PHOENIX

Chapter Thirteen: Election Day

"Well what do we have here?"

The supposedly male parrot looked up at me, It's large black eyes focusing on two different things at once.

I had been woken up by the sounds of scraping coming from the small fireplace in the corner of my house. Half asleep, I dragged myself from the warmth of my covers, hating whatever woke me up this morning at such an early time.

My frustration was immeasurable when I was met with a small bird rolling itself in the ashes from a couple days ago. Not only was I woken up early, but I now have to wash the parrot off, or let it fly around my room, getting everything dirty.

"Alright ashes, let's get you clean" I joked, attempting to lift the bird from the ash without spreading it everywhere.

That's when it hit me. Ashes are annoying, messy things that are a burden on everyone's life. The perfect name for this parrot.

"Ashes?" I said again, looking for a sign to tell me that I'm a genius.

He quickly ruffled some of his feathers, causing little flecks of dust to fly around my room.

"Ugh" I groaned, my day already ruined.

"You don't get a say in what I name you anymore" I tapped on the bird's beak, bringing him to a water bucket and washing him off gently.

Thankfully, Ashes behaved nicely from that point on, allowing me to get ready for the big day.

Election time.

Ashes hung out on my shoulder while I walked the L'Manberg grounds, making sure the microphones were working, and just generally checking on everything. No one else was up yet, and the walking calmed me, along with ashes's occasional squacks.

The peaceful morning slowly turned more chaotic as the sun rose, crowds of people getting ready for the day ahead. At one point, Tubbo stole me away from the preparations, showing me his newly made underground bunker.

"Just in case things go south" Tubbo explained, leading my back up to the ground level.

It was around lunch time when everything was set up, giving us another hour before the election results were announced. Niki and Fundy were off doing their own thing all morning, and I hadn't seen Jack manifold for a while, so Tommy and I ate lunch together, just having some one on one time before things happened. I had no idea what would happen today, but I was happy to spend some time with family.

Wilbur joined Tommy and I about twenty minutes away from the results. He was nervous, the quietness in him telling me everything I needed to know. Both Quackity, Schlatt and Wilbur had agreed to allow Wilbur to count up the votes, proving that they were all in good faith. This meant that Wilbur already knew, and he was barely holding it in right now.

"I'm kinda getting stage fright" Wilbur laughed nervously, gesturing towards the mass of people that had nearly tripled in size since before the war. It was crazy how many people wanted to be out of Dream's grasp.

"So am I, there's a lot of people here" Tommy breathed out.

"You'll both do fine" I ruffled both of their hair, having to stand on my tiptoes to reach them.

"Stop it!" Tommy and Wilbur pushed my hands aside, both of them re-fluffing their curls.

"You two really are related" I laughed, sprinting down the hill we were on.

"Hey wait for me!" Tommy called out, catching up to me.

"I have the longest legs, I can beat you both!" Wilbur called out from behind us.