Disclaimer.
The names, characters, businesses, organizations, events, incidents and other entities are products of author's imagination and are used fictitiously. Any resemblance of persons, living or dead, events or locales are purely coincidental.
Dedication.
This story is dedicated to all online and real friends I have encountered, even in second degree or third.
Prologue.
"It is not an excuse for someone, whose nationality is notably to risk for, to serve a political office with integrity."
Alex Del Puerto, declaring his confession as a Filipino, said self-assuredly in a television interview on a cold January after a confirmation vote from the General Assembly of Arkendale.
On the first day of the regional session, his team including his former colleagues from Bitts Valley, the American Maynard Preston and the British Brynn Bonney as Deputy Mayor and Education Superintendent-Designates, awaited with their increasing pulse awaiting the confirmation from the joint sitting on the gallery. As Lieutenant Governor Sally LaFrentz received a chit of the final count from the clerk before the bang of the gavel, the drama attained the climax and the hands of the triumvirate were clasped as the rest of Alex's appointed cabinet members eyed on the three with their rising heart rates.
"On this count, the yeas are 112, nays are 100," the presiding officer read "the nomination Alex Del Puerto and his designate cabinet for the new municipality of Laurmont is confirmed."
But after the announcement, he trained himself and others on how to take their serious responsibility. As the first chief executive of a local government, arose these questions: In the political sphere, Will his struggle make his new town peaceful? In the social sphere, will his friends count to stay strong or hang loose?
