“My previous assistant lasted two weeks. This one lasted three days,” complained Serra, “Why can’t human resources get me someone more competent?”

Serra had already had a very bad day and things weren’t looking up. It started with her waking up late, arriving at work to find that her assistant had quit and culminated in this argument with her boss.

Her work was always impeccable, her assistants’ work on the other hand, not so much. This last one couldn’t even handle his first assignment and embarrassed the company over a simple task. How hard can it be to get coffee, file papers and handle one simple case study?

To top it all off, he didn’t even have the grace to quit like a normal fellow. Instead he jumped from the roof of the building and inflicted damage on their well-manicured lawn and corporate logo.

“Why are you complaining to me? Your work was sub-par and because of resulting damages to company property your pay is getting docked until repairs are complete,” voiced Vice President Christensen calmly.

“I don’t think my pay should be docked because of his stupidity! Besides, it was only some cosmetic damage.”

“Cosmetic Damage? He obliterated the J in our logo!” Truth be told, the assistant had also caused a bit of pitting in the sidewalk and broke a window, but there was no reason to quibble over details. “My decision on that is final.”

There was a pause as Serra started and disregarded several responses. She eventually settled on a nod.

“Was there anything else, Serra?” the Vice President asked after rubbing his temples a bit.

“Well, about my assistant… I want another one.”

Instead of responding with ‘Why do you sound like a child wanting a new puppy’ Christensen chose the more tactful “Why are you asking me? That’s Gabe’s department.”

“Actually, would you mind if I interviewed my next assistant personally? I know it’s against company policy, but it might cut down on my high turnover rate,” and give me a short break, Serra added internally.

“Sure, tell Gabe I said it was okay.” With that, Serra was dismissed. She turned to leave and had to restrain herself from skipping as she neared the door.

“Just don’t slack off on anything,” Christensen called out behind her.

Serra’s shoulders fell.

This brings us to the present, with Dane Bishop shedding away the heavy course load in the last days of finals week, and finishing up his Socio-Cultural Anthropology final.

“What is the primary concern of the AAA and all successful Cultural Anthropologists?” repeated Dane under his breath. An easy last question, maybe Coach Robby is slipping. Dane scrawled down “The well-being of their focus group” and turned over the last page of the test. He looked at the blank back of the sheet of paper, then smiled.

He was the first person done. He decided to skip reviewing his test answers; it was bad luck.

Dane tossed his pencil case and binder into his backpack and walked down the row of desks until he came to someone with their feet up on a chair across the aisle. Rather than disturb the student he jumped down to a different row of seats and walked to the stairs leading to the exit of the lecture hall and the Professor’s desk.

Professor Robinson was a slightly balding and informal man who stood six feet four inches in height. He preferred that people call him Coach Robby because it was one of the few perks he got as the Coach for the Cheer leading squad.

The middle-aged man looked up from his desk and noted Dane’s presence.

“Finished already?”

“Yeah,” Dane said flashing the Coach a half-smile.

The professor looked back over his papers, “Have you ironed out that student aid issue yet?”

“I’ve confirmed that I’ll be getting some, but I’m not sure if ll be enough to make ends meet. My funds are pretty short and I need to find work.”

“I heard about a job from a friend of mine, you interested?”

“Yeah, it wouldn’t hurt to look into,” …after-all, I could always move back to Humboldt I guess, Dane thought to himself. “What’re the specifics?”

“Well, it’s an internship of sorts…”