First Interview: Diana Reynolds

They left the club with its stifling heat, and walked through a door to a kind of breakroom. Angelica Blaze left the reporter there, sitting at a table, staring at the refrigerator and microwave, sink and soda machine, sipping occasionally at her Fertile Valley water—and then a topless woman walked in.

Diana Reynolds was nineteen years old, with reddish copper hair that came down to her chin, of medium height and small breasts with puffy pink nipples, which hardened a bit as she entered the colder air of the break room. Her green eyes flashed and her pink lips smiled as she saw the reporter.

"The boss said you wanted to talk to me?" The topless young woman asked.

Lois **** herself to look at the woman's eyes.

"Yes. Did you know you've been missing for two weeks?" Lois began.

Diana was sweating, and grabbed a canister of water from the fridge before sitting down. Not a bottled water, but her own personal thermos, marked in red sharpie with "Diana" down the side.

"Sorry," the redhead said as she gulped down some water. "The boss keeps it warm for us out on the floor, but it means we need to hydrate. Anyway, I haven't exactly been missing. I've been working. There's a dormitory here...most of us sleep here, even take our meals in the kitchen. The boss doesn't mind."

Lois licked dry lips, surprised at how thirsty she was, and sipped her own water.

"You haven't gone back to your dorm, haven't been to classes in over a week," the reporter pointed out.

"Because I'm making bank," Diana said. "You know I clear a thousand a night here, easy? Couple more weeks and I won't have any more student loans."

The reporter frowned. "For what? Serving drinks?"

Diana blinked. "Oh. So you don't know?"

Their eyes met, steady...Diana had been open so far, at least her body language said so. Now Lois could see the young woman tense up.

"I heard some of it from Angelica," Lois said, using Blaze's first name to suggest familiarity. "But I'd like to hear it from you. I want to make sure none of you are being...mistreated."

The redhead didn't laugh. Her eyes were fixed on the reporter now, and Lois Lane's chest felt oddly tight...itchy. The reporter sipped a little more of her water, tasting the oddly chalky mineral aftertaste. At first, she hadn't really liked it, but now it was starting to grow on her. She wondered if there was another bottle in the fridge.

"Okay," Diana said. "So what it is..."