The Interning Assistant

Bunch Of Grown Ass Bullies

Stuart's POV

I stood in her office doorway, watching as she went through some papers on her desk. "Can I ask you something?"

"Sure," she shrugged, finally sitting down. I walked over and sat on one of the chairs in front of her desk.

"Why do you let Eric and Kenny mess with you?" She looked up at me, shock clearly on her face. "I mean they are basically two grown ass bullies and you let them push you around."

"Stuart," she sighed.

"Who the hell do they think they are?"

"Stuart," she said with a small laugh.

"Sorry," I sighed. "It's just. . . People like them, piss me off."

Some of my anger went away when I saw her smile. She stood up, walked around and sat on the edge of her desk in front of me.

"But honestly though, who are they?"

"I've known them since I first got accepted for the Internship Trails, as we like to call them. Well you know. You just went through them,"she said with a small giggle. I couldn't help but smile when she started kicking her feet.

"We were actually on the same team. It was our second task and we had to design a holiday themed Google image. We were assigned Fourth of July. Eric and Kenny came up with the idea of having the L be a firework, but I found a way to program it so the firework would go off when you clicked on it. This was back before they had figured out how to make the image move. Well they could do it, but it changed the whole image to this weird computerized font. I created an algorithm that would keep the signature Google font while adding in graphics that matched."

"That's pretty awesome," I said making her blush.

"Thanks," she said tucking a piece of hair behind her ear. "Anyway, when we presented the image, Mr. Chetty about had a heart attack. After he announced the points, he asked me to come to his office. I met with him and a few other higher ups. He showed them my design and had me explain my algorithm. I guess they liked it because instead of buying my algorithm, they hired me as Head of the Graphics Department."

"That's really awesome, Liz. But what does Dumb and Dumber have to do with you getting a badass job here?"

She tucked a piece of hair behind her ear again and sighed. "They didn't think it was fair that only I was offered a job. They tried to go to Chetty and explain to him that it was a group effort. He took my word over theirs and made them continue to compete for an internship. Even after they were hired, they still held this stupid grudge against me," she paused.

She shrugged before continuing, "They hated that I got to skip the rest of the summer and go right to work. They really hated that I was made head of a department. I mean, I was 19 when they hired me. Not a lot of people here liked that."

"Wait, really?" I asked, unable to hide my surprise.

"Yeah," she said. "At least at first. Once they found out what I could do, many of them didn't seem to care anymore. Some were still skeptical of a 19-year-old having her own department. It usually takes people years to get where I got in less than a summer."

"That doesn't give them the right to make jokes and push you around."

"I know," she stuttered.

"You should stand up for yourself," I said leaning forward. I sent her a confused look when she laughed. "I'm serious, Liz. You take their comments and teasing lying down. If you told them to shove off, do you know how much they would freak?! They would back down!" I jumped up making her laugh.

"Stuart," she laughed. "As great as that sounds, confrontation isn't really my thing." She slid off her desk, shaking her head.

"But you're their boss," I said.

"Actually, I'm not," she said as she started to walk back to her desk. "They are in the social media department. And I am in the Graphics Department, or as they would call it, The Anti-Social Department."

"Liz," I sighed.

"Stuart," she said, copying my tone. "I don't let them get to me. I am well aware that they are just two bullies who are jealous."

I walked over and stood in front of her. I hesitated before putting my hands on her shoulders. "Liz, you have to stand up to them. You don't deserve having them constantly putting you down."

"Stuart," she said reaching up and taking my hands off her shoulders, but remained holding them. "Thank you for your concern, but really I'm fine." She dropped my hands and sat at her desk.

"If you won't do it, I will."

My comment made her quickly look up at me. "As sweet as that is, don't do anything stupid. I don't want you getting in trouble," she smiled as she stood up with some papers from her desk in her hand. She walked by me and patted me on the shoulder. I watched with a smile on my face as she walked to her sketching board.