Disclaimer: I do not own Newsies. All other characters belong to their respective creators.

Chapter 03. Human Resources

Polaroid stepped into the office hesitantly, unsure of whether she was in the right room, or even on the right floor. The office was not particularly large—the "Lab" was substantially bigger—but it was spacious enough for the few employees in the department. Long desks were set up on either side of the room. She crept forward, tucking her hair behind her ear in a nervous gesture. No one seemed to be paying any attention to her and the quiet of the workplace was unsettling at the moment. She looked around to ask someone for help, and then her heart leapt: ahead and to the left was a girl with brown hair and blond highlights pulled straight back into a ponytail, wearing a pair of thin glasses framing her hazel eyes. It was a familiar face. Polaroid walked towards her desk. "Corky?"

Corky looked up abruptly and a broad grin formed as she jumped to her feet. "Polaroid! What are you doing up here?"

"I'm interning here," she answered, laughing at Corky's animated reaction.

"I didn't know you were in Human Resources, too," she exclaimed excitedly.

"I applied to Human Resources originally," she explained, "but they told me during the interview that they needed someone in Finances. Apparently they didn't have a lot of applicants for that department."

"Wow, you must be so good at math. I can barely add single digits without a calculator."

Polaroid shook her head modestly. "I'm not much of a math wiz, but I think the Intern Coordinator was just desperate. And I was so desperate for an internship that I said okay."

"But you're here! So it must have all worked out."

Polaroid nodded ardently. She hadn't shown it, but she had been incredibly anxious about the prospect of being a Finance intern. She had had her heart set on HR, and she had no idea what she would be doing in Finance. Luckily for her, the Intern Coordinator must have found a willing, more mathematically-oriented person to fill the position. Polaroid had felt the dreadful weight lift from her shoulders when she was notified of the change. If she ever met the Finance intern who took her post, she would have to thank him or her for sure.

"Guess what?" Corky asked.

"What?"

"I think you'll be sharing a cubicle with me," she answered, cocking her head to the empty desk beside her.

Polaroid took a quick look around the small office, noted with relief that there really was no other desk to sit at, and gladly shuffled over to the empty side of the cubicle, setting her bag atop the desk as though claiming it as hers. She started up the computer and listened as the machine whirred to life.

While waiting for the computer to load, Polaroid caught sight of the decorations in Corky's area - they were kind of hard to miss: a Fairly Odd Parents day planner sat by her keyboard and a slew of Happy Bunny stickers shimmered brightly on her monitor. She had a small printer to one side of her desk, which stood base to four penguin "weebles." And littered all over her desk were tiny Ninjia Turtles action figures as well as a retro sign on the partition that pretty much summed up Corky's maxim: "Reality. It's what happens to people who don't play video games." It wasn't too difficult to figure that Corky embraced the simplicities and pure joy of being young.

"I'm really glad we're going to be working together," Polaroid said, almost timidly. "Being the only new kid in the office is always kind of awkward."

"Well, now we can be awkward together," Corky offered cheerfully.

Polaroid glanced back at her computer to see that the screen was prompting her for a username and password. "Do you know what the login is for this computer?" she asked Corky.

Corky looked over, pursing her lips in thought. "Hmm, I'm not sure…" She brightened suddenly. "I'll go ask for you," she said, beaming. She smoothed out her light pink dress shirt and brushed back loose strands of hair from her face. She stood up, squared her shoulders, and walked resolutely out of their partition. She made her way all the way to the end of the office, stopped at a desk and knocked on the side of the high dividing panel. "Hi, Dutchy," she greeted. Corky had a petite build and so had to peer over the cubicle wall to see him.

"Hey, Corkster!"

She loved how he played on everyone's names. "Hi."

"What's up?"

"I, um… we have a new intern, did you know?"

"A new employee and an intern! Did ya hear that, Pie?"

"I heard ya," Pie answered from a few partitions over.

"We won't have to do any work from now on!"

"Ha!"

Dutchy returned his attention to Corky. "Just kidding," he assured. "What's our new intern's name?"

"Polaroid," Corky supplied.

