Chapter 120 - Little Labourers (2)

Every student received their access card from Carol with both hands and bowed as if it was some sort of prestigious award. The secretary had a hard time keeping a smile off her face at how adorable these kids were being. She already knew that Scarlet was a natural sweetheart, Alex was a natural cutie and Jasper was a charming mother hen. Although she wasn't very well acquainted with the rest of the boys, the files she received from Wilmer gave her enough to form a good first impression. Meeting them in person was more satisfying than she dreamed it would be.

Once everyone received their cards, Carol explained how it could be used and briefly went through the doc.u.ment that they had to sign.

"This is just a formality that the HR requires for filing purposes. Kindly bring it back for your parents to sign and return the signed forms to us. Do remember to take back a copy that the HR will make for you. If they do not give you a photocopy of the signed form, please let me know. I can be found in my office on the top floor. Just ask around for Carol, the CEO's secretary and they will know."

Rowan nodded in amazement. "You must be some really big shot here for everyone to know you. We're very honoured to have someone important as yourself to give us a tour of the company."

Carol laughed. This boy called Rowan was really a smooth-talker. She knew she wasn't wrong to push for him to intern with the HR and public relations department. the secretary answered some of their questions while struggling with the laptop setup. When Elfie saw that, he quickly offered her assistance.

Carol smiled. No wonder Wilmer recommended this young boy to work with the programming team. She heard that he was currently staying with the Wilde's and was the son of Wilmer's personal friend. He was also in the same class as Wilmer's children which meant that he was probably a child genius too. The secretary was deeply intrigued by how the geniuses got to know such unique friends. Perhaps she could ask them over lunch when they were more comfortable with her.

After the laptop was ready, Carol went through the PowerPoint slides introducing Wilde Inc. to the children with a brief history of its founding. She also presented some jaw-dropping facts and figures and enjoyed the mixed reactions she received from the boys. Issac, Jeff and Benedict looked like they were on the verge of breaking down hearing how much money was involved.

"Don't worry, as long as you are an intern, all mistakes made by you will naturally fall on the shoulders of your manager who is in charge of all of you. You don't have to worry too much about making mistakes and just do your best to learn as much as you can."

Hearing that only made the three boys grow paler. Rowan laughed and gave them a pat on their shoulders while Alex assured them that the people from the admin department are actually nice people. Benedict didn't feel consoled when Alex apologised for not knowing anyone from the logistics team and Carol had to bite her lips to stop herself from laughing at their interactions. This was going to be a very amusing two months as well as a great way to end a shitty year.

As they went through the company's mission and vision, Jasper, in particular, appeared to be deep in thoughts behind the cover of his thick bangs. Rowan noticed it but decided to keep this to himself for now. Carol then quickly ran through what Wilde Inc. does as a business and how the various departments worked together. She also explained that because they were an international company, it became slightly more complex because they had to deal with their subsidiaries from other countries, especially with those from Europe.

"The logistics department and admin department are currently the most short-handed at the moment. I have some information about everyone here and I hope that the departments you are attached to will help to broaden your horizons. If you feel that the job scope is not something you can cope with, please bring this up to me so that we can make different arrangements to make these two months with us meaningful."

With that, Carol concluded the induction briefing and told them that they will be going on an office tour to introduce everyone to the various departments and their department heads so that everybody knew who to look for if they needed something.

The boys roused in excitement and Alex had to remind them to keep their volume down and act professionally. Scarlet wanted to correct her sister but decided not to in the end. Other than Rowan and Samuel who made the act look believable, the other boys looked awkward and out of their element. Their dress codes were casual like what was stated in the internship letter of acceptance. However, there was a difference in the level of casualness within the group.

Samuel was dressed in a pristine white button-up with black skinny jeans. His hair was slicked back neatly and it made him look sharp. It also helped that the german boy wasn't trying too hard to put on airs. Rowan wore a simply collared shirt and dark denim jeans with black converse sneakers. His easy-going but friendly personality made him appear confident much to some people's envy.

On the other hand, Jeremy was stumbling over his words, Jeff was stuttering, Issac's glaring was ten times worse than normal making him look like a murderer while Benjamin tried to open his eyes too wide to appear 'alert' that he ended up scaring a few office ladies they passed by.

"Loosen up, guys. You're too stiff," Scarlet whispered.

Issac hunched over and whispered. "I can't... all the a.d.u.l.ts here are too above our level. I don't think I can do this..."

