Arron and Kix stood outside the changing room once again guarding the door but this time no dignitaries were standing in front of them, only a few reporters. One of the waiting reporters was Kellery Heaton who was staring daggers at Arron as soon as she saw his badge name.
Ping! Azistant's face appeared on Arron's helmet. He did not bother with any small talk and got straight to the point. “Let them in.” Just as abruptly as the calls started it was immediately ended.
The door opened behind Arron and Kix as they stepped aside to allow the rabid journalist inside.
When the last reporter had entered the room the door still did not shut. Arron looked into the room to see if something was wrong.
“Get in here!” said the agitated Azistant.
Arron and Kix followed orders and took a few steps into the room to stand next to the now-closed door.
“Mr.Boomer, I am Cammy Newson, field reporter for KNN,” said Cammy with a deep bow. “It is an honor to interview you. Is there a side you want the drones to record you from?”
“Any is fine,” said Buck Boomer waving his hand dismissively. His smile from the stage outside was gone and in its place was his regular stern scowl.
He had already changed from his previous speech outfit and was now in more formal wear that one might see in one of the many online stores that Level 1 had access to.
The female makeup assistant had just finished washing his face and was now busily reapplying new makeup to cover his skin that had been sweating from his long heated speech.
Cammy Newson sat in a metal hover chair across from Buck Boomer while the other lower-rank reporters were escorted to one of the corners of the room so that they would be out of view. Arron and Kix had been given the task of standing in front of them and babysitting them to make sure they did not do anything to make Buck Boomer mad.
A metal suitcase popped open and four drones flew up into the air. Two of the drones split from the group to hover over Cammy and Buck using their bright white lights to put the two in a brighter setting.
A third drone began projecting a holographic countdown while the 4th got into position to capture the two while not showing anyone else. [10, 9... 5... 0..].
With the end of the countdown, each of the news drones from all of the reporters started to record.
“Thank you viewers for your patience. I now bring you a live one-on-one interview with an important person you may have heard of before. Party member Buck Boomer!” said Cammy waving a hand towards Buck Boomer.
“Hello!” said a cheery Buck waving to each of the recording news drones, inadvertently revealing the interview was not so one on one.
“With your speech earlier you mentioned that those who came to watch your speech in person would be the first to be able to enroll. When will others be able to start enrolling?” said Cammy ignoring Buck's oblivious mistake.
“I like you. You get right to the questions,” said Buck with a smile. “On the matter of the new Everpreen college, the holonet enrollment application form should be opening up right now.”
“That's wonderful! I am sure our viewers will all fill one out after watching this entire interview!”
“That would be the best thing they could do,” said Buck nodding sagely. “You should be getting a relevant and importation update from Mother and Father in a few seconds.”
“Oh? Ah! How'd you know?”
“HaHaHa, simple I helped form it.”
“Breaking news for our viewers! Mother and Father have just passed the new [Level 1 Education and Safety Act]. Starting now, to qualify for many jobs you must go to Everpreen and graduate to be certified as a candidate for the job! Mr. Buck, would you like to tell our viewers more about this?”
“Of course. In order to fit our image as a leading member of the WHO we must strive for higher standards for our citizens. This will not only be good for Mother and Father but also for everyone else as well! To do this, we have put in place this new regulation to help educate our citizens and in doing so fortify their minds against the temptations of separatism which heavily plagues the first level. With this, we believe the security of level 1 should be better as everyone becomes more informed.”
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“Does this affect people who already have jobs?”
“No, it would only affect them if they wanted to leave and find a new job. There should be no worry about this as Everpreen's main course only takes you 1 year to get a degree! For those more dedicated to learning, there is a two-year course!”
“You said this was all free?” asked Cammy.
“That's correct. You don't have to pay 1 credit to enter the classes,” said Buck scratching his neck.
“Mother and Father are truly doing a wonderful job to help lift up the citizens of the first level during such times as now.”
“As we should be.”
“Recently, there was a disagreement with you and a new party member under Father who not too long ago graduated from Barkary, a place you will be heading to later today. Some of our viewers wanted to know more about this,” said Cammy.
