Google It ➵ Stuart Twombly

⋆ chapter two ⋆

CHAPTER TWO

Caitlyn had stayed close to Neha, but chose to ignore her conversation with the boy standing next to her. Deciding not to interrupt after hearing Neha gush something about the boy having same sex parents. Cat stood beside them and looked around; just taking everything in.

"Hey there." A british voice called, causing Cat to look over to her right. She was soon met with the face of the brunette boy who had seen her jamming out to 'American Girl'. Cringing slightly, Cat tried her best to smile confidently,

"Hey, um, I'm Caitlyn."

"Has anyone ever told you what a horrible singer you are? Only kidding, well kind of. Um, that's a pretty name, I'm Graham." The British boy told her, laughing as he did so, Cat blushing very slightly.

"Thanks,"

"So what college are you from?"

"Stanford."

"Impressive, I'm from Harvard."

"Cool," Cat muttered, praying he'd get the hint that she was already done with the conversation. He was just a bore, to be painfully honest, the conversation really wasn't going anywhere and she really would rather be doing just about anything than listening to his dribble.

"So what would you say if I asked you out for coffee sometime?" Graham asked, softly stroking her arm as he did so. Instantly, Cat began trying to put as much distance between them as she could and wore a concerned expression on her face.

"I'd probably say no in a heartbeat." She replied, shrugging innocently at him as he just smiled.

"You'll change your mind soon enough." Graham responded, winking at Caitlyn before leaving, his gaze now fixed on some freakishly tall, old guy. Shaking her head softly, she tried to include herself back into Neha and the boy's conversation, only to notice they were both gone. 'Great, now what am I supposed to do?' she wondered, internally face-palming herself.

Deciding her best bet was to go sit down, she headed over to the stands. Cat kept her head down as she attempted to maneover her way through the large crowds, trying to keep a straight face as she caught small bits of really bizarre conversations. Finally, she reached the seats and without hesitation, she plonked herself down, rather harshly.

"Tough day already?" An amused voice asked.

"Just overwhelming I think."

"Well good luck." the voice said, but she was still yet to locate who it belonged to. The only person it could be would be the boy next to her, but his eyes never left his phone and it looked as though he wasn't aware that she was even there next to him.

"Thanks, I'll need it," Caitlyn sighed, pulling her own phone out of her pocket as a loud voice called for everyones attention. Finally, Cat thought, instantly relieved to actually be getting started.

"My name is Roger Chetty, and I'm head of the Google Intern Program. Welcome to Google!" Roger Chetty called out over the excited interns, gaining silence at once. "This will not be your average internship, oh no," he said, waggling his finger at them, "you will do what we do and we will watch how well you do it! Now, you represent the finest schools, your intelligence, your achievements are all noted, but to excel at this internship, you're going to need far more than brain power. What you're going to need is googliness," Chetty announced, causing the crowd to dissolve into chuckles and giggles, but Chetty didn't look impressed at all. "Nothing funny," he warned them, before continuing with his 'googliness' rant.

"Googliness, the intangible stuff, have made a search engine into an engine for change! Now, you'll be divided into teams and by the end of the summer, only one team will be guaranteed a full time position and the other, 95% of you, will not. Now you've been split up with several seminars to acquaint yourself with the campus and culture. Seminar descriptions have been emailed to each of you. I would wish you luck, but it isn't luck that you need. Get to work!" Chetty finished, his rant causing Caitlyn to sit up a bit straighter. 'This is definitely going to be a lot tougher than I thought,' Cat said to herself, dread and worry easily flooding her system and it must have shown on her face because that damn voice spoke to her once again,

"Don't look so terrified, you're going to be fine."

"Yeah, I hope you're right." Cat mumbled, getting up to leave while ignoring all thoughts of her losing the plot, talking to someone who wasn't even there. 'Now where on Earth did Neha get to?' she wondered, her bright eyes scanning the crowd for Neha's curls and loud outfit. With no success, Cat found herself wishing she had exchanged numbers with her. Frusterated and annoyed, she walked up to two older men. They looked nice enough, maybe she could just talk to them for a bit before heading off to a seminar? She quickly decided against doing that though after catching a small part of their converstaion, "it's like a mental Hunger Games..", yeah, no thank you. Shaking her head for the fiftheenth time this morning, Cat pulled out her phone to check her email for the seminar descriptions and times, but of course she didn't bother to look as she did and walked into a hard surface.

"Woah, there, cutie. You okay?" A familar, amused voice asked as two strong hands gripped her shoulders, gently steadying her.

"What? Oh, ah, yeah. Sorry, I wasn't watching where I was going," she blushed, looking up at the boy who had been sitting next to her earlier on. He was definitely attractive, but it was kind of a nerdy attractive. With his messy brown hair, gorgeous brown eyes and thick black glasses.

"No worries, I'm Stuart." he- Stuart- told her, sticking his arm out for her to shake, smiling softly, she took his hand and shook it.

"Caitlyn, but everyone really just calls me Cat."

"Cat, that's nice, I'm just Stuart, but I wouldn't mind it if you called me something else."

"Something else? Like what?"

"I dunno, Stewie could be fun."

"Okay then, Stewie."

"No, that's the stupidest thing I've ever heard, let's not call me Stewie."

"Mmm, I'll see you around, Stewie.." Cat laughed, turning away from him and waving. Ignoring him as he called back out to her, yelling some type of threat for calling him Stewie. Cat just kept walking, still laughing quietly to herself. One thing was for sure, this was definitely going to be some summer..