Legend's Apprentice

Enterprises

I called Ms Stewart as I waited for the computer, telling her that I'd been hired at Wayne Enterprises and that I started day after tomorrow, thanking her for getting me the interview.

"What are they going to have you do?"

"Well, they're doing some work with climate change there, and because I want to take the Earth Sciences class next year, they pulled in one of their researchers who wants some help. I'll be doing a lot of work helping prepare his work for publication, proofreading, but also helping a little with his models. Dr Reynaud is a leading researcher in greenhouse gasses, so this is amazing." I paused. "It's happened so fast, but I'm looking forward to this. I made sure he knows that I don't have any experience in this area, so he knows what he's getting."

"Good, good," she said. "I'm pleased that it's worked out so well. It's a little surprising that it happened so fast."

"Dr Reynaud said that there wasn't any point in dithering," I said, and she laughed and told me to keep her informed.

Then I emailed Aslyn, telling her that I had a new job, it would take some time to explain, and to call me when she got off work. Then I wrote a resignation letter and took it and my ID badge back to the tower. The woman who had taken me down to biology looked puzzled. I took a certain amount of pleasure telling her that I needed full time work this summer and that I didn't really appreciate having my hours cut with no notice. I knew it wasn't her fault, but I wanted somebody there to know it wasn't ok with me. She didn't say anything, just had me sign a bunch of papers, told me that my last check would be mailed to me, and took my badge. She had a security guard escort me since I no longer had a badge to get the elevator to work.  I waved to Barney as I crossed the lobby and bumped into Natasha at the door. She looked at the guard and me, then the guard again.

"So what's going on here, Alex?" she asked.

"I quit," I said steadily. Her eyebrows shot toward her hairline.

"Why, if I may ask?"

"Mr Stark said I was slow and my work mediocre, so he had me reassigned to biology, only they don't have enough work and I'd only be working half as much. So I quit." Her eyes got big.

"James isn't going to like this," she murmured. "Does Emma know?"

"Forget my uncle, I don't like it," I snapped. "I don't deserve to be treated like that. I don't know if she knows or not. What's she going to do, anyway? It's not her company."

"Don't be hasty," she said. "Half a job is better than none, right? We can go back up to HR and--"

"I found a job," I said flatly. "The careers counselor at school helped me. I had an interview earlier."

"Doing what, retail? Fast food? It's a waste of your time."

"I'm working in environmental science. Don't worry, I signed the non-disclosure agreement in HR, but there's nothing to worry about. I won't be making solutions or trying to learn robotics, so there's no overlap, no way to use whatever knowledge I gained during my employment here."

"This seems fishy," she said.

I frowned. "The company is legitimate and yeah, the interviewing went faster than expected, but I met the scientist I'll be working with and he signed off on it. Excuse me, I need to go."

I was about halfway home when my phone rang. It was Aunt Emma. I didn't want to deal with this on public transportation, so I let it go to voicemail. Mindy was home early; she was getting ready to go out to LA for a couple weeks to work on a project. "Alex, honey, are you ok? You look really wan," she said, testing my forehead.