The Quill

Chapter Six: Bored Meeting

Out of breath and wide eyed, Abby scurried up the winding staircase. Of course the elevator had to be out of order.

Her entire life was out of order.

Coffee mug in hand, she opened the door to the floor where the board meeting was taking place.

The meeting that she was overtly late to. When she woke up that morning - with Duke screaming like a banshee at her door - her phone had at least thirty missed calls from Genevieve, and a billion text messages from Nancy. Not to mention the hundreds of voicemails from Gen, Nan, and Duke.

She could feel her life on the line.

Derek nodded hastily for her to enter the room, and Abby pushed through the doors while mouthing a "sorry" to him. The shrug he sent back confirmed his own anger at her tardiness.

"Finally! You decided to show up." Nancy interrupted the meeting to curve every eye in the room on her. "We've only been waiting all day, Abigail." Nancy's recently-done, French nails tapped irritatingly on the glossy, wooden table.

"I...apologize." Abby managed to exhale. "I missed my alarm, and then someone showed up to my apartment, and then the elevator..."

Nancy rolled her eyes and shook her head all in one motion. "Stop with the excuses. Just sit."

Obeying her immediate demand, Abigail sat at the nearest seat. Carl was sitting next to her, his laptop in front of him, and returned her nod with a short grin. Across from her was Shay; a woman of color whose dreads were completely gorgeous.

Shay didn't pay any attention to Abby's smile, and merely continued to look at the chart that was being presented.

"I suppose I should reiterate what has been said in this meeting so far." Nancy's right hand man, Jeff, spoke as he managed to keep his gaze away from Abby. He turned to the PowerPoint he had made. "We have planned to give out the tablets to Forest Orphanage this week. However, according to reliable sources, our rival group, the Nicholls Campaign, may already know about our surprise attack." A quick glance at Abigail, and Jeff was off again. "Even if this is true, this should not set us back too far, according to our statistics. We've ran the proper numbers, and, if we manage to lead in a few more cities and win in the rest of the debates, we will be able to take Mr. Nicholls down."

Abby took out her pen and paper and began taking notes.

"As of this meeting, we have come up with a few options to enlarge our campaign. Jose?" Jeff eyed the burly, Spanish man that sat near the front.

Jose's tie was pink and a little lopsided as he waddled to the front. "If there's one thing Sam Nicholls doesn't have, it's respect and votes from the people from my neck of the woods. I have spoken with many of my friends, and many of my friends' friends, and I have come to the conclusion that what we need in this campaign is a more complete outreach to the Hispanic."

"Mmhmm. True that." Shay pursed her lips. "Ya'll need to bring that to my area too. Fliers and posters just ain't gonna cut it. And for us blacks, Sam don't seem like a viable candidate. At least Nan here tries to help us with her own too hands. Campaigning to those of us who hate voting is gonna really bring change."

Nods around the room.

Jeff stood up next to Jose, "Alright then, thank you, Jose and Shay. I suppose the next question would be, what programs should we plan to do, and when?"

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Her rouge pumps clacked on the floor, making their way back to her office. That meeting made her feel scorned, but at least Carl was nice enough to send her the notes he had taken while she wasn't there.