Page 42 of The Ugly Stepsister Strikes Back

I was not a great public speaker, but I would just have to do the best I could. Cold or no cold.

Jake would be at the house soon for school. I sent him a text saying that I wasn't feeling too well and that I would just see him later at school. It took a few minutes, but he finally responded with an "okay." I wished I could stay home and crawl under my covers, but I had to turn in our English project, and I had to be there for the speeches. It would be my one chance to talk to the student body before they voted.

At school, Scott had put up new campaign posters for Jake, but Ella had convinced Trent to help us stick a note on every locker in the school telling them to vote for me.

After calculus, I saw Jake. He waved at me, but I turned around and walked in the opposite direction. I could not let him inside my head right now. I wasn't prepared to talk to him yet.

I couldn't keep away from him in English, though. He sat down in front of me. "Hey, are you avoiding me?"

"What? No. Of course not. Why would you think that?" Duh, I was obviously avoiding him. I just couldn't have this conversation with him here. I couldn't keep it together for the speech if I had some emotional blowout with him. I gave him the manga assignment, and he turned it into Ms. Aprils at her desk. She flipped through it and smiled at him. Maybe he was right. Aprils did love him and we probably would get an A.

With the project finally out of the way, I could focus all my attention on the speech. The assembly was scheduled for right after lunch. And lunchtime came all too quickly. My throat started to feel sore. Ella made me drink more orange juice, and I took some more medication.

The bell rang, and my heart beat ridiculously fast. I wasn't one of those people who would rather be in the casket at a funeral than the guy giving the eulogy, but public speaking wasn't exactly high on my fun things to do list.

Ella walked on one side of me, Trent on the other, as we headed down the hallway. We went into the auditorium and nearly knocked over the school's mascot, Edgar the Eagle. He made some obscene gestures with his arms/wings despite Ella apologizing. Trent grabbed a couple of seats in the front row, and Ella walked all the way to the front with me. Ms. Rathbone showed me where to sit.

"You are going to do so great," Ella said.

"What if I'm terrible?"

"Then I'm sending Trent up here and he's going to Napoleon Dynamite his way into winning this election for you." That did get a smile out of me. She left the stage to sit with Trent.

I watched them for a little while, but they were watching me and whispering, and it felt weird. The only thing left for me to look at was all the seats in the auditorium filling up with people. Everyone seemed to be talking at once, and the sound was deafening.

Jake finally arrived, and sat down in the empty seat next to me. He said hi, I said hi back. Before he could say anything else, Scott sat down on the other side of Jake, and handed Jake some big index cards. I ignored them both as I read over my speech again. I hoped it was good enough. My stomach twisted and turned in anticipation.

Ms. Rathbone stepped to the microphone and ordered the audience to quiet down. They settled down pretty quickly and she rambled off a list of announcements that I completely tuned out. All I could think about was not humiliating myself, and how I was absolutely not allowed to sneak a look at Jake.

The headmistress outlined who would be speaking. Several student council positions only had one person running. They were Jake's friends. Football players, cheerleaders. People no one would dare run against. They mostly got up to the microphone, introduced themselves and the office they were running for, and sat back down. I was going to have to speak sooner than I had anticipated.

The people running for treasurer and secretary had to give speeches since those offices were contested. I looked at them and pretended to listen, but I couldn't. I had to stay focused on my speech. I started to worry that it wasn't sophisticated enough or clever enough.

Scott got up to say that he was running for vice-president and got a huge round of applause. It sickened me—how could people be taken in by that slimeball? It was amazing what being somewhat attractive and athletic would get you.

Then it was my turn. I had thought Jake might go first, thinking it might be an alphabetical thing, but Ms. Rathbone called my name and I had to go. I walked up to the podium, and laid my papers down.

It was disconcerting to have every person in the room staring at me. I had never done anything like this before. I tried to speak, but my throat froze shut.

I widened my eyes and looked over at Ella and Trent. Trent smiled at me. Ella gave me the thumbs up, and mouthed, "You can do this!"

I could do this. I cleared my throat and took a deep breath. "My name is Mattie Lowe and I'm running for senior class president."

I didn't get any applause like the popular kids had. So I kept going. "A lot of things have changed recently at Malibu Prep. Things that were done behind our backs and without our input. I think since those changes affect us directly, we should have had some say in what goes on at this school. I think these uniforms are hideous. I think that seniors should have priority parking. I think we should be able to use our phones and text during school hours. Maybe not in class, but in between classes or during lunch. And speaking of lunch, I think it is crazy that we're so close to so many amazing restaurants, and we're not allowed to go off campus at lunchtime. It's also ridiculous that we can't bring our lunch from home and that all the vending machines were taken away. These rules have taken away our choices. What to wear, what we can eat. Who we can talk to. I think that's wrong. All the adults in our lives, our teachers, our parents, they're always telling us to be more responsible. They want us to hurry and grow up. Well, part of maturing is making your own decisions. How are we supposed to prove that we're responsible or grown up if we're never given the chance to make any decisions of our own? So if I'm elected president, I plan on changing all of that. I want us to get our choices back. A vote for Mattie Lowe is a vote for your voice to be heard. Thank you."

I had done it. Everyone clapped for me. I returned to my chair and saw that Ella was standing up and applauding. She pulled Trent up and they gave me my own personal standing ovation. I smiled at them. As I sat down, I noticed that my legs felt shaky and my hands trembled.

Jake leaned over to whisper, "Good job," before Ms. Rathbone called him up. I was curious about what he would say, but it was just the typical things jocks always said. I thought Jake was different. That his speech would be different. Nope. He wanted more dances, more parties, and more money for sports.

"And in conclusion, I just want to remind you to think of Edgar, our school mascot, and vote for me. Because eagles soar high, not…"

Lowe. He was going to say that eagles soar high, not Lowe. I knew it, he knew it, every person in the room knew it. I could feel my face turning a scarlet red and berated myself for my own stupidity. Mercedes had been right. Look at what he was doing. About to humiliate me in front of the entire school.

I've never felt such an oppressive silence. Everyone seemed stunned, until somebody yelled, "Burn!" That got a couple of laughs and some low moans. I could feel a thousand sets of eyes staring at me. It's just like that dream where you're at school naked, only it was really happening.

How could Jake do this?

Jake stood at the podium, looking as mortified as I felt. He could easily do it. Finish the sentence. Everyone would be impressed with his wit and cleverness.

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