The Campaign

by Elizabeth Karre

  I felt really smart. Probably everyone had thought of this stuff already, but I could ask Chaz some of it when we went to the mayor’s thing today.

  Looking at Maya to see if she was noticing, I quick Googled mayor DC. Melvin Watts, it said. That sounded right.

  Then I googled Jeff Johnson and got his website and lots of news stuff about him.

  I read Wikipedia about him. He did weird stuff. It seemed to me like he just wanted to make anyone he could look bad; he didn’t care who.

  I read stuff that said what Maya had said about how he cut stuff out and moved things around in his videos. Was that what happened in the Billy Watts video? But Chaz had called it “raw tape”—did that mean it was the whole thing, nothing missing or changed?

  I thought I remembered a clock thing in the corner of the video. I clicked back to it. There it was, but I wasn’t sure what it meant. I added it to my list.

  I watched some of JJ’s other videos on his website. They were crazy and did make people look bad. You got to see him too because JJ would talk in between parts, telling you what was happening and why it was bad. He was a scrawny white guy who barely looked older than me. Wikipedia said he was twenty-five.

  I read some more about each video. Then I clicked the link for the “raw tape” for one that made this guy at a company look really stupid. I guess raw tape did mean the whole thing.

  The raw tape was really different than JJ’s video. The guy had said most of the stuff, but not the way JJ made it seem. JJ had cut it up and rearranged it so it seemed totally different and way worse. And in one part, he had somehow changed the guy saying “We cannot take that money” to “We can take that money.”

  I was starting to agree with Maya that JJ was a tool. And a liar. Sometimes he really did catch people doing something stupid or maybe kind of wrong. (Was it illegal to use welfare money to get an abortion? I wondered.) But a lot of it he just made up with his movie magic.

  The last thing I looked at about him was a plan he had that didn’t happen. He wanted to “punk” some TV show by embarrassing them. They found out before he could do it. I was starting to wonder why he had picked Polichat for this video about Billy Watts. Was it because no one else wanted to deal with him?

  “Hey, you can take lunch whenever you want,” Maya said, making me jump again. I had been thinking hard. “I just eat mine while I’m working usually, but if you want to run out to get something, you can.”

  Maya was opening a Tupperware with some weird-looking thing in it.

  My face got hot. I had forgotten about lunch. At school, you just ate or didn’t eat what was there. (I was still “free and reduced,” probably. I didn’t ask, just swiped my school ID.) I only had $1.50 and my bus pass. I could at least get a candy bar or Takis if I could find a place that sold them in all these big buildings.

  “Hey, Destiny, ready to go?” Chaz stuck his head around the partition. “We’ll get lunch on the way.” He disappeared.

  I grabbed my purse and list, my hands sweating. He was probably going to want to go to some fancy place where I’d barely be able to afford a soda. Now I wouldn’t get anything to eat, not even my candy bar. I was suddenly really hungry.

  “Have fun,” said Maya.

  THIRTEEN

  “Whoa,” I said as Chaz led me to his Audi.

  “Where you want to go for lunch?” he asked as he started driving.

  I shrugged. “I don’t know what’s around here. I live in another part of the city.”

  “I know a great place on the way,” he said, turning on the stereo.

  He picked some good music so I leaned back in the leather seat to listen and try to relax.

  Just as I thought, the restaurant did not have anything under two bucks. It was no corner store with chicken boxes. Nicer than TGI ­Friday’s too. Damn, now I was going to have to say I wasn’t hungry and like be one of those weird girls who don’t eat. Or maybe I should say I forgot my cash and could I pay him back?

  But what if I couldn’t get Mom to give me any cash? I didn’t want to wait until I got paid to pay him back. I wished I could ask when I’d get paid.

  Too bad I couldn’t offer to pay him back for lunch with certain … favors. Hell, I’d have paid to get with him! I grinned at my menu, trying not to laugh.

  “What are you smiling about?” Chaz asked.

  I chuckled and slapped my menu shut. I’d decided to just take cash from Mom’s purse or ask Denise. This fancy place at least made chicken fingers and sauce, and I was so hungry.

