Young Writers Society

Rana sat in the corner to sulk. Well, she sat tall, with one leg crossed over the other daintily as she ate her body weight in cheese. The perfect little pretty, stupid girl that senators loved. But inside? Sulking.

A sharply-dressed senator in a blue suit and navy jacket turned, a brilliant smile lighting up his pudgy face. He strode over towards Anna, pulled a seat up next to her, and put his arm over her. "Yes, my love?" he said in a sickly sweet voice.

Anna turned to face him and slid her hand up his leg. "Kris here is interested in our economic system, and I promised her a tour of the warehouses."

"What's in it for me?" Malcolm purred into her ear, barely loud enough for Kris to hear. She fought the urge to wince and turn away.

Anna whispered something in his ear, and Malcolm's face twisted into a self-congratulatory smile. He pulled away and tugged on his jacket.

"I think we can make that happen for you, Kris."

She'd found two warehouses.

Two.

Surely, that was enough. She'd earned taking the rest of the night off. To go back home and not deal with these tiresome senators and their antics. But then she glanced over and saw Kris talking to... Malcolm, of all people.

Fuck. Fine. She couldn't very well let Kris get more information. The gloating would never end. She pushed herself to her feet and took a deep breath, straightening her shoulders. Her feet ached.

"Rana! My dear!"

She bit back a groan and plastered a fake smile on her face as she turned to look for her new source of hell.

Kris gritted her teeth into a smile. "Thank you sooo much."

"Do you think we could go there now?" Anna pressed.

Malcolm hesitated, looking around the room. "Not today," he said after a pause. "It wouldn't look good to just disappear in the middle of a social event, particularly one this important."

Anna and Kris exchanged a glance, and Kris nodded slightly. Anna turned back towards Malcolm. "Could I come too, love?"

Malcolm looked at her and tilted his head. "If it would make you happy, of course, dear."

Anna shot Kris a look of helplessness, and Kris reached for a napkin and pushed it across the table. "Senator, would you please give me your information and I'll reach out to schedule a time?"

Malcolm looked at the table, eyes narrowing slightly, and took the napkin. He pulled a pen out of his breast pocket and scribbled something on the napkin before sliding it back. "There you are, Kirsten. Would you give me and my wife a moment alone?"

Kris forced herself to nod rather than snarl 'It's Kris' at him.

She passed from senator to senator -- some of them giving her scraps, others giving her nothing at all. But she had her wallet nearly packed with vouchers by the time another hour had passed, which was something.

The vouchers were more valuable than money. Each one could obtain about a week's worth of food for a single person. She only had locations of two warehouses -- and shipment information for one of them -- but if she just kept collecting weeks' worth of food for the rest of the night, that would still help. She couldn't help but wonder how Kris was getting on.

Kris stepped up from the table and scanned the room, where she saw Rana bouncing between senators. She made her way across the room and lightly touched Rana's shoulder. "Are you almost ready to go?" she asked.

Rana felt a hand on her shoulder. She turned around, instinctively plastering a smile on her face as she wrapped her hand around his back -- her --?

"Oh gods am I." Rana's hand fell to her side as quickly as the smile fell from her face when she realized she didn't have to be putting on a show. "You?"

Kris smirked. "Me."

She scanned the room once again and sighed with relief when she realized no one was watching them. "How's your evening?" she asked dryly.

"No, I meant you?," Rana muttered, carefully resisting the urge to look around as Kris scanned the room. It'd look suspicious if they were both looking around. "As in when can we fucking leave?"

"Should we wait for at least one of the speakers? It'd look flaky if we left before the event even started, wouldn't it?"

Rana groaned and rubbed her face. "Why do you give me hope, only to yank it away?"

Kris smirked. "I'm sorry. We can leave during the first speech, okay?" she promised. "We just need to hang in here a little longer, and you don't even have to talk to anyone else."

"Bless," Rana muttered, reaching forward to grab a wine glass from the platter of a passing server. "I've had enough of today."

Kris grabbed a glass of wine from the same platter and took a sip. "I hate these events too, but they're necessary, you know?" she murmured, keeping her head on a swivel. "When in Rome..."

"Pretty sure these plebeians only know one thing." Rana made a vague squeezing gesture with her hand, looking away from Kris so it wasn't quite so obvious that they were whispering to each other. "I need seventeen showers... but also have what we came for."