Protecting Sunshine

1. Freedom

Lucy Chen moved around a lot when she was growing up, but every house was always the same- white. She lived in a big, white house when her mom was the mayor, then the governor's mansion was bigger and whiter, but for the last six years, she has been living in the biggest whitest house in the country- THE White House. Yes, her mom is the first female President of the United States.

Which has it's perks, of course. She has traveled all around the world and met foreign dignitaries. Lucy has even learned a ton of swear words in various languages.

But, life was far from perfect. Her whole life was completely scheduled- she has had a secretary organizing her days since she was fifteen years old. No teenager wants an itinerary filled with public appearances, photo ops, and campaign events. She missed pretty much every Sweet Sixteen party thanks to her mother's President election campaign. At least Lucy's White House Secretary, Nyla Harper, briefed her on the proper talking points and sound bites with a little sass and a warm smile to make the days more bearable...just a little.

Even though she hoped, she knew THIS weekend would not be any different from the perfectly curated life she had always known.

There was a knock at Lucy's bedroom door. "Come in," she called while folding clothes into her suitcase.

"Your mom wants to review your itinerary for tomorrow," Nyla reported.

"I'm going to California for grad school. Honestly, just for ONCE I want this one thing to simply be about me, but I know that Vanessa is going to make it a production."

"For your sake, I've asked for a small parade."

"A parade?" She winced at the image of a band playing "Hail to the Chief" for the MILLIONTH time.

"Come on, let's get this over with," Nyla urged with a forced smile and ushered her down to the Oval Office.

"Finally, Lucy," Vanessa sighed. "We've got a big day tomorrow."

"I know. Your daughter is about to start studying to become the first doctor in the family," Lucy replied.

"A doctor of Psychology isn't the same as saving people's lives. I still don't understand why you don't want to study surgery like Congressman Phelps' daughter."

"Well, if I decided to become a surgeon, then you would have to find something else to be disappointed in me about." She sunk down into one of the historic and somewhat uncomfortable couches in the Oval Office. Surely, the grandeur and history of the building was never lost on her- it made her feel like she was living in a museum sometimes.

Vanessa rolled her eyes. "Nyla, won't you please start going over the itinerary?"

The secretary nodded and started listing the absolutely ridiculous schedule- flying on Air Force 1, driving up to Stanford where a parade would lead them to a quad for a press conference, and then, dropping Lucy off in her secured condo. The First Daughter was positively annoyed. She wanted to get on a commercial flight and drive herself to some rundown apartment that she shared with a friend and be a NORMAL grad student, but she abandoned normal a LONG time ago.

Instead of dwelling too long on what she wanted but could never have, she returned to her room to finish packing and tried to remain excited about the new chapter of her life that was about to unfold that would lead her all the way across the country for some distance from her parents.

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Vanessa and Patrick studied the condo that had been selected by their Head of Security, Wade Grey. "This is nice, and it has a good kitchen. Maybe you'll actually cook," the President commented.