Stupid Bureaucracy

[Tamara Sulik]

Tamara had been drowning in paperwork. Or, to be exact, trying to go through what was on the paper and what was written on her computer. Some things did not add up. Unless she was not looking right, but she was pretty sure that she was looking at it right. The name was the same. At least, it looked the same from what she could decrypt of the handwriting. It might be easier too if there were not so many different notes from so many different people. Why the school needed so much bureaucracy? All this was preventing her from doing her job right. “Hold on,” she said to the girl as she tried to reach someone on the phone. If only Tamara was more patient, this might work. Only Tamara was not patient. And the girl was too shaken or shy or intimidated or a mix of all three to speak to her. Unless she was mute. She had not said anything. Tamara noticed the lips moving but the voice was so low that she did not get any word and didn’t feel like losing her temper on her was the best way to greet her to the school.

Hanging up the phone, she sighed as she looked at the screen and the information that did not seem to match what she had in the file on the desk. “Wait right here,” she told the girl as she stood up, bringing the file with her. She doubted the girl would go anywhere but she still told her that before she left the office. She needed to find a recruiter. With a bit of luck, she’d land on the one who recruited her. If not, well maybe they’d be able to sort this out.

She got lucky in the teacher’s lounge. “Oh, hey Gabriel,” she said as she walked straight to him. She handed over the file on the girl. “Are you the one who brought her in here?” Please, let him say yes. Her quest would be done already. And she could definitely landed on far worse to spend some time with, even if it was for work.

[Gabriel Mendes]

It was a quiet afternoon and Gabriel found himself with nothing left to do. His paperwork was done and there were no recruitments to be done for the day. He was a free agent. Or so he thought.

He was warming his lunch up in the microwave when his name was called. Turning around, a wide smile appeared on his face when he saw Tamara walk over to him. Admittedly, the younger mutant had taken a liking towards the older woman when he first saw her. There were remnants of that 'liking' until now which always resulted in him brightening up every time she was in the room.

It was a little stupid to have a crush when you were a supposedly healthy, reasonably attractive adult. It was even more stupid that it had to be on a colleague.

He accepted the file and, at first glance, knew it wasn't his. As stupid as it was, Gabriel would mark a small cross on the bottom left of the report, just to make certain that it was his.

"Nope. Is this new?" He asked, handing the file back to Tamara.

[Tamara Sulik]

Tamara would have preferred to talk to Gabriel for more pleasant reasons than work sadly it was work that brought her here. And picking up a conversation with him, when she was expected to help some young student get settled in her new home would be extremely rude for the poor girl. There would be time for that later, on another occasion.

Luckily, despite disturbing him, Gabriel was ready to have a look. It was not like it would really take too much of his time. Unless it was his doing. Except he said it was not and she was ready to believe him. Even if she might have a teensy bit of doubt. It was not good to be a hundred percent sure about anything anyway.

She nodded as he asked if she was a new one. “Came in today. Or yesterday. Anyway, they wanted me to give her a room and print her schedule and all that but the date don’t add up. Look,” she opened the file for him again to what had been written by the recruiter and the others who must have seen her since she got here and then pulled the sheet she printed that was what was written in the computer. “I mean, it happens sometimes don’t aren’t exactly the same. We’re not expecting you to know right from the start what power that person has and all that, but not to this point. I thought it might be the student ID that I entered wrong but the numbers seemed the same no?” And she showed him said number that had been written. She thought maybe a 1 was a 7 or that 4 was actually a 9 but that didn’t pull out her file. She didn't know who entered the file in the computer but Tamara was hoping she wouldn’t have to write it all up again. Because there were some scribbling in that file she could barely decipher.

[Gabriel Mendes]

Leaning over to look at what Tamara was talking about, he nodded and rubbed the back of his head as he pondered on what could be done. "Yeah, they do. Uh...tell you what. I can trace the code in the system, see who went out for recruitments this past week. We can find the recruiter." He shrugged.

He turned to look at the microwave that was almost done heating up his lunch. "Uh...why don't you bring the recruit and show her around first? Let me settle it on my end and then I'll find you for any further information."

