The Perks of Being a Lesbian (Camren)

Chapter 21

There Lauren was. Being supportive as ever out in the crowd. Camila smiled to herself thinking about how far she and Lauren had come. It hadn't been a super long time since they'd first met. In fact, it had only been just over a month, but to Camila it felt like forever. 

Seeing Lauren there in one of the rows of pews reserved for the junior class, Camila hoped to God that she would be able to deliver a speech that would spare her girlfriend any embarrassment.

The girl speaking before her was just finishing up, really only taking a minute to introduce herself and what she wanted to accomplish. Camila tried to keep in mind that she was only required to do the same.

Just go up there, state her case, and be done with it.

However, Camila wondered just what her case was. Tori had been able to grab her attention with the bullying thing and that was an issue that she felt passionate enough about to speak on, but there were plenty of other things that made going to McKinley difficult to enjoy.

Should she speak on those too? All of the kids before her had been speaking about being able to do a good job for their class, but they never went into detail about what they were going to do. They avoided listing any problems that needed to be solved.

Sure, that freshman girl, Rowan, and her competitor were an exception because freshmen were only just starting out high school. They didn't really know enough about it to have an idea of what to change. The sophomores were sort of the same way, having just a little more experience. However, Camila was the second to last junior to speak and those before her had only given speeches along the lines of "Hey, vote for me because I'm a cool person and I have some cool ideas."

But Camila knew that she could do more. She may have been a new student, but she'd been observant. She could see that most of the school's budget was based on donations, funding, and tuition (like most private schools), which wasn't a lot after taking care of necessities. 

For instance, the school didn't even have enough money to finish renovating the library. That meant that there was no real place for students to study.

There was also the issue of the class budget. There had been one class meeting on the first day of school where the junior class advisors gathered all of them together and let them know how much they had to work with for prom, since that was assigned to the junior class to plan. There was only a measly twenty dollars left after last year's prom. That meant that there would need to be a load of fundraisers, all going towards one thing. There would be no money left for primarily junior class activities.

And there were so many other problems on top of those things, like a lack of tutors for the junior class (as displayed by Dinah's clear struggle to do well with no suggestions for support from her teacher). There was also a strange divide among the juniors that didn't really seem all that evident in other grades.

These were all issues that she felt needed to be addressed. And chances were, the kids that had spoken before her didn't really plan to remedy them.

Maybe that's what she could talk about. Maybe that would be enough to counteract the disadvantage of having a poor reputation.

Before she could even think about it, as soon as the other girl finished her speech and Tori introduced her, Camila was standing at the podium. She could vaguely register introducing herself again and spouting off some awkward comment about no one really knowing her, but that she was still up for the job and blah blah blah.

It wasn't until she reached the part where she was supposed to state her intentions that Camila really got into her groove. She looked upon the rows of students as she tried her best to address each issue that she had been thinking about prior. The feeling was strange, like the passion that she felt had taken over her body and was giving the speech for her.