"You wanted to see me, sir?" A shy, young voice called from beside a door as in walked a young adult girl who could had been easily mistaken for a teenager due to how youthful she looked and sounded.
"Yes, yes, please, come in," The silver-haired man known as Paul Lewiston requested to the young woman and let her walk inside as they shook hands. "You must be Willa Maxwell."
"Yes, that would be me, sir," The young woman replied with a small smile. "It's good to meet you, Mr. Lewiston."
"Yes, it's good to meet you as well, though I already have a question for you."
"Yes, sir?" Willa replied as she sat down in front of his desk as she tried to stay comfortable, wearing calm and cool colors with different shades of blue.
"Are you sure you're old enough to work in a Law Firm?" Paul asked with a chuckle, knowing she could not had been a minor, but couldn't believe it physically as she looked like she just came from school.
The girl smiled bashfully. "I just turned 20 actually."
"Really!" Paul replied. "You look at least 14 to me."
"I get that a lot," Willa said sheepishly. "But I assure you that I just entered my 20's."
"Appreciate and value them as much as you can," Paul said to her as he soon held out his hand. "Now, I trust you have your resume and references?"
"Oh, um, yes," Willa replied as she held out two pieces of paper that were typed up and printed from the computer. "Yes, sir."
"Very good," Paul said as he accepted the papers. "Now, I trust that this is mostly for an internship, but... Why would you want this job?" he began to ask her. "Why would you want to be a receptionist for a law firm?"
"Erm... Well, sir, I would like to try out an experience at a law firm, it just seems interesting to me," Willa replied as confidently as she could as she sat up straight to appear professional. "I mean, you help people when they need you the most. You're like a superhero, but in real life."
"Interesting choice of words, Miss Maxwell." Paul remarked.
"Thank you," Willa replied. "I would love to solve any problems that someone might call for me before I would become a lawyer eventually and I would be helping you of course with such a great law firm like Crane, Pool, & Schmidt."
"I see... I see..." Paul nodded. "Now, tell me, what challenges are you looking for in this law firm position?"
"Well, uh, I hate to bring this up, but I'm hoping to overcome some shyness."
"You're shy?"
"Well... I'm not exactly shy, but I feel nervous around new people," Willa explained as best as possible. "I'm hoping for being an intern in a place like this that it'll help restore some confidence and make me into a supporting young lady as I crawl out of the ooze of childhood and journey into adulthood to be somebody."
"So I see..." Paul said as he made a note of that before Willa flinched in her seat as that made her stomach turn like she said something odd and unusual, she was always a rather unusual girl. "Tell me... Do you have any weaknesses? I see that you'd like to come out of your shell, metaphorically speaking of course."
Willa swallowed thickly from this question as she was warned not to mention it unless asked about it during a professional interview from both practices from school and at home. "Well... L-Like I told you, I'm a bit nervous around new people," She then said, trying to keep her voice strong and bold. "Sometimes if I get too much information at once and it overwhelms my brain, I get a little flustered. If it's possible, I'd like to have a checklist or be told information one at a time. Like, do one task and then once I remember it, tell me another as long as you're patient."
"Hmm... That's a good answer..." Paul approved with a small smile which made Willa silently cheer in her head. "Now, Miss Maxwell, I understand you're doing this internship for school, but why should we hire you for this position?"
"Well, to be honest, I feel like this would really help me get out in the world and explore, especially in Boston," Willa explained as best as she could. "I'm a little new to the area, and I hope that people here would help me get to know it better and this company feels like one, big happy family."
"Well, yes, it can be that on a good day," Paul replied from that. "I do hope you're a good team player though."
"I try, Mr. Lewiston!" Willa replied, trying to beam in her voice to sound happy, though inside she was scared to death of bombing this interview, so to speak.
"Well, it certainly nice to meet you, Miss Maxwell," Paul soon said before he stood up which made Willa stand up with him before they shook hands. "Would you please wait for me out on the balcony?" he then requested as he pointed out the door for her to see as he opened it to let her out. "I will be back with you momentarily."
"Yes, sir," Willa said. "So, you'll get back to me very soon?"
"I will have to see, we are very busy people here at Crane, Pool, & Schmidt after all," Paul told her as he let her out. "Get some fresh air and I will meet with you again before I send you home. Is that understood?"
"Yes, sir," Willa nodded her head. "Thank you."
"You're welcome, Miss Maxwell, and thank you for your patience." Paul replied before he shut the door behind her and went to do what he had to do.
