[(photo of Lucille Johnson)]

Lucille was extremely nervous as she waited for her name to be called. Of all the people being interviewed for the position, she was the only black woman. She could already tell her coming here was a waste of time.

The large wooden door swung open to the conference room. The woman doing the interviews came into view, looking down at her clipboard.

"Lucille Johnson", she called out.

Lucille exhaled before standing up. "That's me."

They walked into the conference room and sat at the table to start the interview.

"My name is Theresa and I'm Mr. Reed's office manager. Why don't you start off by telling me a little bit about yourself."

"My name is Lucille Johnson. I'm 26 years old and I'm from Houston, Texas. I graduated from the Manship School of Louisiana State University with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Mass Communication with a concentration in Political Communication. I worked at the Lonestar Press for 3 years as a journalist but decided that it wasn't the career path I wanted to follow."

"So my next question for you Lucille is, 'Why do you think you would be a good fit for this campaign?'"

"Well as you can see in my resume, I've volunteered for many different types of political campaigns since my freshman year of college. I know how to function in this type of environment and I know that sometimes the hours aren't exactly flexible and I'm okay with that. I also feel that my experience in the news business would serve as an advantage for Mr. Reed."

Twenty minutes later and the interview was over. Theresa informed Lucille that she should show up tomorrow at noon for a second interview.

* *

"Let it be known that it is a privilege.. No an honor. It is an honor that you have been chosen to be a part of this campaign. For the next 10 months, it is your job to do everything that you can to ensure that Oliver Reed is the next governor of the beautiful state of Texas."

Speaking now was Rebecca Mitchell, campaign manager of the Oliver Reed campaign.

Everyone sitting in the large conference room started chit-chatting about how excited they were. All of the twenty-somethings who were lucky enough to have this honor bestowed upon them were psyched to be working on a real political campaign.

15 of the many who applied were chosen to work the campaign. Lucille would be working as part of the communications team writing speeches, press releases, etc.

"The hours of operation for the campaign headquarters are 8 AM to 6 PM, Monday through Friday and 10AM-5PM on Saturdays. From here you need to meet with your coordinators. If you will be working as a part of the field staff you will meet with Joseph Arnold in the ballroom, if you're on the communications team meet with Jancy Gipson in the briefing room, and if you're working the phone banks stay in here with me."

"This is gonna be awesome", Amber said excitedly. She and Lucille had become acquaintances throughout orientation.

"Yeah it will be", she answered. "We'll meet up for that lunch soon but I have to go. I'm with the communications team."

Lucille walked around her new friend and towards the exit. It'd been a long day and her feet were screaming in the heels she wore. The sooner she met with her director the sooner she could get home.

She walked down the hall until she saw the door leading to the briefing room. Lucille entered and took a seat, observing the other girl that walked in. They smiled at each other.

"I guess we're the only ones, huh", Lucille stated.

"I guess we are", was the girl's response.

They made small talk until a woman who was assumed to be Jancy Gipson walked in. She walked over to the table and dropped her briefcase and all the files she was carrying.

"I'm so sorry I'm late girls", she said. "I'm Jancy Gipson."

She extended her hand towards Lucille.

"You are?"

"Lucille Johnson", she took her hand while smiling at her.

Then she passed her hand to the other girl. "Alexis Myles."

Jancy took her seat. "So I know what you both are thinking", she began. "How are we gonna handle everything dealing with communications?"

Alexis and Lucille glanced at each other and nodded eagerly.

"So the communications department for Oliver Reed's campaign will consist of digital advertising, paper advertising, speech writing, and most importantly being present in social media."

She opened up one of the files that was on the table.

"Lucille I see here you used to write for a very popular blog called 'Politics in America: Perception is Everything'."

Lucille shifted in her seat. "How do you know that?"

Lucille had had that blog since she was 19 but had always written under an alias.

"Don't worry about that. Just know that I'm quite fascinated with it and because of that your job is to create a social media presence. Make everyone know the name Oliver Reed. Create a Twitter account, Facebook page, and you are expected to write some sort of blog post biweekly."

Lucille simply nodded, content with the task at hand.

"And Alexis, since you have a background in advertising it would only make sense that your job is to focus on digital and paper advertisement."

Alexis nodded.

"Aside from that, we will all write speeches and press releases. Are there any questions?"

Both of them shook their heads no.

"Okay, moving on", Jancy mumbled. "We will work during the later hours of operation. We'll come in at 12 but I have to tell you most of the time we will work past 6. If that's not okay with you, I do suggest you let me know now."

She looked back and forth between the two girls.

"Great. So both of you will be given Mac laptops. All the work that you do for this campaign should only be done on these laptops."

This meeting was dragging on. Lucille was getting bored, frustrated, hungry and tired. And it must've been evident.

"I'm sorry girls, we're almost done."

Lucille smiled at her.

"We will meet with Oliver a few times a month to draft his speeches. He will be on the campaign trail most of the time visiting different cities of Texas."

A few minutes later, Jancy dismissed her prodigies. Alexis and Lucille exchanged phone numbers before they departed. They figured they may as well become friends since they would be working so closely together.

Lucille dialed her boyfriend Aaron's number as she was making her way out of the building. When he didn't answer she assumed he was still on the rig. Her hopes of him coming home tonight slowly diminished. Although Aaron made good money, she hated when he would be away for days at a time to work offshore.

