Kaja Lando February 23rd,20XX

All five of us huddled together on one side of the table and tried our best to ignore the haughty looks of the adults across from us.

Just like yesterday, Joyce introduced them to us and us to them, but the casual and welcoming atmosphere had disappeared with the turn of the clock into a new day.

“These are, from left to right, Ms. Bevan, Mr. Harvey and Mrs. Mantas.”

After we’d finished our introductions to the scientists, Joyce had sent us back upstairs to get a full night of sleep.

I’d planned to head back into the hot tub and enjoy another hour of self-indulgence, but Tillo’s panic attack earlier was enough to hold me back. He’d tried to run away to his room, so I’d ended up having to wrestle him into submission and hold a big sister talk session in the living room.

It had taken us until about eleven at night, which wouldn’t have been too bad, but a movie that we both knew had come on the television. The movie had kept us up late, and I didn’t know exactly when we’d fallen asleep, but we’d both woken up to the crackle of an intercom and instructions to go have breakfast and get into a car.

We’d then had to enter a car and go to an imposing-looking building in the middle of the city. It had been my first time being escorted anywhere inside of a building so I’d enjoyed the novel experience but the nervousness had settled in when we’d reached the meeting room.

It was a dark-themed and cold looking room. The fabric of the chairs was a porous material that looked more expensive than anything I’d ever bought on my own, and thick pads lined the walls and served as noise cancellation. Those padded walls made up three-fourths of the room’s external structure, and a wall constructed entirely of windows made up the last.

“These are the five students that made it past all the other applicants. I’d like us all to give them a hand of applause.”

All three of the well dressed and imposing looking grown-ups followed her orders, but nary a smile crossed their faces. Instead, they looked over us coldly and tried to figure out how to make us into profitable products.

Joyce had told us we would have meetings about our accounts on Squire yesterday, but I hadn’t been expecting it to be so formal.

Destia had tried her best to dress up in a formal shirt and a black skirt she’d tucked it into. Archer and Eva were kids and Joyce done some shopping for them yesterday, so they looked like a matching set of dolls.

That left Tillo and I looking out of place in our bright t-shirts and velvet overalls. I suddenly regretted forcing Tillo to turn them into that fabric. It had looked so nice on the actress in the movie, but costumes and real-life clothing were different ballparks.

“Kids, these are the most competent leaders I could find to spearhead the project. You’ll meet the full squad later on in the week, but once we decide on the official faces of your channels, I’ll assign you a team leader.”

She turned to the three adults and made sure they were all paying attention. Her gaze wasn’t cruel or cold, but it was so burdensome that even I, who wasn’t a recipient, felt pressured.

“Let’s start with Destia. I’ll have you listen to the team leader’s ideas, and then you can choose which of the three you want to work with. Since Tillo and Kaja want to share a channel, and Eva is too young to have an official channel, I only brought three. I hope they won’t give me cause to regret it.”

The tallest of the three stern-looking adults unwrapped a large folder and passed out a stack of papers to Destia, the other team leaders, and Joyce.

She ignored Tillo, Archer and me while handing them out, but before I could feel left out, she walked to the front of the room and started up a hologram presentation.

I knew holograms weren’t as high-level technology as the people in the past had considered them, but for a street rat like myself, I couldn’t believe how casually they were being used.

The agent stood in a stiff, unforgiving military stance and began her presentation in a loud and confident voice.

“I will be honest and say that I had quite a tough time figuring a direction for your channel, Ms. Jayden. I just couldn’t see what it was about you that made Ms. Knightly choose your application out of the thousands of others.”

Destia looked down at her feet with an embarrassed expression on her face and fiddled with her shirt, however, she didn’t respond to the rude opening.

“While coming up with a concept for you, I had to look at what it was about you that people would care about. You aren’t that pretty, you don’t have a talent suited for the spotlight, such as singing or dancing. But then I looked at it another way. You’re almost completely average, and that’s why I came up with this idea.”

The hologram took back all the icons that represented the things she’d said Destia wasn’t and blossomed into one word.

Average

“Because you’re average, we can devote your channel to you showcasing you trying new things. You can have a documentary-styled channel and video your experience in learning new things. We can devote each episode to things like makeup, hair design, dancing, singing. Whatever is popular. I read over the essay that you handed in and I think that you have a seriousness about you that would lend well to this style. That is all.”

