Mazaròl Lions : Chapter 3 "You Are Chosen"

Today should be a normal day as usual, Elio after helping the other employees’s work, he will go to Jana's room for the deal he made with her. Should be in this hour, Jana is still in her daily meeting with the other leads and managers but suddenly her stomping heels can be heard inside her room. The sound is getting closer and soon enough the door to her room gets slammed by her. Tomato.. Elio says inside himself when his eyes land on Jana’s face. Yep, she’s so mad. She slams the door again to close it behind her and rushes to her desk where Elio is sitting and doing her work now. “Explain yourself!” She says angrily and once again slams 3 folders of work onto her desk, right in front of Elio. Even though Elio already knows there must be something wrong with his work, which he believe it’s impossible and kinda surprised by it, he still puts his poker face on. He doesn’t say any word back to Jana instead he just checks his own work. What makes it more surprising is that those three folders of work got totally wrong from what the managers asked for. Did I put the wrong codes? These are the only possibilities of where he got wrong. “Well!” Jana slams her desk again to draw Elio’s attention “What are you going to say about it?!” She says angrily with those piercing eyes. Elio already knows that they already made a deal about it but this time he gets irritated because he puts on the blame which should be one of her faults. Getting angry and fighting words are not how Elio faces this kind of problem. He always thought that getting upset because someone is angry to you and expected you would get mad is something stupid which he don’t to get those baits. But one thing Jana did just now is something that he really hated the most, putting all of the blame on him which is not totally his fault. That is why he gets irritated by how Jana, the one who made the deal first, treats him like this. “Before I answer that, let me ask you first.” Elio says coldly, trying to hide his irritation “Since you’re the Tech Lead, why don’t you recheck your work?” He asks which makes Jana flinch and surprise her. That’s right, Jana really let her guard down to check her own work since she made a deal with Elio. All of her work was always done perfectly by Elio but not today’s work where she got scolded from the managers. Now, it’s Jana’s turn to think how to avoid and fight back that question. She could just admit that she’s wrong since not checking her work. On the other hand, would it be embarrassing to admit it right away? After all, she’s the one who started this conflict with him. Second reason is that, if she admits that’s her fault, it could also mean she approves that Elio is better than her? Those are the things that come to her mind, yes she is still thinking about Elio who is trying to take over her place. That is why she tries to make excuses to avoid that question by asking and spilling the thoughts in her mind. “Ohh..” Jana says and takes a few steps back, crossing her arms “Is this one of your plans to get rid of me?” She looks at Elio from head to toe. This kinda reaction is already predicted by Elio, his genius is out of this world, another victory for him. “Alright then.” Elio says, shuts down his laptop, and stands up from his seat “Then you no longer need me. Good luck and good afternoon to you, Mrs. Jana.” He speaks politely and is full of sarcasm. Now Elio's prediction is that Jana will slam the desk with both of her hands and get angrier at him which might say something nonsense or anything like that. Once again, Elio predicted it correctly and Jana just did all of it, almost always his prediction is correct, “How dare you just walk away when time turns out like this? Shame on you!” Jana says angrily and points her finger to Elio’s face. On the other hand, Jana always thought that her actions would at least make Elio irritated, mad, or angry at her, even just a slight bit of it. Unfortunately for Jana, that won’t happen since Elio already read her like an open book. That is why instead of getting what Jana wanted, Elio shows his smug face and puts his head up, looking down at Jana. “Shame on me?” He says with a raised eyebrow “But I guess someone who can’t do any of their work is more..” he continues while giving a hand gesture of underestimating her. “I’ll stop here.” With that, Jana loses it all and throws Elio’s coffee to his face. Even though Elio is so good at predicting people's reactions and what is going to happen next, his response body is not as good as that. Fortunately that coffee is warm enough so that won’t leave any burn or hurting Elio. “Get. Out.” Jana says and lastly throws the plastic cup at him. Elio only responds by glaring at her and takes all of his belongings with him then gets out of the room. Because of that, Elio just goes home without thinking about what happened to Jana. Not to his apartment, since he’s still pissed of how Jana blamed him before, he goes to arcade games to relieve his anger. After spending a lot of time there, fortunately his anger is already relieved and as always to end the day, he goes to his favorite bar. Sitting in one of the bar stools and just talking with the bartender about what he had going through today. “One beer, please” Surprisingly a familiar voice comes from behind and draws the bar stool beside him. It’s Lucas, his friend and the manager of his business. “Not going to your boo boo place?” Elio says with a smirk on his face and takes another sip from his beer. “I would love to do that but something I have something important to do.” Lucas replies while looking at Elio. “So she’s not important?” Elio says sarcastically and teasingly to Lucas which makes Lucas punches his shoulder a bit harder. “Ow!” “First, she’s the most important thing after my family. Second, I could say it’s something urgent that I have to tell you earlier before you get too drunk to listen to me.” Lucas quickly explains what he’s going to do, which Elio already thought the reason why he came to this place. Knowing that, Elio rolls his eyes and groans loudly, like a little child that