Becoming Somebody

Chapter 6 - Being Nominated

Homecoming court nomination day had arrived. Charlie learned the ballots were going to be passed out during second period, when announcements were read, so as to not take up too much class time. The teacher shuffled down the line, handing a stack of ballots to each row, as the students grabbed one and passed the rest back. As Charlie grabbed hers, she looked around the room. Whose name was she going to put? She thought about just putting her own, because she still wanted to win, but that felt too weird. 

She looked over at Taylor. This was their only class together, Health class. Taylor did really well with anything Health or Anatomy related, and luckily, Charlie got to sit next to her.

"Pssst," she said to her. "I'm gonna vote for you, okay?"

Taylor winked and said, "Okay, I'll vote for you too then."

The girls put each other's names down, handed the ballots in, and continued on with their day. It wasn't until fifth period when an upperclassman from the ASB (Associated Student Body, basically Class President, Treasurer, etc.) named Thomas Pinon appeared in the doorway of her English class holding a stack of ballots that she thought about it again.

"Yes Thomas?" the teacher asked.

"Hi, I'm here because there's a runoff for the Sophomore Homecoming court race. We need all the Sophomores to vote again between the top two choices," Thomas said. Charlie couldn't remember if he was Secretary, President, Treasurer, or what.

Her teacher sighed. "Ok if you must, let's pass those out and get this over with."

He entered the classroom and passed out the ballots. As they came down the row Charlie grabbed one and read the small print on the paper. She blinked to make sure she read it correctly.

Princess (choose one)

Charlie Jackson // Rachel Ibarra

There she was, on the ballot next to the same girl she met campaigning in the hallway. Her classmates looked up when they realized, some smiling at her, some not. Her heart pounded a little faster, and she tried to hide her excitement. How cool was it that she was actually in the race? Her popularity plan really was working, and she didn't even have to campaign.

She looked at the Prince section and saw it was a toss-up between two guys she knew. The first guy was named Michael. That made sense. He was one of the cutest boys in the Sophomore class, and he had a starting position on the JV football team. The other was Tim, Taylor's new crush. She circled Tim's name, of course, but didn't make a choice for Princess. She still felt too weird about voting for herself. She folded the paper in half and passed it back up. She felt her phone buzz in her pocket. It was a text from Taylor.

Oh hey miss thing! Just voted for you, and my future boo Tim.

Charlie smiled and typed back, We'll see if all that campaigning Rachel did pays off.

Taylor responded, Whatever, you're the Princess in my book! 

Charlie sent back a heart emoji and put her phone away. She felt eyes on her, which was starting to become a somewhat regular occurrence these days.

After that class was over, she headed to the girl's bathroom. When she was at the sink washing her hands, Mary, the senior girl from cross-country, came out of the stall behind her.

"Hey!" Mary said, approaching the sink.

"Hey," Charlie smiled back.

"So, did you take my advice? I heard there's a runoff between you and the other Sophomore transfer girl for Homecoming Princess?" Mary asked.

"Uh," Charlie shifted slightly, "I didn't, it just felt kind of awkward to ask people to vote for me. I figured if they wanted to, they would."

"Well, sure, but if they don't know that you want to be their princess, then why would they pick you over her?" Mary shrugged, and finished drying her hands before heading to the door. "Either way good luck!"

"Thanks," Charlie said halfheartedly.

The truth of what Mary said started to sink in. Why would anyone vote for her over Rachel? Who was she, after all? She hadn't really shown any leadership qualities to speak of. She sucked at cross-country. She couldn't always remember everyone's names that she had met, even now a month into the school year. Yes, she wanted to be a Queen Bee, but from where she sat, it seemed like Rachel might be kicking her ass in that department. Rachel had probably voted for herself, too.

She sighed and walked out of the bathroom, probably late for sixth period Spanish, but too distracted to look at the time. She ran straight into someone, nearly falling backward at the impact.

"Oo, sorry!" she said, almost getting the wind knocked out her.

"It's cool, you okay?" he said. Her stomach dropped when she realized it was Cassius Green.

"Uh yeah, I'm fine," she said, taking a moment to really look at him. At such close proximity she realized how nice his eyes were, hazel in color, contrasting with his tan skin. Wow, up close, he was gorgeous.

"Good," he said.

They both awkwardly stood there for a second before walking in different directions. She turned away first, but she looked back just to see if he was still looking at her when she walked away. He was.