Open Door Policy

[Frozen Smoke]

((Faith C. Marshal-Mackenzie continued from By The Pricking Of My Thumbs))

Faith was nervous on multiple levels as she watched the frosted glass on the door to the little room staff had let her use as hosting space for her little Vice-Presidential project. There were so many outcomes that would be bad here, and she was running through them in her head. What if someone turned up and decided to make a huge scene about something? That’d lose her the respect of the staff, and probably her use of the room. What if someone like Ivy turned up and tried to pressure her to do things for her as VP? That’d be a hard one to get out of for sure. But, worst of all, the option which sat in her gut like a 10 pound bowling ball was the fear that no-one would turn up to talk to her at all, and this whole thing would have turned out to be an optimistic folly. She could see it too, in the way people like Juliette or Connor acted now that the elections were over, dropping the topic entirely unless they wished to heap some scorn on Lucas or mock Nathan. They barely seemed to act like it existed outside of that, as though they'd never cared about the politics and the election in the first place.

She wondered if people said the same type of things that were said about Nathan about her. Not that she was retarded of course, that much was obvious, but people simply didn’t think he was up to the task. She knew some of them didn’t think she’d do the job well, she’d said as much in her speech, but somehow now that meant something worse to her now. For some reason that mattered, because she’d taken on the responsibility of representing them and making sure the school treated them right.

She closed her eyes for a moment and sighed, leaning back in the thinly padded chair until it rested on its back two legs, holding it at the point just before it tipped over with her legs.

Fuck those pricks, she’d prove them wrong.

That was what this whole “Open Door Policy” had been about anyway. Making sure she hung around an extra hour on a Wednesday in this room, and letting people know that they could come and talk about student issues with her, no matter who they were. She would show that she was just as capable as anyone who’d been a VP before, and with Nathan being well… Nathan, she needed all the help from her peers that she could get.

Nathan was a nice enough person, and bless his heart he tried his hardest, but there was only so much he could really do. She got the distinct feeling that none of the adults nor students really took him seriously, so it was up to her to make sure the good ideas got pushed through. She was trying her best to work with him rather than around him though, he deserved a shot as much as she did, but she couldn’t help but feel that she was the one who was going to be getting more done.

The front of the chair clattered down with a muffled pair of thuds as the metal feet of it impacted the carpet, and Faith did her best to look professional as a knock came from the door. She paused for a few moments, taking a pair of deep breaths to compose herself before greeting the person who’d allayed the worst of her fears with a polite “Come in!” and a smile that was more genuine than it had any right to be.

[Aura]

Kyle was ready for this. He had spent a lot of time before school getting his proposals together, and he double-checked during lunch just to make sure. He wasn't the head of the volunteer club, but he was one of their most active members, so it made sense for him to be the one that brought their latest set of proposals up for discussion. Most of them had been his idea too, which was another good reason for him to be the spokesperson for them.

He had faith in both Nathan and Faith to hear him out. Nathan was a really nice guy, and Faith seemed like she really wanted to do a good job, so she would probably take it very seriously. So as long as he managed to make a good pitch, he felt like he had a decent chance at getting his plans approved. Nothing in them seemed too controversial, at least not from what he could tell. Just a few requests for more resources and activities for them to be involved with. Nothing too strenuous to deal with.

He approached the door and gave it a knock. He also called out, to let Faith know that he was outside. Her response was quick and polite, giving him the okay to head inside. He quickly did just that, his small stack of papers still clutched in one hand as he walked through the door.

"Hi Faith!"

[Frozen Smoke]

Faith smiled, recognising the voice quickly. Kyle had always been an active part of the student council in his own way, and was almost always the first to start talking in meetings, so him being first shouldn't have been a surprise. It was a welcome start though, Kyle was many things, but he wasn't someone who refused to believe in compromise, or reality. He had an annoying habit of being the first to volunteer for things, which inevitably dragged others into doing them, but unlike most people who did that sort of thing, he followed through. She placed the people who volunteered for things but didn't turn up in the worst political category in her head. Below fascist, racist, or even communist - Unreliable. There were certainly a few people like that, who couldn't be trusted to do things even when it was in their own best interests. They were impossible to work with, and she'd been worried someone like that was going to turn up and start demanding the moon or else blah, blah, blah.

With a sprinkling of -ism's, probably.

She gestured at Kyle to sit down in the seat next to her, not across from her. She'd thought that would be a better way to start talking to people, side by side, as if they were working together as opposed to making it an across the table confrontation. She'd still have final say of course, but she hoped it'd help the whole thing feel less intimidating. Not that Kyle would have minded either way, but judging by the stack of notes in his hands, they were going to have to do a lot of reading. Better that not involve them spinning a notebook around a hundred times.

"So Kyle, what can I help you with?" she asked simply, keeping that open smile on her face as she inwardly grimaced in preparation for the inevitable splurge of information Kyle was undoubtedly about to try and force into her brain in the space of about 3 minutes of speech, hoping she could catch at least half of it this time.

[Frozen Smoke]

The two of them talked for a while. Or, more accurately, Faith listened to Kyle for a good while. He had a lot of ideas, and a lot of enthusiasm, and she was willing to taken in what she could. Unfortunately, most of his ideas didn't strike her as the sort of thing the school had the resources to do, and those that they did would have taken them defunding something else to pay for it. She could have brought that up, tried and made him see the reason why his ideas wouldn't work. But she didn't. She smiled, and told him that she'd work on it all, and thanked him for his time.

She shook his hand.

It was going to be a long term.

((Faith C. Marshal-Mackenzie continued in Celebration))