No one was surprised when Ayla Doe ran for student body president. She was exactly the sort of squeaky-clean pretty perfect that was a shoo-in for student government. Everything about her, from her pigtails to her plaid socks, screamed ambitious student government girl.
So people would have been very surprised to find how conflicted Ayla had been about whether or not to run. She’d talked to Carla about it.
“Everyone expects me to run, but I don’t really want to.”
“So don’t.” Carla didn’t see the problem. She never did anything that she didn’t want to, whether other people wanted her to or not.
“But I feel like I would be letting everyone down if I didn’t.”
Carla shrugged. “Look, do whatever you want. But don’t expect me to give you useful advice when you’re obviously just going to do what you want anyway.”
“I guess I’ll run, then.”
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The cafeteria was emblazoned with various campaign ads, most belonging to Ayla Doe and Terrance Keaton. Today, both candidates were running little booths where they answered questions and smiled charmingly at potential voters. Sunset Valley High School took their student elections very seriously.
Sometimes Ayla really regretted her decision to run. This was one of those times. She didn’t mind talking to people, really. She didn’t mind smiling or telling them what they wanted to hear. What bothered her was that they all looked at her as though she was some sort of perfect idol, who would be everything they wanted out of their student body president. The pressure was daunting. She wished she could be everything they wanted, but she was starting to realize that she couldn’t.
Still she continued to exist on autopilot, smiling and greeting people and making promises she probably wouldn’t keep.
Then she saw the next person in line, and her smile froze on her face. She hadn’t spoken to Tony Langerak since their disastrous first date.
“Hello!” She cringed at the obvious over-enthusiastic exclamation point at the end of her greeting.
“Hi. I, uh… I thought I’d come up and talk to you now, which was probably a bad idea, but I figured that if you yelled at me here it would be just as humiliating for you as for me, and… I think this was a bad idea, but… I’ll vote for you if you want me to.”
“Why wouldn’t I want you to?” Ayla still had that fake smile plastered on her face. She wasn’t sure what she’d look like if she took it off.
He fidgeted a little bit. “You told me, you know, that night, that you wouldn’t want to be president. I thought maybe that might also apply to this. Clearly I was wrong. I’ll… I’ll just go now.
“Wait!” Ayla was surprised to find herself stepping towards him. “I’d love it if you wouldn’t vote for me.”
“Yeah?”
“Yeah.” And as she looked into his eyes, she felt like she was agreeing to a lot more than that.
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There was a week of campaigning before votes were cast on Friday morning. They were tallied during the day, and then there was a school-wide assembly to announce the results at the end of the day.
By the end of the week, Ayla Doe and Terrance Keaton were the only candidates left in the race. They weren’t really terribly competitive with each other. There was no point. It wasn’t exactly a fair race.
Ayla Doe was the perfect vision of a teenage girl. She was exactly what people wanted in a student body president. She might be a little bit full of herself, but she was also incredibly nice and always knew exactly what to say.
Terrance Keaton wasn’t any of that. He believed he was the best, and would pitch a fit if anyone questioned that. He was reasonably popular with the artsy kids (his photographs were gorgeous), but everyone else thought he was way too abrasive and flamboyant to put up with on a regular basis.
So the assembly was really just a formality. Everyone knew Ayla had won. And sure enough, the winner was announced to be Ayla Doe.
The room erupted in cheers, but Ayla felt like crying. She hadn’t really been able to tell until right then whether she wanted to be student body president or not, but as it turned out, the answer was a resounding no.
But what could she do about it now?
Author's Note: This is it! The last chapter! The heir poll should be up in a couple of hours, as soon as I get the pictures I need. I hope you know who you're voting for, but if you don't, the heir poll will sum everything up for you.
There are a couple of pictures in this chapter that are really just an excuse to show off Ayla's everyday outfit. The pattern on her socks is an exact inversion of the pattern on her skirt, which I put way too much thought into. Next time... the heir poll!
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