Testing
Disclaimer: Characters aren't mine, story is.
~This is a test. This is only a test. Had it been an actual job you would have received raises, promotions, and other signs of appreciation.~
Anonymous
She stood alone in the darkened bullpen, a box in one hand as she looked around. She wasn't sure why she was doing this, at least not this way. Yet, she knew that she had to.
There had been a time not that long ago when he would've told her she couldn't take the job. When he would've ordered her not too. When he knew all that he had to say was that she was needed. Hell, he had known her title then!
But that had all changed with one word spoken without thinking. With a date and a one-night stand. And although there had been the occasional hints of their old relationship, it would never be the same.
Nothing would.
And the truth was, as she mentally clicked off the days moving closer and closer to May she was growing more and more worried about what disaster could hit them next.
May just wasn't their month.
And she knew she couldn't deal with another. She'd been here through Rosslyn, Mrs. L's death, and the announcement. She'd watched all of their lives shift and turn as the waves of public scrutiny and disapproval slapped against them, but they'd always had each other. Now. . . well, now that didn't seem to be the case.
Their relationships had changed, become more brittle and depending on the parties involved, either more veiled or more honest. But all of their relationships were now tinged with fear.
And maybe he was right. Maybe the job at the dot.com wouldn't last, but neither would this, even if they won another term. An MA in running Josh's office wouldn't get her all the places she wanted to go, a real degree just might--- at least now that she had a direction.
Sighing, she put the box on top of her desk and turned on the lamp, pulling an envelope from under the blotter. She'd been accepted. She'd be able to finish if she wanted, even CLEP a few classes due to 'real life experiences,' only she'd have to give up a chance for future ones. . . take others on.
Maybe he was right.
But so was she.
"It's time to find the cheese," she sighed, remembering the book her mother had sent her for Christmas as a not so subtle hint to leave what she deemed to be a sinking ship.
So she would take this chance.
Sail away in the dead of night on this lifeboat, and hope that someday they'd understand.
And if they didn't. . . well, she'd move on. It had all only been a test in the scheme of things. The biggest, longest final of her college career. But every test had to be handed in at some point, or you never pass, just repeat the same lessons over and over again.
It was time for her to move onto another lecture hall, other teachers. And maybe. . . just maybe, someday. . . someday she'd be back here.
Back in a different compacity.
Back to serve at the pleasure of another President, because truth was, one of them would get there someday.
But to do that it would take moving beyond this.
She just wished she didn't have to be the first to do it. But she supposed it was better than being the last.
~fin~