"Polaroid… Polaroid… that's gonna be a tough one, but I'll have a nickname for her nickname by lunchtime."

Corky giggled despite herself. "Well, um… her computer needs to be set up, I think. She doesn't know what the username and password is."

Dutchy shook his head. "That Skittery's slackin' off. He's the IT guy. Let me try get him for ya," he said, and began typing on his computer. Dutchy was obviously reaching him by IM.

After about half a minute of typing back and forth, Dutchy burst out laughing. "Stupid prick," he muttered lightly. He sent Corky an apologetic look. "He doesn't believe me. He swears he set up all the computers and accounts for the interns. I told him he obviously made a mistake and missed one, and he just said he never misses anything."

"Prick!" Pie shouted.

"That's what I said!" Dutchy responded laughingly. He lowered his voice so only Corky could hear. "It doesn't help that we usually pull a prank on him every time he comes up to this office."

Corky chuckled at the thought. She glanced back at Polaroid. "But what can we do then, about Polaroid's computer?"

Dutchy shrugged helplessly. "She'll have to go fetch him. He seriously thinks I'm trying to lure him up here to pull one on him. But it's way too early to do that. She knows where the Lab is?"

"Yeah, I think so. I'll go let her know. Thanks, Dutchy."

"Anytime, Sporky Corky."

Corky let out another delighted laugh as she returned to her desk.

Once again, she hoped she wouldn't get lost. Corky had told her she needed to find Skittery, "the IT guy," in the Lab. Polaroid remembered passing by the Lab during the scavenger hunt at Orientation, but only had an inkling of where it was. She waited for the elevator and stepped in when the doors finally opened with the ring! After a moment of deliberating, she went with her gut and took a guess as to what floor the Lab was on. The elevator began its ascent.

It stopped short, however, on the next floor above. And in walked another familiar face.

"Polaroid!" Adren cried happily. She bounded forward and wrapped the tall girl in a hug.

"Hi!" Polaroid managed to say, a bit stunned by the ecstatic greeting. "How are you doing?"

"Really well so far," Adren replied happily. "I just met the Executive Editor and the Editor I'll be assisting this summer. They are both amazing and so nice and I can't believe I'm going to be working with them and… oh, I can't form coherent thoughts right now I'm so excited."

Polaroid couldn't help but grin as Adren's enthusiasm was infectious.

"You should meet them. I think you'd love them, too. Kloppman - he's the Executive Editor - he's been working here since pretty much the company began. Oh! And he told me the reason for the nicknames in the office! It's a cute story, I'll have to tell you during lunch sometime. And Stress is the Editor. She's been here for a couple of months. She was telling me some of the books she's worked on, and she's just incredible. I am in complete awe of the two of them." She took a moment to catch her breath. "I'm sorry, I'm just blabbing on. How's your first day going?"

"Pretty good!" Polaroid answered. "I'm interning in Human Resources, thank goodness."

"So you're not in Finance anymore? That's great!"

"Yep, and I'm working with Corky."

"Oh yeah! See, it all worked itself out. I think this is a good sign."

The elevator reached Polaroid's floor. She smiled triumphantly when the doors opened, revealing a room lined with cubicles. It was the Lab. She had guessed correctly. "This is where I get off," she told Adren.

"Oh, okay. I'll see you around! Let's have lunch together."

"Definitely." She waved farewell as the elevator closed and continued its smooth upward trek.

She turned around and faced the room. She found the Lab, and now she had to find Skittery. As was the situation in the Human Resources office, here too, no one budged from their computer monitors, seemingly hard at work. Polaroid walked straight through the wide center aisle, looking over all the desks, until she was at the other side of the room. From here, she had no idea where to look first. She decided to ask. Polaroid turned to the corner cubicle to her left, behind which, thankfully, sat an approachable looking girl. Despite it being summer, this girl wore a thick ivory-colored scarf, the light shade offsetting her wavy black hair with pinned-back bangs. Her dark brown eyes were, like everyone else, focused on her computer. She was mouthing something, and Polaroid realized the girl was singing along to music when she spied the earphone cord tracing to the mp3 player on her desk. She wondered if this girl was an intern, too.

