“Ah Mark,” Ms. Gerry started. A few people seated at a large table looked around from the highbacked chairs and gazed at the new arriver. Mark suddenly became very sick to his stomach and he edged his way into the room cautiously shutting the door behind him. “Everyone, this is my new photographer, Mark Wheeler,” she introduced and waved Mark to sit down. Mark slid into a chair left vacant and the conversation was reestablished.

“As I was saying, this is probably the biggest story out there at the moment and I want a piece of it. The newspapers alone can’t carry the rights to this story, we need to get in on it before everyone else runs it into the ground. It’s already been out for 3 days so I don’t want anymore delays. Mark,” Ms. Gerry called out. Mark had practically jumped out of his skin.

“Yes, yes ma’am,” he answered. He had looked so out of place in the room with all these head of staff and reporters. “Modern Day” had offered him the position after reveiwing his portfolio. He had been encouraged by Jenny to submit it and he had only halfheartedly done son. She had threatened to take it to Bette otherwise and he couldn’t see himself imposing on his friends anymore than he had already had. Position by guilty conscience, he had told himself. He had never dreamed, however, he would be involved with something such as this. This story, as Ms. Gerry kept referring to it as.

“It’s my understanding you have met the Peabody and Carvington families,” Ms. Gerry asked. Everyone in the room looked most inquisitively at Mark. He felt all eyes burn over him posing questions how he of all people could have had contact with some of the most powerful families in the United States.

“Uh, yeah, I have. At an art gallery thing that a friend of mine runs,” he explained. Well, ran, he thought. He remebered getting an invite from Bette just as a curtisy but when she learned he had secured a position with “Modern Day” she thought a photo of her preparing for an exhibit in the CAC would do everything to rub Helena the wrong way and insisted on his prescence.