After their team training was declared a success, two more announcements were made. First, they would each receive a company computer. On these computers was an app with loaded training and instructions on how to make their company account. They needed to complete those training by the end of the week. Second, the other specialty teams of Gale Research had arranged a welcome party for them to attend.

  Summer was thrilled. It was finally a chance to meet the other teams, and find out more about what this kind of work was like! More importantly, it was a chance to hang out with Ashton. It had been a while, so Summer was determined to turn this party into a proper date. She couldn't afford to slack off in her efforts with Kayla around. Unfortunately, she missed her chance to talk to Ashton about it since he was called away to pick up their new computers. At least Kayla also missed the chance.

  Later that afternoon, Ashton dropped off the new company laptops to each apartment, starting with Summer's. At least she assumed she was the first, judging by the four laptops still in his arms.

  "Come in," she beckoned, "I actually have something I need to ask you about, and I might need help setting it up."

  Ashton stepped inside. "I got the general rundown myself, so I will try my best to explain how this works," he promised, setting the computers down on the counter and picking up one. "Where would you like yours?"

  "The dining area is fine," Summer decided. Whatever the training involved, she figured it would be best done at a table. She didn't really want to risk getting the company laptops mixed up with her own in her room.

  "Since you've probably never had a company laptop before, I am going to explain the basics of how they work," Ashton began, "They have a monitoring system that reports everything done on them back to the company. They are strictly for work purposes, and you cannot download any apps or programs onto them."

  Summer grimaced. "They are going to keep track of whatever I use it for? Really?" she asked, "At that point why not just make us go to some kind of office to do this?"

  "Convenience?" Ashton suggested, but he didn't have the answer himself.

  "Right. So what is the training thing?" she asked. She figured she might as well try to figure this out first.

  Ashton showed her how to work the computer and helped her set up a company account. Then he showed her how to log into the training kiosk and view her trainings. There were so many there, Summer couldn't help but feel overwhelmed. They were meant to do all of this in a week? On top of everything else?!

  "They should all be relatively short," Ashton assured her.

  Summer grabbed his hand before he could leave. "Can you give me a reward to look forward to, then?" she asked, "If I make good progress, promise me you will go to the party with me as my date."

  "It's not going to be the kind of a party," Ashton warned her, a bit flustered.

  "That doesn't matter. Just pick me up and stay with me. We can make it a date, right?" Summer begged.

  "Alright," Ashton agreed, "but you don't have to earn it. You can always just as-"

  Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

  "I do have to earn it," Summer interrupted before she got tempted, "If I don't have some kind of incentive I don't know if I will be able to manage all those trainings."

  Ashton paused for a moment, then sighed. "Alright. Then I will work on them after I help set everyone up as well," he told her, "We could make it into a game, if you want. See which one of us finishes the most before the party?"

  "A game? Kinda like a bet?" Summer asked, already feeling excited, "You're on! Oh, but we should have some sort of stakes on it, right?"

  "What kind of stakes?" Ashton asked.

  "Um..." Summer had been so confident when she proposed the idea, but now that it came down to it she didn't have a clue where to go from there, "Dessert?"

  "Whoever loses has to bring the other a treat?" Ashton guessed.

  That wasn't what she had been thinking, but Summer latched onto it. "Exactly!"

  After Ashton left, Summer got right to work. She clicked on the first lesson, and it didn't seem that bad. It listed how many pages there were and each page looked like it was meant for a slideshow so there weren't too many words per page. The problem was on page seventeen out of twenty. It was a video. A twenty-three minute video.

  Summer could feel her chances of winning go down the drain as she clicked the play button and it struggled to load. The Internet here had worked fine earlier so it was probably a server problem. Once the video finished buffering, it showed her a pixelated image of a chibi cartoon hero holding a microphone.

  "Welcome to the Department of Powers, Emergency Assistance division!" it began in an overly cheerful voice that sounded like some form of cheap AI, "Whether you were hired on with DOP or through the Gale Research Outreach program, you have an important role to play in the safety of this world!"

  At least it seemed like it would give her useful information about her job going forward. Summer focused, only to watch the minutes slowly drag by as the chibi hero went on about things specific to combat teams. Sure, the situations might come up once or twice, but since all of the people they were dealing with would have mental powers she wouldn't need to know the correct way to fight on ice, or how to treat a burn in battle. When the video finally got to something that seemed promising, it ended.

  What was that all for? Summer looked at the clock to see half an hour had already passed. Or rather, only half an hour. She felt like that video had drained her completely, and it had been her very first training. There were even questions after! She needed to up the stakes of the bet if she was going to survive this.

  "Let's up the stakes of the bet," she texted Ashton, "The treat has to be handmade."

  There was a delay, and after reading his response, Summer was certain he was laughing. "That difficult? Sure."

  Summer had known from the beginning she was betting at a disadvantage but that didn't mean she wasn't going to give it her all. Still, it had been a while since she tried making any kind of treats. She might have to visit home for this one. Visit home. The words felt odd. It barely even felt real that she had left at all. No! She didn't have time for nostalgia!

  Minute after grueling minute ticked by as Summer forced herself to study training after training. Luckily, the majority of them did not have videos. The ones that did were just as bad as the first, though. After she finished a respectable amount, Summer stretched and felt her joints popping. She had been sitting at the table for quite some time.

  At long last it was close enough to the time for the welcome party that she figured she couldn't finish any more. Even after all of that Summer figured she was maybe halfway done. Rather than waiting for Ashton to drop by, Summer changed into something a bit cuter and went to pick him up herself. This whole bet would be meaningless if they didn't actually go to the party as a date.

  To her surprise, Ashton changed clothes as well. It was still in the realm of business casual but it suited him much better than his earlier outfit. He seemed oddly nervous, but he held out his hand.

  “Ready to go?” he asked.

  Summer took his hand without hesitation. “Yes!”