Google It ➵ Stuart Twombly

⋆ chapter nine ⋆

The biggest kick in the gut about Billy leaving was when they found out what the next challenge was; sales. Cat had called Billy numerous times since he left, but not once had he answered, in fact he resorted to blocking her number (which is kind of understandable as she called him 37 times in a row). She couldn't get through to him and it seemed like no one cared enough to try, but the second Chetty announced that the final challenge was sales, she knew they had to stop at nothing to get him back.

"Okay, Nick you're the only person Billy might listen to, you have to go get him. In the meantime, we'll scout the area for a small business to connect to Google, I'll text you once we've found one and you and Billy meet us there. While we wait for them, we do the best we can to sell it ourselves. We can do this guys, we have this, let's do it!"

"Okay, loving the enthusiasm, Caitlyn, but what if he doesn't listen to Nick?" Neha questioned, the curly headed brunette giving everyone a worried look. "We need Billy to win this, I'm not convinced we can do it without him."

"We might not have a choice." Cat shrugged, giving Neha a sad smile before picking herself back up and making her tone upbeat, "Come on, guys! Let's get going, we don't have long!"

-

"Look, you seem like nice kids and I'd love to help you out, but I can't. We're just a small family owned business and I want it to stay that way. Hey, Johnny will get you a slice on the way out."

Those words completely shattered Caitlyn's heart, because just like that, unknowingly, that seemingly kind man had destroyed her dream and demolished every hope they had of winning. The four all trudged out, pizza in hand with heart-broken expressions donned on their faces and lent up against the brick wall of the pizza shop. The feeling of wanting to go die in a hole only growing stronger as Graham and his snooty team rode by, taunting them with their sale.

"Well, great. Now Graham's gonna win and we'll never get jobs!" Neha sighed, glaring at the back of Graham's brightly coloured bicycle.

"The challenge isn't over yet, Neha." Cat said, trying to cheer her up a little bit, but unfortunately only having the opposite affect.

"Come on, Caitlyn, wake up! It's over, give up and move on!" Neha responded, turning her icy glare towards her friend.

"Don't talk to her like that!" Stuart defended and if looks could kill..

"Oh, yeah, of course you'd stand up for your little barbie doll." Neha spat, rounding on Stuart now.

"Excuse me?"

"Oh, honey, you heard me."

"JUST SHUT UP EVERYONE!" Yo-Yo shouted, fed up with the sudden bickering. "Cat is right, it isn't over yet and there is no need to start fighting because things got hard. We need to suck it up and think of something, because this team isn't going down without a fight."

"Damn right, it's not!" Billy said, climbing out of a taxi with Nick, grins plastered on the two's faces. "This team has been through some pretty incredible stuff and there is only more to come. So pick yourselves up, pull up your socks and let's do this! This is ours and no one can take it from us, got it?"

"Got it!" the group chorused.

"Right, so let's go in there and make this sale!!"

-

"Hurry up! We're running late, if you don't move faster we'll lose it because we didn't get there in time!"

"Stress less, I have a plan to buy us some more time. Yo-Yo, mind helping me hack into Google?" Nick asked, winking at Cat who only smiled gratefully back.

"I could do that in my sleep!"

"Right, well let's do it then, the faster the better!"

"Agreed."

-

"Nick, I'm going to kill you! That is the worst picture of me ever!"

"Kill me after we get these jobs, right now, we have pizza to pass out and a competition to win."

A confused whisper filled the room as music flooded the area and the screen was covered by a video of dancers with Lyle's teams faces stuck on them.

"And that's our cue!"

The seven danced out and began throwing pizza around the room, random people in the crowd catching slices. It wasn't long before people began calling for pizza and dancing around in their spots, everyone except for Graham of course and that just made everything better. Unfortunately for the seven, Chetty didn't look to impressed and called for it to be shut down. Not before Billy had time to hand him the pizza with 'extra' toppings though, Chetty who nodded as he read through it.

"Okay, okay, settle down, settle down. The rules state that any group can hand it in before the winner is announced, so therefore I have no choice, but to recalculate."

"Go ahead, it's not like one small pizza shop will make a difference!" Graham called out, causing Cat to roll her eyes.

"It would appear that Graham is correct, but this is not just one small pizza shop, this is a chain. They have connected this family and so I have no other choice but to announce them as the winners-"

"Wait, wait, wait, wait! No offence, Chetty, but you're just a glorified babysitter, can we get someone who actually means something up here please?" Graham said, standing up and making his way over to the stage.

"That would be me." A guy announced, standing up from the middle of the crowd and heading towards the eight on stage. The guy wore bulky headphones, yet seemed to hear perfectly.

"Ooh, Headphones a little mystery behind the guy!" Billy whistled, laughing slightly.

"You know him?" Graham questioned in disbelief. Oh this only gets better, Cat thought, grinning to herself.

"We were told to reach out to experienced Googlers, not that hard to figure out." Nick answered, shrugging as a grin broke out on his face as well.

"Yes, reach out, not just suck up. You see, this group really came together as a team, despite their differences and their googliness is truly off the charts."

"Ugh, enough with that word! What does it even mean?"

"The fact that you don't know is why you'll never work here." Headphones said, before leaning closer to Graham and whispering, "and because you just made me say a whole lot of words in front of heaps of people. You're a real jerk for doing that and hey, look at me, I know that accent's bullcrap."

In that moment, Graham stood there speechless as Yo-Yo, Neha, Stewie, Lyle, Nick, Billy and Cat all stood up on stage together with wide smiles spread across their faces and a look in their eyes that said 'we did it' and they did. The odds were stacked against them from the beginning, just as the odds were stacked against Alex from Flashdance and like Alex, they actually made it. Just then, in that picture perfect moment was when they all realised that everything was going to be okay and absolutely nothing could have felt better.

——

a/n: ahhhh that's the last chapter! im so happy to finally finish this story and while it is short, it's the first story I've finished so it's kinda a big deal for me. The epilogue will be up tomorrow so please don't delete it from your libraries just yet! Also, info about a possible sequel and whatnot will be posted on here later, so if that's something you're interested in, please keep it in your library! Thanks so much for all your support, you guys are the best and I love you so much!