SubscribeStar Story: Luna & the Intern, Chapter Two

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Chapter Two

I rolled my eyes at the fleetingly patronizing attitude she was giving me.

As long as Rose learned something from all of this, and maintained the interest she finally seemed to have for the experimental internship, I couldn’t complain. ‘Experimental’ was the key word, too. Maybe she could get certified for a thing or two, or belatedly go through some of the training the rest of us had already done. If she really wanted to do some of the office stuff, for example, maybe we could let her take care of that while the rest of us led the various activities on the schedule.

For the rest of the afternoon, I put her idea of ‘practice’ out of my mind. With how I was in charge of something during pretty much every block, I couldn’t spare much headspace for whatever the end of the day might look like. The main thing I’d have to worry about was making sure I had someone to cover the pick-up area while I was dealing with Rose in the office later. Other than that, I wasn’t too concerned; registration details for a single person would take less than ten minutes, even for a girl not familiar with our system.

With how often I took over tasks after the last round of activities, it didn’t take much to convince the others to let me work in the office this time around. By the time I had cleaned up everything in the gym from the large group game and made it to the end of the nearby hall, Rose had settled into the cheap swivel chair on the main side of the desk.

“There you are, Luna!” she said, with a smile and a chipper tone, “I was worried you might’ve gotten lost. Have a seat.”

It took me a second to process that she was teasingly treating me like a child like she had briefly done earlier. With a small eye roll, I replied, “Very funny, Rose. I should probably be on that side of the desk, with you. Just to help you with the system and all that.”

“But, we talked about me practicing with you,” she said, “Let’s just pretend for a minute. If I have any questions, you’re literally right there. Won’t it be better for me to try on my own first?”

“Well, I guess,” I hesitantly said. There wasn’t really any harm in letting her create a new file or whatever. What would actually be best is if she went through training like the rest of us. But I was still of the mindset to encourage her newfound interest in everything, so I was willing to play along. Within reason. “We can act like I’m being registered or whatever, but I’m still going to be myself.”

Rose just sighed. “You’re no fun. Cool if I pretend, even if you’re not going to?”

Honestly, I was too tired to argue about it. While I was good at my job, and leading games was definitely more fun than being at some soul draining retail job, a full day of dealing with kids of various maturities could be exhausting after so many hours in a row. “Whatever,” I shrugged, “Not to rush you, but I do want to make sure everything’s set before we lock up.”

“You don’t have to worry about that,” she said, “At the end of the day, our youth guidance counselors do all the clean-up and reset things for the following morning. After the last activity, you can just hang out with the other kids during the pick-up time. But first, we have to finish up your registration.”

Once again, I rolled my eyes. The one-sided game of pretend didn’t really work, yet she was committing nonetheless. As we both knew, I didn’t need to be told any information about the schedule and responsibilities of everyone. The kids did help with basic clean-up after an activity, but it was on those of us in charge to actually make sure the spaces were fully back to how they had been before. “You just have to enter all the information in the online system,” I said, “It should be pretty straightforward. Just don’t actually submit anything.”

“Uh huh,” she nodded, focus already drifting to the form on the desk in front of her, “Eleven years old. First time here. Hmm, no behavioral issues? We could put down something about your attitude. Ooh, what if I put down that you’re a compulsive liar? You know, like how you keep insisting that you’re a grown-up girl and all that?”

“Rose, come on,” I said, with an annoyed sigh, “I’m not-”

“See?” she grinned, “Right there. Attitude. And you literally left all of your boxes blank. I need something to put in the system, or I’m not going to learn. Do you have any allergies?”

Before I could say anything about how that very much didn’t count as attitude, she was switching gears and asking about the other sections. “No, but-” I started to reply.

“Any mental health concerns?”

“No. I’m-”

“Exactly,” she said, “Of those three sections, it’s easier to write up some behavioral issues for you. For example, how old are you?”

I was assuming she was fishing for the fake age, but I had already asserted that I wasn’t going to pretend like she was. “I’m twenty-one,” I said, “I already told you-”

“Like I said, compulsive liar,” she cut me off yet again, “How about this? How old are you with this birthday?” Rose turned the form around and pushed it to my side of the desk so I could see the date I put down earlier.

“You wanted me to change my birth year,” I reminded her. If she hadn’t told me to do that when giving me the form, I might not have considered that my actual info wouldn’t work for a girl being signed up for this.

“Come on, Luna! Just answer the question,” Rose huffed.

Once again, I hesitated. She was starting to sound like the moody brat from a few days ago, when the whole point of this little exercise was to encourage her interest in the internship and maybe getting this as a real job the following summer if she liked the work. “Eleven,” I said. Now could she get back to the task at hand, so we could all finish the usual checklist items while the last of the kids were being picked up?

“Eleven years old,” Rose replied, since I didn’t say the whole thing, “You’re eleven, and I’m eighteen. I’m the adult, okay? And I say your form barely has anything on it. You don’t want to be some basic, boring girl, do you?”

