Author Note: I own nothing, except my own horrible experiences during my brief stint as a canvasser. This was just something that popped into my head while I was procrastinating writing my other fic. I hope you enjoy it, please feel free to review or PM me with your thoughts!
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It was the first day of her new job, and she was already regretting her decision not to immediately enroll in law school after graduating from college.
Azusa Yumi, the campaign manager for Senate hopeful Wes Evans, had assured Maka that she'd be first in line for a more permanent campaign staff position after a few weeks of field work. The Evans campaign staff had been a bit suspicious of her intentions at first, which made sense, seeing as her own father had gone on the record with a highly publicized endorsement of Wes' opponent.
But eventually they'd come to see it her way, which was that if even Congressman Albarn's daughter liked Wes Evans, surely the average voter could come to support him as well.
The canvassing paid well for a part time gig, especially for someone fresh out of college. To Maka, the twelve bucks an hour were almost as important as the chance to get back at her stupid father. She'd be lying if she said she didn't need the money. Going to an Ivy League college had its expenses, even if her mother had paid most of it. Sure, she could've let her dad pay for it. His own congressional salary made him more than able to pay for a four year education at a private university for his only daughter.
But Maka didn't want a penny of her father's money. She knew half of it came from under-the-table business deals with lobbying groups and the money was therefore as dirty as the one dollar bills he used to tip strippers at his favorite clubs while entertaining foreign dignitaries.
So she had a few loans. It had been worth it. Or so she thought.
Now that she'd started her new job, she wondered if she was about to regret that decision. Ever since she'd met him, things had gone to hell. And she'd only been here for two hours!
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She'd come into the office, primly dressed in black tights and a pleated skirt, her hair loose except where the front strands had been pulled back with a hair tie to make a little pony tail over the ashy blonde hair that hung past her shoulders.
She'd sat through the training session and introduced herself to the three other girls sitting on chairs in a circle in the middle of the room. Then they'd been given packets of information, and she had been eagerly awaiting the opportunity to go out and start knocking on doors, when the meeting had been interrupted by a surly young man with a shock of white hair.
For a minute she thought she was seeing a new side of Wes Evans and she panicked at the thought of canvassing for such a slob. There was no way he would get elected looking like that!
But she looked closer and noticed that he wasn't Wes at all. The resemblance was striking, but his hair was a purer white than Wes' straw colored hair. His eyes were crimson, not blue, and his jaw was different.
The most alarming difference was his posture. While Wes sucked all the air out of the room with his entrace, standing confident and handsome and giving an easy smile to any onlookers, this... Demon-Wes verily skulked, hands shoved deep in the pockets of his hoodie (she mentally clucked at how unprofessional! A hoodie!) his back bent so severely she thought it was really possible he had some form of scoliosis.
Before she could feel guilty (What if he really did have scoliosis? She would feel like such a jerk!) She latched onto another attribute she could denounce. His eyes were shifty and he had an air of carefully practiced boredom which practically dripped off him. He was sneaky, she decided. She just knew she wasn't going to like this man one bit.
"How nice of you to join us, Soul" Sid Barrett, the field manager, said evenly. "Come have a seat and we'll fill you in on what you missed."
The boy shrugged and pulled out a chair, plopping himself down across from where Maka sat and stretching himself out. Somehow, she observed, he still managed to slouch while stretching. That took real talent.
He caught her looking at him and gave her a wicked smirk.
She tore her eyes away, embarassed to have been caught. She was not blushing, oh God.
It really was pretty hot in here after all, and her choice to wear layers to prepare for the possibilities of inclement weather during canvassing was starting to haunt her.
She bit her lip, wondering if she would look as unprofessional as this Soul person if she ripped her yellow sweater vest off right here and spent the rest of the training in her white button-up. The more she thought about it, though, the more aware she became of the dampness under her arms. She was wearing deodorant but the sweater vest had clearly been overkill. She waged an internal war. If she took off the vest, she would look pretty sloppy, and maybe people would see her sweat. But if she kept it on, she was going to be even sweatier, and even more uncomfortable.
She was interrupted from her dilemma by Sid, who was looking around the circle. "I'm going to grab your walking routes from the printer. Would anyone like to fill Soul in on what he's missed while I'm gone?"
Maka was glad for the distraction from her impending heat stroke. And she had not graduated top of her class for nothing. She leaned forward in her seat, eager to make a good impression and show that she would be a good candidate for a more permanent position on the campaign staff.
