Chapter 51 – Student Council Election Fever – Holly Hayfield

Skipping my first period class after our meeting wasn’t the end of my abnormal schedule. Due to the fact that the student council vote was taking place this week, preparations were being made in the cafeteria. Thanks to that I was allowed out of history class earlier than usual. I was summoned to the office by the vice principal herself. She said that she was assigning me to the team that was working on the preparation. She knew I’d work honestly on it despite being part of one of the election teams. That was another perk of being a known goody two-shoes.

The committee formed to handle the preparations was filled with office assistants and other students of ‘excellence’. From what I could tell by the people that showed up it seemed like the vice principal’s definition of excellence just meant useful. Val and Jay were already in the cafeteria before I arrived. They were both office assistants so it wasn’t a surprise. On top of that, Erica was there helping out on the other side of the room. It looked like Val was avoiding her by a wide margin, not so much as glancing in her direction.

There wasn’t too much for me to do but, I went over to help Val with the assorted papers anyways. The way that the voting was handled was basically based on last names. Each student already had a file with their name printed for them. The students weren’t just going to be voting for the election group, they’d also be giving feedback on their school experience. This was made to give the illusion that the administration staff really cared about what the students thought. The seniors knew it was a joke, but the freshmen students would likely answer the survey carefully.

“Holly, want to give me a hand with this box?” Val asked from a nearby cafeteria table.

“Sure.” I said.

All of the voting forms were being held in boxes. Our main task today was to arrange them by the order in which the students would be voting. The students would start voting that very Tuesday at lunch until Friday at lunch. By voting day-by-day like this it meant that votes could be tallied in a timely manner and we’d know the outcome sooner. The winner was supposed to be announced during study hall of that Friday.

Val handed me a stack of papers.

“These are pretty much already pre-arranged alphabetically. Just make sure these are in order. If not, fix them. Once you’re done with those put them in this pile here. I’ll do this other portion.”

“Right,” I said.

We sat down at the lunch table together and got to work. I looked around the cafeteria as I worked.

“Lilith didn’t come to help?” I asked.

“Of course not,” Val said, “Do you really think she’s the type to volunteer for this type of thing.”

“You’ve got a point.” I said.

She nudged my leg with her knee under the table.

“You’d know better than me though, wouldn’t you? You two seem to be spending a lot of time together.” Val said. “Is she more your type?”

“In terms of looks she might be.” I admitted. “But I’m not interested in a romantic relationship, if that’s what you’re getting at. I don’t even think Lilith is capable of a romantic relationship. She’s a one-track mind when it comes to the things she’s interested in and romance definitely isn’t one of those things. I guess that’s why she’s easy for me to talk to.”

Val showed a slight smile and then looked back down to the papers she was sorting.

“I didn’t expect such a frank answer.” Val said. “Why aren’t you interested in romantic relationships? Don’t you want someone you can be personally intimate with?”

I turned my attention away from my work to look at her directly. She wasn’t asking me this purely for her own interest in me. She seemed mostly curious at why I had become this way.

“I’ve had some bad experiences with that type of thing…” I said shyly.

“Me too,” Val said. “That’s why I think we’d make a better fit for each other.”

“You don’t understand. It’s more complicated than that… Ellie and I… We never managed to come to terms with things after I was expelled. She just vanished from my life.”

“What?” She asked. “You mean you still love this person?”

“I do, very much.” I said.

“You mentioned before that I wasn’t your first kiss. Was it Ellie?”

“Yes,” I said. “Back then it wasn’t anything romantic, just playful. She was the sort of kind-hearted spirit that helped make me into who I am. When I lost her, I lost part of my identity.”

Val put down the papers she was handling. She reached her arms around me to pull me into a hug. This was surprisingly comforting. It was still painful to talk about Ellie, even in this vague context. Merely saying her name filled me with mixed feelings of guilt and longing.

“I once had someone like that too…” Val said. “Then she betrayed me!”

As Val spoke her voice became more aggressive, like she was recalling the instance of betrayal. Her hold on me went from being warm and comforting to being tight and constricting. Suddenly she was holding me like a snake.

“I trusted her...” Val said distantly. “She made a fool out of me.”

She finally pulled away when she realized just how aggressively she had been holding me.

“Sorry…” She whispered.