doesn't want to get scolded by their parents. “It’s not just about Mrs. Jana..” Lucas opens the beer’s bottle cap “Somehow you also got dragged by this accident, Elio.” he says while looking at Elio who only chuckles and takes another sip of his beer. “Dude.. come on..” Lucas says a bit frustrated with how Elio reacts to his words “At least show some interest or anything about what I just said to you.” Who won’t be upset that you remind someone then that person doesn’t give any attention you want, right? That’s what Lucas feels right now. Elio puts down his beer on the table and tells the bartender for another one. “Well.. what am I supposed to say? Should I get mad because of it?” Elio says with a raised eyebrow and finally looks back at Lucas’s Eyes Even though Lucas already knows well about Elio, he still is not expecting this kind of response from Elio. “Don’t you feel threatened or upset that your job will be at risk? Don't you know that the managers want to kick you from the company?” Lucas says with a worried mixed with irritated voice. The bartender comes and gives another beer to Elio and Elio thanks him. “Then? If they kick me, I will just need to look for another job, right?” Elio says still with his careless voice while trying to open his bottle. Now, Lucas only feels desperate because of Elio’s reaction to his words. No use at all but Lucas insists on giving up, that is why he tries one more time to tell Elio. It’s not only because Lucas feels Elio needs to protect his job. He is also upset because he’s the one who helped Elio to get this job in the same company as him. That’s one of the reasons why he feels like what he did for Elio is just useless if he acts like this. “Did you remember that I helped you to get this job? And now you still don’t give a slighliest care about it?” Lucas says and this will be his last attempt to draw Elio’s attention to think about it. But Elio already knew that he’s going to say those lines, that’s why he should show a little bit of his care now. Deep inside, Elio still doesn’t care about anything but at least he cares about Lucas' feelings since he’s one of his best friends. “Relax, bro. They won’t kick me, okay? I got this.” Elios says firmly, hoping that would lighten Lucas worriness, while giving him a pat on his shoulder. With that, a small smile appears on Lucas face and he nods lightly. “Go home. Don’t get too drunk, you still have a day to work tomorrow.” Lucas warns him then gets up from his seat and pulls the back of Elio’s clothes. Elio groans and takes the bottle with him. He still wants to drink but since Lucas already warned him, he will obey his order this time. When they get out from the bar, Lucas offers to drive him home and another reason is that Lucas wants to make sure that Elio goes straight to his house. There is no way Elio would go outside right after he steps inside his house that is why Lucas does this. With that, finally in the first month, Elio gets home earlier, not passing the midnight time. Arriving at Elio’s house, Lucas asks to stay there just chit chatting and playing some video games together since it’s still too early to get into the bed. Actually, Lucas could just drive back home when he drops Elio but he doesn’t do that. This time, Lucas is trying really hard to make sure Elio won’t mess up tomorrow. He will accompany Elio and keep playing or talking with him before midnight so Elio would feel tired after this. But don’t even think that Elio won’t notice the reason behind Lucas’s action. Elio already knows it yet he just plays along with Lucas’s plan since he also doesn’t want Lucas to feel disappointed at him. He’s always one step away from the others that is why Elio got that ‘smartest yet bad at everything’ nickname. This time, Elio fails to predict that he would still get energy to drink another can of beer inside his refrigerator. Because of that, finally for the first time in a while again, Elio sleeps before 1AM in the morning which it’s good enough for him and wakes up freshly from it. Next morning already comes and as always Elio gets ready right after he turns off his alarm. Remembering what he talked about with Lucas only makes him groan and roll his eyes. Elio walks toward his mirror in his bathroom and tries to fix his appearance. “Huh? Is this good enough?” He talks to himself while looking at the mirror and fixing his necktie. His appearance does change a little bit but still.. A bit messy.. Maybe he looks better this time because last night he didn’t drink that much? And he got a really good sleep and woke up freshly like this? Who knows but at least Elio already tries to look better today since he doesn’t want to disappoint one of his best friends. With that, Elio leaves his apartment, never forgets to lock it, and looks for something to eat while walking to the office. Everything is normal, the employees get their work for today and everyone is doing just fine. That's what Elio thought and thinks that he just overdid what Lucas’s favor from last night until the lunch break was over. Elio and Jana get called to have a meeting with their managers which makes Elio surprised that what Lucas told him last night might come right now. When Elio steps inside the room, almost all of the seats on the manager's side are already taken and Jana is already sitting facing all of them. There is one empty chair beside Jana and Elio gets that must be his seat, it looks like they are getting on adjudication. He walks toward his chair and sits down then searches at the managers seats if he could find Lucas there. Apparently, Lucas just arrives there with another manager beside him. “I’m truly sorry, I came late.” Lucas apologizes right after he steps in the room and his friend follows him too. “It’s alright Mr. Lucas, we haven’t started yet.” One of the managers replies to him and nods his head towards Lucas. “Alright since everyone is already here, let’s get started.” The same person that greeted Lucas before starting to talk again, seems like he’s the lead of this meeting. “First of all let’s start from you, Mrs. Jana.” He says and all eyes are on her. Right from