She ended her presentation there and then returned to her seat with a satisfied expression. Destia, to her credit, didn’t look too upset at the incredibly harsh evaluation, but Joyce seemed more than capable of expressing her discontent.

“I won’t fault you this time since I know you do outstanding work, Mantas. But if I catch any of you talking down to these kids again, I’ll consider it as a resignation notice. Next.”

I’d gotten a glimpse of how serious she could be when she talked to the scientists yesterday, but the cold way she spoke now, thoroughly dwarfed the memory. I felt a chill run down my spine as she casually proposed firing anyone that traduced us, but my heart also warmed up. It was a minor thing, and she probably hadn’t thought about it much, but it was nice to have an adult that would actually speak up on your behalf.

The next speaker got up and made his way to the front of the room. He looked nervous and tripped over his feet a few steps before he could settle himself at the presentation podium. The previously stern and cold image quickly fell, but he benefited from going right after the previous lady.

“Well, the direction I had for Ms. Destia centers on the scriptwriting portion of her application. She had some decent ideas that I saw, so I thought she could release one episode every two weeks based on one of her scripts. It would be a more expensive channel, but it would stand out from all the other channels on the site and it would lead very well to collaborations with other Pages and celebrities. There is the drawback that she wouldn’t be on the screen that often, but we could work together to figure it out.”

Destia perked up at the idea but still looked somewhat dissatisfied.

That was when the last team leader came up. She was a flamboyant looking woman in her mid-thirties that sauntered to the front of the room. The lady was short, and the seven-inch heels only stressed that, but the comfortable way she walked made it look like she was wearing sneakers.

“Well, what stood out to me from Ms. Jayden’s application was her passion for her craft. If I were to be her team leader, I would want to chase down that angle and take the viewers on a learning trip with her. I would use Squires resources to bring in experts in scriptwriting, set design, and have a vlog styled channel. We would give each expert about three episodes and at the end of the series. Ms. Destia would present a project and have that as the last episode. She is a talented young lady, so although it’s a rigorous schedule, I have confidence that she’ll be able to pull it off.”

It only took a single look at Destia’s face to see which of the three proposals she’d liked the most, but Joyce didn’t look as happy.

“Well, we don’t have to decide right away. What about for the twins?”

The flamboyant lady that had just presented shuffled her cards around and moved on to a presentation about Tillo and me. I hadn’t thought about what I would want to do, but I was curious about what they would propose for us.

“Since they are both dancers, I thought to center their channel on that. Twins, especially ones that are as good looking and similar as these two, are going to be popular. As long as they regularly release content on their dancing and release large, good looking productions, then I’m confident that they will rise quickly in popularity.”

Her idea regarding us was much more basic than her presentation for Destia, so I could only fight off the thin feelings of disappointment that sprouted up in me. I couldn’t blame her for thinking as she did, but the last thing I wanted to do on Squire was to spend more time on something I didn’t care about. I wasn’t a talented dancer, and neither was Tillo. We also shared our disinterest in the craft so it would be unfair to make a platform based on that. A look at Tillo’s unimpressed expression told me he shared my thoughts.

She made her way back to her seat and the clumsy guy took her place.

“Well, I thought similarly to Ms. Bevan that twins are an easy sell. Only instead of capitalizing on your talents, I thought it might be fun to see you all try new things together that others might find difficult to do alone. Each episode could be of you two trying and reviewing new things. From products to activities like bungee jumping or ice skating. As siblings, there will be a natural rivalry or a heart-warming element that will make for a solid channel.”

He finished his brief presentation and the mean lady from earlier stepped up to the podium. She pulled up the holographic projector again and handed out her pamphlets again. Only this both Tillo and I got one.

“Instead of just focusing on the fact that you are a good-looking pair of siblings, the two of you also have naturally charismatic personalities. That much was clear from your applications and audition tapes you sent in. While watching your dancing, what showed through wasn’t so much your technique but your natural chemistry as siblings. The moment I saw the two of you I thought you would be perfect for a program we sacrificed in the name of launching the ‘Pages’ program.”

The screen flipped to hologram flipped to a news channel I was familiar with and a beautiful woman posed for a picture. Joyce slightly sat up in her chair and put up an engaged expression.

An exciting feeling bubbled up in my stomach, but I tried my best to push it down and tried to cling to the negative impression I’d had of Mrs. Mantas.