She looked away with a pained look on her face. I remembered Erica’s story about Iris and Kate and the way they manipulated Val. Val still didn’t know that I knew about it. I put a hand on her hand. She looked up at me with apologetic eyes.

“Sometime, when this student council work is over…” She said, “I’d like to spend time outside of school with you. It doesn’t have to be a date. We can just hang out together at my place. There’s something I want to show you.”

“I’d love to. My ankle monitor is still a problem though. My parole officer said that it will come off soon, but I don’t know how soon that is.”

“I’ll talk to my brother about that. He’s a mechanic. There might be a work around.”

That sounded almost too good to be true.

“I’ve never heard about a work around for an ankle monitor. If something like that could work then I’d finally be free…”

“Let me talk to him tonight. I’ll tell you what he says.”

The very possibility of getting my ankle monitor off sooner than later filled me with excitement. It might’ve been premature since I’d have to await her brother’s response. The damn ankle monitor had been a burden on me since the first day it was put on me. If there was a work around for it I’d use it assuming it was safe enough to keep me from getting caught. Otherwise, I could have it on me for even longer for attempting to tamper with it.

When the lunch bell rang the cafeteria began to fill up. There wasn’t much room left for the people still working on the preparations for the vote. Luckily Val and I were done. That wasn’t the end of Val’s work, however. A group of girls came up to her to talk about her election platform. It was interesting to see Val’s massive change in behavior after our intimate conversation just before. I decided to leave her to it.

All that was left for me to do was to clear out the empty cardboard boxes that we had taken the papers out of. They wouldn’t be needed again as the survey-election forms would be destroyed once their results were taken. Since Val was busy talking to curious voters I was left to handle the boxes alone. It wasn’t that hard for me to gather them, but carrying them over to the distant trash can was more difficult than I expected. I ended up bumping into a girl that was coming across my path. We both fell to the floor, my boxes scattering around us.

“Sorry!” I apologized quickly, fearing reprimand from this bigger girl. “These boxes were blocking my view. I couldn’t see where I was going.”

“Holly!” She said joyfully. “You’re Holly Hayfield, right?”

“Do I know you?” I asked her.

“I’m Amy Jordan!” She said.

I inspected this girl more carefully. She had long red hair that she had tied back into a ponytail. She looked vaguely familiar, I just wasn’t sure how. At first I thought she might’ve been part of Black Brittney’s group, but the kind smile she was giving me made that feel wrong. Her name, Amy Jordan, was something that I remembered reading a few times. Then I remembered the context of where I read it.

“You… You were one of the freshmen in the track-and-field club last year!” I said excitedly.

She smiled excitedly also and grabbed my hands. We stood up together slowly.

“That’s right! I’m so happy to see someone else from Cherry Vale Public High School here! You have no idea how strange things have been for me here!” She said.

I laughed.

“Trust me, I have an idea. This is a world away from our old school, huh?”

“You’ve got that right!” She said.

We both laughed together. I wasn’t expecting to meet anyone from my former school. This hadn’t happened to me yet in my entire stint at Meredith’s School for Troubled Girls. Most of the students that went here were expelled from the more densely populated inner city schools. Cherry Vale Public High School, where I was enrolled before, was a much smaller school near the countryside.

“I can’t believe it!” She said. “I’m so happy to see you! What are you doing here? Is there another track-and-field club here that I’m missing out on?”

“I’m afraid not.” I said and pointed over to where Val was talking to a group of girls. “I’m a member of her student council election group.”

“No way, you’re helping Valentina Ivanovich? That’s amazing!”

“You’re familiar with her?” I asked.

“A little, I was thinking about voting for her. My friend wants me to vote for Megan with her, but now that I know you’re working with Valentina I’ll definitely be voting for you.”

“Thanks, that means a lot to me.”

“Which role are you performing in her group?” She asked.

“I’ll be the student council vice president if Val wins.”

“That’s great!” Amy said excitedly. “Maybe I could come and visit you in the student council room if you win.”

I couldn’t tell this girl that we were already using the student council room like thieving squatters, but I appreciated the sentiment.

“Haha, maybe…”

“Let me help you with these boxes.” Amy said, “It’s the least I can do for a former upperclassman in the track-and-field club.”

“Thanks.” I said.

