HughTube

Chapter 15

Back at home, I considered my options. I could: A) forget about the mall incident and the ripped posters and just go on with my campaign; B) drop out of the race and pretend none of this ever happened; C) join a monastery and never show my face in public again; or D) turn back time and never enter the race in the first place. Options B through D all involved different variations of hiding my head in the sand, and, I must admit, were the most appealing.

The thing about HughTube is that it somehow gives me the strength to do things I wouldn't otherwise do. It acts like a suit of armor, deflecting all the humiliation I usually go through when I'm trying something new and challenging. I can always tell myself that I'm doing something in the name of HughTube, like I'm doing it for science or mankind or some other grand goal, not just for myself. And once I come out the other side of this learning experience, I've not only grown as a person, I've also broadcast my experience to the world through my video blog, allowing millions of others (okay, thousands? hundreds?) to learn and grow as well.

Simply put, it's my gift to the world!

But I've got to say, while I'm going through all that humiliation, it doesn't feel like I'm wearing a suit of armor. Every screw-up stings. And sitting here editing my weekly blog just makes it harder because I have to relive all my embarrassing moments over and over again – and comment on them too!

I played back the recording of Molly volunteering to help with my campaign. It was an amazing moment, something that gave me fear but also inner pride. But like every great moment in a person's life, it seems, it was a double-edged sword... because if she hadn't joined my campaign, I would've never had that humiliating experience in the mall.

My phone chirped. It was Molly, texting again. "How R U?" She ended the text with some emoji, but I couldn't tell whether it was a crying emoji or a gagging one.

I texted back, "Fine, and U?" I know, real imaginative. But I didn't want to let on how I was feeling, even though that must've been obvious. "Just a little sick," I added. I tried to find a sick emoji but couldn't. I chose a thumbs-down emoji instead.

"Ur clothes R fine," she texted next. They'd better be. Since we were kicked out of the mall, I wasn't able to buy the clothes Molly chose for me, and I was certainly not going back there to get them. If people wanted to vote for me, they'd have to accept my lack of style right along with all the many other things I lacked.

But then, the student body might not get to vote for me at all. I texted, "I'll B there for the debate," but I was just buying time. I didn't want Molly to know I was actually considering dropping out of the race. That wasn't the gutsy thing to do, after all.

Just then, my mom came into my room holding a bag of mini Chips Ahoy cookies. I knew something was up. Mini Chips Ahoy's were my favorite cookies. They had the perfect crunch, much crunchier than the full-size ones. And if my mom was bringing them to me, I knew she wanted something in return.

"How's the campaign going, honey?" I figured from her tone that she knew it wasn't going well. After all, here I was, home in the middle of a school day. She sat down on the side of my bed and handed me the little bag of cookies.

I took the cookies and lied. "It's going great!" I opened the bag and started to eat. Eating while you're talking always makes it easier to sell a lie. After all, you must be telling the truth if you're relaxed enough to eat, right?

Molly texted again: "Ur going 2 do fine in the debate. U just have the jitters." She actually found a jittery emoji for the end of this latest text. Wow, she was a better emoji hunter than I was.

My mom glanced at my phone. "Is that Simon?"

I turned the phone screen away. "No, just this girl."

"A girl?!" Mom sounded surprised and pleased – but mostly confused.

"Oh, it's nothing," I said, lying again. "She's just helping me with my campaign."

Mom smiled. "She must really believe in you."

Okay, rip my heart out and smash it with a stick, why don't you? Molly did believe in me. She believed in me a whole lot more than I believed in myself.

"Are you going to bring her by sometime?" Mom asked.

I thought about this one while trying not to look like I was thinking about it. Was I going to bring her by sometime? I don't know, I thought. I guess it depended on if I totally wimped out with my campaign or not. Because this campaign wasn't just about me and HughTube anymore. It was about Simon too. It was about Molly and her faith in me. It was about my mom and dad who had always wanted the best for me. It was even about Nancy who deserved to have a brother to look up to.

I looked up at my mom. "Am I going to bring Molly by? Yeah, I am."

Then I texted Molly back: "C U after lunch."