Chapter 4: Competition

"Shit! Honey, I gotta go! I'm sorry if I woke you." She said in a hurry.

"Oh no, I wasn't sle—" She hung up the phone before I could say anything else. I sighed. Yes I knew she was seeing someone but yet I continued to sleep with her. Its not just sex... or at least that's what I think. She's such a sweetheart and she's good company. I guess I can really say that right now we're friends with benefits. Who knows? Maybe we'll progress to more than that?

I walked to my window and looked out into the night and then shut the window and closed the curtains. I had this awkward feeling like I was being watched or maybe it was the feeling that someone was there. Kind of like spider-man checking up on Mary Jane, or Edward spying on Bella. I laughed out loud at myself. What was I thinking? I watch way too many movies. Man I need a day job. Speaking of which, I wonder if I will get that job. Well only time will tell.

-o-0-o-

I jolted awake by an annoying ringing sound. I glanced at the clock and it was 11:30 am. I couldn't complain that it was too early so I rolled over and picked up the phone. I cleared my voice before I said anything. "Hello?" I croaked out. So much for trying not to sound like a toad. I cleared my throat again.

"Yes, hello is this Miss Kagome Higurashi?" The person said on the other end. It sounded like an old woman, but I could tell by her voice that she still had a lot life in her.

"Yes it is me speaking." I answered in a better voice.

"Excellent. Well let me introduce myself I am the Vice president of Shotai Co. My name is Ms. Kaede." I instantly stiffened up and fixed my hair. Then I smacked myself in the head. Obviously she can't see me right now. I must still be half-asleep. "Mr. Shotai has decided upon five potential secretaries. You're one of them. I will be holding a group interview tomorrow afternoon. Are you available?" In complete shock I nodded. "Hello? Ms. Higurashi, are you there?" I shook my head to snap out of my daze.

"Y-yes I'm here sorry. I'm available." I replied.

"Okay great. The interview will be at 2:30pm. Please be on time."

"Okay, I will. Thank you." I said getting out of my bed.

"Alright see you then." She hung up and I did the same. I stretched and ran to my closet. My interview isn't until a few hours from now but I'm just too excited. I threw everything I found distasteful for the interview all over the floor. So far the only thing I could find was the suit I wore the last time I went there and a really professional teal blouse. I bought it at a 50% off sale, but the occasion to wear it hadn't arrived... until now. The only problem was I didn't have anything to wear with it. Looks like I have to make another shopping trip to the mall. Or perhaps Sango's closet. I was about to open the door when Sango barged in. "Umm, come in?"

"I need to borrow your magenta shirt!" She said as she picked it up from the ground. She looked at me and smiled. "Please?"

"Borrow? You can have it!" Actually I borrowed that shirt from her four years ago but I never returned it to her. I guess with all that time she doesn't even realize it's really hers. "On one condition..." Sango hugged the shirt to her chest.

"Condition?"

"Yes. I need to borrow your pin-stripped suit. You know the one with the slit on the back of the skirt?" She looked at me kinda funny.

"Did you get the interview too?" She asked

"Yea. Did you?" Of course I already knew the answer. It was just hard to believe that out of probably hundreds of applications both Sango and I are 'both' top five for an interview. What are the odds?

"Yea I did. Hmm what are the odds?" She folded the shirt over her arm, and turned towards the door to leave.

"That's what I was thinking." I mumbled to myself.

"What?"

"No nothing."

"Oh okay. Well I'll let you borrow my suit if you let me borrow your shirt. Oh and... good luck." And she was out the door leaving me with my thoughts and a huge mess in my room.

-o-0-o-

I stepped out of my car and fixed my hair and pressed down any creases that may have been visible on my outfit. Sango had just parked her car beside mine and did the same. I took a deep breath and began to walk as she did. "Ready?" I asked her and she flashed me a confident smile.

"Of course I am." She said. "I was ready the second I gave in my resume." Once in the building my nerves seemed to hit the roof. It was even busier that it was when I first visited here. We both walked towards the elevators in silence but completely took in our surroundings.

"Dammit! Why won't it work?" I looked to my right and noticed a guy with light brown hair and blue eyes banging angrily at his keyboard. I don't know why but instead of walking straight my feet took me to his desk side in his cubicle.

"Ummm, is everything okay?" I asked him.

"Kagome!" Sango whispered sharply at me.

"Go wait at the elevator I'll be there in a minute." I told her. Then I turned around and faced the blue-eyed guy who stared up at me.

"M-my computer..." He sputtered out. I almost rolled my eyes but I didn't.

"I know it's your computer, but what's wrong with it?" I asked him. I didn't even know the guy and my patience was just beginning to wear thin.

"Well my computer is running so slow it seems almost frozen." He replied and hit the side of the monitor.

