I was about to thank him, but he was already turning away to face the rest of the group.
“Alright, Julia Simmons! You’re next. Up in the chair, please.” He smiled as a girl with mousy brown hair hurried past me to take her turn.
I scuffled to the back of the group, feeling flustered, but also weirdly lighter than I had been when I got in the chair.
It was a comfort, I realized, to know that I would get to live the rest of my days with one less humiliating incident plaguing me.
I watched as Jay repeated the procedure on Julia, though he only needed to brush her hair back once.
With sweaty palms, I flattened my cowlick, feeling bad that he’d needed to work so hard to get my hair out of the way for my demonstration.
“He only picked you because he feels bad for you,” Melanie hissed behind me. I frowned at her, my gut churning uncomfortably at the clear jealousy in her eyes.
“I’m sure he’ll pick you, too,” I said, trying to placate her.
“Whatever,” she scoffed, crossing her arms over her chest as she stared me down behind her cat-eye glasses. “If you know what’s good for you, you’ll stay out of my way. I’m planning on running this department within the year.”
That seemed…ambitious.Nodding awkwardly, I shuffled away from her, putting distance between us.
She didn’t need to worry. I was just happy to have gotten this job in the first place. I wasn’t in a rush to climb the ladder. All I wanted to do was immerse myself in science and follow my lifelong dream of unlocking the secrets of the human mind.
If she wanted to gun for Jay’s job, all the power to her.
I was just hoping she could do it without making my life a living hell along the way.
The rest of the orientation thankfully passed without incident. The only thing that made me feel a little uncomfortable was that Jay passed Melanie over for a chance to have a memory extracted, and she clearly blamed me for it.
However, it was hard for me to worry too much about her angry eyes burning into the back of my head as Jay all but led me by the damn hand through campus.
He had a way of making me feel like it was just him and me as he showed us around, and a few times I found myself forgetting there was a whole crowd of people tailing behind us.
On our tour, we learned that there were four main‘neighborhoods’that made up the Nexus. NeuroWell, NeuroComms, The Cortex, and NLQ, which stood for Neurovance Living Quarters
We’d just done the practical in NeuroWell, where most of Neurovance’s therapy research was done. Jay informed us that the building was where we would be spending most of our working hours, though we were free to use any of the outdoor collaboration stations scattered throughout the campus.
There was also NeuroComms, which was an even bigger neighborhood dedicated to marketing.
NeuroComms didn’t just house social media and PR experts; they were also responsible for global market localization and distribution, apparently.
The Cortex was where the main cafeteria was located. There was also a bar/restaurant that was open on weekends that employees could take advantage of, called the Memory Tap. The Cortex also held a large atrium where company-wide town halls and new product demonstrations were held.
Then, finally, the biggest part of campus was NLQ.
My jaw dropped as Jay led us through the massive white and chrome gates that opened up into what essentially looked like a futuristic resort.
“Neurovance doesn’t believe in traditional hierarchy, so you’ll find yourself living close to managers, directors, and even C-level execs, such as myself.
“We believe that rank doesn’t equal brilliance, and everyone at every level has value here.” He glanced back at us, his eyes shining. “I was an intern when I pitched the idea for the NeuroExtractor 1.0. The founder’s original working concept for the procedure was much more invasive.”
There was a wave of impressed murmurs, and many of my new colleagues’ eyes shone with excitement at the possibility of bringing their ideas to the table, despite the fact that we were a group of entry-level researchers.
I, on the other hand, couldn’t get past the possibility that I might be living close to Jay, or someonelikeJay.The whole idea made me nervous… but then again… most things made me nervous.
I was going to need to learn to adapt to these new stressors, and quickly, or I might not last here long.
“NLQ has four fully equipped gyms. We also host yoga, spin, and pilates classes. They’re free for anyone to join. You’ll also find three Olympic-size pools, four tennis courts, two basketball courts, and a dance and movie theatre,” Jay rattled off.
“Curfew is 10pm on weeknights. Everyone is expected to be in their cubes by then, unless they have permission from their department supervisor to be out late for work. Friday and Saturday nights are open; thereis no curfew. If you need to leave campus to visit family and friends, you can fill out a request form with your NeuroPath rep. Each cluster of rooms has one, and you’ll meet them when you collect your key card.