[Tamara Sulik]

It was Gabriel’s job to recruit the students and write the first report about them. Even if he said he was not the one who filled in these papers, he should know a bit more than her, no doubt. Perhaps he could even recognize the handwriting or get what mistake had been done, if it came from the recruiter or the one who wrote it in the computer. Or someone else entirely. Tamara hated the bureaucratic aspect of her job. It was even worse when things didn’t go smoothly like it was the case now.

“You’d do that?” she asked as he proposed his help. She seemed to only realise now that Gabriel did not come here only to relax away from students. They were near the microwave for a reason. Now, if that was a real emergency, she couldn’t care less about whether or not he ate or how hungry he was. But the girl would not run away anytime soon and even if it was not ideal, she could still place her in a dorm and see later about writing down everything. The class schedule was the most urgent but the girl would certainly not mind having a day or two on her own before starting classes.

Since it was no emergency, she was a tad sorry to occupy his time and unload the burden onto his shoulders like that. “But you were busy. I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to take your time like this. Just... eat and I’ll take care of her in the meantime. I’m sure she was not given a tour, like you suggested, or told the rules so I’ll deal with that.” She nodded. If she felt bad, she would get over it pretty easily and would not let it affect her. She went to a table and placed the file on it. “I’ll leave it there. You can just have a look at it once you’re done,”she told him. She gave him another nod but didn’t want to be a nuisance. And she still had a scared young girl in her office so she waved him goodbye and left him, figuring he’d come back with the answer. Or the file at the very least.

[Gabriel Mendes]

It was tedious, having to go through proper channels to do one simple thing, but that was the nature of their job. It sucked that Gabriel could not do Tamara's job for her, and she couldn't do his work for him. But them's the breaks and now he had to find the person who made the mistake, grumble at them and remind them not to make the mistake again, and then re-enter everything into the system so Tamara could do her job and put the recruit in their proper living arrangements.

"Well, yeah. Sure. It's no big deal." He shrugged, ignoring the fact that yes, it was too a big a deal. He insisted she wasn't taking up his time, even though she had but of course, for Tamara, he would do whatever she wanted him to do.

And so with a nod, a dismissive hand wave and another nod to acknowledge her leave, Gabriel took the file, took his lunch out from the microwave and went to his office to do his job.

It didn't really take that long. The filing system was actually quite comprehensive and once he found the recruiter who flubbed it up, he rolled his eyes, contacted the man and then made him redo the paperwork and key the correct information in and once he was done, his lunch was finished, he made his way over to Tamara's office.

Knocking at the door, he wasn't even certain if she was done with the tour for the recruit but he just waited, hoping she was done.

[Tamara Sulik]

It was unbelievable what a bad handwriting and an even worse attention when typing can cause in terms of headaches. If they could not do their job right from the start, Tamara was not really interested in chasing them down to have them correct their mistake. But she also had no idea how to fix the whole thing on her own. Well, she did. She’d just give the girl a room and nag the proper department to give her a class schedule. And not care about the stupid file. But the file was important and she knew she found it stupid right now only because it upset her. It was important that the information was right, so that she could get all the help she needed, if she needed any.

“You’re a saint. I’ll owe you one,” she told Gabriel as he assured it was no big deal. If he said it was not, she would believe him. A part of her knew better, but she would acknowledge it only the work over, otherwise it would just give him a chance to back down and while he still could, she didn’t want him to. She found an ally in all this, she was not going to lose him over the mess it was.

While Gabriel was busy, she returned to the girl, apologized for the delay, offered to give her a tour and let her get settled in before giving her her schedule and everything. Besides, she didn’t need one if Tam was around to get uniforms. As for the material, Tam showed her where she could get it and assured she’ll have the time once she’ll get her schedule. And since Tamara was the one assigning her a dorm, she only needed to bring her to one and note down the room so she can put it in the system.

She had left her in her room and made her way back to her office. She noticed Gabriel. “You’ve been waiting here for long?” she asked once she quickened her pace to reach him. She opened the door and let him in. “You had any success?”

[Gabriel Mendes]

Five minutes had gone and he was almost ready to give up when he heard Tamara's voice from behind him. It then occurred to him that he could have called her. Frowning to himself, he shook his head and gave the brunette a huge smile. "Nope. Just admiring your door." He joked before shaking his head at the joke.

