The Feature

I

"Good morning, all!" shouted Dan, clapping his hands together with a large white smile.

"Morning," everyone replied unenthusiastically, their voices muddled and out-of-sync with one another as they shuffled to sit down at the table.

You didn't say anything, opting instead for a sip of coffee and wincing as it burned the roof of your mouth.

"Oh come on." He laughed, waving his arms like he was hyping up an audience. "We can do better than that. Good morning, all!"

The same lacklustre response rippled around the room, no one making any effort to lighten their tone, except for your friend Nick who was sitting beside you.

"Good morning, Mr Daniel, sir!" he shouted, giving a sarcastic salute, like a soldier addressing his captain.

You chuckled to yourself, elbowing him gently in his side.

You always loathed Dan's monthly meetings; the laborious discussions around the long table that probably cost more than your yearly salary, the favouritism, the backhanded compliments, the asking for suggestions but never taking any of them on board. It was the perfect example of something that could have just been an email, the only positive being the surprisingly good coffee they brought up from the canteen.

Dan cleared his throat. "Right, well... Let's get straight into it, shall we?" He pressed a button, bringing up his presentation on the screen behind him. "So the March issue! Very exciting, lots of great things in store for the mag. The whole concept is going to be about welcoming in Spring; so think fresh starts, new opportunities, positivity and wellness, all that shite."

"All that shite," Nick muttered under his breath.

You smirked.

"We've got some pretty big celeb interviews which I'll be assigning today hopefully. Also some exciting features, some opportunities for you guys to think outside the box on what you want to write about."

A woman across the table from you raised her hand. "Dan, sorry, I was just wondering how we're going to factor in the coverage of London Fashion Week?"

He stared down at her blankly.

"Well, you see we're currently in November and fashion week's not until Feb, so it will fall into the March issue. I was just wondering if you had any plans to assign us to..."

She kept talking, but you found yourself zoning out, your eyes fixed on the mock-up magazine cover on the screen. You tilted your head as you stared at the name in its soft grey lettering and distinctive calligraphy: Draft - one of the biggest magazines in the world, the magazine you'd dreamed of writing for since the moment you picked up your first copy as a teenager.

You would sit in your journalism lectures at university and daydream about the groundbreaking articles you could write, the intimate interviews and hard-hitting stories. You would fantasise about awards you could win, the money you could make. But in the year you'd actually been on the writing staff, it had become clear that the only things Dan wanted to assign you to were fluff pieces and filler stories.

You were bored, frustrated, wondering what lengths you would have to go to for him to take you seriously, to trust you with something big.

"Okay so that's that on the March issue for now," he said, his voice snapping you back to reality. "We'll circle back on it in a moment, but I just have to quickly touch on the upcoming issue." He pressed his clicker again, bringing up a picture of the December cover. "Good news, our Editor Ms Ford has approved everything; all your pieces and articles and interviews are done, formatted and ready to print. However, we've had a sudden change of plan for our feature story. So Nick, your interview with whats-her-face is being moved to January."