Page 4 of Bad Reputation

It had to.

Chapter 2

INT. TALK SHOW GREENROOM

After more than a year of television appearances, radio interviews, and podcasts, Maggie Niven still hated getting miked up. No matter where they clipped the box or how they draped the cord, she felt ridiculous.

She’d gotten through being fired and endured a wrongful termination lawsuit. But she didn’t enjoy being the most well-known opponent of the high school theatre censorship movement.

“All set,” the PA said. “How does that feel?”

“Fine,” Maggie lied.

The guy led her out of the greenroom and into the studio. The set ofHear Herhad to be the shiniest place on earth. Everything about it screamedThis is the number one morning talk show for thirty-five- to forty-four-year-old women. The gleaming hexagonal table. The four hosts with their shimmering hair and perfect lip gloss.

Maggie was extremely dull and matte in comparison.

“Maggie!” Grace Choi waved carefully so as not to disturb the makeup person who was touching her up. “You’re by me.”

Grace was the only real journalist on the panel. She’d come toHear Herfrom the White House beat, and they leaned heavily on her during segments about real news. That was probably why she had on a seriousnavy suit, albeit one that was better tailored than any item of clothing Maggie had ever touched.

Gingerly, Maggie took her seat and focused on the morning’s important business: not puking when confronted by three massive arachnid cameras and the bank of stage lights.

“We’re glad to have you,” Grace said. “It’s an important story.”

“Yeah, it’s ... good to be here.” Maggie almost choked on the word.

Grace’s smile was knowing. “Just remember, some of us are on your side.”

“Some?”

Across the table, Rylee Lagrange was straightening the lapels of her metallic silver suit. A former pop star, Rylee had moved into infotainment, but she always seemed to be reminding everyone she used to pack arenas.

“And some of us,” Rylee said, “are thinking about parents andtheirrights.” Her smile was sweetly aggressive, like a Vera Bradley pattern.

A few weeks after her firing, Maggie had endured an especially painful interview onBuilt Right, the most popular current-events podcast among angry dads. That had been when Maggie still believed her firing was some kind of misunderstanding—that if she could just explain that the play in question wasn’t smutty or inappropriate, it would all blow over and she’d get her job as a high school drama teacher back.

That interview had been the first time Maggie had come face to face—voice to voice, actually—with Parent Led. In nineteen exquisitely uncomfortable minutes, she’d learned this wasn’t about the situation at her school. It wasn’t even about whetherCovering the Spreadwas a bad choice for high school students to perform. Something much bigger was at stake.

It felt grandiose for Maggie to cast herself as the canary in the coal mine, chirruping about students’ freedom and the expertise of teachers in determining curriculum, about whether there was a right to expression and whether a small knot of angry people could decide what was okay for everyone else to read and watch and perform and listen to.

But these days, she was feeling sort of like Tweety Bird.

Rylee was still going. “I just think it’s important for our viewers to hear abalancedstory, and I—”

“Let’s wait for the cameras to turn on,” Denise Strong interrupted. An Oscar winner for her work on an Ida B. Wells biopic, Denise was thoughtful, empathetic, and smart. For all that she was pushing seventy, she was still stunningly beautiful. Her long braids might be frosted silver, but her face was still unlined.

Maggie really had to be more consistent with her nighttime skincare routine.

Under her breath, Maggie asked Grace, “Who else is going to be on?” Maybe they could be a buffer against Rylee.

“Zoya Delgado.”

Maggie had watched Zoya’s show, of course. Everyone had.Waverleywas Videon’s biggest hit in years. During the trial, when Maggie had had trouble sleeping, she’d put it on almost every night. The combination of political intrigue and romance, mixed with Scottish scenery and fabulous costumes, was hard to resist.

That wasn’t going to help Maggie today, though.Waverleyhad nothing to do with her.

“Thirty-second warning, everyone,” a producer cried.

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