Page 28 of My Return to the Walter Boys
Good Lord, this girl was ridiculous. If I didn’t put a stop to this one-sided beef immediately, I had a feeling she’d make every meeting from this point forward brutal. “So because a boy you liked decided he was more interested in me, I’m suddenly out to get you?”
Erin gaped at me. “What?”
“Look, I’m not here to cause a scene or sabotage you or whatever else you’re thinking,” I told her. If I’d known Erin was a member of student council, I might have chosen a different club to avoid the drama. “I don’t have an issue with you. All I want to do is join an extracurricular to pad my college application and be left in peace.”
My admission must have taken Erin by surprise, because she paused. The friend standing at her side, however, scoffed at me. “Then why don’t you pick another club?”
I shrugged. “Because student council is the perfect fit for me. I have great organizational skills; I grew up helping my mom plan parties,charity events, and fashion shows; and I spent the summer interning at a top investment company. Also, I don’t need your permission to join.”
That shut the girl up.
“Okay,” Erin said after considering me for another moment, her frosty expression melting. “Any chance you can apply those skills to running an election campaign?”
My brows shot up in surprise, but I recognized her offer for the olive branch that it was. “Yeah, I think I can manage that.”
She smiled and held out her hand. “Then welcome to student council, Jackie.”
***
By the time I went to bed that night, I had a rough plan for how to get Erin elected as student council president, subject to her approval.
Campaign Checklist
Brainstorm campaign slogans
Design a logo (maybe Katherine can help?)
Print, hang, and distribute posters/flyers around school
Create social media content
Network with other student organizations
Order T-shirts (keep as a surprise?)
Help Erin prep for the debate
Draft victory speech
***
The kitchen was strangely packed when I wandered in for lunch on Saturday afternoon.
Nathan, Alex, Lee, Jack, Parker, Zack, and Benny were seated at the table, Monopoly money divvied up between them. Isaac stood behind the island with a cheese grater held up to his mouth as he displayed a mostly empty box of leftover pizza.
“Going once, going twice.Soldto Alex for six hundred!” he announced in an exuberant voice.
“Come on,” Lee groaned and banged his head against the table.
Alex hopped up. “Tough luck, coz.” He exchanged the majority of his paper money for two slices of pepperoni. “Maybe you shouldn’t have spent so much on a granola bar.”
“How was I supposed to know it was expired?”
I slid into the empty spot at Nathan’s side. “What’s going on?”
“Jordan tripped and fell down the stairs,” he explained. There was a Smucker’s Uncrustables wrapper in front of him along with four beige hundreds and a blue fifty. “Mom had to take him to the ER, and she put Isaac in charge of making sure everyone eats lunch.”
Well, that explained the loud crash I heard twenty minutes earlier. “Is he okay?”
