As Darby walked out of the storage room she turned and said
"One moment, please Mr. Clemins. Director Mortimer wants to speak with me, it must be very important! If you turn that crate over and refill it and reattach the part that fell it will still be usable." Jack nodded his head politely and began to pick up the large books as she excused herself from the room. Darby practically skipped up to the Director and said with a bright smile.
"Yes Director? Was there something you needed?" Director Mortimer scowled at her and said
"I thought I told you to take it easy on Mr. Clemins?" Darby continued to smile brightly, pretending to be innocent,
"Oh but that was very easy! I even guessed which box he would pick up first correctly, and to be fair, I didn't know you would be following me around instead of running your museum." Darby finished speaking with a fake sweet smile. The Director's scowl deepened and he became flustered and started twitching his mustache from side to side in irritation. He felt annoyed with himself for being curious, but he asked her anyway. He coughed and rolled his eyes.
"How did you know which box he would pick up first?" Darby waved her hand dismissively, sighed and said
"In general, people pick up the top object nearest them." She lifted up a finger close to her mouth and spoke quietly like she was letting him in on a secret. "But to be sure, I loosened all the crates in that area that don't have any fragile items in them." She smiled happily and winked. Just then, another crate bottom fell off with a loud, Bang! All the books tumbled out and Mr. Clemins yelled in shock as his feet were crushed by books yet again, while Darby and Director Mortimer stood there quietly talking. The Director sighed and shook his head,
"Don't you think this will put us behind schedule for trip preparation, Miss Darby 'I have my degree, I'm a professional archaeologist' Herrington? Also, it's not his fault your father dragged him into this! How long are you going to keep this up?" Darby cleared her throat and whipped a clipboard up near her face, saying
"Ahem! We are right on schedule! It's not my fault you don't pay attention to the details in the agenda!" She pointed and tapped on the paper that had written at the top, 'Days' Agenda.' Specifically pointing at the 5th item from the top, it read:
Days' Agenda
General meet and greet of new employee.
Miss Herrington is assigned an assistant.
Director Mortimer commands Miss Herrington to treat the new assistant kindly.
Miss Herrington ignores Director Mortimer and begins showing new employee (Mr. Clemins) the day's project of expedition equipment preparation.
Miss Herrington begins her classic misbehavior on an unsuspecting Mr. Clemins, but then they both quickly get back to work on expedition preparation.
Director Mortimer has a meeting with Mr. Weinberg about management of the expedition.
Director Mortimer arranges a traveling itinerary for the expedition.
Director Mortimer checks crew arrangements for moving supplies for the expedition.
Director Mortimer leaned in closely to the paper to see what she was pointing at on the schedule. As he mumble read through the list of the day's events, his eyes widened as he read what had been written on the agenda. Shocked, he looked at his own schedule that he had been holding in his hands and said
"What the hell?! Darby! When did you do this?!" Darby opened her mouth with an overly dramatic grasp as she pretended to be shocked and horrified by his words.
"Good grief!" she said in a mocking, scandalized tone "Swearing at your employees?! What's next for you, Director?! Tsk Tsk, I very kindly helped Secretary Kenny with the schedule yesterday before I finished work. I know what you are going to say, I do more than enough already, but this wasn't difficult at all, practically nothing, you know how I like to help people." Director Mortimer rolled his eyes as he listened to her. "Anyway.." Darby smirked as she lifted her hand to whisper as if she had a secret she didn't want anyone else to over hear "Even Mr. Clemins got a copy of today's agenda, but it looks like he didn't even read it. Not very promising for a new employee." She murmured as she glanced over at Jack out of the corner of her eye and shook her head in feigned sadness. Not being able to keep up her act any longer with a straight face, she lifted up her hand to laugh behind it.
"Pfft! Hehe." Then she cleared her throat to compose herself and said "Ahem! Now, if you don't mind Director, I have to get back to work. I am very busy and, as you can see, this conversation wasn't scheduled. Also, it looks like you are about to be late for a meeting." She said as she pulled out a pocket watch from her jacket and dangled it obnoxiously in front of him. Director Mortimer quickly pulled out his own pocket watch from his coat and checked the time. He snapped his pocket watch shut and glared at Darby and growled.
"If you weren't so good at your job…" He shook his head, sighed and said "I will be back later. Please do not injure or kill Mr. Clemins." He pointed his finger at her to scold her and widened his eyes in warning as he walked away. Darby raised her eyebrows and said,
"I am only training my new assistant and conducting a few tests, the fatality rate is low...He will probably survive." She said with a shrug. Director Mortimer glared at her and said,
"No more injuries for the day!" Darby rolled her head back and sighed in exasperation, saying
"Fiiine." She turned around and began walking back towards Jack and mumbled under her breath, "Being physically exhausted can be similar to an injury anyway." While Darby and Director Mortimer had been talking, Jack had been carrying crates and loading them into the large cargo truck. Jack had moved quite a few crates on his own and was working up a sweat. Jack thought to himself 'After the first couple of boxes broke, the rest seemed fine...Strange" Darby walked over to where Jack was working and put her hands together, saying
"Thank goodness you are here, Mr. Clemins! There is so much work to do and we don't have much time!" She continued "I will help you load some crates too! If we work together we will get done faster." Mr. Clemins scratched the back of his neck and said uncomfortably,
"Well, I would feel bad to make you carry anything too heavy." Darby paused for a moment and tapped her chin as she thought and then said
"Hmm. How about this? I will do all the smaller crates over here." She gestured towards a stack of smaller boxes, then lifted her finger up as she said her next condition "But! If I finish my crates before you, then I will start lifting the heavy ones, and you will have to let me!" Jack thought about this for a moment and then said
"Alright, Miss Herrington, you have a deal." He thought to himself 'If I finish carrying my crates as fast as I can, then she won't be able to help with the heavy ones!' He smiled to himself as he decided to work even harder so that Miss Herrington couldn't catch up to him. Darby picked up a small crate and thought with a small smile 'Hehe. Now he is going to do all the big crates as fast as he can, because he doesn't want me to carry anything heavy.' As she walked out with her little crate and Mr. Clemins was struggling with a heavy crate, she said with a coy smile.
"Try to keep up with me, Mr. Clemins!"
Jack smiled back politely as he began to sweat profusely, struggling to carry his heavy crate.