The Freshman Tease ✓

44. Election

Katie

"Thank you so much for everything Doctor Kat," I say, giving her a hug.

"Oh you're very welcome," she says, "I'm so proud of how quickly you improved Katie, rehabilitation can be really difficult."

She's right though, the past couple weeks have been rough. I was having a lot of difficulty with my left arm and leg after getting the casts off. Doctor Data was right about probably needing therapy afterwards.

Although I suppose therapy wasn't as rough as actually being in that wheelchair for two months. Getting around campus was a huge pain in the ass, luckily Lincoln helped me get around the entire time. I'm glad Doctor Kat is such a kind and supportive physical therapist too.

She walks me to the lobby. "Give me a call if you're having any problems," she says as I leave.

Lincoln is waiting for me in the lobby.

"Well, my last physical therapy appointment is finished, I feel good," I say with a smile.

He pulls me into a hug and kisses my forehead. "I'm really proud of you Katie."

"Will we be able to get back in time?" I ask as I check my phone, it's nearly half past three.

"Yeah I think so, Ray said they should be ready by 4," he says as we head to the car.

__________________

We walk into the club office. Ray, Stephanie, and the head of each department are there. They're sorting through a huge pile of slips of paper on the table into several cardboard boxes labeled with names.

"Hey pres," I say to Ray, "how's the counting going?"

He runs his hand tiredly through his hair. "We're pretty beat. I didn't expect so many club members to actually vote this year."

"I guess that explains why there are so many people in the common area," Lincoln says, peeking through the closed blinds.

I notice Elisha, our head of fundraising, has a couple bandages on her hands. "What happened to your hands?" I ask.

"Paper cuts from all the ballots," she says sheepishly, "why are all the department heads here anyways?"

Lincoln chuckles and pats her back, "There was a cheating incident a couple years ago. We do it like this now to ensure fairness."

"When I agreed to take over as treasurer I wasn't expecting this much manual labor," Stephanie says, rolling her eyes and laughing. I'm happy about how welcoming everyone was towards her.

Lincoln pulls up a chair and starts helping them count ballots. My name is on them so I'm not allowed to watch. I wasn't very confident about running, but everyone insisted, and I take a seat on the sofa instead. The new sofa - Lincoln had the old one thrown out as soon as possible after Ray became president, because of what he suspected had happened on it.

I look at Ray and Lincoln sadly. "I can't believe you guys are graduating in a month! ASA won't be the same without you," I pout.

Ray gives me a weak smile. "We're gonna miss it too," he says, "but I'd be lying if I said I wasn't relieved. Four whole years of this and I'm exhausted."

"Yeah, this year has probably shortened my lifespan by a couple years," Lincoln groans, "what a wild ride."

I laugh, "Fair enough, it was a pretty crazy year."

I yawn. I've been exhausted too. Going to class then physical therapy for over a month was stressful and tiring. 

I decide to head downstairs to the Starbucks in this building, everyone in the office looks like they could use a caffeine pickup.