to boost her while finding fault with the rest of us.
Not - I can’t help but think with a small smirk - that she’s finding it easy with me.
Sandra has it out for me because I’m a legitimate danger to Paula. She finds it difficult to criticize me normally, so she gives me impossible tasks to complete. For example, the report I’m currently writing is almost done and should have taken me all day, but she only gave me until lunch.
It’s incredibly unfair, but there’s very little we can do about it. Sandra is our overall boss and none of her coworkers really care which intern gets the job as long as the new employee is capable.
The rest of the interns have given up. Alex, for example, has already found a new job that he will start as soon as this internship finishes. I think Jennifer is already in talks with another company, too. The others have all sent their resumes out and have even had some hopeful replies. After all, being trained at McNamara Enterprises, no matter whether we’re hired or not, is a big deal. Every single one of us will find a job easily once the internship is finished.
Except that I haven’t quite given up, which is one of the reasons Sandra despises me. Part of me knows it’s useless and that I should just move on, but I’ll be damned if I don’t do everything in my power to get this job regardless of the end result. I came to McNamara Enterprises because this is where I want to work.
With a sigh, I finish off my report and print it. In the deepest, darkest part of my mind, I know that it’s probably pointless; that I’m just setting myself up for complete failure. But I can’t bring myself to give up. After all, I’ve always been ridiculously stubborn.
As I collect my report from the printer, someone else approaches me and I give her a tired smile. Allison Barke has been my closest friend among the interns.
“How are you doing?” she asks.
“The same as always,” I say with a sigh. “I wouldn’t be surprised if Sandra punishes me just for breathing soon.”
Allison grimaces.
“Maybe…” she starts, and then trails off at the hard look in my eyes. She changes the subject. “I got a reply back from Romero.”
“Yeah?” I ask, perking up.
“I got the job! I’ll be starting next week after the end of the internship.”
I can’t help but grin broadly.
“That’s great!” I exclaim. “I’m really happy for you, Allison.”
“Thanks,” she says, pleased.
I really am happy for her. It’s a shame that she’s leaving and that I won’t see her every day, but that would have always been the case after the internship ended. Part of me is a little jealous that she was capable of just putting a pointless rivalry aside so easily.
More than that, though, the realization that we’ve got less than a week left before the end of the internship makes a cold ball of dread curl up in the pit of my stomach. I have less than a week left to prove that I’m capable of this job.
Yet with Sandra going out of her way to keep me from rising any further, just so that she can get her niece in, I know there’s very little I can do about it. No matter what I do, it won’t be enough.
It’s frustrating, because I know I’m the best intern. Everyone else knows that I’m the best intern. But in-house politics means that none of that makes a difference.
“I better get this to Sandra,” I say, waving my report vaguely in the air. I make a face. “She’s probably just going to yell at me, but I don’t want to give her any more reason to be annoyed at me.”
“Good luck,” Allison says with her own sigh.
I know that Allison and all my new friends are rooting for me, but I also know that they wish I would just give up and look for another job. It would be the wisest thing to do.
Unfortunately, I’ve never been good at doing the wisest thing.
At least one good thing will come out of not getting this job in that the likelihood of running into Jason McNamara will drop significantly. So far, I haven’t seen him since my first day, but that doesn’t mean I’m not always on edge, wary for the moment when I turn the corner and get ambushed. After all, that’s what he used to do