Fourteen years later, Rachel still lived by this philosophy. After college she took the first job she could find, she worked in the accounting department of an office in Los Angeles. She did her work and used her paycheck to pay the rent of her apartment and cover all of her other expenses. Her family and co-workers would often tell her that she never treated herself to anything and she would tell them that it would be for nothing. Rachel thought she would do her work to cover her expenses until the day she retired and then spend the rest of her days living in her apartment. Rachel was always quick to question everything that people said mattered, and that kind of thinking best explains her reaction to Election Day.

On Tuesday, November 8, 2016, Rachel got home from work at six in the afternoon. She had picked up some Chinese food for dinner and laid it on the living room coffee table. She turned on the TV before heading off to her room to change out of her work clothes and returned to the living room in sweatpants and a T-shirt. The TV was on a movie channel she had been watching the night before, but she switched it over to SNN. Rachel didn't follow politics, then again she didn't really follow anything, but it was almost mandatory for Americans to tune into a news network on Election Day, even if it was just to have the noise in the background.

Rachel ate her Chinese food as SNN's Chief National Correspondent Jonathan Ray, a grey haired man in his early fifties, showed the network's Lead Political Anchor, Randolph Plitzner, another gray haired man except he was in his late sixties, where the race stood on the "Magic Wall" as he said, "The point I was trying to make before is that earlier on, remember as you look at this map, live results feeding in, Wendy Rogers is unlikely to win Nebraska, it's just the votes coming in early on. The same with these other states, Illinois perhaps, but Missouri, we don't think so, but Ohio was Democratic last time Randolph was here. It has moved to Republican now, fifty-one to forty-four. And the reason, last time I talked to Randolph I said there's a lot of votes to be counted in all of these rural areas here. They are now filling in for Ronald Thump, so Ohio is shifting Republican as well at the moment, Randolph."

Plitzner had just received important information from the team behind the scenes, and told the audience, "Alright, Jonathan, we have some projections right now. Alright, we project that Ronald Thump will carry a huge prize, Texas, with all of its thirty-eight electoral votes. A big win for Ronald Thump in the state of Texas. Democrats have hoped, but it's not going to happen for them this time around. Ronald Thump also carries Will Rogers' home state of Arkansas with six electoral votes. Ronald Thump gets two more states in his column. Let's take a look at the Electoral College map right now, where it stands with those two states that Ronald Thump has just won. He has now taken the lead, Ronald Thump has one-hundred twenty-eight electoral votes, Wendy Rogers has ninety-seven electoral votes. Remember, two-hundred seventy are needed to win the White House."

Plitzner returned to Ray at the "Magic Wall," talked to reporters at both Rogers' and Thump's rallies, and then discussed the events with two of his coworkers, James Thurman, a dark haired man in his late forties, and Daniela Burns, a blonde haired woman in her mid-forties, before Rachel grabbed the remote and said, "Ugh, so boring. Let's see if MSNBS is any better."

Rachel changed the channel to MSNBS and found a channel playing more lively music when the voice of the Chief Anchor, Abram Newell, a brown haired man with a bit of grey on the side in his late fifties, said, "9:36 PM Eastern Time, let's take a look at where we are. The following states we have as 'too close to call,' starting with Florida, a razor's edge race there. Pennsylvania, too close to call, twenty electoral votes. Ohio, too close to call, Georgia, too close to call, Michigan, too close to call, North Carolina, too close to call, Virginia, too close to call, Minnesota, too close to call, New Hampshire, too close to call. To the electoral race, the race to two seventy, one thirty-seven to one-o-four, advantage Thump."

She kept switching from channel to channel as she ate her dinner. Nothing much happened other than that the race kept getting closer and closer, but she didn't really care. Rachel didn't even matter to vote, citing the fact that she lived in California, a blue state, making her vote worthless. And when she was approached by people asking if she would vote in the congressional election, she reasoned that she lived in a blue state and district, again making her vote worthless. She didn't see the reason why people were so worked up; she thought Rogers, Thump, Germain, Scheinberg, Marston, Melder, Saunders, and the rest of them were all the same.

Ten o'clock had come and all of the networks were fixated on the states of Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin. Seeing that they were repeating the same things over and over and the fact that she had to get up early tomorrow for work, Rachel decided to go to bed. When many people were either excited or sick to their stomach, she slept like it was any other night. Her alarm went off at seven o'clock as it always did on a work day, signaling that it was time to get up. After getting ready for work and a bit interested in learning who, if anyone, had been declared the winner, she went over to the living room and turned on the TV. SNN was on a commercial break, so she went over to the kitchen to warm up a quick breakfast. A while after putting a Breakfast Croissant in the microwave, SNN Newsroom came back from commercials and the show's two anchors, Benjamin "Ben" Trager, a dark haired man in his mid-forties, and Virginia "Ginny" Royse, a blonde haired woman in her mid-thirties, appeared on screen.

"If you're just joining us, today's top story is one you probably already know," Ben started off by saying.

Ginny interjected, "That's right, Ronald J. Thump has been elected President of the United States."

The TV screen showed the map of the county with the states either in red, blue, or yellow. The majority of the states were either red or blue, but Minnesota, Michigan, and New Hampshire were yellow since they were still too close to call.

When the microwave rang, signaling her food was ready, Rachel headed back to the kitchen as she said to herself, "Eh, what's the worst that could happen?"