Riley's Box

Part 2

I took a moment to consider Jason's question, as the two of us came to a halt in the main school corridor. 

Was I going to go for the student council role? I had been considering it for some time now, but I still wasn't entirely sure. 

"I don't know, Jason. I don't even know if I'd get into the interview phase," I said. 

"You need to keep an open mind," he told me. 

"I've been late to so many of my classes...and there's only so far that popularity can get you," I told him. 

His eyebrows creased together, then, in the way that they usually did whenever he was trying to figure me out. 

I had to wish him good luck in that venture because there were still plenty of times when I found myself trying to figure myself out. 

Jason Lee Zircon had always been a little more confident in himself than I had been, and as much as that statement might have been hard to believe, it was a truthful one. 

"What's stopping you from going for the student council role?" I asked him. 

He gave a shrug of his shoulders, in response to that question. 

"You already know that," he said. 

Did I? I tried to read people as best as I could, but oftentimes I found that I really didn't have much of a clue. 

However, on this occasion, I could make a good guess. 

"Whit and Eric?" I asked him. 

"You know it," he replied. 

I did know them. The both of them had been nominated and picked to be student council representatives for not three, not four, but five years running! That meant that they had been on the student council ever since seventh grade! 

While, ordinarily enough, I was all for hyping people up and encouraging them to go after their dreams, those two had a bragging problem- one unlike any I had ever seen before I knew the two of them existed. 

Alright, so it was mostly Eric who was the bragging one and Whit was more of his accomplice, but my point still stood. Mostly. 

With that being said, I tried to be as friendly to the both of them, as I could be. 

I had a feeling that they had probably caught onto the fact that I wanted myself or Jason to join the school council by now, but I didn't care. 

"We're going to get into the school council, even if we have to bribe our way in, with cupcakes and candy," I said. "If we can't win the elections any other way, then maybe we can kill them with kindness. Besides, would you say that I'm approachable?" I asked Jason then. 

His eyes widened slightly, in response to the question, before he gave his reply. 

"Oh yeah, Riles. You're very approachable."  

"Thank you!" I said. 

I could tell he was distracted by the prospect of food and that he wasn't being sarcastic. 

Of course, I was approachable! People felt as though they could talk to me. I was like the high school's own agony aunt. I could probably put that on my resume. 

"Have you applied for the role?" Jason asked me then, as his eyes glanced towards a student council poster nearby, and then back towards me. 

"Uh, yeah. Duh," I said. 

His lips twitched at my answer, seemingly amused by it. 

"Riles, you know that I can tell when you're lying. I'm too good at it by now," he said. His gaze became a little more intense, as it held my own. 

I couldn't help it, I broke under the pressure. There was no way that I could lie to my own best friend. 

He was far too good at figuring people out and he knew it. 

"Alright, I confess. I haven't applied for the role yet," I said. 

"Well, we're both going to," Jason said, with an expression of determination. He then grabbed my sleeve and began to lead the two of us down the hall and towards the main student council office, where he immediately signed up. 

I felt my forehead crease, probably not as much as my sleeve had, though, as I turned my attention back to him. 

"You know something? You can be so stubborn sometimes," I commented. 

His mouth quirked. 

"I like to call it having a remarkably strong will," he replied, "We need to show Whit and Eric that we aren't going to back down, here- that we can win this war." 

He made it sound as though we were about to head into battle. 

However, Jason took this school council thing a lot more seriously than I did. To him, this probably felt as though we were. 

"Is that so?" a smooth voice spoke from behind us, then, and both Jason and I turned to find that we had been joined by none other than Whit Album himself. 

I could have probably predicted as much. 

After all, I had been reading a lot recently, and this felt like one of those moments where I would be yelling, "He's behind you!"

"Whit," Jason spoke first, a serious greeting. 

"In the flesh," Whit replied. 

Jason's eyebrow rose at that. 

"Well, it's good that you're in the flesh and you know, not a brain floating around. That wouldn't work out in your favour whatsoever. How would you even talk?" he asked. 

"You sure do have some interesting ideas," Whit said in response, as he studied Jason's face for a moment. "Maybe I was wrong about you, before," he continued, "Maybe you should sign up for the student council. We're always interested to hear what people have to say..." he trailed off. 

"But we're not just going for the student council," Jason said then. 

Oh no. I had a feeling he was about to declare a full-on war with Whit, right there in the hallway. 

"I'm going straight for the head boy role, baby," he said. 

Whit paused then, as if he needed to take a moment.