"Uh...yes." He handed the file back to Tamara. "Edited and in the system. Henry's new. He's still trying to learn the ropes and I think this is his first solo recruitment mission. Someone should have briefed him about the filing system earlier. Or at least looked over his shoulder while he keyed the file info in." He shrugged.

"How was the recruit? Did you assign her a room already?"

[Tamara Sulik]

Tamara had a soft chuckle escape her lips at Gabriel’s joke. Without it being the greatest joke she heard, she appreciated that he preferred to use humour than claim he had been waiting here for long and had grown tired of standing here for her to come back. Tamara was not the kind of person you could say that to and expect her to bow her head in contrition. She had a temper that would, on the contrary, make it worse. Gabriel just saved him some snappy comment about calling her to say he had the information she asked for.

Not only he saved himself from that, but he succeeded and told Tamara that it was all fixed. She exhaled a sigh of relief at that and smiled to Gabriel as she took the file back. “Thanks. I’m sort of sorry for him. Must have been stressful for his first time and find out there has been some errors,” she said. In a way, that kid, she assumed he was young or at least younger than she was, was also lucky he ended up on Gabriel and not her. She really was sorry that his first mission ended up like this but she also had a job to do and if his mistakes prevented her from doing her job, she would have pushed him. She doubted she would have been the best to point out his mistakes and help him correct them all without destroying his morale too much. Plus Tam didn’t want to appear like the grumpy one again. It seemed like it was the only way to describe her around here. She wasn’t sure to like it.

She nodded to Gabriel’s question. “They sometimes suggest a section in particular or to have her alone or with people but most of the time, I’m the one taking that decision. And she wanted a girl-only room so it was not that hard,” she answered with a light shrug. This really was not complicated and she could now put her room number in her file. She smiled again, letting out a small ah of approval as she typed the code and she got the right profile. “You’re a life savior, I owe you one.”

[Gabriel Mendes]

"He was apologetic and told me to tell you that he will check his work over with a superior first before keying it into the system." Gabriel nodded and slipped his free hands into his pants pocket. He was, indeed, a lot more relaxed when it came to work. But that took time and Henry was still so new, Gabriel didn't really fault him for being overly excited to do the job and not do it properly.

Gabriel smiled, relieved that it hadn't taken too long to sort out the recruit's dorm room. That must have been a little overwhelming. First day in an unfamiliar place and already having no proper place to be. Thankfully, Tamara was better at her job than Henry was.

"Ah, nah. Just doing my job. Although I could do with a hot meal, if you're so inclined to pay me back." He chuckled, only teasing of course. "But since I'm here, is there anything else you would like any help with?"

[Tamara Sulik]

A part of Tamara did feel bad for the new guy but he had to learn to do his job right and it was not by fixing everything for him afterwards that it would happen. Tam could take having to deal it once but she wouldn’t have taken it well was it to occur again. Might be best he knew now to correct himself. “Too bad we don’t teach calligraphy anymore. I guess it’s all the typing on computers and phones, made them forget how to write on actual paper,” she pointed out, her tone soft though. If she was judging, she wasn’t doing so too harshly. She may be a little old to fit this generation but she also understood it, for the most part. And there were perks to this method of communication, like, let’s say, allow her to discuss with her parents despite the fact they lived in another continent.

The only thing the new girl here to study didn’t have for now was her schedule, something that Tamara made sure to print. No doubt she wouldn’t mind not receiving it just yet. That was a lot to settle into, being tossed into class the very next day might be a lot on her. She’ll still have to take care of that and help her out get her the rest of her things. Or have someone under her do it. There had to be some advantages at being the boss around these parts.

“Is that how you ask ladies on a date?” Tamara teased back. Tamara was not against a hot meal, later, nor did she mind the company. Why was a meal always assumed to be the simplest way to repay a debt? “So you can be even more my hero?” she asked, again teasing him. She laughed at this and shook her head. “That’s what I needed, thank you. But if you’re really up for that meal...”