But as soon as she opened her mouth to speak, Soul lifted a finger to silence her.
"Wait" he said, and he got up and left the small circle of chairs, striding over to a table backed against the wall and covered in campaign literature, clipboards, and a box of donuts. Maka had noticed it when she first walked in, and although her stomach had grumbled loudly at the sight of the powdered sugar donut peeking through the plastic wrapped window of the box, she had opted to wait until after the meeting to sneak over and snag it.
She watched in horror as Soul removed a hand from his hoodie, opened the box of donuts and proceeded to snatch up the powdered sugar donut she had been eyeing earlier.
"No!" She pleaded internally, although it was already too late. He tore off a big chunk of the donut with his teeth, sauntered back to his chair, and gracelessly threw himself back into it.
"Okay, whad'd I mish?" He said around a mouthful of donut.
She could feel her temper rising, but she willed herself to keep her composure.
"You know, you could have waited until I was done talking to do that. It's not really fair to keep everyone waiting just so YOU could get first pick of donuts!"
He arched a white eyebrow, then he swallowed thickly. "Is someone jealous?"
She huffed.
"I'm sorry, did I take the donut you wanted or something?" He tried to look smug but failed, mostly because he inhaled powdered sugar and ended his statement in a coughing fit.
"You're a mess" She hissed, as the girl next to Soul started patting him on the back. He leaned forward, coughing more vigorously, and the girl looked anxiously around the room, seemingly afraid he was in actual danger.
Sid returned then, followed by a young man with bright blue hair and a saunter that was entirely too cocky for his own good.
"Alright, I assume you're all up to speed?" Sid asked.
Soul had his face between his knees, but he looked up at Sid's words and Maka couldn't help but give a small, triumphant smile as she noticed that he still had powdered sugar all over his face. He looked so stupid, she thought with vicious satisfaction as she pulled at her sweater trying to inconspicuously air out her sweltering torso.
Soul tried to say something to Sid, but as soon as he tried to speak, his voice wobbled and he started coughing again.
"Oh-kay." Sid said, moving on. "I've brought your walking routes. We'll be going out in three groups today, with a field manager supervising to make sure you get the basics before we send you out on your own".
He looked down at his clipboard. "Tsubaki Nakatsukasa?" The girl who had been patting Soul's back raised her hand and smiled. Maka hoped she got to be in that girl's team. She seemed nice.
"Right. You'll be teaming up with Black Star for today".
"YAHOO!" Screeched the blue haired guy, and Maka jumped in her seat. "Get PUMPED, Tsubaki! I'm the regional manager who's going to surpass all the rest!"
Tsubaki stood, timidly, and walked over to join him. He grabbed her hand and made her fist pump with him. She looked terrified. "You can be my campaign manager when I become president, Tsubaki! I reward my supporters handsomely!"
Tsubaki laughed nervously and Maka realized that she no longer hoped to be on the girl's team. She wanted to be as far away from this ridiculous regional manager as possible. In fact, she was already beginning to doubt the hiring practices of a campaign that put this dude in charge of anything.
Perhaps sensing her misgivings, or noticing Tsubaki's discomfort, Sid said, "Black*Star is our top-performing canvasser. He consistently gets more vote pledges and door knocks that the rest of our teams combined. You're in great hands".
Well, at least he got the job done, Maka thought. If only Black*Star wasn't so loud.
Sid looked at the other two girls who were sitting with Maka and Soul. "You two must be Liz" a girl with long blonde hair gave a smirk in assent, "and Patty, right? I have you with Kidd. He should be waiting outside. I'm sorry he couldn't meet you in here, but he says the lack of organization in here sets him back several years in therapy, so..." Sid trailed off with a nervous chuckle.
Liz and her sister looked even less excited than Tsubaki as they stood up and made their way to the door. Maka couldn't blame them. She wouldn't want to be part of that team anyway. Sounded like this Kid was a real piece of work.
Wait...
If she wasn't on Black*Star's team, and she wasn't on Kid's team, then that meant...
Oh. Oh no.
Her eyes flew to Soul at the exact minute that he turned to look at her. They both frowned. An observer might have laughed at their identical expressions, but Sid was not a particularly observant man.
He was more focused on his clipboard than the drama unfolding before him, which might have been why he was so cheerful when he announced that Maka Albarn and Soul Evans would be joining him for the next canvassing shift.
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Poor Maka and Soul. I want to torture them with as many mundane horrors as possible in this story :) Just wait until next chapter...