We Won
"Listen, guys. We've always done things the same way; yellow pages, flyers, san jose mercury news." Sal told team Lyle as he wiped down the counter. The whole team was stood in front of him now, with their computers out and ready to try and win this thing.
"I mean we're all creatures of habit, am I right Sal? There's no question about it. You know what the scariest thing in life is? The thing in life that frightens us the most?" Billy started, and then paused for effect. "Change."
"And by the way I think most people are guilty of getting set in their ways, I know I need change to come a long and give me a little kick in the ass to get me movin'!" Nick added, the two of them obviously bringing their sales skills to play.
"Listen guys, I know where you're going, but... I'm not gonna change anything." Sal remained stubborn, and wouldn't give into anything so easily. "Like I told your friends, we're getting by okay."
"Sal with all due respect if you fight through your limitations you get to keep 'em do you hear yourself? Okay! I mean okay isn't good! Okay isn't great!" Billy and Nick started rambling on.
"I mean I'm starting to feel that this guy's selfish! Look, I don't wanna get sideways with you, you're as big as a barn, he looks like he was carved out of a damn mountain for gods sake!" Nick said, referring to Sal's looks. "But you're an artist okay! This is great pizza, Picasso with pepperoni!"
The rest of the team couldn't keep the smiles of their faces, it was something about the way that Billy and Nick spoke to a complete stranger like they'd been friends for years.
Stuart looked over at Emily with a smile on his face, she didn't notice he was staring. At that moment, whilst he was watching her smile, he knew hers would forever be his favorite. That's when Stuart realized just how much he had fallen for the one and only Emily Rowan, a sarcastic, competitive, slightly sex crazed, angel that somehow he was lucky enough to come across in his lifetime. The thing between them might be over in a couple of weeks, but Stuart didn't care at the moment while he stared at her, getting lost in her beauty.
"And hey, stop it do not even get me started on the sauce is there nutmeg in there?" Billy asked, amazed, and Sal just laughed obviously warming up to the two older guys. "I mean I can respect the fact that you don't wanna divulge, but if I'm right... Don't say anything."
It was then quiet for a few moments, and Billy learnt that he was in fact right.
"Exactly!" Billy cheered, smacking his hands down on the table.
"There's your answer!" Nick added.
"Come on! All I'm saying is, why should Papa John's make all the dough, when Papa Sal's got the better sauce!" Billy waved his hands around whilst explaining.
"You know what, now you're now starting to sound like him," Sal gestured to his son, Frankie, who was stood next to him with a smile. "He wants to open a Sal's in Los Gatos!"
"The bigger chains are killing us, we're barely staying afloat." Frankie added, and team Lyle knew that he was on their side.
"When you franchise you loose quality, you loose taste that people trust," Sal pointed out, and it was a fair point. "You wanna know why my sauce is better? 'Cause I go down to the farmers market every day, I buy them tomatoes myself. I walk down the street, I get the basil, the oregano. Look, guys. I know these people, I'm part of the fabric of this neighborhood, that's good enough for me."
"Sal, that's better than good enough, that's the best. We're not suggesting that you abandon the neighborhood, all we're saying is... what if your neighborhood got a little bit bigger?" Billy suggested, a hopeful expression evident on his face.
"Dude, look at this," Nick said, turning his laptop towards Sal. "These are all people that love your pizza."
"Talk about word of mouth, huh?" Neha added, smiling.
"They're taking about you Sal, don't you wanna talk back to them?" Stuart joined in, trying to make this a team effort.
"Come on, a few tweets from me you'll be having people lined up at your door, you've just gotta say yes." Emily said with a smile.
"It's true. Do you know how famous this girl is?" Neha said, nodding as she pointed at Emily who smiled.
"Oh my God, that's where I know you from. I've been standing here trying to figure it out." The son, Frankie said. "My little sister and girlfriend are obsessed with your new song. The one with the bedroom ceiling thing. I'm guessing this is the lucky guy?" He said, nodding at Stuart.
"Damn right." Emily said with a bright smile. "Did you know there are almost as many people from Los Gatos searching from sauces that are from Palo Alto?" Emily added in, turning her laptop around, finding some useful graphs and showing them.
"Yeah and they pop in when they're in town but, if there was a location closer to them... They'd be regulars, right?" Neha said enthusiastically.
"Boom, check it out right here, found a great commercial spot right on Los Gatos Boulevard, just hit the market." Stuart placed his laptop on the counter, with the information on the screen.
