The Show Goes On

Thus Stratton Oakmont Was Born

Brandi carefully pushed the door open and looked inside as she stepped in. The warehouse was moderately sized with about 8 desks and swivel chairs or so spaced out with a stack of paperwork and a telephone on each.
"Brandi!" Donnie called and walked over to her. He hugged her and kissed her cheek. "How you doin'? Get here alright?"
"Yeah, yeah, all's fine, good to see you, Donnie."
"Alright good," he said in his usual low, slightly raspy voice. "Come on, I want you to meet the boss."
Donnie was always fast and straight to the point. He led her to the desk at the front of the room where everyone was gathered. Donnie stood with everyone else and Brandi watched, intrigued.
"Let's do 5,000."
"Ehh, can we do 8,000, Kevin? Mere penny stocks. Sound fair enough?" The man hovering over the desk said into the telephone. The person on the line was on speaker so everyone could hear. The man stood up and waited for his response and mimed standing behind a woman and getting ready to hit her from behind.
"Let's make it ten."
"Excellent choice, Kevin!" The man thrust his hips forward and everyone in the room stifled a laugh, including Brandi. She suddenly felt comfortable. "Let me lock in that trade right now and get back to you with my secretary with an exact confirmation." The man stuck both of his middle fingers out to the telephone and the men started to laugh into their palms. "Thank you for your vote of confidence, and welcome, Kevin, to Stratton Oakmont."
"Gee, thanks so much, man, I'm gonna have a beer and celebra-"
The man clicked the button on the phone and hung up. The room laughed freely then and applauded him.
The man clapped his hands and sent them all to their desks, encouraged to make an equally impressive deal. Donnie slapped the man's arm.
"Fucking excellent, man."
He laughed and turned to Brandi.
"You must me my new assistant then? Nice to meet you. I'm Jordan Belfort." He shook her hand.
"Brandi Willis, sir. It's a pleasure."
"Thanks for getting her, Donnie." Jordan said to him.
Donnie grinned and adjusted his glasses, went to his desk. Jordan turned his attention to Brandi.
"Alright, Brandi. You from Philly, right? Heard it's cold up there."
"It is," she said. "The warmth here's a relief."
He nodded. "Absolutely. Walk with me." He started to walk down the row of desks, and Brandi scurried along behind him. She was glad he wanted to skip the introductory small talk.
"Now, just to let you know, you'll be working around a garden variety of imbeciles that are simply here because they are, in fact, completely malleable."
"Oh. That's pretty unfortunate, I mean, how do you get them to function?" She joked.
He laughed and pushed his hand through his gelled back hair.
"Essentially, they learn what they need to say to close a deal and just like that, they earn money they couldn't otherwise earn on their own."
"Wow. Good plan, Mr. Belfort."
"Ha! I'll go ahead and tell you - we aren't dealing with Harvard MBAs here." He pointed to a petite man with black hair.
"Robbie Feinberg 'The Pinhead' took five years to finish high school."
Then a heavy man with a mustache.
"Alden Kupferberg 'The Sea Otter' didn't even graduate."
Jordan pointed out an slightly pudgy Asian man.
"Chester Ming 'The Depraved Chinaman' thought Jiujitsu was in Israel."
Then he pointed at a small guy in glasses and a toupee.
"The smartest here is Nicky Koskoff, he actually went to law school. I call him 'Rugrat' because of his piece of shit hair piece." He looked up from his work and flipped Jordan off. Brandi started to laugh.
"Still, give them to me young, hungry and stupid, and in no time I'll make 'em rich."
Brandi looked at the man. She already admired his flawless confidence. And even standing here in a former auto repair shop, she knew eventually everything would work out. Mr. Belfort was too confident to fail.
Jordan started to walk over to his desk, leading her to the front part of the warehouse. His shoes tapped the floor and her heels clacked in perfect sync.
"Your daily responsibilities will likely consist of about two sheets of paperwork and the rest of the time, you'll assist me in making sure these jerk-offs aren't fucking up their jobs. You know anything about stocks?"
"I studied business management and economics. Almost got my series 7, but I skipped too much school and never finished up."
"Wow. You already got most of these guys beat. We're gonna get along just fine."
Brandi smiled.
"Welcome to Stratton Oakmont, Brandi. And please, call me Jordan." He shook her hand once again and led her to her desk.