"That's all?" I shoved him aside and restarted the computer. Then as it started up again I pressed f8 to activate safe mode. After about five minutes of pressing more keys his computer was running as smooth as butter.

"Wow. Marry me."

"What?" I asked quickly standing up from his chair.

"I mean thank you very much miss." He said loosening his tie slightly.

"Sure." I said smoothing down my skirt and proceeded to walk away. Then I turned to face him again. "Oh and if you don't want your computer to run like that again, I suggest turn on your spyware and your anti-virus software and stop downloading porn. Some of those things come attached with everything." His jaw dropped a bit when some people started looking in his direction. I walked to the elevators where Sango was still waiting. "Wow still never came yet?" She shook her head. After waiting for so long the elevator doors finally opened and a huge rush of people were let off. No wonder it took so long. We both got on the elevator and another crowd of people came on with us. We stopped at what seemed like every floor until they were all gone.

"You nervous?" Sango asked crossing her arms and tapping her fingers on her them.

"Pshh! No!" Lies... "You?"

"Meh, just a bit." Hey at least she was being honest. The elevator stopped and a man and a woman got on. Her hair was slightly tousled, and his top three buttons were undone. Sango and I glanced at each other very briefly in that moment we both shared the same thoughts. Office quickie. Nice! The elevator stopped again and they were getting off but before the man was on his way he copped a feel of Sango's rear. She grabbed his arm and flipped him onto his back and spun him with her foot so he'd face her. Then she kicked him in his groin right out of the elevator. She gave him the scariest look she could muster and as the doors closed she introduced him to her middle finger while he writhed in pain. The second those doors closed I burst out into a fit of laughter and I didn't even realize the doors re-opening again until Sango grabbed me by the arm and dragged me out until I shut up.

"It wasn't funny." She grumbled.

-o-0-o-

So here we were. The five of us sitting and waiting for... well something to happen. We've all been sitting here for about five minutes but it felt like forever. We all sat at a round table in the office of the soon to be secretary. There was one seat left for our interviewer. Soon she emerged through the doors. "Ah, you're all here and right on time. We'll begin now. As you all know I am Ms. Kaede." She said putting a folder with a bunch of papers on the table. She sat down in her seat. I was in the middle so now she was facing me on the other side. Oh the pressure is on, but I took a mental deep breath to calm myself down. "Okay first things first -and might I add I will be very blunt about this- I hope you girls are here for the right reasons and not because you want to gawk at Mr. Shotai in hopes of scoring with him but then realize he's married so then sit there and fantasize about hot sex on his desk instead of doing your work. We've had secretaries in the past like that and we're looking for people that are all about business." She seemed to have said that without so much as a blink. Not even a smile. Hmm she's one tough cookie, but so am I and I don't crumble that easily.

I noticed two of the women to the left of me glanced at each other and bowed their heads with a visible blood rush to their faces. I looked back at Ms. Kaede and she stared straight at them. I see in her eyes that she was already running through a process of elimination. It was silent for a few seconds until Sango to the right of me spoke up.

"Ma'am I'm strictly business, there's no danger in that department count on it." She said confidently. I cleared my throat.

"I might as well say this now." I leaned forward in my chair. "Let's just say that I prefer women and any sexual thought about the CEO would be dead before they enter my imagination." I gave her an innocent smile. I'm quite open about my sexuality. Why beat around the bush and hide it? I could care less what ignorant people think. She blinked and seemed to be caught off guard.

"Very well then." She said and opened the folder.

-o-0-o-

We were pretty much at the end of our interview and Ms. Kaede's process of elimination was quite clear. Then again anything can happen.

"I have one last thing to tell you all." She said standing up and walking around her chair. She walked to the plant on the other side of the room and spread the leaves a bit to reveal... a camera? At least it looks like a camera. Then she pointed to a small one above the elevator doors and another one in the coffee machine. Finally she walked over to the big mans door and pointed to what I thought was a doorknob but was actually a camera. Are we on some sort of reality show? "Hey I've always wanted to meet Ashton Kutcher." I said aloud crossing my arms. Ms. Kaede gave me a puzzled look before a look of realization.

"I assure you that you haven't been 'punked.'" She said the word punked with air quotations. "You were just..." She thought of how to word it. "Thoroughly tested, but it wasn't the security guards watching." I cocked my head to the side.

"Then who was?" I asked.

"Mr. Shotai himself." She said with a sly smile. Oh she was good, but I bet you anything it was his idea. The bastard, he just can't do anything that nobody thinks of doing! "Mind you there is also audio on there as well, and being a Great Dog Demon he can pick up things that I wouldn't have. So for your sake I hope none of you were mumbling things you shouldn't be saying under your breath." The two women on my left looked at each other again. "He feels that if he was present in the interview things would be a lot more different, and he wanted you to be comfortable enough to be honest. Oh and before I forget to mention, there were also cameras in the lobby, the cubicle area and the elevator."