the start Elio sits next to her, he already knows how scared and nervous Jana is. But who is Jana for Elio? She’s just a Tech Lead who is always scolding him, there’s no way Elio would care or anything for her. “How long have you been working here?” One of the other managers asks. “O-one year, Mrs. Lilly.” Jana answers, her voice cracks a little bit. “After that we gave you a promotion to be Tech Lead almost 3 months ago, right?” The manager continues. “Yes, Mrs.” Jana answers again. Oh? She got promoted when I got here? Coincidences sure are scary huh. Elio says mockingly inside himself. “We gave you our trust yet you easily break it like this? Do you think it’s easy to choose a Tech Lead?” Hearing that, it almost makes Elio chuckles from what his manager says but he notice Lucas keeps glaring at him as giving Elio warning to not doing anything stupid. With that, Elio endures himself from not chuckling and tries to put on a serious face. “No, it’s not easy, Mrs. Lilly. I’m very sorry about it.” Jana says and starts lowering her head. “You do know sorry won’t cure our trust for you, right?” The manager replies straight after Jana finishes her words. No response from Jana, she keeps her head down. “Because of that, we already prepared some work for today and you need to finish all of this today.” two of the managers come to our seat with piles of work for Jana. That makes Jana look up at those piles of work and her eyes widened. She never gets this much work in these past couple of weeks, that’s probably the reason she looks desperate and teary eyes to her managers. “If you can’t get this job done, unfortunately we will look for another Tech Lead to replace you.” Lilly continues. “But Mrs. Lilly, isn’t it too much for a day? I mean the work is not this much on normal days of work.” Jana says to her manager, trying to persuade to lighten her tasks. “The other Tech Lead can do it so what could be the reason for you?” The manager says sarcastically. “But Mrs. Lilly-” Jana wants to persuade her again but gets cut off from the other manager. “No but, Mrs. Jana. Please take all this work to your room now. Don’t waste too much time here.” He orders Jana to leave the room immediately. Finally tears drop from Jana's eyes and run through her face but she wipes it quickly. “Yes, Mr. Fynn.” She stands up from her seat and faces the managers “Thank you to all the managers here. I’ll take the leave now.” She bows a little and takes all of the work on her hand. After she picks up all the work, she still has time to glare at Elio which only makes him roll his eyes as a sign that he doesn’t care about what she would think about him. With that, Jana leaves the room and the manager only needs to face Elio now. “Now, Elio Sam..” Fynn calls him lazily and sighs from it since the managers probably already know Elio’s attitude. “How long have you been working here?” Really? Same question? Bunch of people are good for nothing. Elio once again mocking them. “Almost three month, Sir.” Elio answers, he doesn’t know all of the managers names except Lucas, that is why he doesn’t call their names. “It’s not really that long, right?” He asks again and turns his face away from the paper in front of him. Response from Elio is only nodding his head. “I’m really sorry to say this.. Sam Elio..” he continues and looks to the other managers “But I guess we don’t need you here anymore since all the workers always reported about your.. You know..” He tries to explain hesitantly. Elio just stays silent and looks at Lucas, Lucas only tells him to try to convince them. But Elio also had enough of these people, this is why he is really sorry that he won’t listen to Lucas anymore. Elio never liked the way this company works and he rarely gets a bonus from his extra work since that is the first reason why he came to this company, looking for a lot of money. “So.. yeah..” Because Elio doesn’t give any reply, that makes the atmosphere in this room awkward “You’re fired.” Fynn continues. “Yes, sir. I’ll take my leave now.” Elio says, bows to them, and walks toward the door. After Elio leaves the room, he quickly packs all of his belongings and gets out of the company building. When he arrives at the front door, someone calls him. “Elio!” familiar sound, definitely Lucas. Because Elio recognizes this voice, he turns around to face Lucas. “Why don’t you try to defend your position?” Lucas says disappointedly. “What can I say, Lucas? I’m literally just a contractor here. Just think like the project is done then that means my contract is also done.” Elio explains. “At least try to let them give you a chance to show how good your work is!” Lucas says with a raised voice, it seems like he’s really disappointed now. “If I just need to show my work performance, don’t you think it’s already shown since the very first beginning?” Elio replies and that absolutely makes sense, on point. Lucas now feels desperate and disappointed at the same time, looking at Elio like this. He just sighs loudly and walks away from Elio. With that Elio finally is alone again and he starts walking back to his apartment. Right after he gets into his apartment, he turns on his computer and updates his profile on the ‘looking for work’ website. The company that just kicked him now is on his ninth list of where he just had worked before. Yep, Elio already worked at many places yet none of them are suitable with Elio. “Done.. Probably needs five or a week to get another job.” Elio says and goes to the bathroom. Surprisingly and strangely, he got a message after he got back from the bathroom which caught him by surprise. “A job invitation? It’s not even ten minutes..” Elio mumbles while checking at the message he got. He starts scanning the letter from top to bottom. “Eh? Just a small company?” Elio says disappointedly and scoffs. Remembering how Lucas helped him to get that previous job, makes Elio groan frustratedly. But something caught his attention which is the time the company sent him this message. How can he get a message just after a couple of minutes updating his profile? “Should I try it?” Now Elio is debating with himself.