My father cleared his throat upon regaining some of his composure, but his stunned expression remained.
"Is this really the direction you want to take this company, Benjamin?" he asked, voice almost a whisper.
I pressed my lips together as I put both my hands in my pocket. I knew he hated me doing that, and I could see the slight twitch in his eye as I did.
"I believe in myself, Dad. I'm sorry that you don't, but…" I felt my emotions bubbling up as I spoke, but I successfully kept it under wraps. "But I can't change that, and I think it's time for me to stop trying."
I turned on my heels and left his office, finally feeling the little boy inside of me being set free from the cages that his own father put him in.
Olivia
It had been a week of high tension in the newsroom. People either put in extra hours or deflated completely ever since Ben and the board members announced that Jebediah Olson was fully attacking OVT Broadcasting Network's credibility. Some viewed it as a crucial moment to clear OVT's name, hence wilfully rendering work hours to help out.
"I think I can take on two stories today," Lucy told Eric, who understandably raised his eyebrow. We had been extra careful with Lucy for the past couple of days since it was her story that instigated Jebediah Olson's wrath, but the reporter seemed even more invigorated than usual.
"You don't need to push yourself too hard, you know," Eric reminded her, but still complied with what Lucy asked for and gave her two more stories.
"No, I know," she quickly responded with a small smile. "But I'd be dead before I let anyone like Jebediah Olson ruin this company."
Other employees, however, weren't exhibiting the same fervor Lucy was. Some just thought that this was a lost cause, especially since it was a Presidential Candidate with millions of supporters that was going all out on the entire network.
"Olivia, are you ready yet?" Mark walked into the room with the least amount of energy I had seen. Usually, he was just in the middle, with his nonchalance shining through, but he was clearly dejected about the whole situation. "I just want to get this over with. Go home to my boyfriend and forget about everything," he admitted, as I took my folder from Eric's hands.
"Someone needs a day off," Eric pointed out.
"Well, at this point, we're gonna have days off soon." And that was the first time I ever heard the cameraman have any sort of emotion. "This sucks," Mark added, dragging his feet on the office floor, head hanging low.
"Not if I have anything to say about it!" I declared, dragging Mark by his wrist with a lot of enthusiasm, trying to shine some positivity in the newsroom. "Come on, work buddy, we have another amazing story to create." Determination was in every step that I took.
As we rushed out of the newsroom, I quickly glanced at the meeting room, seeing Ben hard at work with the board members. He opted not to announce to the entire team that OVT was bleeding cash. It would have been too much going through the Jebediah Olson situation, not to mention, campaign season was still ongoing and actually at its peak. On one hand, it felt like it was better to let everyone know so that they could prepare for the worst. On the other hand, I put my faith in Ben. I believed that he would get OVT back in the green again like he did so many years ago when he jumped in, head first. I just had to believe, because if no one in the world believed in the one and only Ben Oviatt, then why even try?
He would never run out of supporters as long as I was around.
But for now, the best I could do was keep working. I wanted nothing more than to be a part of the political team, but I knew my best foot forward right now was doing my signature reporting style while doing fun things to get people's engagement. And… usually, I'd have a lot of things to complain about, but now that I knew my contribution to the company as a whole, I was totally fine with it. I just wanted to do anything I could to help. I mean, of course, I had my reasons. Like Lucy, I didn't want anyone like my old boss, Jebediah Olson, to push OVT out of existence. But furthermore, I didn't want to see Ben lose everything he worked so hard for. He gave up so much of his personal life for this company, and I wasn't going to let anyone take him down without a fight.
"Come on, we could do one more take, right?" I asked Mark, as I put down the laser tag gun, or whatever it was called. There was this new laser tag place that featured 'anti-gravity' sections in its playing field, but really, it was just harnesses and trampolines. The owner asked for an exclusive story from us after seeing the ski resort story still doing amazing numbers. This was despite all of Olson's trolls in our comment sections. Little did they know and understand that any comments helped OVT's popularity.
"Do we really have to?" Mark whined, still dragging his feet as he lazily propped up the action camera attached to my body. "Does any of this really matter?" he asked, and admittedly, I would have been annoyed by him and asked for him to tone it down or go back to his old indifferent personality, but I knew I couldn't be a bearer of negative energy as well.
"Oh, come now, Mark, you act like the battle's over!" I tried to cheer him up, patting both his shoulders reassuringly, hoping it would calm him down a bit. "I know why you're sad. It's because you love OVT as much as I do," I pointed out, and his pursed lips and faraway gaze confirmed my statement. "It sucks now, yeah, but I just want you to give it your all, regardless of what happens," I said, giving him a small smile.
Mark was always nice to me, and while I was a mess during the first few weeks of this job, he remained a stable work buddy for me. I wanted to be that for him now that he was feeling down about what was happening to our network.
"You know I got here before you," Mark said, his indifferent tone making its grand return. "I should be the one telling you that." He propped up my action camera with swiftness. "Now you better kill it out there if I'm putting in all this effort."
I chuckled, saluting him. "Yes, sir."
As I took another deep breath, I activated my laser tag gun, and it emitted a flurry of colorful lights. In my other hand was my microphone and I held onto it tightly as I jumped up into the air with my harness keeping me suspended.
"The newest exciting place for the kids and kids at heart is now open over at Chelsea Piers, Manhattan! Come on over toLaserLazer!" I began, maintaining my clear voice but serious demeanor while shooting the laser tag gun towards the air as it shot out a colorful beam of light.
I put all of myself in the story, determined to keep fighting for OVT and all the wonderful people I met, and…for Ben.
Coming back to the newsroom after a long day was both kind of a blessing and a curse. It was nice to be back in a place that wasn't full of screaming children. But it was dulled by the fact that I still had to run through editing before I could go home. I realized I was the first one back for the day, and I thought that even more reporters took on extra stories, like Lucy.
"Man, I really need to step it up," I said to myself before going back out to go to the editing room. Before I did, however, I looked toward the meeting rooms and opted to take a quick peek. When I did, it came as an utter surprise to see Ben forcing himself to stay awake while going through a mountain of paperwork. I would have thought that he would be doing all of that in his own office upstairs. But I figured that he preferred to stay near the newsroom in case something new developed—and there were a lot of aspects that could develop. Something outrageous could happen at any moment, given the current situation of everything.