Page 8 of It's Only Make Believe

I am tempted to ask him why he thinks it’s the best use of my time to do something like that when I’m a qualified webdeveloper, but I don’t. I know better than to say something like that and get fired on my first day. Louisa would love that one. I know I just have to suck it up and do the useless tasks to prove I am capable of following instructions and then I will get to do something more interesting. Or if not, at least I am being paid for it. If it was an unpaid internship, I would be much angrier than I actually am.

Just suck it up. Think of the wages and think of the reference I say a few times in my head like it’s my new mantra. And maybe it will come to that.

“No,” I reply. “It sounds straightforward enough.”

“There’s a staff meeting at four o’clock that I want you to attend. Other than that meeting, this archiving and shredding is your priority,” Luke says. “Off you go.”

I hate being dismissed like a naughty child, but yet again, I bite my tongue. I don’t know why Luke is seemingly trying to get underneath my skin, but I don’t think he usually acts like this judging by Mel’s reaction to his rude words earlier. I guess his attitude and the shitty task he has given me to do is a kind of hazing. Well, if he wants to see what I’m made of, then I’ll show him it’ll take more than a bit of menial work and a bad attitude to break me.

I see it’s going to be way more than a bit of menial work when I open the door to the storage room; it’s going to be more like a year of menial work. Luke wasn’t kidding when he said it had become a bit of a mess in here. Each wall of the room is lined with shelves and on those shelves are boxes of paper work, files and folders, with loose sheets spilling everywhere and from what I can see at a quick glance, nothing is labelled.

I spend a moment deciding how best to complete the task. I decide to tackle the biggest boxes first and use one of them to store the paper work from the years I need to keep and use another one of them to store the paper work for shredding. Thenevery time the shredding box gets full, I will drag it next door and do the shredding and then come back and rinse and repeat until all the shredding is done. When everything is shredded that needs to be done, then I’ll work on organizing the rest of the paperwork, the bits we need to keep, by sorting it by year and then by subject and getting it all filed away in some sort of order. Once I have a plan of attack worked out, I feel much better about tackling the task in front of me, although I still think it is going to be a long, difficult and tiring job. Maybe six months job rather than a year or two.

I shrug off any negativity I’m still feeling. I have to do the task whether I like it or not, so I might as well do it to the best of my ability and stop moaning in my head about it. That will only make is seem worse. I drag the first big box to the floor and then the second one, and then I sit down and take the lids off them and empty them both out. I begin scanning over the documents for dates and then sorting them into either the keep and or the shred box depending on what it is.

By the time lunch time comes around, I have my system nailed and I’m getting through the paperwork a lot quicker than I had expected to. While a lot of it is a mess, some of the boxes aren’t as jumbled as others and are nice and easy to get through. I know I will work better on a full stomach than an empty one though, and I take a quick twenty-minute break for lunch where I run out to buy and eat a sandwich, use the ladies’ room and then go back to work with a cup of coffee. The coffee here really is good.

I make sure to keep a watch on the time as I work, conscious of the fact that I have to be at the staff meeting at four o’clock and not wanting to forget about it or be late to it. At three forty five, I finish up my last shredding of the day and return the empty box back to the store room. I figure I probably have time to do a bit more sorting, but the last thing I want to do is toleave it too late and then not be able to find the meeting room or something stupid like that and be late for the meeting in front of everyone. And I have a feeling Luke will call me out on it if I am late in and he will likely do it in front of everyone.

I decide it’s better to seem like I’m there too early than too late and so I walk along to the elevator. I decide for the sake of going down one floor, I’ll take the stairs when I see that the elevator is currently on the first floor – it will likely be quicker. I go through the door marked ‘stairs’ and walk down to the floor below me. I walk along the corridor, looking into the rooms, hoping to find some clue as to where I’m meant to be.

I see a small room with people in it, but the room doesn’t look big enough to hold ten people comfortably, let alone the entire staff and rather than risk disturbing people who might have nothing to do with the meeting, I keep going. Right at the end of the hallway, the floor opens out into a huge space. Rows of chairs have been laid out, all facing towards the front, and I figure this must be where I’m meant to be. Some of the chairs are already occupied, but a lot aren’t yet. I glance at the seated people, and I choose to approach a woman sitting alone in the third row. She looks friendly enough.

“Hi,” I say. “I’m new here. Is this where the staff meeting is being held?”

“Yes,” the woman replies. “You’re new you say?”

I nod, and the woman indicates with a hand for me to sit down next to her. Glad to have someone to talk to until the meeting starts, I sit down gratefully.

“I’m Tracy,” she says. “I work in accounts.”

“Louisa,” I say. “I’m just an intern.”

“How long have you been here?” Tracy asks.

“It’s my first day,” I tell her.

“How are you finding it?” she asks.

Again, I decide to err on the side of caution. Just because she’s nice and chatty doesn’t mean she won’t tell Luke the intern has been moaning about her work.

“I like it so far,” I say. “Everyone I’ve met has been really nice to me.”

“Most everyone here is nice,” she says. “Like anywhere, there are a few people who are a bit standoffish, but for the most part, we all get along just fine. What department are you working in?”

“My field is web development, and I hope to end up working there, but at the moment, I’m doing a task for Luke,” I say.

“Oh. You must be special,” Tracy says with a laugh. “Luke normally doesn’t really have anything to do with the interns.”

I laugh along with her, but I am surprised to hear that. I’m nothing special. But then I remember he thinks I’m a board member’s daughter. It makes sense he might take a special interest in me thinking that, but at the same time, it makes less sense that he would have me doing the crap he has me doing. I can’t figure the man out and I decide to stop even trying.

More and more people are filing in now and the chairs are filling up fast. I spot Mel and Rachel coming in together and I spot Susan coming in with a younger man. Right at four o’clock, Luke appears, and the conversations tail off and everyone pays attention to him without him having to say a word.

He talks about figures and projections and ad campaigns and more. I must admit I kind of tune out. I try to stay engaged, but the stuff he’s talking about doesn’t affect me and I always find that my mind wanders if I’m not interested in what’s being said.

I force myself to tune back in when I catch my attention drifting off. It’s almost five o’clock and Luke is still talking. I can see a lot of the staff are starting to get a bit restless, knowing that the end of the working day is fast approaching. Even though I’m contracted to work from nine am to five pm like everyone else, I make sure I don’t look like I’m eager to leave because I don’tthink that is the best impression to give on a first day anywhere, especially not for the person on the lowest rung of the ladder.

“And finally, we have a new member of staff joining us today. Louisa? Where are you? Stand up,” Luke says.

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