Chapter 1
The cheers from thousands of people fill your ears and flashes from cameras are all that you see as your mother steps out onto the stage and in front of the podium. Of course, she chose not to take her cue cards, you thought to yourself and exhaled sharply. You’re stressed, there's a million things to take care of, and the show has just begun. However, you put a big smile on your face as the crowd cheers “Mariah 2024!”.
“Um, there's a situation…” your mother’s assistant Tyler stammered to you, your eyes bounced between Tyler, your brother Dale and your father Jackson; pleading for this not to be happening.
“What now?” you asked, a little too aggressively.
“There seems to be some commotion outside, it seems like some of Alexander Pierce's supporters are disturbing guests- and just about everyone, really.” Tyler explained, behind him, you caught eyes with Steve Rogers, one of your family's security details for the past couple years. Not now!, you thought to yourself, because too often did you get distracted by this man who was apparently sculpted by the fucking gods.
“Good lord, okay-hold this please.” you said, practically shoving your water bottle and clipboard into the poor kid's arms, and stormed offstage towards the entrance of the building.
You heard your brother call out your name, “Please just let security deal with it.” Dale groaned, slowly trailing behind you.
“Too late!” you muttered to yourself and slammed open the front doors, face to face with the disruptive group of protesters. You raised your brow as a few stared at you, and the rest were too busy harassing people coming into the building.
“Please leave.” You said, looking around pointedly at the group in front of you.
You closed your eyes and groaned as screams of, “We have every right to be here!”, “Free speech is in the constitution”, and “You’re violating my right to protest” arose from the group.
“First off, you do not have the right to harass guests of this event, which is what you are doing!” You shouted back, pointing for them to leave. You were in your second year of law school at Georgetown, did they really think you didn't know the constitution?
“And what are you gonna do about it, bitch?” A tall, rugged looking man said, towering over you.
“Oh, you motherf-” You began as your brother quickly grabbed your hand, pulling you back before you were about to lunge forward.
“Dale! I’ve got this.” You said and stepped back and caught a hold of yourself.
“No, you do not. Steve, guys, help us out here please.” Your brother stated and pulled you back into the building. Steve was standing beside Dale and nodded before looking over to you.
“Are you okay?” He asked, eyebrows furrowed, and he moved as if he was about to check you out for any physical wounds but stopped himself.
“I’m fine, thank you, Steve” You muttered, still feeling as though those guys should’ve gotten a taste of their own medicine.
His lips formed a tight line, and he nodded before heading outside with a few other security guards to sort out the situation.
“Can you please try not to go viral attacking people two weeks before the election?” Your brother asked sarcastically, and nudged you to join him in returning to the event room.
“They know they can’t just stand out there and spew madness, but they do! It’s infuriating, We already have so much to do” You explained, clearly exasperated, Tyler handed you back your clipboard and the three of you faced the stage.
“Yes, but we have to be better than them.” He said
“I know, but it's still annoying.” You replied and chuckled, a smile returned to your face as you looked at a note from Tyler stuck to your clipboard reading “that was epic”. You got back to work, glad that your foul mood hadn’t affected Tyler.
An hour into the event, Steve comes up to you and your family, looking as irritated as you were. You were just looking over social media coverage of your mother's event and the presidential campaign as a whole.
“Is it taken care of?” Your father asked.
“Yes, Jackson sir. It took a while, but we threatened to take them in, and they sort of scattered after that.” Steve explained.
“Do you know who was behind it?” Your father inquired, wiping sweat from his forehead.
“Alexander Pierce” you cut Steve off before he could begin, and rolled your eyes.
Steve looked at you and let out a chuckle, revealing a very cute half smile. He turned his attention back to your father and said, “Alexander Pierce is correct, sources told me he’s trying to get his followers to harass people who would possibly vote for Mariah. It looked like he had Jack Rollins patrolling as well.” He spoke in a quieter voice, your father turning the conversation away from his two children.
This frustrated you, Dale of course was still too young to be hearing these conversations, but you were already involved enough in your mother's campaign, so you didn’t understand your father's protectiveness.
The two continued their conversation off to the side, and you sighed, turning your attention to your mother as she walked off the stage. She was all smiles and waved towards the crowd, but once her eyes landed on you, she looked worried.
“What happened now, bug?” She asked, and you chose to ignore that horrible childhood nickname.
“Just a small situation with protesters outside, nothing to worry about now, ma, it's been dealt with.” You reassured her and hooked an arm through hers, walking backstage.
“Oh lord, when will they give it up? Pierce’s followers have been up my ass since I started this.” She muttered as she took a sip of her water, and you both looked over the schedule for the day at a table in the back room of the stage.
“It’s all okay now, let’s just focus on winning this, ok?” You said and smiled at her, beyond proud of what she has achieved over the past year, it made the stress worth it, seeing her succeed. She nodded and reached out to squeeze your hand, you both turned your attention back to the papers and schedules in front of you.
There was a load of bigotry and hate in the world, and you were determined to help get rid of it, especially the man who encouraged those things, Alexander Pierce.