* *

Lucille was now wrapped up in many blankets in the solace of her bed at home. She was sleeping away the troubles of the day. Not even the door chime from Aaron walking into the apartment interrupted her deep slumber. It wasn't until he shut the bedroom door that she was awoken.

She sat up in bed, rubbing her eyes before glancing over at the alarm clock seeing that it was almost 11. Aaron immediately apologized.

"Wassup baby", he said approaching the bed. "Didn't mean to wake you." He kneeled into bed and kissed her forehead.

"It's okay", she mumbled.

He slid his work boots off. "How'd that meeting go?"

"Well I got the job."

"Baby that's great", he said leaning into bed to hug her.

She pushed him away immediately. "Baby I love you but you stink. Please go shower."

He stood up straight and sniffed himself. He shrugged. "I smell like roses."

Aaron jumped back into bed and began tickling his girl friend. She begged for mercy as her eyes teared up from laughing so hard.

"Pl-eaase st-opp", she giggled as she spoke.

Her cellphone started to ring which caused Aaron to finally give up and part into the bathroom.

She leaned over to the night stand to pick it up.

"Hello?"

"Lucille this is Jancy. I'm calling to let you know that there's a mandatory work day tomorrow. Mr. Reed has a television interview and we're planning a Q & A on Twitter. Would you be okay with that?"

"Yes I can do it", she answered.

"Okay, be there for 9 AM."

Lucille agreed to be there and ended the phone call. She wasn't surprised that they were asking them to be there on a Sunday, their only off day. These campaigns could get pretty crazy at times.

When she felt Aaron get into bed behind her, she snuggled into him taking in the smell of his body wash. Not too long after she drifted off to sleep.

* *

They all sat in the briefing room watching the interview. The camera zoomed in on Helen Meyer's face as she spoke.

"We are live in Houston with Oliver Reed. He announced just last Sunday that he would be running for governor of Texas in this year's gubernatorial election."

The crowd applauded and the camera changed to Oliver Reed. He smiled and gave a head nod as he waved to the live audience.

"Before the break we were introduced to a different side of you. We learned that unlike most conservatives, you aren't totally uptight. But how could you be with a face like that, right ladies?"

The crowd laughed as Oliver's cheeks turned to a light shade of rose.

"He is so hot for his age right?", Amber whispered to Lucille.

"I think we should pay attention", Lucille answered, redirecting Amber's attention to the large projection screen.

"So Mr. Reed", Helen began. "Why should the citizens of Texas elect you as their next governor?"

Mr. Reed took a moment before he spoke. "Well the citizens deserve someone who has their best interest in mind. My goal for Texas as a whole is to create more jobs, create a better school system so that every child has a fair chance at an education, and also to ensure that instead of a deficit at the end of each fiscal year, there is a surplus. This could easily go towards fixing our roads, supplying free lunch in all of our public school systems, and many other things."

Lucille's opinion? She thought he was being very vague. What other things? Voters want to know that you have plans to put in motion when and if you are elected, not just what you think you want to do.

"That's a very good answer", Helen said.

"Bimbo", Lucille muttered under her breath.

"My next question is about your competition in this race. It seems that your most important opponent is Thatcher Hayes. What makes you different from him?"

Oliver Reed was obviously uncomfortable talking about Thatcher Hayes. There was definitely something there by the way he tensed up at the mention of the man's name.

"Well Helen, here in Texas, hundreds of thousands of our citizens are employed in the oil field. Hayes seems to think that lower gas prices will make everything better. If there are lower gas prices, oil companies will start laying off its employees resulting in a higher unemployment rate. This will then lead to a tax increase and as governor of Texas, I won't allow that to happen. We don't need less people paying more taxes, we need more people paying less taxes."

Oliver received a huge applause from the live audience. Even a few people watching at the campaign headquarters started to applaud him.

"Well I think it's safe to say Thatcher Hayes is gonna get a run for his money", Helen said smiling. "It was nice to have you Mr. Reed."

"It was a pleasure, Helen."

Rebecca shut off the projection screen.

"The phones will ring and your goal is to get donations to fund this campaign", she said. "Get to your designated work stations. Let's go people!"

All of the volunteers whose job it was to man the phone line stood up. They were scrambling to the ball room of the conference center where the main room of the campaign headquarters was set up.

Both girls of the communications department were given their laptops. Alexis started on creating a few advertisements while Lucille logged onto the Twitter account.

After answering questions on Twitter and Facebook and writing a blogpost on Wordpress, her fingers were begging for mercy. All the feedback Oliver got proved that what Helen said was true. Thatcher Hayes really better watch out.

For their lunch break, she and Alexis walked over to the sandwich shop a few blocks down from the conference center. Once they ordered, they sat and ate at one of the tables on the outside.

Lucille took a bite of her BLT and started messing around on her phone. She could feel eyes staring at her. She looked up and saw Alexis watching her.

"Penny for your thoughts?"

"So what do you get out of this?", Alexis asked. "I mean this whole political campaign thing. I'm doing it to fluff my resume for grad school but what about you?"

"Well what do you mean?", Lucille asked, wanting her to further explain.

"Well last night, I read some of your blogposts and they were amazing to say the least. You could really make a career out of writing."

"I don't really want to write all my life. I want to be a political correspondent", she answered, smiling at the thought. "I work these campaigns to try and become familiar with a few important people. Maybe get my foot in the door."

Alexis nodded in understanding. Lucille shook her head reluctantly.

"Maybe it's a big waste of time but I gotta at least try."