Blue Fire (Edited)

Chapter 1: The Interview

Elaine was stuck under a desk hiding behind drawers, praying, and hoping that the security guards wouldn't see her. With every approaching footstep, the feeling of dread in the pit of her stomach grew. She couldn't help but think back to how she got into this position. It all started with a single phone call.

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"Hello, may I speak with Ms. Scuterburg please?"

"This is she," Elaine responded sternly, while scowling. She had half a mind to hang up, as the number was not saved on her phone, and lately, she'd been bombarded with telemarketer calls.

"Hi Ms. Scuterburg, my name is Hope and I'm with a company called Bio-Org, you recently applied for a position at our company."

Bio-Org? Elaine didn't remember applying for that company. Although to be fair, she had been spending an obscene amount of time applying for every single open position. After a while, all the companies resembled each other, and all the job descriptions welded into one. Sometimes even applying for the same job twice without realizing.

"Hi Hope, thank you for giving me a call," she responded with a much milder attitude, and fingers crossed.

"I'm calling today to do the initial phone screening, if all works out we hope to extend an invitation for you to interview on-site. So do you have a few minutes available right now?"

"Yes! Yes!" Elaine shrieked into the phone.

"So, tell me a little bit about yourself?"

"I graduated from the University of Florida with a bachelor's of science in Chemistry with high honors. I have extensive internship experience in various fields. I also enjoy learning new techniques and working in a supportive work environment. Overall, I'm a great team member and love working in large groups on projects for the further advancement of any company and my knowledge base. I look forward to being an integral asset to your team at Bio-Org."

Hope seemed impressed with Elaine's initial response and continued with the customary set of questions. She inquired about her strengths and weaknesses and asked all the questions that Elaine had answered a million times before. It seemed that Hope was just merely writing down the answers and was indifferent to the actual content. All in all, the call took about twenty minutes with Hope hanging the customary carrot of: "if the hiring manager likes the responses you gave, then we'll give you a callback."

Elaine, however, wasn't holding her breath. She had been through this so many times, often with no callbacks. Yet, her thoughts were interrupted when she got a call back after only thirty minutes letting her know that they expected her for an on-site interview at 8 am the next day.

Elaine hung up and began running around the apartment like a headless chicken. She had to hold her breath and dive into her closet to find her black interview suit and a white button-down. Her apartment was small and cramped and the closet was better suited for a five-year-old. Finding one thing seemed to take forever. But she couldn't settle for just slacks and a button-down, she wanted to look perfect. This interview was important.

Deciding that she also had to do her homework before the interview, Elaine pulled out her laptop and Googled Bio-Org. She intended to memorize everything on their website to wow them during the interview. Google had only one legitimate hit, and it was a one-page website. Measly was an understatement. The information was so vague, Elaine had a hard time nailing down what they produced or specialized in. Giving up, she went to bed and hoped above all else she would land the job. The truth was, she was low on money and needed a job so desperately, preferably one that didn't involve flipping burgers.