Sue was not totally happy coming to this interview by herself. I mean, her and this man alone in his office. So she wasn’t exactly walking quickly as she came to the office, and she had her mother on speed dial. But then she saw Seth’s girl, Julia, in the front yard with the kids.
“Oh, hey, she’s here, y’all go inside now,” Julia said, as she got close, and Sue watched, mystified, as the kids vanished inside.
“How are you doing?” Julia asked, coming and taking her arm. “Mr Madison asked me to sit in for the interview… off camera, you understand. With all of the ‘Me Too’ stuff he is a bit worried… even though everything will be filmed… about getting accused and all.”
“Oh!” Sue said, feeling MUCH better about this interview. Before the boys had been in the next room but today…
“Grab something to eat,” Julia said, matching words to action. “He says it is good for you, put you at your ease and avoid blood sugar problems. He says…”
“I can say it myself, Julia. But do get something to eat, Sue.”
“He must think I’m Seth,” Sue quipped… but got herself a pig and some lemon tea.
The two girls, arm in arm and both with their food and drinks, went into the office. Mr Madison grinned at them. “Go ahead and have a seat on the couch, girls, but we won’t be starting the interview yet.”
They sat down and Sue took a bite of her pig and opened her drink, as Oscar began showing some hilight reels of Sue… some very embarrassing reels. He saw her look. “Oh, chill, girl. This is the stuff to give them in the beginning. They want to see Newby falling in the mud. And our settings made sure that your dress didn’t cling.”
She blushed. She had worried about that. Slipping at the side of that creek when the murder hedgehog (not its official name, but Seth loved his ‘murder’ theme) had rammed her trying to get to George, she had come up half covered with mud and half with water and sure that her sheer white dress had turned the video into PG, if not R. She had been exceedingly relieved (she hadn’t dared look at the time, and had been busy casting healing) to see, in her own review of the video, that it had stayed opaque. A bit clingy… but she had regular dresses that were worse. And, seriously, she had expected far worse!
“And our system is working very well. I didn’t bother telling you, because you were almost done, but you gained a new skill just at the end.”
“Really?” Julia asked, spraying a little bit of pig onto the table. “What is it?”
“It’s called ‘Nature’s Walk’, and it is means we are on track for our elite build. Here’s what it does…”
“So, Sue, you have been doing excellently this week, and our little scheme means you are advancing nicely.”
“Oh, yes, Mr Madison. And I haven’t been going too fast, since the boys do most of the killing.”
“Most of the killing?”
She did her best to blush (it was on the teleprompter!), “Well, I did step on that one Murder Hedgehog so Seth could stab it with his knife.”
“Oh, yes, I had forgotten that!” (A blatant lie, as it was on the speech he had written!)
“So, Sue, you’ve had time to look it over, tell us about your new skill!”
“Well, Mr Madison, I haven’t gotten to use it yet but I have been reading about it and it sounds just wonderful. It’s not a direct combat addition… I don’t think my build will be getting many of those… but I think we will find it super helpful. It’s called ‘Nature’s Walk’ and it is, well, you might call it a stealth skill. As long as we are out in nature, it doesn’t help in taverns or the like, it helps you to make less noise, and be less noticed.”
“Ah, so good for ambushes?”
“Well, I think it will be really helpful for Seth… in his scouting and all… it will keep him quieter.”
“Well I think George could use it,” he said, grinning. Which they had planned that joke and all, but it was very true. Going anywhere with George was never quiet.
“Oh, yes, and it will be good for me, too. The boys are kept busy fighting and protecting me, it will be good if I can’t get noticed so easily by the monsters.”
“And how are you doing with the boys? Any interpersonal frictions? Any crushes?”
(As if she would tell him if there was!)
“Oh, well, there are always little tiffs… but I am rarely involved. George and Seth are very different…”
“And that’s a wrap!” Mr Madison said, and Julia came over and hugged her, bending down to where Sue sat on the couch. My, that sweatshirt was modest on her! Most girls tried to arrange it so when they bent down the boys would get a view, but Julias collar was so tight that you couldn’t see anything!
And she was very touchy/huggy, especially with Seth, but almost always side hugs. Very touchy… which Seth seemed to enjoy, but Sue had seen him try to front hug her once, and you would have thought she was a dancer, the way she spun it into a side hug.
Sue took another bite of her pig, relaxing. “Is it going well, Mr Madison?” she asked.
“It is going very well indeed!” he said. “Our views have been up every day. Seth is our most popular character… I hope you don’t mind.”
“Oh, no, not at all. If I was too popular I would worry that you were tweaking my neckline or something.”
He didn’t laugh, and Sue quailed. That really hadn’t been very nice. That had almost been an accusation. She was opening her mouth to say something, anything, when Julia intervened. “Well, he hasn’t. I’m sure it is a temptation, as a director, but I watch the videos as I exercise and he has kept them clean. Very clean. Cleaner than real life, in fact. I could see in a couple of spots where he had tweaked your dress to be a bit less curvey. Going for the ‘sweet young thing’ effect. Wouldn’t work with me, I’m afraid.”
She grinned and Sue grinned back, altho she had no idea what she meant. But she was glad he was keeping it clean, and that he didn’t seem upset.
“Now,” he said, “Our love interest.”
Sue blushed, but Julia sat next to her and put her arm around her. “I have been so waiting for this! What’s a video without a love interest? Is it a triangle? Don’t tell me George is involved.”
“Yes, and no. Seth and Frank are competing for the hand of our young virgin.”
Sue blushed beet red, as Julia and Mr Madison watched various videos… she watched them too but she was mostly just blushing… and, indeed, the ‘camera angles’ kept putting her and Frank in the same ‘frame’ together, and then once in a while Seth would be in the same ‘frame’ only farther away and seeming to look at they and frown. Which it wasn’t like they had been doing anything (however much she wished they were!).
“That certainly will bring in the audience,” Julia said, when the videos wound down. “Oh, Sue, you are doing so well. Perhaps you will be an actress, next.”
“I’m not very pretty,” Sue said.
“Well, they don’t always want that,” Julia said, not even bothering to deny it.
—
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Von