POWER

Chapter Twenty-One

The day had finally come. The day of the presidential election. The day where either Faith or Tamar would make history as America's first ever female president. Faith lay in her bed in the hotel room as her alarm clock rang. As the sun shone through the bedroom curtains she took a minute to acknowledge and realise how huge the situation was: there was a high chance that the next time she lay in her bed, she would be president.

The hour was early but Faith was feeling extremely motivated and prepared herself a smoothie and a bowl of oat-clusters before doing her make-up and getting dressed. She had a different outfit already prepared for the celebrations which were to follow that evening (win or lose, the campaign had still done incredibly well.) For the day however, she was wearing a white blouse with a pair of tailored black trousers. Faith sat by her mirror, sweeping eye shadow across her eyelids and coloured her lips in a plum colour as the Moore family were to spend the day visiting nearby polling stations to try and encourage people to vote.

In the room next door to Faith and Taylor the others were getting ready too. Kendall, Jason and her father were getting themselves photo-ready and Jason was sending out voice messages to every landline number in the public phone book in attempt to scrape additional votes. ''So what's actually the probability of my mom winning?'' asked Kendall as she lay across their bed, make-up and hair finally completed. ''Honestly I don't know. Normally I would say high but who knows. This campaign has been so different and so much more unpredictable than any I've previously worked on.'' He was right. Faith's campaign had been much more complicated (yet exciting) than those previous. She had started off with an advantage as she was the only female candidate, her daughter was in rehab, her manager was killed and a new one was hired, her husband had a secret child, her affair was exposed – the dramas of the past two years had been extreme and her family life would surely never recover.

The Moores, Jason and Leslie met in the lobby before the drivers arrived. Two cars had been arranged – one for the family and one for campaign staff and volunteers. The black SUVs pulled up and they thought their way through the crowds of reporters. Jason smiled as a sign of ''good luck'' to Kendall as her and Taylor followed their parents into the car. It wasn't a long journey to the first polling station but the tension between them all made it feel like one of the longest car rides ever. Despite Faith and Joseph being civil, the idea of spending the day acting like nothing had happened was going to be a challenge and the girls weren't overly thrilled by the idea either.

At the first polling station there were lines upon lines of people ready to vote and all Faith could think was ''I hope some of them are here to vote for me.'' As she took in the overwhelming crowds, Joseph grabbed her hand as Jason led them all inside. Faith, her husband and Kendall had their photos taken whilst casting their votes and they all spent time talking with the voters and members of the public.

Throughout the day they visited eight local polling stations before returning to the hotel which was now being used as the campaigns headquarters. ''Well everything seemed well this morning. Went a lot better than I expected.'' ''Faith how are you so calm when we are three points lower than expected?'' '' Jason it's only two o'clock, there's another eight hours to go. Now let's get something to eat I'm starving.'' ''Fine.'' Jason replied. ''Meet back here in an hours' time.''

So it turned out that it was going to be a quiet day at all and that people don't chose who they are going to vote for necessarily in the weeks running up to election day but on the day. Faith hadn't realised how important these last eight hours would be. Jason on the other hand had already set up last minute meetings and interviews as well as having people walk around the streets handing out leaflets and hanging posters everywhere.