"So, tell me how it went."
"I'd really rather not talk about it, Mom," said Sophia, cell resting between her left ear and shoulder, a tube of toothpaste in one hand, a tooth brush in the other.
"Oh, no. Want to tell me what happened?" asked Mom, tone full of concern.
"Not really, no," said Sophia, mouth full of paste. She spat into the sink, rinsed her mouth, then wiped her face.
"Sophia. Do you really have to brush your teeth while talking to me?" Her voice was heavily laced with disgust, not approving of Sophia's decisions.
The young adult rolled her eyes. "Of course not, Mother. Why would I ever do such a thing to someone as sweet and innocent as you?"
As she pulled her electric blue and hot pink hair up into a messy bun, her mother warned, "Don't use that attitude with me, Sophia Grace."
"Sorry. Long, frustrating day," Sophia apologized.
When she left her temporary apartment's tiny bathroom, padding across the wooden floorboards towards her bed, she heard her mother give a great, heavy sigh as if to say, 'what am I going to do with you?' "No, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have yipped at you." Sophia heard her mom readjust her hold on the phone she was using. "You sure you don't want to talk about your day? I promise I won't tell anyone."
A groan came from Sophia's bed springs when she plopped down upon it, legs crossed Indian style. "Well. . . I, um, no one seemed to like me. I might have also made a bad first impression with basically everyone there."
"What could you have possibly done to leave a 'bad' first impression on your fellow interns and workers?"
"By being me," answered Sophia, mater-of-factly, not missing a single beat.
"What's so bad about being you, Soph?"
Sophia could picture her mother's raised eyebrows, face twisted in confusion as she tried to understand what could be so wrong with that.
"Not everyone can handle me, Mom. Sometimes even you can't handle me. Come to think of it, neither can I," said Sophia as she rubbed her hand on the back of her head.
It was true. Her personality and tastes had always been more than most could handle. Like how she always drew a top hat and bowtie wearing chipmunk on every piece of paper she found or even how she would dance in public if it began to rain.
"Oh, honey. You're right. You are a handful, but I love you just the way you are. If no one else at Google sees how amazing of a woman you are, it's their loss. The company would be lucky to have you."
The corner of Sophia's lips began to twitch into a grin. Her mom was amazing. Her little pep talk was more than needed, but Sophia knew that it would take more than a nose pierce and a different output on life to be hired in as a full-time employee of Google. "Thanks, Mom." Glancing at the time, Sophia said, "It's getting late. I think I'm going to settle in for the night. Talk to you later?"
"Of course. Love you, sweetheart."
"Love you, too." And with that, she hung up.
Dropping her cell next to her thigh, Sophia laid on her back and stared at the ceiling. She knew her mother meant well, and even though they didn't have as much of an effect on Sophia as Mom had intended, the words she'd used encouraged the down girl.
What am I doing here? Why did I ever think I could do this?
Releasing a sigh, Sophia turned off the lights, rolled onto her side, and closed her eyes, more than ready to surrender to temporary death.
~N~O~O~G~L~E~R~
The following day, Sophia didn't bother to even think about talking to people. Instead, she found the furthest most corner seat she saw and hid away while taking out the book she'd placed in her side bag. Her plan was to appear shut-off, uninterested. Luckily for her, no one seemed to care or even notice her.
Good.
Even though it killed her, Sophia knew that she wasn't the one that people would think of when it was time to form teams. Back home, she was usually among the final few who would be chosen during gym class. Not many people thought she was worth their time, either. But, then again, after years of rejection, Sophia was kind of use to it.
For the following ten minutes, people began filing in, immediately striking up conversations with some of the interns they'd talked with the previous day. All the while, Sophia continued to pretend that no one else existed, sipped her orange juice, nibbled on her granola bar, and turned the page of her novel.
The sound of static drew in Sophia's attention. Glancing towards the front of the room, the young woman noticed a tall, dark-skinned man wearing a red polo. A microphone was in his hand and his face beamed with an excited smile as he asked everyone to take a seat. Sophia closed her book, slid it back into her bag, placed her elbows on her kneecaps, and rested her chin on top of her palms, ears peeled and eyes opened as she waited for him to continue speaking.
"Welcome to day two! I am Sid, eight year googler, and you guys are new googlers, thus you're nooglers!"
Unlike Mr. Chetty, Sid laughed with the interns. Sophia liked him way more than she did Mr. Chetty.
"Okay. Now, this place is all about community and collaboration, so you'll be working in teams from here on out."
Suddenly, out of nowhere, an annoyed Mr. Robert Chetty left his seat, snatching the mic out of Sid's hold. Sophia's eyebrows dropped downwards. She disliked Mr. Chetty even more with each passing second.
"You have five minutes. Pick your teams," he told the interns, sending them into a flurry.
Sophia watched as her peers hurried to find groups, eager to find people they liked and even more desperate to not be picked last. No one liked being among the unwanted. The twenty-one-year-old didn't want to be picked last, but she knew she shouldn't get her hopes up. No one wanted to be around her yesterday (other than Billy and Nick, and they only talked to her for a minute or two).
