Olivia
Whenever I come to places like these, I was often full of joy and excitement; of childlike wonder. The amusement park should be a place of fun and thrills, after all. But today was a different day. I entered the park with Mark, resolute that I would absolutely blow this story out of the water.
"Oh, are you the people from OVT? Welcome, welcome! My name is Amanda, the manager here."
Amanda looked to be just a few years older than me and was full of kindness and warmth. She gestured for us to follow her.
"Welcome to Coaster Paradise! We're thrilled and honored to be featured by you all. I hope your drive up here to Syracuse was smooth."
I offered her a warm smile, but honestly, my blazing want—no,needto prove myself to Ben Oviatt was overshadowing my emotions.
"Thank you for having us! I can't wait to start my report!" I replied with a lot of enthusiasm. Maybe too much. Manager Amanda was taken aback. I guess she was used to being the fun one, being a manager of an amusement park and all. I cleared my throat in an effort to tone it down.
Mark set up his camera as he watched me carefully.
"Are you doing okay there, Olivia? You seem more excited than usual," he said with a slight smirk, as he adjusted the settings of the recording.
The sound of the roller coaster whooshing by right above us thrilled me even more. It was like this whole place was giving me the energy I needed to nail this story. The bright and colorful lights at the carousel gave me my confidence. The joyful laughter of children running around gave me my determination. The cheerful music playing throughout Coaster Paradise gave me my drive. I couldn't really describe it better than that. I was really just hyped to do this! And to prove to Ben Oviatt that he was wrong about me, of course!
"So, would a quick tour work for the story? How do you want to do this, Olivia?" Mark asked as he positioned the camera on his shoulder.
I was struck with a brilliant idea.
"Do we have any action cameras?"
Mark, in slight confusion, slowly lowered his gear and furrowed his eyebrows at me. I only responded with a sly grin.
"I don't think I like where this is going."
But Mark had no choice. Actually, I just didn't listen to his warnings. There was something I wanted to do, and dammit, I was going to do it. Because I could do whatever I wanted.
And that was how I found myself strapped in the front seat of the roller coaster with an action camera set in front of me. I could see Mark triple-checking to make sure that the camera wasn't going to fall off while we zoomed through the air. I adjusted the lavalier microphone on my collar as the safety bar lowered.
"Are you sure you want to do this, Olivia?" Amanda asked me for probably the tenth time. "We're happy if you just wanted to do something simple, like a tour. You really don't need to do this."
I waved off her concern for the tenth time that day.
"It's fine. This is going to be so much fun. For me and the audience."
She looked at me a little hesitantly, but realized there was nothing she could do. Even Mark gave in to my idea. He clearly knew when he could talk me out of something and when he couldn't.
"Okay, well, we're ready to go on your cue," Amanda said, ready to signal the control booth.
Mark looked at me a bit worried, replacing his usual nonchalant attitude.
"If you break that camera, I'll tell them it's going to come out of your paycheck."
I threw my hands over my heart.
"Really Mark? You think I'd break your camera? And you don't have just an itty-bitty amount of concern for your dear colleague? I thought we were friends, Mark!" My voice was dripping with sarcasm and Mark just rolled his eyes, giving into a laugh.
God, I was just so full of energy that I was practically bursting! Where was all of this buzz when I yawned in front of my boss yesterday?
"We're going on your signal, Olivia," Mark informed me as he watched the monitor that was remotely connected to the action camera.
I closed my eyes for a couple of seconds while taking a deep breath. Ben Oviatt's words echoed through my head.
"If you fail to impress me with your next assignment, don't bother coming back."
My smile slowly turned into seriousness as I held the safety bar with a death-grip. I screamed internally, feeling a newly-lit fire burn through me.
"Ready?" Mark and Amanda were both watching me and waiting.
"Let's do this." With that, the roller coaster slowly started its ascent.
When it reached the top and started to tip forward, I just knew that my life was about to change.
I really,really wanted to present that story right in front of everyone and Ben Oviatt himself. But our drive back from Syracuse to Manhattan took way longer than what the GPS said, and we actually missed the pitch meeting. I knew we should have left immediately, but I had to stop and get some food before leaving. My stomach had been jumbled after the coaster ride, but when it settled, I was immediately famished.
"Dammit!" I exclaimed to the almost empty newsroom. A couple of video editors looked at me with an amused expression, but I ignored them.
"I can't believe we missed the meeting," I said to Mark, who was a few steps behind.
"I can't believe you got all of that in onetake. That was so awesome, Olivia." Mark laughed and shook his head.
"Well, I guess let's just edit it down and we'll present it tomorrow." We headed to one of the editing bays, and Mark got everything set up. The frozen frame showed me and my excessively serious face before the roller coaster started.
"God, did I really look like that?" I was beginning to think that I gottoopassionate over this and perhaps overdid it just a bit. I was just hoping that it wasn't too much.
Mark glanced at the screen as well.
"Yeah, but like, it was attention-grabbing, if that makes sense," he said, making me raise my eyebrows. He caught my expression and simply pressed play. "Just see for yourself. It's hard to explain."
The recording played, and I watched a couple of seconds of myself in the same serious expression as I ascended onto the first drop. As soon as I was approaching the peak, I began to report.
"I am currently riding the biggest roller coaster in the newest amusement park here in Syracuse, New York."
My facial expression remained the same as I spoke, and it was actually kind of haunting me in the wrong way. The video continued, and I saw myself about to descend at high speed. As soon as I did, I continued.
"Coaster Paradiiise!"
Even as the wind blew strongly into my hair and face, my seriousness didn't wear off. I was just a serious newsperson the whole time.
I was probably way too invested in making sure that my boss was going to be impressed by this story that it overtook all my senses. I did it so straightforward that I kind of looked… silly being so unsmiling while riding on an amusement park ride.
"Oh, God, what is this story?" I asked out loud as I covered my face in embarrassment.
Mark's eyes widened at my reaction. "You're embarrassed by this? What—"
But before Mark could continue his question, one of the editors knocked on the door, interrupting us.
"Sorry to drop you with this, but Ben Oviatt asked me to deliver a message to you," the editor stated, a tone of concern lingering in his voice. "He said that since you couldn't pitch your story in time, he was going to leave the decision of publishing it to you, Olivia."
My heart kind of dropped to my stomach a little bit. He left… the decision up to me?
"But that's such a huge deal. I can't possibly make that call," I debated, extremely shocked that he would actually permit me to do that. No way it was real though, right? The editor must have misheard him.
"I heard him right. That's exactly what he said," the editor answered, not seeming to care at my surprised expression. "Also, he was like'make sure it's up to my standards or else'or something like that. Overall, he was very scary."
With a last wide-eyed, grimacing look, the editor left us in the editing bay without giving me another second to react.
It was silent for a while between me and Mark, both of us not really sure how to deal with this situation.
"Hot damn," he muttered, sitting down at one of the office chairs inside the bay. "So, I guess it's up to you then, huh?"
It then dawned on me why Ben Oviatt actually allowed this to happen. It just might be my pessimism growing, but I was pretty confident that he was sure I was going to fail, so he wanted to leave the downfall totally in my hands. He was so sure that I wasn't going to impress him that he was leading me to my own demise.
That sneaky…asshole. I would love to show his stupidly handsome face how wrong he is about me.
"Let's do this," I told Mark, not waiting for him to respond as I immediately began to cut down the footage.
There was no way I was going to let anyone lead me to a trap hole. I might have been new to OVT and doing my own stories, but I was a freaking force to be reckoned with.
It was up to me to prove it.