We began picking up the cardboard boxes together. She couldn’t take her eyes off of me as she worked like I was some fairytale creature. Whenever I looked back she would look away to pretend she wasn’t staring. It was kind of cute. I could understand her excitement though. I was beginning to wonder why she was sent here in the first place. She didn’t look like the troublemaker type. Then again, that was probably true of me also.

We walked to the trashcan together and disposed of all the remaining cardboard boxes. She then stood and looked at me happily, clearly wanting to talk more. That’s when I decided to ask what was on my mind.

“How’d you wind up in a place like this?” I asked.

She looked away and shrugged.

“It’s a stupid and long story. I was dating this college guy I met at one of the track-and-field regional tournaments. It was that huge one last year you got a silver medal in.”

“I remember.”

“Anyways, my boyfriend… Well… My ex-boyfriend thought it’d be fun to utilize one of our summer-training sessions to score some cash. At the time I didn’t know what he was planning to do. We’d always take a cab to another town and jog back home. On the way he picked up a bag of items he said he got from a store. I never went in with him so I was totally oblivious to what was going on.”

“Don’t tell me,” I said, “He was shoplifting at stores and then you guys would run home?”

Amy put her palm over her face and shook her head.

“It was even worse. The damn idiot was robbing cash registers at knife-point. The fool didn’t even have the common sense to wear a mask. One morning this guy wanted to jog from the same neighboring town as the week before. The police were waiting for us at one of the convenience stores. They busted both of us. They charged him on several counts of robbery.”

“And you…?”

“They didn’t charge me with anything formally, but they felt like I was in with the wrong crowd. They sent me here as my punishment. In reality I was just taken for a ride. I was too infatuated with my ex to see what sort of person he really was.”

“I’m sorry to hear that.” I said.

“Yeah, well… It wasn’t a noble reason like yours.” Amy said.

“Huh…?”

“Your reason for being here was because you saved Ellie Daniels from being kidnapped, right? I thought it was a heroic act, what you did. It’s stupid that they decided to punish you for what was basically an act of self-defense.”

I rubbed my shoulder nervously and looked away.

“I suppose…” I said softly.

“I heard that you ran all the way from the school’s campus to the park to catch up with them. That must’ve been a serious chase! You caught up with them even before the police did! Were you the one that called the police?”

“No, that was Opal.”

“Opal… Opal… I don’t remember her.”

“She wasn’t part of the track-and-field club. She was me and Ellie’s friend.”

“Oh, either way I think it’s amazing that you rescued your friend. The school may not have appreciated the way you handled it but I think you stood up for yourself and your friend. You’re a hero to me, even if no one else feels the same way.” She said.

I half-smiled and put my hands on Amy’s shoulders.

“Thank you, Amy. You’re the first person to say that.”

As we were talking Val had finished her conversation with the other girls. She came over to the spot where I was talking with Amy.

“What’s going on here?” Val asked.

“Nothing,” I said. “I was just catching up with Amy Jordan. She’s from my old school, Cherry Vale Public High School.”

“That’s where you’re from?” Val asked.

“Yep!” Amy said. “It’s nice to meet you Valentina! I’ve decided that I’m going to vote for you in the election! Any friend of Holly’s is a friend of mine.”

Val smiled and winked at me. She put her hand out to Amy to shake her hand. Amy happily took it.

“Thank you. It looks like we’ve got a serious shot at winning this Friday.” Val said.

Amy looked back at me.

“Hey, Holly, before I go I’d like to ask you a question. Do you have a ChatCat ID?”

“I do, actually. Someone recently showed me how to use it.”

“Great! Do you think you could add me, or is that asking too much?”

“No, that’s a great idea! I’d be happy to add you.”

“Awesome!” Amy said.

Amy and I traded ChatCat IDs as Val waited beside us. Once we were done Amy happily said her goodbyes and parted ways. Lunch was in full swing now so we wouldn’t be able to stay in the cafeteria for much longer. As usual, the small cafeteria was overcrowded around this time. We stayed long enough to see that Val wasn’t the only president aspirant getting attention. Megan was standing atop one of the cafeteria tables preaching to her cultist followers. She noticed us watching her and winked in our direction.

“Nice to see you’re making friends.” Val said. “But apparently you aren’t the only one making friends. We need to do something about her.”

“I’ve got an idea.” I said. “Call a meeting of our group. I’ll give Naomi a call. If we’re going to take Megan down then we need her help.”