  “Nothing, but I forgot my cash today. Could you loan me some? I’ll pay you back tomorrow,” I said.

  Chaz looked surprised. “No, no, I got it. Sorry, I should have said that before. Don’t worry about it.”

  I smiled at him—we were on a date! Maybe there would be some action later in the car!

  After the waitress left with our order, I pulled out my list.

  “I’ve got some questions,” I said.

  “You’re organized,” said Chaz.

  I pretended to give him a dirty look.

  “Don’t make fun of me for doing my job,” I pouted. “I watched that video and some more Johnson made, and I got questions.”

  “Okay, shoot,” he said, sipping his beer.

  “So who was JJ, I mean, Johnson, pretending to be when he talked to Billy and where did he have the camera? Have you seen it?”

  “Okay, slow down,” said Chaz. “Jeff’s pretending to be just a regular guy helping with the mayor’s reelection campaign. We might even see him at the press conference today. But we can’t act all BFF,” (he used a girly voice) “with him or people will wonder why.”

  I made a face at him. “Nobody at my school says ‘BFF’ anymore,” I told him. “But is he? Your BFF?”

  “Jeff? No, I don’t really know him. Just met him when he came to me with the video,” said Chaz.

  “I agree with Maya,” I said, slurping up the last of my soda with my straw and waving at a waitress. “He seems like an a-hole.”

  “Well, he’s a useful a-hole,” said Chaz as the waitress brought our food.

  I pressed my lips together to try to stop laughing. If I had been with my friends, I would have said, “Hey, all a-holes are useful when you gotta take a crap!” But I didn’t know Chaz well enough. I needed to look mature. I couldn’t be Crazy Destiny.

  I focused on my food for a minute. There was some green sauce in a metal cup. I grabbed the ketchup bottle instead.

  “As for the camera, I didn’t ask him about it. They make really little ones,” Chaz said. “Why you ask?”

  “That video,” I stopped to swallow so I wasn’t talking with food in my mouth. “The one with Billy—it looks different than some other ones. You can see Billy’s face the whole time, and it’s like straight on. Like the camera’s on Johnson’s head.”

  I put more salt on my fries. “In the other videos it’s like the camera’s in a bag or pocket or something.”

  Chaz nodded, his forehead wrinkled while he chewed his salad. (I’m not going to lie: he really was eating a salad! But he was still cute.)

  “Next question goes with that,” I said. “Is Billy Watts usually dumb? I’ve never seen one of these teeny cameras, but you’d think he would notice something if it was on Johnson’s head. And the stuff he said—why would he say that to some random guy if he knew it was illegal?”

  “Well—,” Chaz began.

  I kept going. “I mean, how dumb do you have to be to say to practically some stranger ‘Yeah, me and my dad are doing illegal stuff’?”

  I made my crazy chipmunk face. At least that’s what Kendra calls it. It always cracks her up. Chaz didn’t laugh and I felt stupid. I took a big bite.

  “These are good questions, Destiny,” said Chaz. He seemed kind of annoyed. “But you’re overthinking it. People, especially in politics, are just stupid sometimes. Are you finished? We should leave soon.”

  He started talking about the weather, so I just ate. G
uess I should just go back to listening, I thought.

  FOURTEEN

  “You can put those powers of skepticism to work at the press conference,” Chaz said in the car.

  I didn’t know what he meant.

  “People in power are always saying what they think you want to hear,” he said. “It’s our job to look underneath the pretty lies to what’s really going on.”

  I wanted to impress him again. And I still wanted answers. “Has the mayor gotten in trouble for doing this kind of stuff before?” I asked.

  “No, but there are always rumors. Now we know the rumors are true,” said Chaz.

  It reminded me of when Shakira said it was proof the rumors were true that her boyfriend was cheating on her with me. All because of a note she found that I wrote Kendra about how fine he was. I did think he was hot, and he did flirt with me, but nothing happened. But that’s why she said nasty stuff in the school newspaper about me being a slut.