Willa swallowed thickly as she went out to the balcony. She came to sit down and let out a small gasp as she saw someone already there.
"Denny, I'm sorry, but I needed a quick break to relax myself before I think about this case." The man's dry, yet slightly slimy voice replied, showing an older man with brown hair and a black suit with a blue tie as he held a glass of what looked like Scotch with a cigar in his other hand.
"Erm... It's not Denny..." Willa replied, bashfully. "I'm new around here."
The man turned around before taking a look at her. "Oh... So you aren't..." he then said. "...Who are you and why aren't you in school?"
"...Because I graduated?" Willa smiled bashfully with a weak giggle.
"You think you're funny..." The man said to her. "Now as I said before... Who are you?"
"Erm... My name is Willa Maxwell and I was trying to become an intern here at Crane, Pool, & Schmidt..." Willa said bashfully. "I think I heard about you on the website... Alan Shore?"
"That would be me... Good to see someone knows who I am by name and not by reputation," The man chuckled as he sipped his drink. "You might understand when you're older."
"...Could I sit?" Willa soon asked. "Mr. Lewiston asked me to sit down out here until he would come back for me."
"Go ahead, just don't tell Denny Crane," Alan replied as he gestured to the seat next to him. "He gets funny if I come out here with other people."
"Guess I'll take your word for it," Willa said as she came to the other seat and sat down next to him and crossed her legs to get comfortable. "I'm a little nervous about the receptionist job and I'm just an intern."
"What motivates you to get out of bed in the morning to work so many hours and not get paid?" Alan asked curiously.
"...Experience..." Willa shrugged. "I lived here when I was very young, but now I'm back with my family while I take time off from school to be here."
"Well, welcome back to Boston," Alan replied. "That's all I can really say to you."
"Thank you, Mr. Shore," Willa nodded to that. "I'm really curious about this place and the job, so that's what motivates me."
"Well, it's good to see a kid with some goals. How old are you?"
"I just turned 20 actually."
"20?!" Alan laughed a bit before looking to see Willa looked discouraged somehow. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to offend you, it's just... I wouldn't have guessed that with how young you look."
"I get that a lot," Willa nodded her head as she rubbed the back of her neck that cradled her ebony hair, as black as a crow's feather. "Some people think I'm very pale and might be in need of some food right away."
"Yes, you're almost white as a sheet," Alan had to admit. "I thought maybe you did run into Denny. You know about Denny Crane, right?"
"I've only heard of him," Willa shrugged. "I don't really know much about him."
"Well, take it from me," Alan said as he looked deep into her eyes as she looked more bashful than usual from the forced eye contact from him, it felt very different and strange from him than from anyone else she had encountered in life. "You need to be very careful, especially with how young you look. He takes many victims if you know what I mean."
"I-I-I think so..." Willa said softly.
Alan nodded before he sat back down and got comfortable in his seat. Willa's face visibly had color that time which was a bit of a red and pink tint and she felt and heard her heart pounding inside. She wasn't sure if it was the intense eye contact he gave her or something else. The two were then quiet as Willa twiddled her thumbs and wanted to say something to make a conversation with the man, but found no words leaving her mind and out of her mouth, so the two were both quiet.
"Miss Maxwell?" Paul soon called, coming to the door which pulled the girl out of her reveire and she looked over before he saw Alan with a bit of a sigh as he looked back at her. "You should receive a call in the next two days."
"Yes, sir!" Willa replied as she stood up confidently.
"Thank you for visiting us today," Paul said as they shook hands as he led her out the front doors. "It should be a good experience for you."
"Oh, I hope so," Willa replied before calling out. "Goodbye, Mr. Shore!"
"Goodbye." Alan nodded his head as he sat back down and looked out into the city from his seat.
Willa found herself only barely listening to what Paul said about her having potential and wished her luck. It seemed very likely that she got the job so far, though she had her mind somewhere else right now as she began to leave the building of Crane, Poole, & Schmidt. Hopefully, this would be worth it, she wasn't sure though. All she knew now was that she felt funny inside. Not funny haha of course, but funny weird. What was this feeling that she was feeling? Was it the anxiety of getting a new intern job or was it something else? She could not be sure.
A/N: What do you think? You wanna follow Willa Maxwell's journey? Let me know and maybe I'll update the story if you're lucky. I typed this up shortly after finishing the series on Amazon Prime. If you like it enough, maybe I'll update, but if you don't... I guess we'll see what happens. As always, Read & Review!
