Super: Origins by Palladian Read Free Book Online Page A

including me.”
    After concluding, Lex looked around at the audience that she could see. Clara had gone back to typing on her laptop and Serena smiled more broadly now, still looking at Joan. Joan didn’t notice, a considering look on her face, and Casey was chuckling to herself.
    Clara spoke up at this point, since everyone had been silent for a while. “Riss, did you have anything else for Lex?”
    “No, I’ve made up my mind,” Riss replied.
    “All right, ladies,” Clara said, looking at each of them in turn and sort of automatically at the speaker in the ceiling, “in the interest of fairness, so that our candidate can know what you’re thinking about her, are you ready for a vote?”
    “Yes,” all of them responded, more or less in unison.
    Clara looked down at the laptop again, tapping on the keys. “OK. Joan?”
    “I vote to accept Lex,” Joan said.
    Serena lifted a shapely eyebrow, and Casey chuckled to herself again.
    “Casey?” Clara asked.
    “I vote to accept, as well.”
    “Riss?”
    “I vote to accept her,” the electronic voice from the speakers crisply rang out.
    “Serena?”
    “Who could spoil a party like this? My vote’s the same, though; I want to accept Lex, too,” Serena said, with another smirk in Lex’s direction.
    Lex looked around a little suspiciously at the women she could see. The only thing she had ever been voted for in her life was “Most Unusual” in her high school graduating class. Lex suspected that had been due to the fact that after she’d left her parents’ house she could dress how she wanted and had ended up looking pretty freaky, since her only real way to change her wardrobe was working with her friends to decorate the clothing she had with magic markers or paint them with bleach, then later repair them with duct tape and safety pins. Pushing back that memory, Lex waited to see what would happen next.
    Clara finished typing and looked up. “All right, Lex. Since a majority of the team voted to accept you, you’ve passed that hurdle. I’ll still need to meet with Mr. Sauer to bring all of your information together in order to get a final answer as to whether or not you'll be offered the spot.”
    Casey groaned at this point and sat up, looking annoyed. Serena looked at Clara in a peeved manner as well, and Joan shook her head.
    “You didn’t even know yet?” Joan asked Clara, sounding put out.
    Clara sighed and turned to Lex. “Usually, when we have candidates interview with the team, they’ve already passed all of the previous interviewing, but since we had you over here today, Mr. Sauer thought it would be best if we could cover all the bases at once. Especially since you already had your trial—impromptu as it turned out to be,” she finished, glancing at Casey.
    Lex just nodded, figuring she probably wouldn’t get this job, either. Oh, well , she thought, at least I had an interesting afternoon, if a bit like a jarring roller coaster ride . Tomorrow, it would probably amount to just another rejection notice in her e-mail inbox.
    Clara continued, “We’ll either call or send our courier over tomorrow morning around ten to deliver our answer. If we decide to offer you the position, you have until 5PM tomorrow to give us your decision; just follow the instructions on the paperwork the courier brings. I take it the address on your résumé is current?”
    “Yes, that’s where you can find me,” Lex replied, thinking about the likely 'thanks but no thanks' call she'd receive the following day.
    “OK, everyone,” said Clara, “thanks for agreeing to meet at such short notice. I’ll let you know what the outcome of this is.”
    “Nice to meet you all,” said Lex, as the others began filing out of the room, then quickly added, “and, uh, thanks.”
    Serena turned to flash a smile full of sharp white teeth at Lex before swaggering out of the room. Casey had stayed, however, and as Clara looked up at her asked, “Is Lex all set to