I wouldn’t call three empty boxes ‘boring.’ There were plenty of girls who didn’t have allergies or notable behavioral issues. The more I argued, however, the longer it would be until Rose actually turned her attention back to the computer. “Fine, whatever,” I muttered, “You can add something about attitude.” Even while caving to the pushy girl, I still felt the need to give her permission. It was a bit of a stretch for her to call herself an adult, when she still very much acted like a teenager half the time.

“Alright, so,” she smiled, acting relieved that I was no longer being difficult as she kept pretending I was a child rather than a young woman. If I was eleven, that would make me a tween. A bit too old for a girl Rose’s age to be talking down to me in such a way. “Attitude issues. Compulsive lying. Hmm, what else? You can be a little fidgety sometimes.”

Was she talking about the real me? Or just trying to come up with more things to list? As far as I knew, I didn’t fidget. Not more than the average person, anyway.

Tempted as I was to take the bait, whether she was intentionally baiting me or not, I simply bit my tongue and avoided anything that would drag out the process. It would only take a few minutes for Rose to type out all the information on the page, once she actually started typing.

Thankfully, she knew better than to tease me too much. As we both knew, I would only entertain this idea of hers so much. After jotting those ideas down on the physical form, she took the mouse and clicked on a couple things.

It wasn’t totally against the rules for Rose to have access to the computer. She had been in the office alone plenty of times, no doubt playing Solitaire or whatever when someone left her to her own devices. Still, I didn’t love that she was going into our system without me at least watching over her shoulder.

“Okay, let’s start with the basics,” she said, glancing at the top of the sheet for a moment before starting to input the information. From where I was sitting, I couldn’t really see anything, but I had to assume she had figured out how to create a file for a new sign-up. I’d be right there if she had trouble with anything, though it was hardly a difficult system to figure out.

For a few minutes, Rose read the information out loud to me as she filled in each box. Possibly so I could let her know if there was something that needed correcting, though I was guessing she was mostly doing it to fill the silence; otherwise, we’d just be sitting there while she copied everything over.

I did my best to keep a straight face when she got to the behavioral issues. By contrast, Rose was clearly enjoying herself a little. Her lips were pursed in a small smile as she repeated the phrases from a few minutes ago, as she typed them in. It didn’t feel malicious or anything, nor could I blame her too much. Of course it was amusing to the girl to register someone way too old for this place, even though this was just her way of practicing in a slightly more realistic way than just inputting random things in the online boxes.

“Okay, I think that’s everything,” Rose said, upon reaching the end of the online form, “We can say that your payment is already taken care of, so we don’t have to worry about that section. And your first day can be tomorrow, yeah? You’ll be here anyway.”

“Sure, I guess,” I shrugged. The ‘when’ hardly mattered, with how this was just an exercise for the girl, “Need me to check your work or anything?”

“Check what work? Oh, this? That’s cute,” she chuckled, “Kids aren’t allowed on the computer here, Luna. So, tomorrow. Make sure you’re wearing sneakers and appropriate clothes for outdoor activities. And make sure one of the youth guidance counselors checks you in when you arrive. Do you have any questions for me?”

“Okay, Rose,” I rolled my eyes, “That’s enough. If you’re done, we should-”

“Luna.” She interrupted me a bit more assertively this time, going so far as to lock eyes with me while doing so. “Attitude. We’re going to work on that while you’re here. Now, I’m going to ask you a simple question, and I want you to be honest with me. How old are you?”

Honest? That’s not actually what she wanted, after the way she had been speaking to me over the last few minutes. I was a bit thrown off by the directness and everything else, compared to how Rose normally acted around me. “Am I supposed to be eleven?” I asked, splitting the difference. It felt kind of excessive for her to push for the extended game of pretend, even if I had technically said she could ‘practice’ in that sense. At the same time, I had also clarified that I wasn’t going to participate from my perspective.

“You tell me,” Rose said, backing off slightly with the serious tone while still giving off an air of authority normally reserved for the rare times I put her in charge of activities, “You’re being registered to attend our day camp, yes?”

“Just for your practice,” I replied, resisting the urge to roll my eyes this time around, “Come on, let’s trade seats. I can let you know if there’s anything you missed.”

“I think I got everything,” she said, “Besides, it’s too late. I already submitted everything. You should be in the system before sign-in tomorrow morning! Fun, right?”

My eyes widened. “Wait, what? I told you not to submit, Rose!” That information would go to the main office, which was already closed. Unlike us, they didn’t have to wait for parents being held up by traffic and whatever else. While it would be simple enough to undo, I wasn’t looking forward to explaining to someone over there why my information had been recorded and submitted in such a way.

“What? That was before,” Rose said, sounding confused, “We already talked about this. You said I could practice; this is me practicing. Besides, now I can try walking you through your first day here and stuff as a new girl.”

I let out an exasperated groan. “That’s not what we talked about.” This was starting to feel more like one of those instances reminiscent of my own teenage years when a peer would twist a half-hearted agreement into a binding promise.

“Attitude, Luna,” she said, “And I already asked the others; they said it’s fine if you spend a day being a kid instead of a grown-up.”

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