"Me neither," Jeff agreed. "I don't understand anything that they were talking about! Danny didn't teach us this in school."

Jeremy was speechless. As the vice-leader of the E.C. Class after Jinru, it was his duty to pull everyone together. Yet the pressure of expectations made him feel ill in the stomach. He wondered if he could really survive this first day with so many people staring at them oddly.

Benedict was twirling his screwdriver and Samuel wondered why the boy even brought his tools along. Where was he hiding the toolkit with nothing but some faded jeans and a thread worn cotton tee?

Elfie chose to blend in with the taller boys like a shadow while Scarlet struggled a little to keep up with the pace while worrying about the E.C. Class boys. Would they really be alright? She knew that Anna was a nice lady who would definitely help the boys if they needed help. However, they have not even gotten to the real work and already, half of them were looking like they needed to go home.

When the boys were introduced to the fifth director for the day, the young writer finally understood why these four boys, in particular, were struggling so much.

"Issac, Benedict, Jeremy, Jeff... can I speak to you for a second?"

Carol was surprised that the dollish girl would suddenly call the nervous lambs out. Did she realise something?

"It's alright," the young writer smiled. "We're all interns here. It doesn't matter where we come from, we're all starting from the bottom of the ladder together. This isn't school, we're not in the E.C. class or Special Class. In fact, there is an advantage. We're children going against a.d.u.l.ts. It's not a shame to lose to those with more knowledge and experience than us. Why don't we treat this as a special boot camp like what Dragon and the others are doing? Let's give it our worst and meet up with the rest of the boys next year to show them what we've learnt over the holidays."

Carol was slightly surprised when hse heard this. Although the secretary didn't know what the young girl was talking about, the four nervous trainwrecks calmed down at once.

"Scarlet," Jeff swallowed. "What if we make a mistake? Somebody else has to be responsible for our mistakes..."

Alex laughed. "Isn't that what we've always been doing? Back then, we had a bet as a team, didn't we? If anyone failed, we would run laps around the school. You just have to do your best."

"But what about actually doing work? I don't know anything about it, the school didn't teach us how to work..." Jeremy blurted out much to his later embarrassment.

Jasper shook his head. "You don't go to class knowing what the teacher is talking about. In fact, most of you only understood what I was trying to teach only after the fourth time I repeated myself. Working and studying is not very different. Besides, why are you of all people worried? You learn better doing things than reading it from a book, you'll be fine."

Benedict's grip on his screwdriver tightened. "I can't make friends well. What if they hate me in the logistics department?"

Issac's face grew gloomier at that. "My face is too scary."

Elfie scratched his cheek at that and eyed Carol who took the cue and placed a hand on each of the boy's heads. "Don't worry about those. We're only at the orientation stage, you haven't even given the job a chance. If there are any concerns after trying it out, you can always look for me. While we won't spoon feed you answers here in the working world, we do help each other out."

More reassured now, the boys made it through the rest of the tour without much issues. Rowan was already getting friendly with everyone he was introduced with and even greeted them when he bumped into them along the corridor when he saw them getting ready for lunch. Carol was thoroughly impressed at the boy's ability to remember names and people whom he's only met for the first time.

"Alright, that's all for the tour. It is currently lunchtime and I will be taking all of you out for lunch just to show you some places that are budget-friendly for children like yourselves. Please grab what you need and meet me in the lobby," she smiled.

The children were slightly surprised at how quickly time passed. Many of them thought that they would be hunched over files and doc.u.ments for the first half of the day and in great need for something delicious to recharge but this orientation was fairly relaxed as compared to their image of the working world.

Carol smirked as she read their expressions. "Don't worry, the actual work and stress will come soon. This is your honeymoon week. We will slowly hand you things that you need to learn in order to perform on the job. We're not that cruel to throw you into the pit of snakes right off the bat so do your best to learn as much as you can."

The boys paled slightly, not knowing if Carol was giving them a friendly heads-up or pulling their leg. One thing they all agreed on silently after Carol left was that the secretary was actually a scary woman.

"A.d.u.l.ts are scary," Jeff whispered.

Nobody disagreed and Alex promised that they would have lunchtime gossip another day, just not this week. It was unspoken but after the short session with Carol, everyone knew that in the working world, it was better to watch their words and use Elfie's chatroom instead, especially if they wanted to bitch about some of their bosses or co-workers.