It all started on Friday, March 13th, 2010, with one single letter. I’m Jaclyn Rose Lee, the 16 year old step-daughter of the president of the United States. He and my mom met at this party for the senators when I was 14. My mom came with my grandpa and as they say, it was love at first sight. Then my whole life changed…I got new dad, moved to the White House, and got a secret service bodyguard. I don’t really care about my new step dad, but nothing could have prepared me for what I was about to experience.
“Miss Lee, I really think you should have me read it first,” said Joe, my Secret Service bodyguard as we were sitting in a coffee shop down the street from the White House, “No! I don’t want you to read my private mail.” I said. “If it was something dangerous, it would be addressed to my step dad, not his step daughter.” “But I’m—,” said Joe but I cut him off, “Joe it’s my mail.”
I finally got to open the envelope that was lying in my hands. Just an innocent envelope with no return address. The letter said,
“Dear Miss. Jaclyn Lee,
Something major is about to happen. We need you to find a key in the President’s office to Room 107. You are the only one who can bring us the key because you know the location to the spare key. Please leave the key in his study, on the left desk, beside the window. Hurry!
-SH
After reading that letter, I had so many questions. Who is SH? What was the something major that was about to happen? I need to go into the president’s study without being invited? Everyone knows that you have to be invited to the president’s study; you can’t just barge in without an invitation, even if you’re related to the president! It was probably someone that just decided to play a joke on me, so I decided to just throw away the letter and forget the whole thing. As I left the shop, I saw a man with sunglasses on, pretending to call on his phone but I saw that his phone wasn’t even on, and he was watching me.

Later in the White House, I decided to go to my room, but just as I was about to go around the corner I stopped. There were people talking in my room. I first thought that they were the maids, but then I heard what they were talking about.
“Where is it? You told me it was supposed to be in here!” said someone’s voice, and after a moment another voice said, “Yes sir, but it appears not to be in here.” “Maybe the girl took it somewhere else, we could always keep looking, but we must check on our…uhh…guest.” What were they talking about; who was the guest? After a moment, I recognized the other voice! It was---“ACHOO!” I sneezed loudly! “Who’s there?” “Let’s git em’!!” yelled the voices. I tried to run as fast as I could but I could hear them gaining on me. All of a sudden, someone behind me covered my mouth and pulled me back. I tried to scream but was helpless. “Be quiet or they’ll hear you!” a voice whispered in my ear. After the sounds in the hallway disappeared, the person let me go. It was the same man that had been watching me in the coffee shop!
“We don’t have much time.” He said, “They are planning on announcing the president’s disappearance in a few hours.” “Huh!?” “What is happening?” I started to protest, but he seemed to read my mind. “This not a scam, this is real. Your step dad, the president, has been kidnapped and---“he drifted off as I yelled “WHAT!!!!!!” “The president is on a flight to Africa to discuss politics with a tribe leader, so he wasn’t kidnapped!” I exclaimed. “No that was just a cover story for what really is happening” He said. “I have to tell Joe then!” I said.
“NO! Your bodyguard should not know about this, he was one of the men looking through your room and he helped kidnap your step dad, the president. I sent you the letter because, as you are his family, you wouldn’t look suspicious going into his office in front of people in the White House.” He said. “You’re SH!” I realized just then. “Yes I am, but I will explain everything else later,” “You need to find the key to Room 107 now!” And with that, he hurriedly pushed me in the direction of the president’s study.

I thought about how I had thrown away the letter and what would have happened if I had never even opened it. I would have thought that my step dad was gone forever and my mom would be so sad. Plus, the entire nation would hear about him being kidnapped and they would be very sad, thinking that he was gone. Since I wanted my mom to be happy and my step dad rescued, I decided to trust what the SH had said, and go save my step dad.

I knew I had to be very quiet, so first I found a door at the end of the hallway to throw my school shoes into and started towards the door. I knew two mysterious and supposedly uninvited men were snooping throughout the White House looking for me and supposedly the key that was in my step dad’s study, I knew that would buy me some time, but I still had to hurry. As I approached the door to his study, I tried the door, but it was locked. But no worries, I just flipped up the carpet by the door, and there it was, the spare key to his study.
After looking around for a few seconds, I spotted his desk. Bingo! This was the jackpot for the key that I was supposed to find. I snooped around a couple of drawers in the desk but nothing caught my eye until, aha! I reached down and picked up an envelope with the words, “ROOM 107” on it. I opened it up, but just then there was a noise in the hall. There was barely any time for me to dive behind the sofa, forgetting about the exposed envelope. Before, WHAM! The door to the study slammed open and Joe burst into the room. I had been told that he kidnapped my step-father, so I expected the worst, but all he did was pick up the envelope with the key in it and help me up.
I was confused. “I thought that you were working with kidnappers, and you kidnapped my step dad?” “No, I am really just protecting you and your family from the kidnappers. Yes, I did kidnap the president, but that was because I needed to figure out information about the real kidnappers; Hobbs and his gang.” Joe explained. “Hobbs kidnapped the president!?” I exclaimed. Now I understood, Hobbs was the vice president so of course, if the president disappeared, he would become President of the United States. Before either of us could say anything else, we heard noises in the hall. “Hurry!” Joe said, “We don’t have much time!” He pushed a small button near the left arm of the sofa and a secret passageway opened up. I tentatively followed, but then stopped. “How do I know that you aren’t going to kidnap me and everything that you said is true?” I said. He turned around and looked at me. “Jaclyn”, he said, “Do you trust me?” I thought about the two past years where he always had my back, and never let anything happen to me. “Yes.” I said, surprising even myself, and followed him through the door. We weren’t a moment too soon because just then Hobbs and his gang burst into the room. When Hobbs saw that neither Joe nor I was in the room he yelled in rage, “You will never forget this as long as you live Joe Franklin!” Us two in the passageway heard him and we knew that as long as we lived, neither of us would forget this day.

As they crawled back on set, the director yelled, “That’s a wrap folks!” using a bull horn and wearing sunglasses. Traci Howard opened her eyes. Everything came flooding back to her; as she realized that just didn’t happen, that was a TV show, not real life.
Traci walked outside and grabbed a hot dog. She was glad that she was only an actor, not the stepdaughter to the president.