FicWad

Open Book:

Sakura, Robyn, Adam, Duncan, and I sat in the coffee lounge early this morning. Vanessa texted us on our way to work. She said that she wanted to hold a meeting with the BUS. I got mine when I was eating breakfast. This is what she wrote:

Urgent! BUS meeting @ 7:00 a.m. Really need to talk!

I snorted at those words. Urgent to who? Queen Nessa herself? It's not the meeting themselves that worry me. It's just the times that she puts them on. Why do we always have to come for these meetings so early in the morning? Can't she wait during our lunch break for these pointless meanings? Apparently not. Thus, the reason why we are here.

I looked over at the others. Sakura was taking this seriously despite being tired. Robyn was half-asleep. Adam was almost sleeping. Duncan just looked neutral. I didn't know whether to speak up at first or not. But, I did without thinking however.

"This better be good," I said. "There is no point to being dragged out here is early before work!" The others just looked at me with no emotion on their faces. I suddenly shut my trap. Maybe not... Maybe not...

Then, the door opened wide. We all looked up and saw Vanessa. She was smiling at us cheerfully. We all just looked at her blankly. Oh what the hell are you smiling for, you cow?

"Good morning everybody!" Vanessa chirped.

"Morning!" we all mumbled back to her. The "boss" kept smiling at us.

"How is everyone?" she asked.

"Fine," we all replied softly. Vanessa clapped her hands together loudly.

"Great!" she said. "Let's get down to business, shall we?" We all mumbled again. She then sat down at the table with us.

"Order at hand!" she called. "We have a little problem."

"Ashlee and Tony, right?" I asked in boredom.

"Them too," she said quickly. "But it's bigger!"

"Oh really?" I asked sarcastically. "What can be possibly bigger than Ashlee and Tony? Papa Joe Simpson?" Vanessa glared at me coldly.

"Mandy Bryant!" she said aloud. We all woke up wide at that one. I didn't see that one coming. Sure we knew that Mandy would do anything to be at the top again. But this one was a shock.

"Well," Adam spoke up. "What did she do now?" Vanessa took in a deep breath.

"Last night," she began. "Rosie and Panda went out on a date in the Red Bar. Sakura went against the rules to spy on them."

"Hey," Sakura shot back. "It was a good thing I did! Otherwise, Rose would've been martyred as a home wrecker by now!"

"But," Vanessa said. "Lt. Sakura has been forgiven for saving the couple from humiliation by the hands of Mandy and the article that she was been alleged to write for Boss-Lady." We all watched in silence.

"Oh no," Duncan said. "This is a problem."

"Exactly!" The "boss" said. Then she turned her attention sharply on all of us.

"So now the question," she said. "What do we do about Mandy? She won't give up that easily. We all know that." We all thought about that for a moment. For once, I wanted to fully take part in Operation: Prose. Not for Vanessa' amusement, but to save Rosie's career from going down the drown. She doesn't deserve to be tabloid trash because she loved Pete. Sometimes relationships happen when another woman falls for a taken man or the other way around. Sure sometimes they are hussies or home-wreckers, but not all of them deserve to be publicly crucified. Especially not one of the nicest people you know.

"I'll try to chase Mandy off!" I said aloud without thinking. The rest of our crew stared at me blankly. I looked around slightly confused. Now, I wished I would've kept my mouth shut. Vanessa kept her eyes focused on me.

"Oh really?" she questioned me. Oh crap, I have no choice now. Must follow it up. I never seem to know when to keep my mouth shut.

"Yeah!" I said trying to sound tough.

"How?" the "boss" questioned. It would've looked like I was stuck there. But, I wisely came up with the solution.

"By sabotaging her report to the very end by hacking into her computers, destroying the printed evidence, and re-directing Mandy elsewhere!" I smiled at that end to make me sound more convincing to my consumers. I hoped that it worked. Anyway, I should know any moment now.

"Very well," Vanessa said. "You can deal with Mandy." I smiled brightly. Suddenly, I felt great for speaking up in the first place. Nessa took out her notepad and pen to write down the new information. Then, the "commander" turned to the rest of the BUS.

"Sakura, Adam," she said. "Care to assist Greg at post?"

"Hell yeah!" Sakura replied quickly.

"Gladly," Adam responded. Vanessa wrote down the information in her notepad and capped her pen.

"Okay!" she called. "One third of our problems are solved. Now back to Tart Simpson and WOS Tony! I think Tony can be dealt with us girls. As for the tart, I'll go to some of my old friends for help. Other than that, that's it for the day and the mission is going smoothly." We were all smiling that Vanessa had finally shut up for the morning. But that was only a pause until this first part of the mission was over.

"Hey!" a voice yelled to us. We all looked up to see one of the janitors of this building peeking in. We were pretty startled to see him. Nobody except for us is ever here on this floor this early. We really curious to know if he had a single word we had said.

"Uh... I'm sorry, are you all supposed to be here?" the janitor asked them. We all didn't seem to know what to do or say at first.

"No," Vanessa replied. "But we decided to get an early start today for articles to trade ideas off of each other! But when done now." The janitor stared at us for a long moment. Please buy it! Please buy it! Please buy it! The janitor intruder finally just smiled at us.

"Oh okay," he said. "Sorry to disturb you." Then, he went away. We all silently breathed out easily. We all looked at Vanessa to close this meeting. She quickly came back to us.

"Oh, right!" she said. "I should let you guys go, right?"

"Yes!" we all said.

"Right!" she said again. "Well, bye!" Then we all left. It is official: The Prose war is now on!

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