Gregory Washington

Disclaimer: While place descriptions and news events may coincide with the real world, all characters and the plot are fictional.
== Biography ==
=== Early years ===
Gregory Washington is raised by his parents, Rev. Clyde and Martha Washington, at the Portsmouth Baptist Church parsonage together with his younger brothers Cage and Corey. 
=== Education ===
Gregory expects to graduate from Portland State University in June 2021
=== Eyewitness News ===
Gregory Washington is the manager of the EWN advertising office. He is extremely competent and has managed to maintain advertising revenue despite COVID restrictions. 
Unlike most of EWN's student staff, Gregory receives a salary as well as a commission on sales.
==== Book 1: Stories We Tell ====
On Tuesday May 26, 2020 Gregory helps Ryan Matthews with estimating EWN's revenue for the summer budget.
When Ryan arrives at EWN at 9am on Monday June 1, Gregory is already at work, and they talk about the proposal to expand to a 365-day coverage. Gregory wants to know Ryan's motivation for the expansion. Ryan speaks of the way he feels journalism is failing because it covers politics like it does football; that journalism is important, and what Cage does may be a model for a new way of storytelling.
Around midday, Ryan meets with Gregory again to review the next year's income forecast. Gregory estimates EWN will be $30k short of being able to cover the cost of the proposed broadcast expansion to 365 days. Ryan reviews Gregory's revenue spreadsheet, and notices that there is no advertising being placed by Alumni Affairs. Gregory say Alumni Affairs doesn't see the point in advertising with EWN - their target audience is former students, not current ones. EWN's advertising office has been trying for years, but can't even get the Alumni Office to wish the athletic teams good luck for a championship game.
On Wednesday afternoon, June 3, Gregory sees Ryan as he enters the EWN building and asks him to be available online during the Student Fee Committee meeting from 7pm-9pm that evening, as Gregory may need him to speak. Alumni Affairs contacted Gregory earlier that day wanting to plan out a $60k media buy for the following year. Gregory will meet with Tommy Thompson from Alumni Affairs on Friday, but the contract was signed that morning. Gregory gives Ryan a USB drive with a revised budget file, which Ryan appends to the memo approved by the leadership team the previous night. He emails a copy to Gregory to review.
That evening, Gregory joins the Student Fee Committee virtual meeting from his office. The committee moves to censure EWN for expanding their coverage beyond campus. Gregory reminds the committee that media content is outside their scope, and that the budget has already been approved by both them and the Board of Trustees. He establishes that their issue isn't about EWN reporting off-campus, but about their coverage of the downtown protests, and that a resolution on that would be illegal. A call for a vote on the motion fails 4-3, and is immediately followed by a move to adjourn. Ryan goes downstairs to thank Gregory personally.
On Friday June 5, Gregory meets with Tommy Thompson to discuss Alumni Affairs' $60k ad campaign for the following financial year, reaching out to students to establish relationships before graduation.
==== Book 3: Don't Go ====
Early on Wednesday October 21, 2020 Bianica Washington tells Ryan that Gregory wants to talk to him about Ryan being paid commission on the alumni advertising that he lined up the previous summer.
The following morning Ryan stops in at the EWN advertising office to talk to Gregory. Bianica has told Gregory that Rafael is the perfect age for John Lewis, and Ryan agrees they quickly became friends the previous day. Gregory again offers to pay Ryan commission on the advertising buy from Alumni Affairs, as he knows Ryan will have unplanned expenses with Rafael, as well as childcare and rent to both the Washingtons and the Loft. While Ryan doesn't need the commission, he agrees to accept it so that his personal finances remain private.
====Book 4: Hold Me====
*Tuesday December 1, 2020
**10:30am?: Gregory phones Sarah King, to tell her one of his ad reps, Brandon Childers, has tested positive for COVID. He had been unwell the previous day, so Gregory sent him to the Campus Health Service. He was kept overnight, and his test result given today. Gregory is alarmed.
**11am - Cage calls Gregory and asks if anyone besides Brandon has symptoms. Gregory says he's asked Campus Health Services to come and test everyone. He doesn't plan on going home until he knows he's clear, even if he has to camp out on the couches in the newsroom. Cage asks when they're going to test. Gregory says that apparently they're short on test kits. He thought Brandon might have picked it up from a client, but it's worse. Brandon's roommate is on the basketball team, and the team have had an outbreak, picked up at the tournament the previous weekend in Boise. Cage asks if Gregory has called Bianica or their parents yet? Gregory says he was waiting to know more, but now he doesn't know when that will be. Cage tells him Sarah is working with Corey to set up a Zoom meeting for all department heads, including Cooper and McShane. Getting tests for Gregory and the other advertising staff needs to be a priority. Gregory asks what to do about staff, and Cage tells him Emily is on her way over to send people home if they haven't been exposed, and to move as much as possible to a virtual newsroom, with only essential staff in the office. Ben and Corey will be going there to help. Cage says he'll make a call, and get back to Gregory. 
