Novel Square
Chapter 17
Chapter 17
Ace was dressed in a smart all black suit with a white shirt. Although I was seated quite far from the
stage, I still thought that he looked amazingly handsome in that suit. After waiting for the applause in
the auditorium to die down, Ace began delivering his speech. If I had to describe his speech, I would
say that it was harsh, straightforward, but strangely very motivating.
After briefly introducing himself and extending a few polite words of welcome to us, Ace began
delivering the main message of his speech.
“Thank you everyone for joining this company. I understand that each and every one of you may have
different reasons for joining this company, but I hope that everyone will work together towards a
common goal that is aligned to the company’s vision. As the new CEO of this company, I am
determined to take this company to new heights. And I’m overjoyed that everyone here will be part of
the journey. I hope that everyone contributes more than 100% always to their work with full
commitment while adhering strictly to the rules set by this company. Thank you very much,” Ace said
with full confidence as he enunciated each word clearly.
After ending his speech, Ace looked around with am determined look in his eyes at the people sitting in
the full auditorium. After seemingly satisfied at what he was seeing, he nodded his head before turning
on his heels and to stride off the stage. After that, the second day of our orientation proceeded
smoothly and normally as planned. The woman came back up on stage and explained the group
activity for team building that we will work on as part of our second day of orientation.
“At the back of the auditorium, on the furthest side of the wall, there are papers posted with your name.
Please look for your name to find out which group you are in and then please find the number of your
group to find and form your team members. Each team will have two team leads who will help facilitate
the team building game. I hope that you will benefit from this activity that you will know and learn more
about the other people who have started this new journey with you. Please enjoy your second day of
orientation,” she said.
After the woman ended her instruction and got off the stage, everyone busily got out of their seat and
headed towards the various papers posted on the walls in order to look for their name.
“Shall we go?” Kyle asked.
I nodded my head as I smiled at him. He led the way through the crowd towards the nearest wall with
papers posted and our eyes began scanning it to look for our name.
“I think I found my name,” he turned to say to me.
“I just found mine too,” I replied as my eyes narrowed and focused on my name on the piece of paper.
To my pleasant surprise, I soon found out that Kyle was in the same team as me.
“I think we’re on the same team,” he said before turning to smile at me.
“I guess you’re right about that. Your name is almost next to mine,” I said before I returned his smile.
…
“Honestly I’m not very good at this…” I admitted a little shyly.
“It’s ok, I’ll help you so don’t worry,” Kyle said reassuringly as he took my hand in his.
His hand felt warm around mine and it gave me a little more strength and confidence in myself. The
first half of team building was to form a large circle to carry a large ball in the center of the circle as a
group. I honestly wasn’t very good at physical activities and sports so I didn’t feel very confident that I
could contribute so much to the group.
“Just make sure to hold my hand tightly and everything will be fine,” Kyle said before giving me a firm
nod. Belonging © NôvelDram/a.Org.
I smiled and nodded back at him in acknowledgement. With his help and the help of other people in my
team, we were able to complete the task flawlessly although we didn’t make it as the first group who
completed the task of transporting the large ball from point A to point B. However, we still did decently
well, placing somewhere in the middle among the other groups.
The day went by as we were asked to participate in other similar team building activities. Overall, I
thought that the most interested and the best part was that the activities helped us to get to know other
people in the company better. I found out the teams were smartly structured so that new joiners came
from a well-balanced mix of departments. That meant that I made friends from different departments;
for example, Kyle was from planning, Serena was from creatives, Jamie was from accounting, and
Susanna was from operations.
There were around 10 people on my team including Kyle and myself. After wrapping up the activities
for the second day, our group decided to go drinking as a way to celebrate the end of our orientation.
Although I had plans to go looking for an apartment at the end of the day, I decided to postpone it
because I wanted to join in the party with my newly made friends.
“Do you have a place in mind?” one of the girls asked.
“I’m fine with anything,” I replied honestly.
“Would you rather go to a karaoke so that there will be some activity for us to do or do you want to
have dinner and just chill out?” one of the guys asked.
Honestly, I was fine with anything, so I left it to the other people in the team to make the decision. I
turned to Kyle to see that he was looking at me and I found myself smiling back at him. I wondered
what Kyle liked to do. Was he an activities person or would he rather just sit back and chill at the end of
a tiring day. In the end, the team decided to go for a relaxing dinner and then follow that up with drinks
at a nearby bar.
--To be continued…