Slinging her bag on to her shoulder, Sophia began the search, asking anyone and everyone she saw if they wanted to team up. As expected, they all declined. Before she knew it, everyone seemed to have already found their own teams, leaving Sophia and five other people on their own.
Sophia titled her head. Does this mean that these people, these misfits, were her teammates?
Gathering what courage she had, Sophia wandered up to the girl who sat alone, face downcast, kicking one of her feet back-and-forth. "Hi. I'm Sophia," she said once she stood next to the girl. "Couldn't find a group, either?"
The girl, who looked like she was sweet, gave Sophia the once over, face twisted in disgust. "Seriously? I have to be a part of your team?"
Sophia's face fell. Well, so much for that.
Not wanting to deal with the girl's attitude, Sophia moved to the end of the long bench and plopped down upon it. This was just perfect. If the people who were left out didn't want her, what chance did she have at making it?
As she rubbed her face with her hands, Sophia heard someone a little older than her say, "Correction. You didn't have a team, but you got one now, son. 'Cause I got a few outliers. Kerbam! Kerplash! Zhyah! Zhow! And we about to get all good up in this hood, right?"
Sophia brought her face away from her palms. As thought, the boy who'd spoken looked about two or three years older than her.
He's trying too hard.
Was this the mentor she'd have to deal with all summer? Probably, considering he was talking to Billy and Nick who, like her and the other three, didn't appear to be a part of a team.
"But let's get a team meeting going, everybody!" he exclaimed, cheerfully, clapping his hands together. "Come on! Team meeting time! Wonder twin powers activate!"
Taking this as the signal to follow him, Sophia got up from where she sat and started taking long strides in order to catch up with her team leader.
~N~O~O~G~L~E~R~
Excess pillows always annoyed Sophia like no one's business. When she was little, her mom would usually find her taking pillows off of furniture if there was more than two on said object. Needless to say, it led to a lot of interesting situations with store managers. So when the couch she was about to sit on held four pillows, a part of her twitched at the sight that met her eyes.
The wheels in Sophia's brain turned as she took the extra pillows off of the cushions and placed them beneath the red sofa.
Those who were already in the room gave Sophia weird looks, but she didn't mind. She'd rather be one-hundred-percent focused on the task at hand than be distracted by something as stupid as the number of pillows on furniture.
Once set, Sophia plopped down upon her seat, her body posture relaxed to the point of resembling man. On her right sat a boy who wore a beanie, a pair of thick, black glasses, and held a cell phone in his large hand, attention totally focused on the tiny machine. In front of Sophia sat Billy, Nick at his right. Both men were talking about what had happened and how they should handle the situation they were in. Luckily, the girl Sophia had tried talking to earlier sat in a chair far away from her. Another boy, who was of Asian decent, sat opposite of the girl. The poor kid looked nervous out of his wits.
Thankfully, their team leader entered the room before the atmosphere became even more awkward than it already was.
"Alright. Let's get some meeting, greeting up in this cheesy. I'm Lyle, and it's pretty much wizzywig. What you see is what you get. Been here at the Goog for. . . four years, working on. . . seven progies in estomomento."
Yep. Sophia was going to stand by her theory: Lyle was trying too hard.
"Wow. Seven projects?" said Nick, truly amazed by Lyle's words.
"Yep. They asks and I dos it. What can I say? I'm a people pleaser, especially with the ladies. So, it's all good in Lyle's hood, y'all. Word?"
"Ah, yeah. Is Lyle always going to be referring to himself in the third person? 'Cause if he is, I'm going to punch Lyle in the face," said the boy who sat next to Sophia.
"Okay. Tough, but fair. Good note. Lyle's still a little nervous. Sh- Lyle's a first time manager. . . . I'm going to stop doing that," vowed Lyle. "Going to cut it out. Keep it to first and second person." After clapping his hands together, Lyle said, "Okay. Who's next?"
As Lyle took a seat, the Asian boy stood from his to introduce himself. He raised his hand in greeting before continuing on. "My name is Yo-Yo Santos."
"Yo-Yo. How about a high-five!" When Billy raised his hand to get some skin, Yo-Yo flinched, as if he thought the older man would hit him. "Whoa!" said Billy and Nick in unison. "Yo, Yo-Yo, buddy. I come in peace," promised Billy.
"Yo-Yo. Did you get beat up a lot in school?" asked Nick, tone full of concern and sincerity.
"I was home-schooled by my mom," admitted Yo-Yo.
"Did you get beat up a lot in home-school?" asked Billy.
"Well, discipline is an important part of growth, but my mother was actually very nurturing," explained Yo-Yo. "For example, she use to provide me the milk of her bosom until I was seven years old."
At this fact, Sophia's eyes bulged out of her head. Seven? Her mom winged her off of breast milk around age one. Seven was a bit extreme in Sophia's book.
"So it's like, ah, you're tying your shoe, you're climbing trees, you're blowing up fireworks you got, and then you're right on mom; you've got mouth on mom?"
"Breast feeding leads to a higher I.Q."
"Okay," said Billy, nodding his head, ready to drop the subject and move on.
