The Phoenix

Impressive

Lucy sat on the couch, flipping through the channels and thinking about her date with Leo. It had been great. They had talked about their families, Leo's life before his father became the president, her life before her father had died, and a lot of other things.

She had been right about paparazzi being there but she didn't think that it was that big of a deal until she came across TMZ. Plastered across the screen were pictures of her and Leo from earlier. Some were of them eating, some were of them getting in and out of the car, and the others were of them walking.

Without even taking her eyes off the TV, she picked up her phone and called Leo.

"Hey, Lucy. What's up?"

"Turn to Channel 83 on the TV." she stated flatly.

"Why?"

"Just do it."

"Uh, okay."

He was silent for a minute as he turned there, but he wasn't very quiet when he saw what was on.

"What the hell?" he yelled.

She was going to say something but one of the people started talking.

"Leo Kirkman's Mystery Club Girl has been identified as White House intern, Lucy Rhodes. Younger sister to Kirkman's Special Advisor, Emily."

"What is with that hair?" one of the guys laughed. "How do you get an internship anywhere but Hot Topic with it?"

"C'mon, we all know big sis pulled some strings for that."

"What do you think the President's opinion on her is? The hair probably blinded him to reality."

"Why do they keep talking about my hair?" Lucy practically screamed into the phone.

"Why is this a big deal, at all? I mean, I get the club thing, but us going to lunch?"
"I'm gonna call, Emily. Maybe she can fix this."

"Good luck."

"Bye."

"Bye."

It took a few calls for Emily to pick up, but she finally did.

"Hey, sorry, I was in the middle of a meeting."

"Uh, we have a problem."

"What?"

"TMZ is doing a segment on me and Leo right now. Someone needs to fix this."

"Listen, I have to go right now, but I'll get someone on it okay?"

"Alright." she said, hanging up.

She sat and watched the TMZ people make more comments about her and her physique until she couldn't take it any longer. Shutting the TV off, she walked back to her room. Boxes were still stacked all over the place. There was nothing better to do, so she unpacked all of them. Her rave clothes hung in the closet alongside her 'professional' dresses that she wore to work. The rave clothes wouldn't be getting used for an even longer time than originally planned, now that she was in the public eye. While sorting through the clothes she came across something odd. Wadded up at the bottom of one box was a Guns N' Roses t-shirt. She had only heard of the band once. Lucy inspected the shirt to see if there was any indication of its owner, and on the tag, in big faded letters was the name, Clara. It had belonged to her mother.

She sat down on the couch and hugged the shirt while crying. Lucy had very few memories of her mother since she died when she was only 4, but she remembered loving her. Her mom had loved her and her siblings with everything she had, and they had loved her just as much.