Running for the Impossible

"I'm a Writer, Not a Campaign Manager"

the present

There really isn't any point in trying to run for student council president when someone had sustained the position three times in a row, with landslide victories all three times.

In fact, last year she had no competition at all, except for that new kid who had just moved here and made a bad choice of trying to get the position. Yes, it did not end well. To be honest, I actually felt really bad for the new kid when the results were announced. Winning only 2% of the votes when there were only two candidates is pretty bad. It was even worse for me, because I was told to write an article on it for the school newspaper.

It's not that the votes were biased, but the fact was that she was just... invincible. Everything about her was perfect; the golden hair, white teeth, good grades. There wasn't really any point in trying to stop Mira from getting her fourth and last year as student council president, but this year, someone was still willing to try.

Icana always had a pretty big rivalry with Mira, always wanting to beat her at everything, always wanting to be at the top of the class, but in no way, did any of these things explain why she decided to ask me to help. We were friends, but there wasn't really anything I could do.

I did not care in any way for these "elections", and her request was basically, "Hi! Please help me lose!" She wanted to do the impossible, and the last thing I wanted to do was embarrass myself in front of the whole school. I'm a writer, not a campaign manager.

I wanted to tell her no (politely, of course), but Icana looked at me with such confidence that it made me think that she actually thought she had a chance at winning. I had never seen her like this before.

I wanted to tell Icana that I didn't want to upset Mira, but that would cause me to probably have to tell her everything.

"Sure," I said wearily, "I'll try my best to help. Text me if you need anything."

That afternoon, after ninth period band, with my books in one hand and a pencil in the other, I walked to my locker. I had come out quite late, and the halls were almost completely empty. I turned the dial on my lock, clicked it opened, and flung my locker open, causing a small stack bright pink of papers to tumble out. I just stared at it for a moment, as if there was a bomb hidden on one of the sheets, and then finally, I reached down and carefully picked the stack up.

On the top read Student Council Election Guidelines. I looked around me, saw that no one was watching, and slipped it into one of my folders. Skimming through the first few pages, which were labeled "Expectations", I saw a whole lot of "You are expected to's".

"This isn't going to be so easy," I thought to myself.

I had seen this packet many times before. It came from the giant stack of papers in the main office that nobody bothered to pick up because nobody had a chance of winning these days.

Well not this year...