It wasn't just Eveline's age and choice of attire. How could anyone say she was qualified to represent anyone? She has been elected due to unique circumstances that ensured she had almost no opposition. She was still in high school (after having flunked the previous year) and living with a teacher. She was a nude model; a highly-paid nude model, but just a nude model nevertheless. How much brains does it take to stand naked in front of some over-priced item, strike a pose, and smile?
Then, there was her family. Definitely not model citizens. Her mother was in jail for some pretty nasty financial scams. And there was her brother, Lucas the meth cook. That was one hell of a scandal, even worse than anything her mother had done. The explosion and fire that leveled her family's house had put 38 people in the hospital with burns and fractures of varying severity. Some of those casualties, including Lucas and his girlfriend, would be horribly disfigured for the rest of their lives.
Nancy and Coach Strickland were very aware of what Eveline was up against as far as getting anyone to respect her was concerned. So was the Foreign Ministry of the West African Confederation. So was Eveline herself. But, as Comandante Foxtrot always said: "Nothing is impossible, especially for a man of action like myself."
In Eveline's case, "making the impossible, inevitable" meant that Strickland and Nancy were expected to find out what issues the city council was planning to discuss at upcoming meetings, passing the information to the WAC embassy, receiving talking points a day or so later, and using them to prep Eveline to speak at the council meetings. To the shock of her fellow city council members, the nude 18-year-old actively participated in discussions and always spoke like a professional, using vocabulary that was way beyond the language of a typical high school student. She did not just vote and support or oppose proposals; she started to promote initiatives on her own.
One of Councilwoman Rogers' first campaigns, one that really took off, was to fight to reverse her predecessor's transfer of a city park to a towing company. When Joe's Towing took over the land, the company cut down all the trees, paved the ground, and fenced the area to create an impound lot. They literally "paved paradise to put up a parking lot". It was great for Joe's Towing, having its impound lot downtown. The converted area greatly increased the number of cars the tow-truck drivers were able to snatch off the streets, because they no longer had to drive their prizes to the edge of town. That bribe was definitely money well-spent.
Regardless of who had been paid what, as far as Eveline was concerned, the towing company would have to relinquish the property and compensate the city to have it replanted with grass and trees. Eveline had the backing of thousands of residents who wanted the park restored, and hundreds of car owners who had been victims of the company's predatory towing. Eveline made herself popular as she entered into the first conflict of her political career targeting a business owner who was hated by the public.
It certainly did not help the cause of Joe's Towing when the day manager stormed out drunk with a baseball bat and threatened to bash Eveline's "nudie slut cunt to mush". Not a smart thing to say to a city councilwoman in front of a rally of hundreds of angry residents.
The end for Joe's Towing came quickly after the base-ball bat incident. The police entered the compound and arrested the manager for threatening a public official. As soon as the manager left in handcuffs, angry residents blockaded the entrances to the lot and refused to let tow-trucks in or out. The police chief decided that having his officers intervene wasn't worth the negative publicity for the department, which effectively left Joe's Towing without any police protection. The company had to suspend its operations and a few days later Joe filed for bankruptcy. In the middle of the night company employees pulled their equipment off the lot and abandoned it. The next day Eveline's supporters poured into the area, tore down all the fencing, and held a block party in her honor. Restoration of the park would take a while, but Joe's Towing was gone, and Eveline had won her first major victory.
