his mother. I looked back to the front before he saw me looking.
Chetty's face was unamused at the chuckles. "Nothing funny. Googilness. The intangible stuff that made a search engine into an engine for change. Now you'll be divided into teams and by the end of the summer only one team will be guaranteed a full-time position. The other 95% of you... Will not." He smiled grimly. "Now you've been split into several seminars to acquaint you with our campus and culture. Seminar descriptions have been emailed to each of you. I would wish you luck, but it's not luck that you need. Get to work."