Page 55 of Sparks Fly
Both Effie and Katy threw up a hand to wave in response. Clearly they were in the zone. Stella knew she should also get her head in the game, but it was difficult for her to muster the energy. In truth, Stella had always hated Sprint Week. She’d never been the type of person to do something without overthinking and overanalyzing it first (asking Max to fuck her at Red as Sin aside). She was the same way when it came to her writing. She’d only barely gotten her “Eleven Places to Lose Your Virginity in New York City” post up before the end of last week and was steadily watching its performance, hoping it’d do well enough for her to continue the series.
Not that she could do that this week, though. This week was for posts that wouldn’t need editorial approval, and if she went rogue with the next post in her virgin series, as she was calling it, Melanie wouldn’t fire her (probably), but if it flopped, Stella would have to deal with Melanie reminding her why Stella should always heed her advice. Despite the fact that Melanie had no writing experience prior to being hired by Yellow Sparks (unless you counted the captions she’d add to her Tumblr GIF sets), she was quickly promoted to editor, which made her believe that she was incredibly talented and always right. Stella believed she was a white woman who’d failed up.
Either way, whenever Melanie gave Stella feedback, she spoke as if she’d been in the business for decades and knew all there was to know about creating content, and not someone who’d only worked at the company a year longer than Stellaand had far fewer bylines to her name. The last thing Stella needed was Melanie thinking she did, in fact, know best, so the virgin series would have to wait.
Unfortunately, she wasn’t really champing at the bit with any other ideas, but she opened up the Yellow Sparks CMS and attempted to get to work. She’d told Effie she would use Sparky, but the more she thought about it, the more she decided against it. Stella knew it was highly unlikely she’d crack the top three and earn some prize money. The closest she’d ever gotten was fifteenth place, and honestly, she still didn’t believe Sparky would be all that helpful. Sure, she could work faster, but would her work be any better with the AI? She doubted it. Plus, there was a part of her that couldn’t help but feel like it was somehow cheating to use it. Like she was putting her name on someone else’s work.
So in the end, she decided she might as well do her best on her own. At the end of the day, it wouldn’t make much of a difference anyway.
The first day of Sprint Week flew by, and Stella only looked up from her computer when Effie began to poke her incessantly.
“Oh my God, please get away from me.”
Stella rolled herself out of Effie’s reach and then blinked as she took in the fact that the sun was now down. She pulled herself back to her desk and grabbed her phone.
“How is it five thirty?”
Effie shrugged. “Time flies when you’re having fun.”
Stella glared at her and then looked around the office. Unlike most days, there were still plenty of people millingaround or working, although Katy was nowhere to be found. That was the power of Sprint Week she supposed.
“How many posts did you get up today?” Effie asked, drawing Stella’s attention back to her.
Stella sighed. “Only two. You?”
“Six,” Effie said. “I was aiming for ten, but I figure I should be done by Wednesday. Maybe even Tuesday if I don’t go through and check Sparky’s mistakes.”
“How bad is it?” Stella asked. “Or is ‘How good is it?’ the better question?”
“It’s fine. I asked it to pull a list of the top fast-food chain brand logos, and it pulled the Cheesecake Factory and Red Lobster, which are not fast-food chains, but it got everything else correct. Some of the copy it put in was wonky. Like I got random stats for some reason, but those were easy enough to cut out.”
Stella nodded. “I guess if I want to get done in a timely fashion I should just use it.”
“You’re not using it?” Effie asked. “I thought we all agreed we were going to.”
“I changed my mind,” Stella said. “The odds of me winning are slim anyways, so I figured I might as well stick to my guns and keep not using it. But perhaps if I’m still stuck here by myself on Friday, maybe I’ll give in.”
“Wow, I respect your moral compass,” Effie said, looking mildly impressed. “I will be getting that ten grand, though.”
Stella laughed. “How is it my moral compass when you were the one basically preaching about the evils of Sparky just last week?”
“Well, yeah, but I gave in as soon as money was involved,” Effie said with a shrug. “You didn’t.”
“Not yet,” Stella said. “There’s still time. It’s only Monday.”
“Maybe,” Effie said. “But I don’t think so. You have that journalistic integrity or whatever. You’re always talking about how you want to write something that matters. Meanwhile, I just want to make enough money so I can retire on the beach.”
“True,” Stella said, smiling. “But I think that is a very worthy goal. Besides, if you make enough, maybe I can retire on the beach with you.”
Effie frowned. “I will not be taking any freeloaders, thank you. Now, let’s get out of here. I need food.”
“Aye, aye, captain!”
Stella turned off her computer, shrugged into her coat, and followed Effie out.
“Wanna go to Pasta Louise?” Effie asked. “I need carbs.”
“If we go there, I have to take an Uber home,” Stella said. “There is no easy train from there back to Flatbush.”
