Part One
This was the earliest that Arianna
Mills, or Ari to her friends, had ever left her apartment. It was
only six-thirty A.M. and she was already on her way to her new
internship. Technically, she didn’t start until seven-thirty, but
she was so nervous that she had decided to go as early as possible.
The reason that she was so nervous was because of where her
internship was; the White House. After completing her undergraduate
degree in Political Science at the University of Pennsylvania, or
UPenn as everyone called it, she had moved to Washington and
applied to the internship program at the behest of her father. She
had had no idea that she would actually get in, but she was excited
to get started.
Ari had been assigned to the office of
the White House Chief of Staff, and while the position was unpaid,
it was a fantastic opportunity that would open many doors for her
in the future. She was also hoping that she would get a glimpse of
President Remy Armstrong, seeing as the Oval Office was so close to
where she would be working. He was the youngest president to have
ever been sworn in at only thirty-six years old, and was also one
of the only Presidents in US history who wasn’t married. Normally,
being unmarried wouldn’t gain much of the public’s trust, but his
relative youthfulness compared to previous Presidents had helped
them get past it. He had won the election six months ago in a
landslide victory.
His looks certainly didn’t
hurt his chances, either, Ari thought as she recalled the photos
and videos that she had seen of the man. Remy Armstrong was tall,
with a straight nose, strong jawline, bright blue eyes and sandy
brown hair. I can’t believe he isn’t
married.
An hour later, she was finally starting
work. A woman named Beth Winters had been given the job of showing
the interns around and assigning them tasks, and she seemed
friendly enough. The Chief of Staff himself was a grumpy older man
named Ross Wilkins, and Ari immediately didn’t like him.
That afternoon, Beth looked Ari up and
down for a moment.
“That’s a nice blouse. Where did you
get it?”
“Oh… I don’t actually remember,” Ari
replied.
Truthfully she did remember; her mother
had bought it for her. Ari hated shopping because nothing ever fit
her properly. At five foot three and a size fourteen, it was
difficult to even walk into a boutique without some snobby sales
assistant looking down their nose at her. She had been a curvy girl
ever since she hit puberty, and she didn’t understand why some
people had such a problem with it. As long as she was comfortable
with her body, she didn’t really care what others thought of her,
but going shopping made it impossible to ignore what they thought,
and it was never a nice experience.
“Right, everyone. We have a special
surprise for you today. This isn’t something we normally do for new
interns, but you’re lucky. Ross has organized a meeting in the
Roosevelt Room for all the new staff and interns to meet President
Armstrong,” Beth said, addressing the small group of young people
in front of her.
“Alright, come with me,” she continued
before turning on her heel and briskly walking away.
Ari caught up with her.
“Do we really get to meet him?” she
asked excitedly.
“Yes, Ari, but it won’t be for long.
He’s a very busy man, as you know, and there are a lot of new
people that he has to meet. You’ll be lucky to get five seconds
with him. And don’t you dare think of trying to hit on him. The
last thing we need around here is another version of the Lewinsky
incident,” Beth replied, a little smile playing on her
lips.
“Oh, I would never… I’m just so excited
to be here.”
Beth stopped for a second and turned to
her.
“You have a good attitude, but trust
me, it’s not so exciting after a while. It’s long hours and hard
work with no pay. If you’re one of the lucky few, you might score a
paid position when you finish,” she said.
“Well, I
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