"Excuse me," Polaroid said softly.

The girl must have sensed Polaroid's presence, for she quickly gazed up and removed the earphones she had on. "Hi," she said brightly.

"I was wondering if you knew where I could find Skittery?"

She smiled. "Sure do. You're very close—see the cubicle right there?" She pointed across to the partition to Polaroid's right. "That's his lair. He's probably hiding under those huge headphones of his."

"Thanks!"

"No problem."

Polaroid took the five or so steps to the other corner cubicle and, as the girl had said, found Skittery sitting there with immense headphones on. She could hear the drums and rock guitar chords emanating from his headset. "Excuse me," she said, hoping he'd hear her.

His eyes flitted to her face and he straightened from his slouched position, pushing back his headphones from his ears. "Hi, what's up?"

"I'm an intern, and I was told to come ask if you could help me with the computer…"

A defeated look fell over his face. "Are you from HR?" he asked, grimacing slightly as an image of a gleeful, gloating Dutchy fleeted through his head.

"Yes."

"Dammit."

"Sorry."

"No, no, not you," he ensured. "Let's go check it out." He pushed himself up from his chair and the two made their way out of the Lab and to the elevators. "Sorry for making you come all the way up here. What's your name?"

"Polaroid," she answered.

"Polaroid - I thought you were in Finance," he said, recalling the list he received from Jonathan from the Intern Orientation meeting. While Jack, David, Race, and Swifty were assigned as tour guides, Skittery had been appointed with the job of setting up all the new computer accounts in all the departments. She explained how she had been switched out from Finance to HR at the last minute.

"Oh." Skittery nodded in understanding, reassured from the fact that he technically hadn't missed anything. But he was sure Dutchy didn't care for such details.

Polaroid showed him to her computer when they reached the HR office. He sat down and began to work, typing quickly.

"You're losing your touch, Skitts," Dutchy said in a singsong way, strolling past their desk. Skittery shot him a look of annoyance as he continued the set up process.

Polaroid was waiting patiently by Corky's desk when a rapid clicking of heels drew her attention. Irish Flare entered the room. The Assistant noticed Polaroid and immediately approached her. "Hi, you're Polaroid, right?"

"Yes," Polaroid replied. Even though Polaroid could tell she had a couple of inches over Irish Flare, there was a candid confidence about the HR Assistant that she found slightly intimidating.

"Nice to meet you, I'm Irish Flare—you can call me Irish. I just got the memo that you've been transferred here from Finance," she said. "It's great to have you. We'll have a lot of projects you can help us with."

"Thank you," Polaroid said politely. "I'm looking forward to it."

"Fantastic. If you have any questions, just let me know. Pie and Dutchy are good resources, too." She paused. "When they want to be."

Skittery let out a short chortle at that. Irish's focus snapped towards his direction; she hadn't realized he was sitting there. "Hey," she greeted.

"Hey, IF," he said, meeting her eyes briefly before returning to his work.

"Setting up our intern's account?"

"Yeah."

"Great. You'll be all settled in no time," she said, addressing the latter to Polaroid. "Skittery's one of the best IT guys around."

"He's the only IT guy around," Dutchy called out matter-of-factly, strolling past their desk again to get back to his own.

Polaroid looked at Skittery curiously, wondering how one person could possibly handle all the technological demands of a company… and wondering why anyone would have thought that was even a good idea in the first place.

Having finished establishing Polaroid's new account, Skittery restarted the computer. He rattled off some information and directions - her temporary login, how to change it, to let him know immediately if the computer acted up, how to reach him discreetly without attracting the attention of Dutchy and Pie Eater, his email, extension line, and a second extension line - and finally asked if she had any questions. So she asked why he was the only one working in IT.

Skittery sighed. "It's a long story," he said ruefully.

Author's Note: First days at work sure are fun, aren't they? ;)

I can't say enough how much I appreciate everyone's feedback. Thank you's go out to Corky, Irish Flare, Song For A Rainy Day, Acorn, Stress, Adren, Repeat, and Eavis! I loved reading through all your comments. Hope you enjoyed this chapter!