Don't Judge a Book by its Cover

Right is right

Meggie POV

"They cannot do that!" I raged. I was more angry than I could ever remember being. "They cannot do that! They can't! Not to you!"

Mikelah grimaced. "Clearly, they can."

"No, they can't!" I snapped back at her, not being as reassuring as I should have been. "They can't and they won't! I won't let them!" On that last sentence, I swayed a little on my feet. I felt a bit dizzy.

"Meggie, sit down." Mik said, in an almost motherly way. "You know what the adrenaline does to you."

I obeyed her, and sat, taking some dep breaths as my heartbeat slowed and my mind started to clear. Clear... and work. 

"Meggie..." Mervyn eyed me cautiously. "I don't like that look. I don't like it at all."

"What are you thinking?" Hazel asked. I smiled at them, perhaps a bit too widely.

"I'm thinking we protest." I told them. "Protest, petition... I say we don't take this. I say we don't let Mik take this."

"Meggie-!" Mik gasped. She didn't say anything else, nor did she need to. We knew what she was thinking.

"It's within our rights." I reminded her. "I read the student handbook from cover to cover with you for the campaign, remember? I don't recall it ever saying a word about protests. And besides that, I still would've done it if I had! I don't think any school should be able to expel one of their model students for something like this!"

Mikelah sighed. She knew better than to argue when I was like this, but she still had to give it a shot. "Don't... get in any trouble over me, okay? I... I don't care about it that much."

"Don't worry yourself, Mik. You know I'm smarter than that, right?"

Mikelah reluctantly allowed herself to smile.

***********

Hazel POV

Step two of the plan, that was plain white T-shirts. Step one had been an article in the school newspaper, and it had gone over just as well (or badly) as we'd hoped it to. Now step two, was to come to school wearing big white t-shirts, and have people sign them, in a petition. It sounded pretty cool, and it seemed to be working. The four of us were basically walking picket signs, or at least, that's what I felt like. Not to mention that the huge t-shirts did absolutely nothing for any of us, but... that wasn't important. Today. What was important was getting signatures, and I had already gotten about 25. And there were four of us, so we were bound to get quite a few names.

"Hey Meggie! How is yours going?" I waved Meggie over. She came closer, displaying a pretty decent amount of signatures.

"Going great! 32 names, and counting." She beamed, clearly proud of himself. That was more than mine! Not fair at all.

"Hey, shouldn't we sign our own names?" I asked. "I mean, we're on board with this." I pointed out.

"I.. kinda thought... that our signatures were implied... Okay, never mind." Meggie shook her head. "Okay, fine, sign me."

She turned around to let me do it, but her back was pretty much full. I spun her right back around again, and she glared at me. I took out my Sharpie and tried to write on a nice empty space. Meggie tried very hard not to squirm. It really is a bit uncomfortable, being signed.

Presently, Mervyn came along. He stopped to talk to a group of smallish girls by the lockers. They giggled dizzily, and all of them signed his shirt. They then left, still giggling, and Mervyn joined us with a bemused smile on his face.

"My God, Mervyn, you have like 60 signatures, do you know that?!" Meggie blurted out. Mervyn tried to look at himself, spun around in the process, and then faced us with a much more embarrassed grin.

"Yeah, I guess so." He said. "Quite a few of the little girls who Mik talks to approached me today. And quite a few that I didn't recognize, too. I barely even had to ask them. I think it's sweet that they like Mikelah that much."

Meggie and I exchanged amused looks. "And.. did they act generally the same way as that last group over there?" Meggie pointed. Mervyn nodded.

"Yeah, they're pretty nice. Friendly." He commented innocently. That was the last straw, and me and Meggie both burst out laughing. "What?"

"Don't worry, Mervyn, don't worry." I laughed. "You wouldn't get it."

Mervyn stared in bewilderment as Meggie bounced away. Almost as soon as Meggie was gone, that witch Savannah walked up to us. I scowled and looked away from her, but Mervyn, being far more polite, and much less malicious, simply gave her a guarded sort of look. "Would you like something?"

"Umm..." She fidgeted for a good few seconds. "To sign the petition."

Too surprised to say anything, I handed over my marker. As she was signing me, Mervyn asked her what I was wondering. "I thought you hated Mikelah?"

Savannah didn't confirm it, but she didn't deny it either. "It doesn't matter what we think of each other, I just know Mikelah's reputation among the teachers, and right is right."

Mervyn broke into one of those bright smiles of his. "Fair enough."

Savannah snapped the marker shut and gave it back to me. "So.. Mikelah isn't running against me anymore, any way you look at it. Elections are in weeks. That means... I'm the only one running for office?"

"No you're not." Mervyn blurted out. "I'm going to run in Mik's place." For the first time, I think me and Savannah were on the exact same wavelength as we both looked at Mervyn like he had a third eye.

"Oh, w-well... Good luck." Savannah stammered, confused. She turned around as if she was in a trance, and she left. Once she was out of earshot, I turned to properly speak to Mervyn.

"Mervyn, what was that?" I asked. "You... you can't run for office! Mervyn, you're.. no offence, but you're you! Can you handle it?"

Mervyn thought for a while. "I guess we'll see."