[Gabriel Mendes]

Gabriel laughed lightly at Tamara's point. He had to agree. Although he was terribly guilty of preferring to type rather than write, rarely did he mind doing paperwork manually. Having to type it into the system forced him to remember things he wouldn't have remembered.

When Tamara teased him about the date, Gabriel laughed and shrugged. "If it's working, why fix it?" He asked with a wide smile. It wouldn't be the worst thing he accomplished today. Not that he expected her to agree to a date with him. She had better things to do with her time.

"You owe me one. I had to leave my lunch in the microwave to track Henry down." He teased, not meaning anything by what he said. "And yes, I am definitely up for the meal." He nodded, pocketing his hands in his pants. "I've got nothing for the next few hours. You're still on lunch, aren't you?"

[Tamara Sulik]

If Tamara ever wrote more than typed, it would have to do because carrying a note around was easier than a computer. She did not always have the instinct of writing something on her phone as a reminder or to text a person as opposed to find them and deliver it in person. She didn't think she was technophobic or anything like that, it just was not her first instinct. Plus, she did think that doing everything through Facebook, Twitter, Skype, chatrooms or texts just made people forget they could also meet face to face. It was even better when done so. She could never bring herself to type someone a message when she had the chance to say it out loud. When it came to work, however, the system was her best friend so she did learn to appreciate it.

She laughed as Gabriel kept joking about the whole ‘date’ thing. She was pretty sure he was not the first to ask something like that. Those who actually got it however were few. She appreciated Gabriel enough not to mind. Plus speaking with an adult, someone who wouldn’t use the word ‘like’ all the time or make her feel old for being over thirty was tempting. To consider it a date however... Unless you talked of a friend date.

She didn't expect the meal to happen so soon but Gabriel mentioned he did have to ditch his lunch, although Tam assured him he could eat first she wouldn’t mind. And a lunch was better. There were less chances one of them would think there was more to it. “Actually, I didn’t take it yet,” she admitted with a smile. The kind of smile that would tell Gabriel she was up to it if he just asked. “Although, I figured the meal meant me paying. Unless you expected me to cook, but then you’d be safer with your microwave meal,” she added, teasing him a little on that one.

[Gabriel Mendes]

"Ah that works out well for us then." He nodded, smiling at the older mutant. Yes, it was a lunch thing and not a date but Gabriel was not going to let this one go, not by a long shot. It wasn't always that he got to be in the presence of someone who looked like her who was also a dedicated den mother to a whole cast of students. He counted his blessings.

Laughing when she made a self-deprecating joke, he shook his head. "I'm sure you wouldn't do as bad as me but yeah. Do you wanna go now? If you need to settle something first, I can just wait in my car in the parking lot first?"

[Tamara Sulik]

Tamara smiled at Gabriel’s words. “It seems that way,” she agreed. Now that they had started talking of food, she realised how she was starting to be hungry. It made sense since, as she just told him, she didn’t eat yet. The thought of food was enough to have her want some break to get the time to eat something. She had, however, a few things to do first and Gabriel was quick to remind them to her as he asked if she was ready to go now or needed to finish anything first. This brought her back to reality and the work she had yet finished with this new student. She chuckled, looking down at her computer. “I wouldn’t say I’m bad, but I doubt I can say that I’m good. Unless the recipe is ‘put in the oven than serve’,” she said, going first to this little joke about cooking before opening the program that would help her fill in the last information she had to put in the girl’s file. “Let me just finish this and I’ll be with you. Shouldn’t take me more than five minutes, ten top, now that everything works properly,” she told him. She focused on her computer after that, wanting to be done with it before she could leave and have lunch with him. Ten minutes. All she had to do was write down her room number, print her schedule and give it to her. Hardly something that would require for him to wait in the parking lot, waiting for her to arrive to start the engine and go already.

She was a tad surprised he wanted to go someplace but she said nothing to it. It would change from what the cafeteria had to offer. It may be good, but it was nice to go for something else every now and then. Tamara was swift to grab the sheet as it was done printing. “I’ll just get that to her,” she said, letting him to decide whether it was worth waiting here so they could go together or wait in the parking lot as he suggested. The girl did have a few more questions as Tamara handed her the schedule, but most of it were answered quickly and Tam could then go back to Gabriel.