That night, it rained. For the first time in forever, it rained, pouring down outside.
Mary Jane stared up at the ceiling to her room, listening to the thunder. A nightmare had awoken her an hour before, and she hadn't been able to sleep again since. With a sigh, she stood up and grabbed the fluffy blanket she had taken from home, tip toeing down the hall.
She peeked around the corner before heading on her way.
Once she reached her destination, she hesitantly knocked on the door. When she got no answer, she knocked again. There was some shuffling behind the door before it swung open. Stuart wasn't wearing his glasses and his dark hair was messy, his grey t shirt slightly rumpled. "MJ?", he asked in surprise, rubbing his eyes with his fists to make sure he was seeing as clear as he could without his glasses. "What are you doing here?"
"The rain", Mary Jane mumbled. "I can't sleep. Can I, uh..." She bit her bottom lip, an action Stuart noticed that she did quite often. "Can I sleep in here?", she finally asked, almost shyly. She felt like a small child again, asking her mother if she could climb into bed with her.
Stuart blinked for a moment, caught off guard by the question. He stepped back, opening the door wider. "Yeah, yeah, of course", he nodded. "Come on."
After looking awkwardly at her for a moment, Stuart climbed back into bed. Thunder crashed in the distance, making Mary Jane jump. She quickly climbed in next to him, burying herself under the covers. "It's just thunder", he frowned.
"It's terrifying", Mary Jane mumbled. Stuart frowned, pulling her close to his chest where she rested her head.
"Hey, can I ask you something?", he asked after a moment, playing with her long hair.
"Go for it", she mumbled.
"Why was it so important to you that Nick and Billy were accepted on the team?"
Mary Jane wiggled a little, looking up at him. "I didn't have a father growing up", she said simply. "I guess I just... wanted the opportunity to have something like that for a little while."
Stuart didn't say anything, he couldn't. Hearing the words made him feel bad for her. Eventually, he fell asleep with his arms around her. After about thirty minutes of listening to his quiet snores, Mary Jane drifted off to sleep as well.
~G O O G L E~
"There are two more challenges left", Chetty was saying the next day. All of the interns were gathered around the stage, listening to him carefully. "After which only a handful of you will be offered full time employment. Now, the next challenge is running the Google Helpline. This is one of the most difficult jobs we have, combining both customer relation and product fluency. You will be judged on both." A hushed murmur fell over the crowd. Mary Jane did a move similar to the one Stuart performed earlier, raising her fist and bringing it back down with a quiet 'yes!' She was great over the phone. This challenge would be a breeze for her. "This is a very tight race. I suggest you all study up."
Once Chetty finished, all of the interns found their respective groups.
Team Lyle headed back to their usual meeting spot where Lyle would quiz his nooglers until they were as ready as they could possibly be.
"Alright, let's drill it and kill it", the boy said after a while of letting them all study. Stuart and Mary Jane had been sitting next to each other, calling out questions and answers to each other. "Authorization failure with Google, Neha!"
"Permission has probably changed, Requested document access", Neha said automatically.
"Bam! Chrome connectivity issue, MJ!", he said, pointing at the red head.
Mary Jane perked up, trying to run through everything that she had learned in her head as quickly as she could. "Try toggling your WiFi or data on and off again. If that doesn't work, unselect Proxy Server for your LAN, you should be good to go!", she said after thinking it over for a moment.
"And Bingo was his nameo, good job, Red!" Stuart grinned, leaning over to high five her. He had helped her with that exact question moments before Lyle started quizzing them.
"Billy, I'm locked out of my Google Wallet account", Lyle said, making his next stop. Mary Jane hated to admit it, but he actually was a really good coach.
"Is that under gmail or wallet help?", Billy asked in return. Mary Jane looked down. She felt bad. It was clear that the man didn't know what he was doing.
"Uh, I don't know, sir, that's why I called you", Lyle said, pretending to be on the phone and making a different voice.
Mary Jane tuned out for the rest of the conversation. She didn't have time for this right now, she just wanted to study and be done with it all soon. She didn't have time to listen to Billy ramble on. She could only hope that someone would help the man out, because she was too busy trying to study himself.
~G O O G L E~
Later that night, Mary Jane was in her room studying. She had to be sure that she got this done. She couldn't fail the team tomorrow. Her phone skills were great, sure, but she was still struggling a bit with memorizing everything.
She jumped when there was a knock at the door. She hadn't been expecting visitors. Tossing her covers back with a sigh, she went to open the door.
"Oh, hey, Stuart", she said in surprise. "What's up?"
"I, uh, I need some help", he said sheepishly, rubbing the back of his neck.
Mary Jane gestured for him to come inside, which he did. "Help with what exactly?", she asked, closing the door behind him.
"I suck at talking on the phone", he sighed. "I could use some help with that before tomorrow."
"Well, you've come to the right place", she grinned, sitting back on the bed and patting the space next to her. Her laptop was pink, something that surprised Stuart. "Here, take out your phone", she instructed.
"I don't see how this is gonna help", he sighed, but he still did as she told him to.
Mary Jane took out her own phone and dialed Stuart. When he looked at her in confusion, she gestured for him to answer it. "What, MJ?", he sighed, placing his phone to his ear.
"Okay, now turn around", she gestured, doing her finger in a circle. Stuart sighed, turning so his back was facing her. He didn't get what the point of any of this was, but, if it was going to help him, he didn't see what harm it could cause. Mary Jane cleared her throat, putting on her best British accent. In a way, it was like she was mocking Graham. "Hello, sir, my Google Chrome is freezing up, what should IÂ do?"
"Oh!", he perked up, finally catching on to what she was doing. "Try clearing your search history, that could be clogging it up", Stuart answered.
"Very good, Stewie!", she praised like she were speaking to a small child. Stuart raised his middle finger where she could see it.
"When?" Mary Jane laughed it off, switching accents. "I have a page I wanna keep open, but I also need to open a new one. Is there any way at all that I can do that?"
"Yeah, you can have multiple tabs open. Just go up above your pace and click 'add new tab' depending your computer, you might see a little plus sign in which you would just click that."
This time, Mary Jane attempted a Scottish accent. It was terrible to say the least. "I have a Chrome connectivity issue."
Stuart tried to keep himself from laughing, taking the phone away from his face before placing it back up to his ear. "Unselect proxy server for your LAN", Stuart said simply.
"See, that was easy! Wasn't so bad, was it? Why did you think you were bad at this?" This had helped them both in a way. MJ because she could listen to Stuart give the right answers, and Stuart because, well, he successfully had a phone call.
Stuart shook his head, leaning back so his head rested in her lap. "That was just because it's you. You're easy for me to talk to."
Mary Jane snorted, snatching his beanie from his head so that she could play with his hair. It was as soft as she thought it was. "Well, if that's the case then just pretend you're talking to me tomorrow. You'll be fine, Stuart, I promise."
February 25, 2019