**11:30am? Cage calls Gregory back and tells him that someone will be coming over soon with a dozen test kits, to test the advertising staff. Gregory says he'll call when they arrive. Cage asks when Gregory last saw their parents, and he says the previous night, then hangs up. Cage says a prayer for his father, and goes out to update Sarah, so they can worry about Emily together.
**1pm?: The Health Services nurse arrives and Emily Andersen buzzes her in, telling her to use the door to her right and ask for Gregory. After administering the tests, she buzzes the intercom from downstairs again, saying there is a person there who is symptomatic, and they are taking her over to the clinic. The test results will be available the next day, and the staff need some place to quarantine until then. Emily calls Gregory from the privacy of the EIC's office, asking if he's okay? He tells her he can't go home, he could be contagious and not know it. She asks how many need to be quarantined, and he says four. He has spoken to the bookkeeper and she's okay so far. She tells him to meet her at the elevator. She takes it down, collects him, then takes it up to the third floor. There she pulls out her keys and unlocks the back door of the elevator, which opens to a wall of cardboard boxes. She grins and slides along the side with Gregory following until they reach a wide-open loft space the size of the newsroom below. She tells him of its previous uses, first as a party space, and later as a sanctuary for the independent journalists. Emily says Corey has his loft-mates on scrounging duty, and Gregory says he's sure they can refurbish the place faster than a rent-to-own could. She warns him there are no bathrooms on the third level, so anyone staying will have to use the 2nd level bathrooms and showers. She takes him back down to the ground floor
**Wednesday December 2, 2020 - 10:30am?:When Cage arrives at the Crow's Nest, Gregory - wearing a mask and gloves - comes closer to tell him that he is asymptomatic. Gregory had helped c the nurse, Kristy Gomez, change the layout so that people who had been exposed are separated from those with mild symptoms who just need a place to quarantine. A hallway to the far side of the building was created as she had been concerned that there was no second exit. Cage looks around, seeing alumni helping, and Gregory says they've been helpful without taking over. Cage asks about the bookkeeper and payroll, and Gregory adds it to his list. Gregory says he may re-open the ad office for telephone call sales, for the remaining two weeks before break, as all the ad staff are COVID-positive. When Cage asks if Gregory needs anything, he replies they need regular pizza deliveries - food was going to be a problem. Gregory shows him the thermometers supplied by Kevin Tighe, to be used once then sterilized. He adds that if the Health Center was smart, Kristy Gomez would be running things there.
*
== Physical Appearance ==
Gregory is 24-years-old, tall - around 6-foot-1 or 6-foot-2 - and slim. He is clean-shaven and generally wears suits. 
There is a strong resemblance to Cage, but Gregory is leaner, and less fierce-looking. 
== Personality ==
Gregory is a faithful member of his father's Baptist church. 
Cage thinks Gregory is a Republican, but Gregory may just be a conservative Democrat. He didn't vote for Trump in 2016. 
Corey and Cage maintain that Gregory doesn't have a sense of humor, but Ryan Matthews doesn't think that's true. He respects Gregory for his persistence and determination, but doesn't have the same camaraderie with him that he does with Cage. Ryan thinks that Gregory is 'going places', and will do it while elegantly dressed. 
== Possessions ==
=== Residence ===
Gregory, Bianica and John Lewis Washington live fairly close to the Portsmouth Baptist parsonage.
=== Vehicle ===
Gregory drives an older BMW, kept in meticulous condition.
== Relationships ==
=== Parents and Siblings ===
==== Book 1: Stories We Tell ====
Gregory is the dutiful eldest son of the Washington family. They regularly visit Gregory's parents at the Portsmouth parsonage for dinner on Sunday afternoons.
==== Book 3: Don't Go ====
Cage says that not even Gregory brought Bianica home to meet their parents until they were practically engaged.
When Gregory, Bianica and John Lewis arrive for lunch at the Portsmouth parsonage on Sunday, October 25, 2020, Rafael and John Lewis head out to the back yard together.
=== Bianica and John Lewis ===
He is happily married to Bianica. They have a son, John Lewis Washington, who is about the same age as Rafael Valdez Matthews Valdez. They live in a house close to the Washington's parsonage. 
Bianica is a short woman, with hair cornrowed tightly against her head. 
Category:Character
Category:EWN