teenager for president ! :: hadley

The past week and a half of Amerie's life had been hectic. She and her parents (along with a throng of hired hands) had successfully cleaned the entire Solas mansion from top to bottom. The previous overloridian had let the building grow into a general state of disarray, and Amerie's mom and dad didn't think it was fitting for a clio of such power.

Then, on Friday Aran, Amerie's newest employee, had moved in. The days following had been spent getting her settled in. Amerie was still busy learning the ropes of heading all of Solas, so she hadn't gotten to spend as much time with her new bodyguard as she would have liked. In fact, today was the first day they had left the house together at all.

Today was Amerie's first official outing as an overloridian. She needed to go see Hadley, the overloridian of Earalas to talk about trade. Solas needed something that only Earalas could supply, or something, and Amerie was supposed to strike some sort of deal. Her stomach had been in her throat all morning.

How was she supposed to know what to do? She had never been to Earalas before, and on top of that, she had never met an overloridian before. Not a single one! They were like celebrities or something, and Amerie didn't know how she was supposed to act around one.

You are an overloridian, Caviar reminded her in her ear.

That didn't make Amerie feel any better.

"Are you going to go in with me?" Amerie asked Aran. She tried to keep the pleading out of her voice, but she wasn't sure if she succeeded or not. She knew it probably wouldn't be proper for a bodyguard to sit in on such an important meeting, but she couldn't help but ask.

The two slowly approached whatever type of home Hadley lived in, the house at the end of a road that wound along the side of a mountain. It seemed life in Earalas was a lot different than life in either Dian or Solas was.

Hadley was eagerly awaiting the arrival of Amerie Lux, the new Solas overloridian. He was excited to meet her for a couple of reasons. One being that the old Solas overloridian had been the most boring overloridian ever. Always straight-laced, by-the-book, serious business. No fun whatsoever. The boring old clio finally died a couple weeks ago, and this young girl was taking over.

Another reason was that Hadley had been the newest overloridian until this girl settled. The others were all older, more experienced, and set in their ways. They certainly were not going to take advice from someone less experienced than them. Oh, sure, some of them were interesting on their own. (In fact Hadley was pretty sure the Deilig overloridian was running some kind of secret underground crime syndicate. Note to self: Check into that later.) But this girl, on the other hand, would be hopefully very impressionable. He had done some digging and found that she’d never had any kind of training with the old overloridian. Just raised by her parents, neither of whom were politicians in any way, in Dian. She was going to have no idea what she’s doing. He could mold her into something interesting, for sure.

Why can’t you just talk about trade agreements like you’re supposed to? Nila asked exasperatedly. Hadley never seemed worried, but Nila just knew that one of these days he was going to get himself into trouble with these little games he played with people.

Hadley brushed her off, as he always did. The life of an overloridian could get tedious and he had to break up the monotony somehow, after all.

There was a knock at the front door, so Hadley sent an aid to go let Amerie inside and lead her to his living room.

Aran didn't get to answer Amerie's pleas, because someone interrupted by opening the door. It was a tall man with a very straight back, wearing a black tuxedo.

"Welcome to the Sterling residence," the tall, fancy man said.

Amerie didn't realize she was staring until Caviar pecked her ear with his beak. Say something, he commanded.

"Hi. Er, hello," she stuttered, wondering why on Amelia the gods had chosen her to become overloridian. "I'm here to see Hadley. I'm Amerie Lux, from Solas."

"He's been expecting you," said the man. "Right this way." The butler-ish man lead Amerie and Aran down the hallway, their daemons trailing behind them.

"Miss Lux, Mr. Sterling is right in here," he announced, gesturing to a doorway they approached. "Your guest may either wait in the hall here, or follow me to the sitting room."

Aran decided whatever it was that she decided, leaving Amerie to go into the room with only Caviar as protection.

The first thing you need to do is stop thinking you need protection everywhere you go.

Amerie supposed that was true, but it was easier said than done. It wasn't so much that she needed protection as that she wanted a buffer. But unfortunately, unless she wanted her parents to be involved in her every action, it didn't seem like that was something she was going to get.

She walked into the room, praying silently that she wouldn't mess this up.

Hadley saw Amerie and some other clio walk towards the doorway. The other clio hung back a bit, looking a little awkward and out of place. Who's she? he wondered. Apparently he wasn't going to find out, because at the last second she stepped back to wait outside. Come to think of it, Amerie herself looked a bit awkward and out of place too. She looked like she was at least attempting to put up a little bit of a confidant front, but her nervousness was way too obvious for her to hide. It was kinda cute.

