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We sat through twenty-two more presentations. Disappointing, and unfortunate. The very last one, her PowerPoint wouldn’t come up and she wasn’t good at extemporaneous delivery, so she tried to explain it without any graphics or supplemental material. If it was her idea, she should have been able to.
And Jake ripped her apart for it. She about ran out of there in tears.
“That was so mean,” I mumbled.
“Yeah. This is shitty man, what if we don’t find anyone?”
I shrugged.
“Then we set our sights on a different school.” He shook his head, looking at who was next.
I crossed all my fingers, hoping Madeline Jackson would save the day.
2
Madeline
I spent the entire night wondering if was too late to change my major.
Eventually, I came to the conclusion that since I was a senior nine weeks from graduating, it kind of was.
I was going through my presentation over and over, and I would mess up something different each time. I groaned in frustration multiple times and collapsed on my couch, defeated. It wouldn’t do me any good to stay up all night, but I had to get it right.
This meeting with Collegium Corp was my big break. I was riding on it since January when I was told I was in the final selection, and could deliver my presentation in person to two of the most influential businessmen and investors in the city. I didn’t even know what they looked like, but I knew everything they did from top to bottom.
I memorized all their dates and numbers too. The exact day their gym, their springboard investment opened, when they started buying out investors, and when their company grossed a billion dollars in one investment period. They were a force to be reckoned with and I knew I had to do something to get their attention.
I purposefully didn’t want to see any photos because it would throw me off, I just thought of them as two springboards. They have a buyout option, but I didn’t want it. I wanted to be a CEO. It was why I double majored in business entrepreneurship and management. I was top of my class and had a perfect GPA. I looked good on paper. Now,
I just had to blow them away in person.
“Oh my God, are you still up?” My roommate and best friend, Sarai, scared me half to death.
Her bedroom opened right up to the living room. She stood in the doorway, her shirt crooked and her blonde tresses wild and messy. She looked like I had woken her up, but I know she just lays around watching Netflix for hours.
“Yeah. I have that big presentation tomorrow.” I answered. She yawned and padded over to the kitchen in her fuzzy socks.
She made us both tea, black for me and green for her. We lived together for four years, and our friendship was accidental. But perfect. She was a public health major, so she rarely had free time and was the complete opposite of me. Tall, and leggy, perfect for a model. Seriously, she modeled to pay for school.
“How is it going then?” She sat next to me. I sipped the tea and instantly relaxed.
“Not good. I keep messing up the numbers.”
“Because you have been at it too long, go to sleep.” She said, half asleep herself.
I nodded in agreement. I had to be well rested and it was almost one. I stood up, my baggy shirt falling over my yoga pants and I started packing up my stuff. I had two big graphics and a PowerPoint presentation. All the stuff was there, and I knew it was good.
The idea came to me in one of my required classes, composting. I geared it toward the younger crowd, who was quite honestly very lazy. But a good majority of them were in touch with the environment, and the amount of people composting now were largely made up of the younger crowds. So, by putting an easy access facility near campus, it would encourage young people to take part in it. One day, it could expand to residence halls, apartment complexes, and such.
Maybe I was a hypocrite because I don’t compost myself, but if there was anything I learned in my business classes it’s that if enough people do it, it’s important. It matched up with their investments from the past two years. They had acquired almost twenty private recycling firms, and have stepped in to sustainability within the community. This was the only idea they had not capitalized on. I really hoped they didn’t buy it off of me, but I would take what I could get if it meant being mentored by either of them.
Ugh, I needed to sleep.
I finished off my tea, and Sarai said goodnight. I knew she only came out to check on me. She was more my sister than a friend and roommate. We met freshman year at the required orientation, as roommates, and hadn’t parted ways since.
It has been good so far, but we have both been so busy since the second semester, that we have barely seen each other. Even over spring break we were working nonstop on our thesis and turned them in early. We had one day off to binge watch Game of Thrones.
I was glad I had someone to challenge me though, to push my limits and make me work harder. We studied together, motivated each other; we balanced each other out.