"That's point three miles from the nearest farmers market you can smell them tomatoes from your door." Yo-Yo joined in, placing his laptop next to Stuart's.
"Farm to table!" Neha cheered.
"F to T baby!" Lyle added, speaking in his rapper speak.
"F to T! F to T's exactly right! We're not asking you to leave the artistry we're just asking you to expand the reach a little bit," Billy paused. "But look Sal, at the end of the day, the kids. They got their computers they got their information, it's all accurate. I get it and I know you do too. I'll tell you Sal, I can't blame you for being a little afraid. Hell, we were scared for a long time grinding it out there with our heads down. And lord knows I've fallen on my ass more than a time or two."
"But I promise you something, you lift your head up, take a breath... There's a lot of great possibilities out there."
"New customers, new franchise, and that's just the tip of the iceberg Sal, it's all waiting at the click of a button." Nick smiled, adding to yet another of Billy's speeches.
"Everybody's searching for something Sal." Billy said, coming to a confusion.
"They're searching for you, we just wanna help them find you."
When they finally got the man to agree, the group ordered a shit ton of pizza's, and Emily made a few tweets promoting the pizza, and as they left there were swarms of people outside waiting to get in. Emily even signed a few things and video called with Frankie's sister and girl friend just to say hi and give them small excited heart attacks.
And almost an hour later Emily had broken into the system, playing Flashdance's "What a Feeling" over the speaker as a video that they had all thrown together of them played on the screen.
Then it was time. Team Lyle made their entrance, dancing down the isle whilst the song played. How they did it, Emily had no idea. They handed out pizza to everyone, quickly making their way through the boxes they all had.
Stuart was dancing awfully and Emily was crying with laughter, dancing along with him as they continued to go down the isle. Chetty kept calling out, trying to get it to stop and get everyone back in their seats to calm down, but his efforts went ignored.
Emily felt in her element, it was the best she'd felt in a long time, apart from the occasions that she'd kissed Stuart of course. They made it to the front where Chetty stood on stage, and on the way Emily managed to put her middle finger up to Graham who sat on the front row and she swore she saw the largest eye-roll in the history of eye-rolls.
"Come on!" Billy yelled as everyone clapped along, throwing a slice of pizza up to the second floor only to have it hit the snitch guy in the face. "Extra toppings on this one boss."
Billy handed Chetty a box of pizza, with the forms of the deal team Lyle had made on the top of the box. The team continue to clap along, stood at the front and off the side to Chetty.
"I see that..." Chetty said, widening his eyes as he flicked through the pages. "That's enough, that's enough!" Chetty ordered, and the music died out and everyone turned quiet again.
"Yes, lovely theatrics ,but the jig is up. It's too late, rules are rules, right Chetty?" Graham's annoying voice came from the front row, making every member of team Lyle want to kill him right then.
"Yes, rules are rules. And the rules state that every team has the right until the announcement is made to turn in their sales. So..." Chetty spoke, and after that team Lyle looked at each other with hopeful eyes. "Despite your lack of punctuality which is astounding, I have no choice but to accept this submission and to recalculate."
Stuart clapped his hands together with the biggest smile on his face, and Emily smiled back at him, admiring him as she always did.
"Go ahead. Recalculate. One sale to a small family pizza joint is not gonna make a difference anyway." Graham pointed out, not getting the hint that everyone wanted him to shut his mouth.
"It does seem that... Mr Hawtrey is correct once again." Chetty said after looking up from his calculations.
"Boom." Graham cheered, obviously.
"The sales from one shop, on the last challenge... Is not enough to put you in the lead." Chetty told them, and they all felt like they'd just been crushed by a boulder or something. They thought they had it, but, obviously not.
"I'm sorry buddy." Billy sighed to his best friend Nick.
"But," Chetty interrupted their sad moment, making them all quickly turn their heads to him. "This is not one shop."
Chetty walked down the stairs so he could stand in front of the team, holding their papers in front of him. They were all scared for what he was going to say, Chetty was a pretty intimidating guy.
"You see, this... Is a blossoming franchise with endless possibilities thanks to you," they all perked up at that, now looking at each other hopefully again. "And what you have done as a team, is connect to people. And connect those people, to information. Which is what we do! And more than that, you have the courage to dream. In spite of your obvious and astonishing limitations, you never gave up on that dream."