"Hey," he greeted casually with a friendly smile. "Come on in, sit wherever."

He himself was just lounging on a comfy chair. He definitely wasn't the professional type. Maybe that would put Amerie more at ease, keep her from hyperventilating in his living room. "Uh, hey Johnson, get us some drinks or something," he told the aid. Johnson nodded and left without a word. Hadley turned back to Amerie. "So. You're Amerie, I'm assuming. Nice to meet you."

And she had a little hummingbird daemon, he noticed. He didn't know for sure what that meant for her personality, but for some reason he felt like it suited her in an aesthetic way. Small and cute.

Amerie took a look around the room and realized that it wasn't the boardroom she had been expecting. Hadley wanted to meet with her in what looked like was his living room. Did all overloridians meet like this?

Caviar flitted above Amerie's head. Something tells me this guy may be a little more lax than the others.

If that was true, Amerie wasn't complaining. The atmosphere of the room, along with Hadley's seemingly carefree attitude did a lot for Amerie's confidence, though when she sat on a couch, she did so gingerly. She sat at the very edge, her back straight. She smiled when he mentioned her name.

"Which means you must be Hadley," she said quietly, monitoring her breathing so her words didn't come out in a rush. Her heart was on it's way back to beating at a normal pace, but she didn't trust herself just yet to not make a fool of herself. "Your home is beautiful," she commented. She paused for just a moment and then said awkwardly, as an afterthought, "Oh, and it's really nice to meet you too!"

She seemed to calm down a little. Good. "Thanks," he said. "I inherited it from the old guy, and made some home improvements." In some eilemaidens, his included, it was traditional for the new overloridian to inherit the old overloridian's home, unless the old overloridian had left behind a family or something. Hadley didn't usually care much about tradition, but it was a nice house and he was coming from Deilig, so he took it and made it his own.

Johnson the aid returned with some drinks for them and left the room again. "So how're your first few weeks going? Probably a little stressful, huh?" he asked in a sympathetic tone. He himself had adjusted to the job pretty fast, despite finding out about it the day he settled. He never really got what was so hard about it for some clio.

The more Amerie was in Hadley's presence, the less intimidated she got. He actually seemed really nice.

"I'm not sure stressful quite covers it," she told him, biting her lip.

If her parents had been there, they would have told her she needed to act as if nothing were wrong. As if she knew exactly what she was doing, that she had been sufficiently prepared for what what coming. And Amerie knew that, but

"I just have no idea what I'm doing!" she said, exasperatedly. "Whose great idea was it to have sixteen year olds become overloridians?"

Caviar's eyes flicked from his clio to the Earalas overloridian. He didn't always agree with Amerie's parents, but he wasn't sure this was the best clio to be letting her lack of confidence show to. Aran was one thing, but another overloridian? Someone who could potentially screw her over?

He kept quiet, but watched both Hadley and his daemon closely.

This was almost...too easy. "Haha, I know how you feel!" Hadley lied. "But you know what I've found the most important thing is? You can't let the stress get to you. You need an outlet. Other overloridians won't tell you this, but when the work starts piling up, sometimes it's best to take a step back and take some time for yourself. That way you can come back to it in a better state of mind and do a better job."

The key to a good lie was to sprinkle some truth into it. Like, it was true that overloridians needed an outlet and that stress could negatively impact their work. What wasn't true was that the solution to this was ignoring the work, which actually tended to make things worse. The advise was good in theory, but bad in practice. How long would it take Ameria to figure that out, he wondered?

You're a terrible person sometimes, Nila sighed.

"Have you had any kind of political training before?" he asked, already knowing the answer. "With the old overloridian or anything?"

Hadley wrote:"Haha, I know how you feel! But you know what I've found the most important thing is? You can't let the stress get to you. You need an outlet. Other overloridians won't tell you this, but when the work starts piling up, sometimes it's best to take a step back and take some time for yourself. That way you can come back to it in a better state of mind and do a better job."

"You really think that's a good idea?" Amerie asked. She thought it over. It kinda made sense.

I don't, Caviar told her. Especially not now! There is so much to do!

Amerie ignored him.

Hadley wrote:"Have you had any kind of political training before? With the old overloridian or anything?"

"Well, my parents tried to train me, before I settled. But... well, I just think most of it hasn't been what I've experienced so far," she admitted. "And they keep trying to over rule everything I think, and it just confuses me even more."

Amerie wrote:"You really think that's a good idea?"

"Of course," he replied. "Besides, too much stress is bad for your health. There's a reason overloridians have such a low life expectancy compared to normal clio."

Oh geez, now you're trying to scare her into taking your advice? Nila asked.