  I think you can’t really know if a rumor’s true unless you see it with your own eyes.

  Chaz pointed JJ out to me at the press conference. He was standing right by Billy.

  “Why is he here?” I asked. “Isn’t this just a thing for newspapers and TV?”

  “He’s a journalist,” said Chaz, trying to push his way to the front of the crowd. “Yeah, but I thought he was pretending to just be a regular guy,” I said.

  “Shh!” Chaz glared at me.

  I rolled my eyes at the back of his head.

  The press conference was boring. I got knocked on the head twice by big cameras as everyone jostled for a spot. People were yelling in my ear, trying to get the mayor to answer their boring questions about the city budget.

  I watched JJ and Billy instead. They were very friendly and kept giving each other looks and looking at the mayor and laughing. Something didn’t seem right to me.

  In the car afterward, I said to Chaz, “Something’s wrong with that video.”

  “Were you even paying attention at all during the conference?” he snapped. Ugh, it was like being in school.

  I tried to be polite. “I was watching them and they seem … like they got a joke together or they know something.”

  Chaz was confused. “You mean Billy and Jeff? Well, they are planning something illegal together. Or that’s what Billy thinks.”

  “They’re supposed to be planning something illegal with the mayor though, right?” I said. “But that’s not how they’re acting. It reminded me of when kids are playing a teacher—looking at each other and laughing and stuff.”

  Chaz was silent. He looked mad.

  “And Billy didn’t look stupid,” I said.

  “You think you can tell who’s stupid just by looking at them?” Chaz shot back, shaking his head.

  “Yeah, sometimes,” I said, sliding down in my seat.

  We didn’t talk the rest of the way.

  FIFTEEN

  Back at the office, Chaz tried to act normal.

  “That’s good for today,” he said without looking at me. “See you tomorrow.”

  On the bus home I turned my music up loud to try to stop thinking and feeling like crap.

  I should just shut up and do what Chaz tells me, I thought. He was my boss, and he was cute so I wanted him to like me. And I did need to get serious about getting into college my senior year. Ms. Williams had told me that Harmon Holt went to Grandin College and she thought I might be able to get in. (She never asked if I wanted to go to Grandin.) She also told me I should write about my Holt internship in my application essay.

  “Harmon Holt is a very well-respected and influential man,” Ms. Williams had said. So why was I trying to piss him off by arguing with his stepson on my first day? About some video with some people I’d never heard of until this morning?

  My head hurt, so I pressed my forehead against the cold window and watched the buildings slide by. Then I sat up suddenly.

  We’d just passed a building window with lots of MELVIN WATTS signs. The bus pulled up to the corner, and people stood up to get off. Not even knowing what I was doing, I got off too.

  “What the?” I said to myself as I stood across the street from the building. Because I knew what it was. It was the building in the video. But I didn’t know what I was going to do.

  Inside there was a girl sitting at a table, looking bored. She sat up straight when she saw me.

  “Hi, are you here to volunteer for the campaign?” she asked.

  “Umm, yeah,” I said, looking around the little office. A couple of people were talking on phones. One turned around to see who I was. It was Billy Watts. Then JJ came out of another room, carrying a box. The girl was staring at me.

  “Sorry, not now, but I just wanted to stop in …” I trailed off.

  “Great,” she said, all fake perky. “Put your contact information here so we can get in touch with you about the next phone bank or door knocking. There’s stuff coming up soon.”

  I was writing down a fake name and number when JJ said to everyone, “Smoke break. Back in ten.” He brushed by me on his way out.

  Billy jumped up to follow him. “Thanks for volunteering,” he said to me hurriedly as he went by.

  I gave the girl a fake smile too and went out after them. Billy was just disappearing around the side of the building. I went the other way. Would I get lucky?

  I hustled around the building, slowing down when I heard their voices. I was just around the corner from them. I pressed against the building.

  “… hasn’t been a damn thing yet,” Billy was saying. Whining, really. “I don’t want to wait any longer to see him go down.”

  I couldn’t hear JJ at first. “… right time. Relax, my friend.”

