“Why Malone, out of all the people…I mean does Darren even know?”
“Nobody knows except Brenda, she shared it with me a while back.”
“Someone always gets hurt…Malone probably has a family, but that son of a gun needs to be turned in.” It’s the way it worked, if a student spoke out about it even without enough evidence it usually causes a lot of problems. The next morning I went to Ms. Dawson and I told her about Malone and Charice. She was utterly shocked and disgusted at the same time. She didn’t want me involved and said she’ll support me all the way. Ms. Dawson was now my favorite teacher of all time.
Everything happened so quickly, Malone was fired and the people talked. At that point I figured that what I did was right as a student, but as a Presidential candidate, I knew I shot myself in the foot. Charice became a victim and everyone supported her. The third debate and the Vice-Presidential debate were both canceled. All that was left was the campaign ahead and the election. Truth was; it was Charice that led on Malone, as to why it beats me. Didn’t matter, Malone was supposed to be a responsible adult.
Darren didn’t even want to talk about it and then I called in for the favour, I called in for the basketball team to tear down my posters, I wanted people to forget about me for at least two days and the worst thing I did, was to have them track down Harry and get him to get me the inside scoop; anything on the SAC at all. Did I get info so quickly or what? Too bad it ended up being a big mistake, Harry told the team way too much, but I was only told most of what they knew.
If I can’t beat Brenda or Charice, it was time to go to the bottom of the council and I got a big scoop. The six-term Secretary-Treasurer (ST) ‘borrowed’ $500 from the treasury; heck that was a lot of money back then. Harry knew too much about the SAC, but it was one of his colleagues who found the discrepancy in the financial records. The way the scam worked was through multiple margins of errors by a nickel or dime; over time it worked out to a certain amount. There was another way the ST was taking out money, through falsifying the yearly surpluses.
That wasn’t all, the current three-term Speaker sells pot to students in school. His bag as confiscated the same day I learned about it and they did find traces of dried leaves. Drug dealers and thieves, it worked without the need for an attack ad or some photo-shoot of me meeting with people and while the sympathy for Charice started to wear off quickly, I was neck-to-neck in the polls. All was left was the final smoking gun, only instead it was a bomb ready to explode in every direction.
The rumours were everywhere and finally, a picture of Brenda kissing a girl (not Valerie) was stolen from her locker and was passed on everywhere in the school. Brenda wasn’t in school that day and while this did get out of hand, the Principal called me in. It was all Darren’s doing, he knew about it and exploited it. I wanted to punch that steroid abuser in the face because of it, but eventually forgave him. I got shouted at, practically threatened by the Principal, but I denied any involvement and left the school for the rest of the day.
I was at the café across the street, feeling depressed as to what happened and there she was, the girl I have barely seen around school in years, my former childhood sweetheart Jane. Jane wore a leather jacket over her blouse and jeans, she looked good though she’d put on a bit of weight around this time.
“Are you alright?” Jane asked me.
“Hey Jane…you know it’s all…I didn’t want anyone to know. I mean people are making a big fuss out of it, too much of it.”
“If it ever meant anything to you, I know you would have never allowed this to happen. You were always better than me at these things.”
“I was the fool, I didn’t love you back. I’m sorry.”
“I know good luck with the election.” Jane left after buying a cup of coffee with a few friends. There was this huge relief, sure we didn’t really speak at all throughout high school, but I didn’t consider this school…it was just two people greeting each other at a café. There was finally closure between us and maybe all this time that was what I really needed.
My faults with Jane, the sign of Stella, the crazy cougar Claire and now Valerie, was she the key to this emptiness that I felt all this time and during the campaign? It was like a scene in the movies, the memories began to unfold, the play of Robin Hood, the times we shared in Drama and the café. Valerie must have hated me, blamed me for it all. I wanted to do something good, after all wasn’t that always what I wanted to do in school to begin with?
I brought down a Vice Principal, ruined the Vice President’s supposed reputation, brought down the Secretary-Treasurer and Speaker, I had to end it all. What was worse was I didn’t think about how this would impact Valerie. I went to the office the next day and prepared a resignation letter on my new laptop my dad got me; you know the kind without touch screens and weighed five-kilos? As I went to explain my reasons to resign, the Principal informed me that Brenda dropped out of the race and the people want new change in the student body. The SAC needed reform and I was the guy for the job. The Principal shook my hand and said, “Congratulations Mr. President.”
I won, in the worst kind of way possible. It was the biggest campaign in the history of that school, unmatched and now forgotten in the pages of history. As excited I was of the future possibilities as President, I needed to speak to Valerie. We were both in Drama class and everyone was talking about what went on and Ms. Dawson was nice enough to let us have a free period; as long as it was in class. Valerie wouldn’t even look at me; she got out a book from her bag and started reading on the floor; near a corner. I sat across her hoping she would say something.
“I thought I saw something in you.” Valerie whispered.
“I never did say anything, I promised you. It was Darren and the team.”
“No one knew Arthur, no one.” She continued to whisper. I grabbed a hold of her book and she walked out of class thereafter. I caught up to her, but she insisted to rush through the halls and out the front door. I kept whispering her name, begging her to talk and finally she turned back angrily, “What is it? What do you want from me? I’m done, there getting rid of me as President and you’ll be caretaker till your term starts. I can see the headlines now, former President impeached. It’s what you wanted right? ”
I looked at the book in my hand and it was Shakespeare’s Henry VIII, “Henry the VIII, did you ever figure it out?”
“Figure what out?”
“The true villain of the story.”
“Our vain desires.”
“You described Darren as soup and a donut for me, I can be dipped in coffee, maybe I have a hole in my head heck to me I can’t be described as food, you just can’t do that to me because at such a young age, I’m still discovering who I am, who I want to be. Remember how you said you wanted to inspire someone from your acting? You inspired me.”
“Arthur, you’re just saying that.”
“No, you really did. Honest truth, the first time I saw you it wasn’t love or something like it, it was seeing this amazing, talented person who I was at awe by her performance of Ophelia. Valerie, all this time I had been waiting for someone to come and inspire me. You helped me become a better actor, to speak in front of crowds and I now know why you couldn’t endorse me.”
“Why?”
“You’re afraid.”
“Afraid of what?” She asked with her arms crossed.
“Of us, of what could be. We were great together in the play and we can be great together as a couple and I know you wanted to see if I was for real.”
“For real?” She finally glanced away at calm.
“I’m not asking for a chance, I’m asking for your hands by my side, your hair by my cheeks (gently caressing her cheeks with my fingers), Valerie I want to be with you and maybe I didn’t win the right way…”
How many times can a guy explain everything? Many, but it ended here, Valerie gave me a peck on the lips, till her eyes were opened wide and she ran off like a shy middle-school girl.
I held the book in my hand and it was like fate, my hand was on the words of Henry VIII himself: The fairest hand I ever touched: Oh beauty, Till now I never knew thee.
NEXT EPISODE:
#4: ME AND VALERIE
The Drama King #3: Confessions of a Prime Minister Page 4