Amerie wrote:"Well, my parents tried to train me, before I settled. But... well, I just think most of it hasn't been what I've experienced so far," she admitted. "And they keep trying to over rule everything I think, and it just confuses me even more."

"Ah, that's rough," Hadley said, sympathetic again. "I know what it's like to have parents like that. They always think they know what's best. But hey, fate or the universe or whatever chose you as the overloridian, not them. I'd trust your own instincts and ignore what they have to say."

Another lie...Hadley's parents were the hands-off variety, letting him do whatever he wanted pretty much since he was old enough to walk and talk. But clio tended to be more trusting when they thought that they could relate to him, it seemed. So overbearing parents it was.

"Anyways, things will get easier over time," he said, ending on a nicer note. He smiled again. "I hope I'm not making you more worried or anything. I just wanted to give you another new-ish overloridian's point of view."

"No," Amerie said, "you're actually making me feel a lot better. It's just hard trying to juggle everything, you know?"

She pursed her lips. Maybe it would be a good idea to try to relax a little, as Hadley had said. Maybe all the paper work didn't need to be done as soon as it got dropped on her desk. "Isn't it hard to catch up after you push something off?"

Caviar did not like where this was going.

"Nah, not as long as you're reasonable about it," Hadley replied. "Like obviously you wouldn't want to hold things off for months, but a couple of days never hurts." The truth was, it was really easy to let a couple of days worth of work turn into a months worth. Amerie would learn that in due time, but not before accidentally causing some major problems.

Hadley, really, why do you want to sabotage this girl so much? Nila asked. Clio often said that daemons had opposite personalities to their clio. Hadley believed it. Nila had a big conscience, always questioning rights and wrongs; Hadley didn't have one at all. He just did what he wanted.

I dunno, watching someone crash and burn is more fun than watching someone succeed without any obstacles, Hadley replied mischievously. If it bothers you so much, just consider it a lesson about trusting clio she just met.

One of these days WE'RE gonna be the ones crashing and burning, Nila said, laying down on the floor and closing her eyes. I hope you know that.

You always say that, Hadley replied.

"So anyways, before we get into trade stuff, do you have any hobbies or anything?" he asked. "You know, some way to blow off steam when you need to." Let's learn more about this girl...

Amerie thought about that for a moment. Then she took another moment. What did she do for fun?

Well, thought Caviar, I guess you like to read.

Growing up with the parents she did, Amerie didn't have much time for fun. It was always a random assortment of tutors teaching her whatever they thought an overloridian should know.

"I like to read, sometimes. When I have time." She paused for a minute. "I used to garden, I guess."

When she had been younger, her father used to let her have a tiny piece of his garden to grow whatever she wanted. Back then she had dreamed of settling as Nadar. Of course, that could never happen, but as a child she hoped that she would never actually have to become an overloridian. Like it had been some mistake, and eventually she would get to be whoever she wanted.

"You guess?" Hadley asked, laughing lightly. "Well if you enjoyed it then you should get back to it. And you should get out and have fun sometimes, too. Be social, you know. The Adhbhar overloridian is pretty outgoing, you should talk to her sometime if you're ever feeling really stressed."

Of all the overloridians Arizona was probably the one Hadley got along with best. She was a lot of fun, and threw some wild parties. She was a rare breed who could go crazy all night and still get her job done in the morning. Hadley kind of doubted that Amerie would share that skill if she did start hanging out with Arizona.

"Well, anyways...I guess we should get into this trade thing, huh?" he went on. He thought he had nudged Amerie in a suitably amusing direction at this point, and any more would probably be overkill. "What is it that Solas needs?"

Right. The trading.

"Well," blah blah blah. Amerie brought up something that Solas was in short supply of, and offered something that Solas had an excess of. I'm not a politician, nor do I live on Amelia, so I'm not quite sure what those two things were. Amerie tried to make the offer sound really appealing, because she really wanted to do a good job and pull off this first overloridian feat.

She really hoped he wouldn't refuse.

"Sounds good," Hadley said cheerfully without even thinking it over. "Just have your clio send the necessary trade documents whenever. No rush."

They stood up and walked to the door together. "It was great meeting you, Amerie. I think Earalas and Solas are going to be good allies."

"It was so nice meeting you too, Hadley," Amerie said as she left. "And thank you so much for everything!"

She had made an ally. She had done it, without the help of her parents or anyone else. She had made a successful trade and an ally.

When she made it outside to Aran, there were tears in her eyes. Her bodyguard looked alarmed, but Amerie just said, "It worked! We got it!"

She had never been so happy. Caviar had never been so suspicious.