May Parker's Guide to Winning the Election

Tip #7: A Good Candidate Retaliates Only When Necessary

  "May, we should start the rally around noon. It's early enough to not interrupt the day, but late enough so we don't inconvenience anyone by obligating them to wake up early." Riley says, twirling a pencil in between his fingers at my campaign meeting the next afternoon.

"What are we going to do at this rally?" Anna, my social media consultant, asks as she flips through her clipboard of notes. "I need to know how to advertise it on your social media pages."

"There's going to be food, May's going to do a speech, there will be a suggestion box for people to voice their concerns and they can just get to know May." Riley says, taking control of the conversation. "It's so they all feel included in her campaign and so that she can gauge what she needs to work on."

"The popular kids aren't going to come unless there's booze." I mutter, my face contorting in disgust as I think about the task at hand.

"May, this is the problem. You can't prejudge them. You can't generalize about them; that will force them away from you. You have to take each person as they are; treat them as an individual instead as part of the group and really listen to their concerns. All it takes is a few people to flip the vote in your favor." Riley explains as if he's been doing this all his life.

"The problem is getting them to come." Anna replies, taking my side. "May is right; we need something to pull them to her rally because if they're already voting for Trip then they have no reason to go to a rally for May Parker."

"Okay, that's a fair point." Riley concedes with a sigh. "Any ideas to get them to come?"

"The artist group has a few local bands that might be willing to play. We could market the rally as a backyard concert and just have May do the speech at the end. We should just cast it as a party, no political motivations whatsoever. People will be more likely to come if they think they'll have fun." Anna says, rustling the papers on her clipboard.

"Get back to me when you have them on board. Until then just keep up with the platform marketing and everyone else keep those attack ads cranking. I need more than half my competition out of the way by the next round." I say as I stand up, ready for the meeting to end. My team nods and Riley releases me with a wave of his hand. The bell for the end of lunch rings. I grab my bag and melt into the crowd of students as I head back to my class. I take a seat in the back of the classroom as the rest of the students file into the room.

~~~~~

"May, you're not going to believe this..." Riley says, his voice being drowned out by the background noises on his end of the phone conversation.

"I don't need anymore bad news, Riley. I already have to hang out with the populars on Saturday." I reply, hiking my bag up on my shoulder and elbowing my way through the crowd of students rushing to get out of the school.

"Then don't look at your campaign posters." Riley warns.

"He didn't..." I shudder, praying Riley won't say what I know he's about to.

"Every single one of them."

"Damn it." I say, turning sharply to look at one of the posters I'd hung up yesterday. Its once pristine surface is now defaced by obscene drawings and the words 'Vote for Trip' scrawled in black sharpie. My school picture now has a large mustache on it and my eyes are colored over. My blood boils as I tear it off the wall, clenching it angrily in my fists. I march down the hallway, shoving my phone in my bag as I search for the culprit. I find him and his group of idiots standing near the door, laughing about some inane matter as if they don't know what they've done to me.