...and tell my why I don't matter."
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a/n: hi guys! I wanted to do an election kind of story. this plot is 110% inspired by a post i saw from tumblr posted on instagram. it really hit me hard, it said "If you voted Trump tonight, make sure to explain to your gay, trans, female, black, Latina/o and Muslim friends why don't they matter to you" -hugselenatorswifitie
so some background on the Abigail Adams High School I had in mind writing this story: It's very, very, very, very diverse in ethnicity, race, sexuality and gender. There are some ignorant people who go to this AAHS for the sake of the story, I tried to write the best in the perspective of ignorant people (in no way am I saying I'm super smart and intelligent, but I believe in different things than the characters in the story) If I portray something wrong that doesn't align with actual information NOT opinion please tell me I'll look it up to verify and change it.
word count; 1251
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He cannot be our president. I thought to myself as I watched the TV, he out of the two could not be. Why? Why did people do this to us. I screamed for an hour, in that hour I cried draining in my own tears. My mother tried to calm me down, but she eventually gave up and just comforted me throughout my non stop sobbing. Mother of the year right there.
I stopped crying eventually, only because I fell asleep and I woke up to my phone blaring my annoying alarm. I slowly dragged myself out of bed, and for a second it felt fine, it felt normal. But, then it hit me. This is real life, I have to wake up everyday in fear for the next four years of my life. I ate my cereal but mostly dipping my spoon in the milk and cereal before putting it right back in the bowl. I lingered to the bathroom, washed my face, brushed my teeth and brushed my hair.
"Can I please stay home today?" I asked my mother.
"And why would you want to that?" She asked genuinely confused.
"Because this is too much, I can't take it anymore." I said on the brink of crying. My mom got up from the table and walked towards me hugging me like a mom would and motherly hug stopped my tears.
"Honey, as much as I want you to be able to stay home," I knew what she was going to say. "You need to keep living your life as usual it's just another day."
She had a point, I couldn't stop living my life one person cannot ruin that. But people who supported that person could. I walked to school, early 45 minutes to be exact. I walked over to my locker and reluctantly opened it before I felt a soft tap on my shoulder. I turned around and it was my friend, Emma she was a tall South Korean girl she had dark brown bangs draped over her forehead, and was fairly tan. "Hi Emma!"
"Hey Riles, how was it for you last night?" One word that was the death of me, "it" why was that the word that triggered my tears. I started crying in the middle of the hallway Emma soon grabbed me into a hug and softly cried with me. Her cry was softer than mine and much quieter. Then I felt another pair of arms wrap around me, Maya. My best friend since kindergarten she was a dirty blonde, fairly short, light skinned and most of all comforting, both Maya and Emma were. Then another pair of arms wrapped around us. I looked up, Smackle she was a Filipino, short, with dark brown hair. We stayed until the warning bell rang and they left to their classes, I wiped my tears off my face and my dad, my history teacher walked me in with his arm around me. "It'll be okay, Riles."
I tried to stop engaging myself into politics in the class since most of the class were people of all colors, genders, sexual orientations and religions. There were a few ignorant boys in my class, Lucas Friar, Zack Lip, Henry Smith, Farkle Minkus and Sam Johnson. They didn't understand white supremacy, that there is more than one gender and being lesbian wasn't a defense mechanism used by women to use as an excuse to reject them. They were talking about Trump when I walked in and sat in my seat in the front. They were towards the back. I tried not to focus on their opinions before I lost it.
"Yea, I'm so glad that that liar isn't in office," Lucas said all of his friends nodded in agreement. "I couldn't imagine all the lies she would've told us if she was in office. Like what if she lied about a war breaking out or if she lied about bills. Glad someone trustworthy is in office." Did he honestly just say "trustworthy" referencing Trump. Maybe he just thinks that Hillary is less than a liar than Trump. So I brushed that comment off. But then he kept talking, "My parents were so smart to vote for Trump. If only I could be as courageous as them and vote for the underdog, someone as good as Trump." No, no, no, no. This is the point where I got up and walked towards the back of the class. The bell rung already but I honestly couldn't care less. I approached them, they stared Zack and Henry, who were sitting on their desks facing Lucas and Farkle, turned around.
"What do you want?" Zack snapped at me.
"Look me in the face and tell me why I don't matter. No scratch that, look at the other seventy percent of the class and tell us why we don't matter." I screamed in their faces tearing up. Silence. Nothing came out of their mouths, I stared at them for what felt like forever tears still slowly building up in my eyes. They saw those tears, they didn't know what to do. They avoided my eye contact by looking around but let's face it, the whole damn class heard me. Most of them stared at the boys with anger and some stared at me with sympathy. All of the people staring were of different races, ethnic backgrounds, sexual orientations, religions and genders. Ally, a lesbian who had a girlfriend, her girlfriend Ana from Mexico city, Kayla a girl born in a boy's body, Nigel Cambodian who's grandmother had escaped Cambodia when the Cambodian Civil War broke out, Zay, an African American who's family is originally from Ghana, all my peers were America, sitting in one room. My dad finally came over and said, "Now that's enough Riley." He sat me down and tried to proceed to teach. He couldn't, we couldn't focus. I knew that, he knew that. He didn't teach we sat there in silence Lucas and all his friends were on their phones, I presumed at some dumb Trump supporting page. Then the silence was broken by none other than Lucas himself.
"I'm sorry." An apology wasn't going to cut it, but then he kept talking. "We're sorry, we didn't know he was that rude. We were looking up articles just now. I haven't done much research about him, none of us have, all the information we've been told has been filtered through our parents. He's a terrible man. We're really sorry to yo--everyone." His voice sounded genuine and sympathetic.
Farkle rose from his seat."I'm are really sorry Riley and everyone in here." He looked around, before he sat down and Zach stood up. "Me too, Riley, everyone I'm sorry. And Riley, I'm sorry for snapping at you earlier." He sat down. Finally, last but not least Henry stood up, "I'm not, Trump's right women are not capable of anything but house work and taking care of children. Women have too many hormones, especially when they're on their period they cannot be trusted. She'll start a war every month because of a hormonal imbalance. Trump is right. Plus Pence is a good man, he knows that being gay can be cured with some treatment." I was about get back up and go punch him, but Lucas beat me to it. Straight to the jaw, Lucas and Farkle were the ones who changed the most and the ones I knew could change if they educated themselves.
