artificial intelligence - NARRY

1.

It was something out of a fairytale when I opened that letter. My heart had never raced so quickly (other than that time in middle school when my older brother secretly signed me up for a running competition while my family and I found out later that day I had quite awful asthma). I had been waiting 4 months for this letter from MassCorp, dreaming night after night about the single word ACCEPTED printed on it.

The envelope had a wax seal with the MassCorp logo mushed into it. My hands shook and I wanted to laugh at myself for it but my parents were watching me so closely, I was too nervous to do anything.

"It'll be okay, dear. We are proud of you no matter what it says." My mother spoke with the intentions of making me calmer but it did everything but that. It only made me doubt myself more.

"Son," was all my father said but I always knew what he was thinking, his expressions said everything. He agreed with my mother but wanted me to get a move on with opening the envelope.

I took a deep breathe to rid of my nerves and I cracked the seal.

My hands trembled so hard I could barely read the small text in front of me. My mind immediately dismissed the idea of reading the damn letter, so scanning for a word of confirmation was my next best bet.

My parents glared at the back of the paper from across the table, I didn't have to look at them to know what they were doing. I could feel how desperate we all were and it made my anxiety so much worse.

Then there is was, a word, just a simple word, one that made my heart stop, made me drop my head into my crossed arms, the sweat from forehead touching my forearm.

"Honey," my mom was wearing a worried tone. I felt the paper get pulled from my fingers.

"You did it, Son." It still wasn't reality to me. There was no way. "You're in."

~

Ever since my 6th grade science fair, I've wanted to become an inventor of some sort. After getting first place for my miniature robot (all it did was lift its arm and wave... it was totally lame) I wanted to create things, build things to make them come to life, because the sensation I got from using my knowledge to create something in the physical world was indescribable.

So worked my ass off for a chance to get an internship at MassCorp from the moment my 9th grade physics teacher first mentioned the possibility to me.

I was talented. But only in the sense of computers, math and science. I was the furthest thing from athletic, artistic or comedic. Brains was all I had, other than average looks.

~

Skipping past the tears of happiness and the month of agonizing impatience, there I was walking into the front door of the tallest and shiniest building for miles.

The woman at the front desk smiled at me and greeted me with a cheerful good morning, and stood from her chair. She quickly grabbed something off of her desk and walked up to me.

I was already intimidated. Her clothes looked so expensive and she somehow walked so professionally which subconsciously forced me to stand straighter and push up my glasses.

"Niall Horan, we are so please to have you part of the team." She handed me a laminated key card with my name, a barcode and my picture on it. "Follow me please to scan your finger prints into our system."

I followed with a quick nod over to a door with a tablet propped to the side. She tapped on it so quickly. I wondered how many times she had done it to be that quick with it. She then proceeded to grab my wrist and placed each of my fingertips on a different small oval on the screen.