"Actually, the science isn't quite definitive on that," said Nick, defending bottle fed infants. "I was bottle fed, and it never slowed me down. Vitamins are vitamins whether they come from a teat or a baba."
"Wrong," said Beanie Boy without looking away from his cell.
"Sorry. What was that?" asked Nick, not sure if he'd heard Beanie Boy correctly or not.
Beanie Boy tore his eyes away from his phone to look at Nick. "The 'teat or baba' thing, it's wrong. I just Googled it, so it's wrong."
When he noticed that the other occupants of the room were now staring at him, Beanie Boy said, "Oh, yeah. I'm Stuart."
"Oh, pleasure to meet you, Stuart. But you can't trust everything you read on the-"
"The Journal of the American Medical Association? It sounds pretty trustworthy. It says that breast milk has more nutrients and that those nutrients are more easily digested and absorbed," was Stuart's response. "You know, your confusion is understandable since you were bottle fed."
Ouch. Major burn.
"He's right. That's right," agreed Yo-Yo, satisfied with how his argument was well defended and proven right.
"Whoa! Guys. Where's all this hostility coming from?" asked Billy, trying to figure out what the problem was.
"From the deepest and darkest pits of their hearts," replied Sophia as she examined her nails.
"Where do you think, you freaks? Two-sixths of our team are two old guys who don't know squat and one of us looks like she lives in Hot Topic."
"Excuse me? At least I'm not being a-"
"Okay! Who's next?" chirped Lyle, interrupting the argument brewing between Stuart and Sophia.
As the other girl got up from her seat to speak, Stuart and Sophia continued glaring at each other, eyes narrowed, hostile tension settling around them like an electric storm.
"Well, I for one am very happy to have. . . two, strapping, mature gentlemen on our team," said the girl, earning a 'thank you' from Nick. "Oh, I'm, ah, Neha Patel. And oh, my gosh, you two would make the best Luke and Han."
"Excuse me?" said a confused Nick.
The older man's response to Neha's statement was enough to tear Sophia away from the staring contest she and Stuart held. "You don't know who they are?" asked Sophia, shocked.
"No. Should we?"
"Um, yeah. Considering they're two of the most important characters in Star Wars. I thought you'd know who they are, considering the movie came out around your time. You know, Yoda, Darth Vader, R2D2, light sabers. Ring any bells?"
"Sorry. No."
Sophia shook her head. She had pity for the poor fools. "Teach you, I must," Sophia said, giving the best Yoda imitation she could muster.
This earned a chuckle from Lyle.
"I was actually thinking along the line of cosplay," said Neha, trying to earn back her teammates' attention.
"Cosplay?" asked Billy.
"Costume play. It's when you dress up as characters from your favorite show, comic book, movie. Basically anything you can think of. It's really popular for conventions, like Comic Con," explained Sophia, earning a death glare from Neha. Sophia sent one that read, 'what's your issue?'
"But work-wise, your 'skills' aren't really relevant here or anywhere in this millennium, so stay out of our way. We're going to do this crap on our own." And with that, Neha gave her best bitch-smile and sat down like a giddy little girl.
"Okay. I'm sorry that you're pissed you weren't picked by anyone, but gosh, Neha. Get over yourself. These 'old men' are on our team and deserve to be treated as such, so get use to it," said Sophia, voice dripping with irritation.
If looks could kill, Sophia would be dead.
"And who exactly are you?" she spat, eager to tear into Sophia's neck.
"Me? I am Sophia White. Information Technology major, defender of old men, and the one who holds the ring which rules all," answered Sophia, a cocky smirk on her face, right hand held in the air to display the cheap model Ring she wore on her ring finger.
Everyone had different reactions to Sophia's statement. Some were amused, some unsure what to think, and at least one of them (Neha) looked like they wanted to smite her. Nick sent the young woman a look of thanks before introducing himself and Billy.
"Alright!" Lyle stood back on his feet and clapped his hands. "Team Lyle!" When no one gave him the response he was expecting, Lyle nodded his head. "We'll workshop that, it's in beta. Okie dokie. Our translate lecture is in fifteen minutes." Lyle clapped his hands together again, signaling the end of the meeting.
On the way out of the room, Stuart sent Sophia another stink eye before strutting out, Yo-Yo didn't even glance her way, Billy and Nick thanked her once again, Lyle - being Lyle - patted her on the back and said 'go team!', and Neha stood so close to her that their shoulders touched. Sophia expected Neha to shove her, knock her off-balance, but what the Indian woman did instead was threaten, "If you ever say or do anything like that to me again, I will destroy you."
Great. It was high school all over again. The prettier, more popular girls had always treated Sophia like dirt, made it clear that they didn't want her breathing the same air as them. But that was almost four years ago. Meeting another princess of the campus was starting to get on her nerves.
In response to Neha's threat, Sophia glanced at her from under her curtain of dyed hair and said, "Whatever." Before Neha could say anything else, Sophia picked up the pace and sped out of the room, never stopping or slowing down until she reached her destination.
Thanks so much to Baylee for the review. I would also like to thank Cath Avery and comboeuferre for deciding to alert Noogler. You, my fellow fanfiction writers, are amazing :)
~Edited 07/16/14~