"No." Nick agreed, shaking his head and smiling.
"So, gentlemen," Chetty said, looking at the majority of the team. "And ladies." He then looked to Neha and Emily.
"Woah, woah, woah, woah hold on," Graham interrupted yet again, standing up and making his way to the front. "Chetty, no offence, you're a glorified babysitter... Let's get somebody down here, who actually means something."
"Oh it'll mean something when I shove my foot up your ass." Emily said and Stuart quickly wrapped his arms around her in a hug, while also holding her back, as she tried to kill Graham.
"I'm right here." A voice spoke from the back of the room, and everyone turned to see a guy maybe in his late 30s, with a beard and headphones around his neck, he was slightly plump, stand up from his chair and made his way to the front.
"Terrific." Graham scoffed, looking slightly confused.
"Graham, please meet Mr Anderson." Chetty gestured to the guy who was walking towards them.
"Cousin Andi?" Emily asked, confused, and everyone turned to her. "Since when do you work here?"
"Wait, what? You know him?" Stuart asked and Emily nodded.
"My cousin, Andrew Anderson. His dad is my mother's older brother. I didn't know you work here, huh, weird." She said, shrugging with an impressed look.
"Hey, Em." He muttered with a nod.
"You know this guy?" Billy asked Chetty, he'd obviously talked to this guy before.
"I should think I do," Chetty replied. "Andrew here is the head of search, a rather important position here at google."
"Honored, i-it's an honor." Graham stuttered, Emily held in a laugh because Graham was such an ass licker.
"Yeah, you're not working here." Emily said with a bright smile on her face.
"Look at you headphones! Little mystery behind the boy!" Billy smiled.
"Why h-how do you know?" Graham was confused as ever.
"We were encouraged to reach out to experienced Googlers, pretty simple, not a mystery." Nick shrugged, knowing that he and Billy had actually done something right for once.
"To reach out to other Googlers, not just to kiss their asses," Andrew gave Graham a stern look, and Graham looked terrified. "You see, these interns are smart, collaborative, pretty..."
"Thank you." Nick whispered, pretending that that compliment was for him.
"A bit crazy-"
"Thanks Andi." Emily said with a wink at her favorite cousin.
"And just weird enough to make them interesting. Also, they came together as a team to do something here. Their Googliness is truly off the charts." Andrew told Graham, hoping to get it through that thick skull of his.
The team finally thought they might just have a shot at winning this.
"Oh my god can we stop with the googliness like what does that even mean?" Graham whined, putting his hands in front of his face and sighing.
"The fact that you don't know what it means is why you will never work here." Andrew spoke calmly, and Graham raised his slug-like eyebrows and widened his eyes. "And the fact you spent the whole time being a dick to my favorite cousin and her friends." He added and Emily smiled widely.
"Okay, this is why I only hang out with you on Thanksgiving. That and the family doesn't like playing football with me anymore. After what happened Jr of High School." She said, and both Emily and Andrew shuttered at the thought.
"What happened?" Billy asked, confused.
"You don't wanna know." Emily told him with a grimace.
"Okay..." He muttered.
"Also," Andrew continued, stepping closer to Graham so he could whisper to him. "You just made me use a bunch of words in front of a ton of people, look at me, you're a real dick for doing that. Look at me again, and I know your accent is bullshit... Whaaat?"
Andrew then stepped away, leaving Graham stood there, stunned. He definitely wouldn't be interrupting Chetty again.
"See you later, Andi." Emily told him and he nodded, not turning back. "I still can't believe he knew I was here but never said anything." She said, shaking her head with a frown.
"So," Chetty smiled, returning his attention back to team Lyle. There was a long pause for about five seconds, but it was the longest five seconds of their lives. "Welcome to google."
That is the moment that each member of team Lyle never wanted to forget, the moment they were told they won. They all had a big group hug after jumping up and down and cheering, even everyone else was cheering for them. Lyle and Stuart did some sort of belly-bounce with each other and they were all laughing.
"I have a job, I have a job!" Yo-Yo was absolutely overwhelmed and he couldn't believe it.
A minute later they all watched as Zach finally had enough of Graham and hit him hard in the gut, making him fall over as he wheezed in pain.
"We won." Emily said, smiling at Stuart.
"We did." He said with his own bright smile.
"I love you." She said happily.
"And I love you." He told her as they threw their arms around each other and full on kissed in front of everyone, as the large crowd cheered them on.
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