Riley's Box

Part 11

Confidence surged through every single one of my steps, when I walked through the main entrance of my high school, the next day. I was not only confident about winning the student council vote, of course. I was confident in the fact that I had finally managed to perfect my eyeliner and in the fact that over the course of a single afternoon, I had come up with a game plan for how I was going to influence my fellow group members, who had previously seemed to have no interest in literature, to write the best literature essay of their entire lives. 

Before I could help out my fellow students, though, there was something important that needed to be done. 

I walked towards the student council office, smiled in Eric Reos' slightly agape-mouthed face and signed my name down on the list. 

He might not have been used to competition for quite some time, now, but that was about to change. 

As my eyes glanced towards the top of the sign-up sheet, I quickly realised that the speeches for the student council were to take place not tomorrow, but today! I also quickly realised that I only had twenty minutes to come up with a fitting speech. 

So, on my way into the main hall, I grabbed my notebook out of my bag and started to jot down some ideas. 

This couldn't be that difficult, could it? 

I had done public speaking before. 

Granted, that had been a few years ago now, but this was different. This wasn't in front of the general public, this was just in front of my fellow students. 

Somehow, that little nugget information didn't make me feel a whole lot better. 

Regardless, I knew that all I could do was try my best. 

As I noticed that students were queueing up to take their turn to speak on stage, I went to stand with them. 

Soon enough, Jason managed to negotiate his way down the line enough to join me. 

"Hey," he greeted me, his eyes flickering with some surprise. "So, I'm guessing you decided to go for it?" he asked me. 

"No. I thought I might shove people off the stage," I said. 

Some girls that were stood beside me just looked at me with slightly disgusted expressions. 

I released a disingenuous laugh. 

"Heh. I'm only kidding!" I said. 

Their eyes widened a little but they nodded, before they returned their attention back to the main stage. 

It was then that I realised something. 

No matter how much you tell someone that something isn't a good idea, they're still going to do it. 

Alright, perhaps I hadn't told her that much, but I had warned against signing up for the head girl post and she had gone and done it anyway! 

My eyes glanced towards Susie and Jason seemed to catch onto something in my expression. 

"Everything alright there, Riles?" he asked me. 

I had been so consumed in Susie's speech that my mind had hardly registered the question. 

"Huh?" I asked instinctively, before I turned to realise what he had asked. "Oh yeah, I'm totally fine." 

I was not totally fine and I was beginning to think that not saying anything to Jason would have been a better option than what I had just told him. He didn't look as though he was inclined to believe me, but fortunately he didn't say a word about it. 

A few more people in the line took their turn to go on stage and give their speech then and then, finally, it was me. 

When I went to go on stage, I saw that Susie was watching me from the audience. 

I managed a small smile at her, but I wasn't sure how much I actually meant it. 

The two of us might have been friends, for sure, but this was different. I knew in a moment that perhaps Jason had been correct, before. This did mean war. 

I promptly cleared my throat away from the microphone and then began to speak. 

"Hi everyone! Thank you for coming out here today. I wanted to apply for the role of head girl and student council because I wanted you to know, with certainty, that I will always look out for the best for the students at this school. I don't want to only be your head girl, but your friend- someone that you can turn to when you want to register a complaint...whether it be about how many ridiculous math equations Mr. Miller gets us to solve..." my voice faded out for a moment, as there were a few cheers from the crowd, "Or whether it's about changing up the lunchtime options in the cafeteria!" I continued. 

"Amen to that, girl!" one of the teachers yelled from the audience. I soon realised who had spoken- Miss Richardson. 

"The point is that I want to be someone that you can talk to whenever you need someone to be there for you! I like to think I'm pretty easy to talk to," I said with a gentle smile, "So, I suppose that's one of my main strengths. Aside from that, I think I actually, genuinely care about the day to day running of this school- especially when it comes to how we treat each other." 

Did I? Had I shown that with what I had said to Susie the other day? 

Anyway, that was unimportant now. I pushed the thought aside and continued to speak. 

"I sympathise with your anxieties about how little extra study time we get! I understand that sometimes bullying in this school is a serious problem! I want to look out for you all and your safety and I want to be able to change up the school in order to do that. So, if you think that you might want to consider me as your new head girl, I can only begin to thank you. Thanks for listening," I said and then moved off the stage with my head held high. One way or another, I had a feeling I was going to get the head girl role.