May Parker's Guide to Winning the Election

Tip #12: Your Campaign is Only Worth as Much as You Sell it for

My parents are fighting downstairs, their yells ricocheting off the high ceilings. It's not uncommon for their marriage to go by the wayside during elections; when the polls numbers drop, so their affections for one another. I'm convinced that my parents never actually married each other for love, but as a political partnership and every election since that realization has only made me more sure of it. I turn my music up and continue to type me AP English essay that's due on Monday.

The yells cease for a few minutes, the sounds of sensible shoes tromping up the stairs filling their absence. I close my laptop and draw in a deep breath, my heartbeat speeding up unnaturally. The footsteps stop right outside of my door and the yelling commences again. I'm in for it now. I shove my school stuff away and shut off my music as my dad comes barging into my room, my mom following close behind.

"Care to explain why you were out with someone other than Jack Anderson yesterday?" My dad glares at me as he drops a newspaper on my bed. The picture is of Trip and I on our date yesterday. We're on the pier in Annapolis, sharing a basket of fries and watching the boats sail by. I hadn't seen any paparazzi or heard any clicking cameras, but I guess nothing was stopping nosy people from taking pictures with their phones and selling them to newspapers. I sigh and read the headline, my anger increasing with every word. I can't do anything without having it come back to bite me. I look up at my dad and find him staring furiously back at me. Why is he mad? I don't live my life to make him look better, no matter how much he wishes I did.

"What? So, I'm allowed to date your rivals, but not my own?" I snap, standing up from my bed.

"May Eloise Parker, you live under my roof and you'll live by my rules. If I tell you to date my rival's son to help me win the election, then you damn well better do it. You don't have a choice." My dad fumes, balling the newspaper up in his hand.

"I'm a human being, not some pawn in your political game." I shout, tears burning in my eyes. "I'm tired of being used to further your ends. I'm your child and I'm fine laying low and being polite towards donors, but the minute you start dictating my personal life, I'm out."

"You don't have a choice in this matter, May." My dad reiterates, the vein in his forehead throbbing like a ticking time-bomb.

"I've never had a choice in my life and that's the problem. I can't choose my friends, I can't choose what I wear, what I eat, what I do with my free time. Now, I can't even choose who I date and I'm tired of living like this."

"Stop talking like you've struggled a day in your life, May." My dad scoffs. "You'll never understand what it feels like to struggle. You act like you live in some tyrannical society where you're oppressed every second of every day. You are an upper-class girl going to the best private school in the country; not some poor child living in North Korea with no freedom."

"Sometimes you make me feel like I have no freedom." I mumble, tears staining my cheeks. "All I can do is disappoint you; no matter what I do. I can't make you proud and I'm tired of trying to reach your ever-expanding expectations." My fists clench by my side as I stare at my parents; my mom's jaw is on the floor and my dad looks like he might explode at any second. I begin to push through them to reach my door and my dad stops me by roughly grabbing my shoulder.

"You're not going anywhere, May Parker." My dad says, shoving me down on the bed. "You are dating Jack Anderson. You are going to pretend you like him until the end of this election. You are going to tell this other boy that it's over..."

"Shut up, Dan." My mom interjects pointedly. "Don't put the poor girl through this; our poll numbers have already been shot to hell, so her dating Jack isn't going to change anything." Boy, don't I feel loved. This child abuse is only stopped when it won't further their ends anymore.