Hmmm... smart, nothing more comforting than a little old lady. Even though she did have quite a lot of spunk for someone her age. The man was a genius. She told us she would take about fifteen to twenty minutes so we could use this time to take a break. We all left the room briefly. I walked to the coffee machine/camera for some coffee and followed Sango to the elevator doors. We didn't say anything but I could feel that familiar competitive tension between us. We may be best friends but when rivalry sets, there's no turning back.

We both didn't say a thing for fear we'd say something that Mr. Shotai wouldn't approve of.

-o-0-o-

When we came back the cameras were already gone. Does everything always happen this fast around here? Sango and I sat down in our seats and minutes later the two women and the gay man I didn't realize was here came in as well. We didn't wait long for Ms. Kaede to emerge out of the CEO's office. She didn't make any small talk, she cut right to the chase.

"Miss Yomichi, Miss Tsuyou and Mr. Kanawaru... I'm sorry but you aren't what Mr. Shotai is looking for. Please leave the office immediately and thank you for your time." We watched as they all left and the man seemed to be quite furious too. So it was just down to Sango and I. Again, what are the odds? "Miss Higurashi and Miss Taijiya, Mr. Shotai would like to see you in his office." We got up and entered the office to be once again greeted by the back of a large white leather chair. So much for 'seeing' us in his office... It was silent for a moment until he spoke.

"From what I've seen, you two stood out the most but for different reasons." He said. His voice was so masculine and deep that it rumbled through my core. Which was just really odd to me and it felt really weird. "I shall hold a final interview for you both tomorrow. One on one. Ms. Taijiya I'll see you tomorrow at 2pm sharp, and Ms. Higurashi I'll be seeing you tomorrow as well at 3pm sharp. You are dismissed." And without so much as another word Ms. Kaede quickly ushered us to the elevator doors. How rude he didn't even turn around to greet us. Men are such assholes. Sango pushed the button.

"Could your perfume be any stronger? You're at an interview you stink bomb." Sango said, with that competitive edge.

"Nice try, I'm not wearing perfume. That shit stinks." I told her.

"Yea and so do you." She said turning to me, and I faced her to.

"Well not as much as your attitude. Not to mention you were a vacuum during the group interview. You giant suck up!" I retorted and at that moment the elevator doors opened and we got inside.

"Oh please, at least I don't have a display rack in an attempt to gain extra points." She said pointing at my cleavage. There is so nothing wrong with a bit of cleavage.

"Oh you're one to talk about points with that $400 new suit you bought today." I said tugging a little at her collar. The elevator doors opened and we walked out at a quick pace.

"At least I wasn't acting like a total fake!" She said through her teeth.

"Fake? I'm as real as your stripper booty. Don't ever talk to me about being fake because you know that's not who I am." I almost yelled but I was aware of my surroundings. She opened the lobby door and let it close on me. "Arghh!!" I opened the door and was met by a strong wind that blew harshly at my hair almost blew my skirt off my person. It's a good thing it wasn't one of those flowing ones or else the pigs would get a good eye full. "I'm sure Mr. Shotai would be impressed with that dent you made in his car on your way in the parking lot." Sango gasped.

"That was his?" She asked turning to face me. I nodded. "W-well he doesn't know it was me though!"

"Yet..." I said, and Sango's jaw dropped and I could probably fit both my hands in there.

"You wouldn't!"

"To get what I want? Yes I would." I told her. I was only half kidding, half-serious. Would I really do it?

"A job as a secretary involves answering phones... I'm sure Mr. Shotai would love to hear about how you got fired in the first 15 minutes of your telemarketing job." She said as she smirked and scanned the parking lot to remember where she had parked her car. So she was going to play like that now huh?

"I'm sure it's not as bad as going to jail for stealing your boss' car." I said and she flinched.

"I was seventeen!" She yelled, and started walking faster.

"Age is nothing but a number." I said as we both reached our cars. She unlocked hers without a word and got inside while I searched for my keys. Sango rolled the windows down and looked up at me.

"Well you know what?" She said putting her seat belt on.

"No, what?" I asked finally finding my key. I put my hand on my hip and she started her car.

"You know that girlfriend of yours, Kagura?" She asked. I smiled remembering her pretty face.

"Yea what about her?" I asked dropping my smile and replacing it with an icy glare.

"Well... she is Mrs. Kagura Shotai. Mr. Shotai's beloved wife you've been sleeping with. Good luck on your interview tomorrow." And with that she drove off. Shit her interview was before mine. She wouldn't say anything would she? Then I remembered my own words, "To get what I want? Yes. I would."

... FUCK!!