  “Who’d you give it to again?”

  “New political blog. Don’t worry.”

  “I want to see it on freakin’ CNN,” Billy whined again.

  “Oh, you will—once everyone sees how real it is, that video will be everywhere,” JJ said. He laughed.

  “He thinks he can just ignore me my whole life, and now that I’m working for his reelection suddenly I’m important to him. I won’t take that crap! You said you’d help me,” Billy said, sounding angrier.

  “I did and I am helping you. Chillax. You dad won’t ever be elected again after this blows up.” JJ sounded bored.

  A cigarette butt flew past the corner. I jumped back. I heard footsteps going the other way. I flopped back against the brick wall.

  SIXTEEN

  I dialed Chaz’s number for the third time. I’d already left a message and sent a text, but he wasn’t answering. I wished I had Maya’s number. I had to talk to somebody right now.

  I sat on a bench in the park for a while, trying to make sense of what just happened. Billy knew about the video. Billy wanted JJ to make the video to make Billy’s dad, the mayor, look bad. Because … his daddy hadn’t paid attention to him when he was little?

  I knew something about dads who weren’t around. I’d only met mine a few times—or so my mom told me. It didn’t matter to me—he wasn’t someone I wanted to hang out with. But it mattered to Billy. Enough to fake a video.

  I shook my head and caught another bus home.

  Chaz wasn’t there the next morning, so I told Maya instead. Her eyes got big then; she narrowed them.

  “Are you sure?” she asked.

  I nodded.

  “Hmmm,” was all she said. Then she told me to write some photo captions.

  When Chaz came in, Maya called him over.

  “Are you sure we’re not being punked by Johnson?” she said abruptly.

  Chaz looked at both of us warily. I burst out with what I’d heard. Chaz nodded like he already knew it.

  “So?” said Maya, lips pursed.

  “Excuse us, Destiny,” said Chaz and gestured to Maya to come with him.

  When she came back, Maya’s mouth was set. I was dying to know what they’d said, but I was afraid to ask. We both just stared at our computers.


  SEVENTEEN

  After banging on her computer keys for a while, Maya left, murmuring something about an interview. Chaz was gone too. I was so bored because no one had told me what to do for the day. Finally, I asked one of the other guys if they wanted help with something.

  I spent a couple of hours reading and approving or rejecting comments people had made on the blog. Daniel, the guy I was helping, was getting ready to go, so I thought I might as well leave too.

  Then Chaz walked back in.

  “Destiny,” he smiled, putting a hand on my back. “You should knock off here and come with me.”

  “Uh, okay,” I said.

  At a coffee shop, Chaz looked deep into my eyes. I blushed, it was so intense.

  “Destiny, I need you to forget what you heard,” he said, grabbing my hand.

  “Wha-at?” I frowned.

  “Look, just for the next few minutes, I’ll talk about it with you, but then it’s going to be like all this never happened,” Chaz said.

  I just looked at him.

  “Yes, the video isn’t real exactly, and yes, I know that. But we are going to treat it like it’s real. Neither Billy nor Jeff will ever admit it’s fake. They’re not trying to punk us.”

  “But … why?” I asked. “Why did they … ? Why are you … ?”

  “We need the story. We need more traffic on the blog to prove we’re in the big leagues. The first unedited Jeff Johnson tape with serious scandal—”

  “But it’s fake!” I said.

  He held up his hand. “Yes, in a way, but there have been rumors about the mayor and voter fraud in the last election.”

  “But why is Billy—”

  He cut me off; his eyes narrowed. “He’s got issues with his dad. Serious ones. Legit. If he thinks that illegal activity should be exposed, I’m happy to help.”

  “But there isn’t any—”

  Chaz held up his hand again. “Time’s up. We’re done talking about it, and I seriously want you to forget it.”

  I sat back, stunned and angry.

  Chaz grabbed my hand again. “Look, I’m really sorry you got involved in this, Destiny. It’s nothing to do with you and your job, no matter what happens with this. You’re here this summer to get experience, make good money, and get a good reference letter from Holt, right?”