The Good Accountant

Chapter Four: What did I do?

I couldn't stop staring at the cake. My mind kind of went blank. People made their way in slowly I could hear them come in sit down or talk. I didn't move. I just sat there staring. I was in shock.

"Karen hey, I see you got your welcome cake. We got a new assignment and this time it's a big one so we need to have a longer meeting today. Are you ok?" Amy scared me a little when she started talking. Why did no one tell me about the welcome cake? I would think that would be something people talk about. I tried to look like I wasn't just in another dimension. We got to the table and Carmon jumped up and hugged me.

"Darling congratulations, your first week on the job done and over with. I am really sorry about all of the craziness. It isn't always like that. It does get crazy around here but for different reasons. You will have to tell me what welcome cake you got. You seem like a strawberry kind of girl. Ellie got vanilla herself. A classic. She just a sweet little muffin." I don't normally give out hugs. It's not a thing about touching people it's just I'm not around a lot of huggy people. Amy pulled Carmon off of me. I guess I looked uncomfortable. I was still in shock that not even Carmon mentioned anything until today about the cake.

"You guys can catch up later, right now we have a big task ahead of us. Every team is working on a different part of the new school business plan. For the next few months, we'll be working on getting the school up and running. The goal is to get everything in order for the year after next. We want to be able to offer a new kind of schooling as soon as possible. We will, of course, need to go through a lot of hoops to make it a viable choice for families so we need to work fast. We'll be going over everything with a fine tooth comb. There may be a few weeks where we'll have to work weekends too. For now, I'll briefly go over everyone's current assignment and then you'll get a more detailed explanation through the system." It took about 15 minutes each to get to everyone. Dustin was taking notes like always. You know what I haven't really seen Dustin much over the last week. He kind of just keeps his head down. It's not a bad thing. I guess he's just introverted. 

Our team is in charge of the supplies and salary section. I'm going over the salary of teachers first. I have to calculate the average living expenses for the areas that we're building schools in then compare it to the market salary for teachers in the different grades. It shouldn't be too hard. I mean the harder part will be predicting the market changes for living expenses in the next two years. There shouldn't be too much change so you can project. There's an algorithm for that in the system.

I got back to my desk and wait for the new information from the system. The cake and cactus are still in their boxes. I should probably put the cake away. Even if it's a personal cake I can't eat it by myself in one sitting and I think the glaze might melt soon. I put the cake in the fridge and notice something new on the board.

Books have been ordered and will arrive soon. If there are any problems with the books you have, please let your Department Manager know as soon as possible.

I wonder if people will actually try and get gas cards. Fifty dollars for gas is pretty good. It's not too much for reading but just enough where you might skim through the book to make sure you get the money. I still don't get the point of wanting people to read the books. I guess with the list given, it probably had to do with training without calling it training or really paying for it. Your job is to analyze people's buying trends along with saving money for the company based on that kind of inside knowledge. Someone might say that it's unfair to do that. If people are putting their whole lives online for others to see on top of shopping online 'anonymously' it makes it a good source of data to help people buy more of what they want. If you didn't want it you wouldn't buy it. It's kind of like the horse to water thing. There is only so much you can make people do. Character is the part that comes next. They don't tell us to use it as training though so I'm still confused by it. It's as strange as the handwritten note. What's the point of the extra effort? Is Jasmine really just an unusually upstanding person? I get the feeling from her email and video meeting that it may be the case. Her smile was warm. How has she made it this far if that's the case?