“Well... I'm not one to deal in rumors... but to me, it is sad with what caliber of people are coming out of Barkery. I told him that he needed to keep his mouth shut because he sounded like a separatist, and now that I have had more time to think about it, it would not surprise me if he or someone from his family had relations with the separatists. It must be true.”
“Oh? Do you have evidence to give the Office of Reason?”
“I have a strong feeling that it is true.”
The interview went on for a few more minutes chatting about various juicy rumors before ending.
“Thank you for this opportunity Mr boomer!” said Cammy bowing to Buck Boomer.
Buck Boomer only waved a hand to shoo her and the other journalist away.
“Azistant what's next?”
“The meet and greet at Barkery and then the dinner party.”
“Let's get it over with,” said Buck Boomer standing up and walking out the door with his guards.
“You two come with us,” said Azistant.
As Cammy had guessed, after the interview ended there was a massive wave of applications to enroll.
Arron and Kix followed Azistant and the other guards to the roof where they all boarded the waiting hover-copter. With the limited seats already taken, Arron and Kix had to hold onto a ceiling handhold near the door.
This was a new exciting experience as it was both Arron and Kix's first time riding in a hover-copter.
A short time later the hover-copter lifted off of the roof's landing pad and shot off towards Sector 12 where Barkery College was located.
Because Arron was next to the door's window he had a good view of the outside. Most of it was just a blur as they flew through the maze of buildings high above the heavy hovercar traffic that looked to be moving at a snail's pace compared to the speedy hover-copter.
Because Buck Boomer was a Party member there was no need to stop at any of the checkpoints and so they were able to reach their destination in record time.
As soon as the hover-copter landed on the grassy lawn of the college, the hover-copter's door opened automatically allowing Arron and Kix to hop out followed by the guards.
“You two will be in charge of keeping the crowd back once again, only those on the list will be allowed to pass the line and meet with Party member Buck Boomer,” said Azistant, as he helped Buck Boomer out of the Hover-copter.
Arron scanned the local area for any threats and found nothing suspicious.
The area was already blocked off by several security drones owned by the college. Unlike earlier there was no large crowd of people waiting to cheer and listen to him, maybe it was partly because of the festival.
The only people that could be seen, was another group of 15 to 20 reporters all with recording drones waiting behind a holo-tape barrier.
'He sure likes interacting with the reporters,' Thought Arron, as he and Kix took up positions on both sides of the opening of the barrier.
Behind the holo-tape barrier was a small pre-built platform that had a large green screen projected behind it and a thick red carpet covering the walk up to the platform.
Buck Boomer once again received a fresh coating of makeup while a hovering assistant bot used a thick bristle brush to make sure that his clothes were free of any dust, lint, grime, or dirt that would get into one's clothes by just living on the first level.
When the patch-up was complete, Buck Boomer's grumpy face reverted to a sunshine smile.
“Each of you are allowed two minutes to take as many photos as you like. The final pictures you want to use must be given to the Office of Reason to be approved,” said Azistant, as he stood between Arron and Kix.
“You first,” said Azistant, pointing to the photographer from KNN.
Over the next hour with a few breaks in between Buck Boomer cooperated with the photographers and did a bunch of photoshoots that they wanted to use for future media and news. Each person had been handpicked by Mother and Father to make sure that no unflattering pictures would be taken.
To Arron's shock, after the photoshoot was done, Buck Boomer walked up to the photographers and shook each of their hands.
“Thank you for your hard work. I hope to see the great pictures you took as soon as they are ready,” said Buck, still having a gentle smile on his face.
“It was an honor to work with you!” said the photographer who had stars in his eyes from being able to shake the hand of such a famous party member.
When the photographers were herded out of sight, Buck Boomer's face turned ugly his expression only showing disgust.
“Azistant! Where is the disinfectant!? My hand! It might be infected, hurry! One of those C-rank guys touched these clothes so we need to burn them.”
Arron was once again speechless as he watched Azistant fumbling around trying to quickly clean Buck Boomer's hands.
Kix silently watched everything, not surprised at the odd behavior.