Notes: Thank you to Mari and Sammy, as always, for your support and smile-inducing feedback. Huge thanks to Sammy for the title and the government-y stuff!

Readers and REAL McRollers - Thank you for your amazing support!

With apologies to Honolulu Community College - I'm sure it's a great school, but I needed to take a little artistic license for this story. :-)

Hope you enjoy!

Finding Your Voice (A McRoll in the REAL World)

"Okay, our outline is done and I think we've got all the sections assigned," Cody said, looking around at his three classmates seated at the small table in the community college library. "Is there anything else we need to do?"

"I think that's everything," Jadon said as he shut his notebook.

Kala, the girl seated across from him, nodded. "Me, too. That didn't take so long once we finally got a chance to all meet at the same time."

"Luckily this table was open," Maria, the final member of their group, said. "I can't believe there are so few tables in the library."

"I noticed that, too," Cody said. "I talked to one of the student workers about that and he said the school wanted to install more computers so they had to make room. First things to go were half the study tables. And the ones they left are barely big enough for four people." He motioned to the size of their table and accidentally hit Jadon in the head as his friend bent to put his notebook in his bag. "Sorry, man."

Jadon shrugged it off and said, "You're right about the tables. That sucks. I mean, I get that you gotta have computers, but look, they're not even all being used right now."

"And getting rid of the tables doesn't make any sense," Cody went on. "Almost every professor I've had has assigned at least one group project during the semester."

"Mine, too," Maria said. "My psych class had three. We could never find a place on campus to meet."

Cody shook his head in disappointment. "I know from taking notes at the governor's Workforce Readiness Committee that being able to work collaboratively is one of the top skills workers need, so it's good that our professors assign group projects, but the school should provide better spaces for us to work on them."

"You're right," Kala said.

"There's a whole computer lab across from the library. A lot of the space is wasted there. If they got tables with partitions or something they could probably get at least one or two more computers in each row, then they could take them out of the library and put the study tables back. And those single study rooms on the second floor that nobody ever uses? They could knock down the walls and make larger study rooms for groups to use. And–" He stopped, realizing all three were staring at him. His shoulders hunched slightly. "What?"

"Dude, you should totally run for student government," Kala said.

Cody balked. "What, me? No. That's … no, I'm not … I'm not the kind of person who's on student government."

"What do you mean? Aren't you a political science major?" Maria asked.

"Well, yeah, but … that doesn't mean I want to be a politician."

"Student government's not really the same as being a politician," Kala said. "And I'm totally serious. I saw on the school's Facebook page that elections are next month so you've still got time."

Jadon puffed up, putting a hand on Cody's shoulder. "My man Cody would totally be the best student government … person," he finished lamely, cringing. "What kind of student government do we even have here?"

"I think there's, like, a president and a vice-president and a bunch of senators," Kala said, scrolling through her phone to find the post. "Here it is. You gotta fill out a form from Student Life and Development and then the voting starts after Spring Break."

"I'm not gonna do that," Cody said. "Why would anyone vote for me? Nobody knows who I am."

"We know you," Maria said. "I'd totally vote for you and all my friends would, too. You've actually got ideas about how to make HCC better."

As she spoke, Jadon got up and walked over to one of the open computers. Cody glanced over at him as he left, then turned back to his other classmates as Kala spoke again.

"Exactly," she said. "I mean, that whole thing you just said about the study tables … you didn't just complain about the fact that there aren't enough here, you had actual solutions the school could consider. Isn't that what student government's for?"

"I don't … really know," Cody said, still uncertain.

"Well, I think you should do it," Maria said. She stood, gathering her things. "I gotta go to class, but at least think about it. You'd be an awesome president."

"I'm definitely not going to be president," Cody said firmly.

"Ha, so you are thinking about it," Kala said as she also stood.

"I didn't say that," Cody protested, shaking his head. "I'm not … that's not me."

"It's two to one," Kala said with a grin. "Three to one with Jadon. Isn't this a democracy?"

"That's not … how it works," Cody said weakly.

Kala continued to grin knowingly as she and Maria walked away.

Cody didn't even have time to slide his own notebook into his bag before Jadon slapped a piece of paper on the table in front of him.

"Bam," his friend said.

"What's this?" Cody asked.

"Read it," Jadon replied, dropping back into his seat.

Cody picked up the paper and read the heading. "Student Leader Application?" He looked at his friend, brow furrowed.

"Just printed it. Fill it out and you can drop it off at Student Life and Development before we leave."

"I'm not gonna do this, J."

"Why not? You'd be awesome. Maybe you can finally get some decent food in the cafeteria."

Cody rolled his eyes. He scanned the form. "Look, you gotta do an interview."

"So what? You aced your interview for the internship at the governor's office." He held out a pen. "Here, fill it out." He stopped, grabbing the paper out of Cody's hands instead. "Actually, my handwriting is better than yours, I'll fill it out."

"Your handwriting is not better than mine," Cody shot back immediately. "And I think you're supposed to fill those kind of things out on the computer."

"Oh, well, I already printed it," Jadon said, unconcerned, as he put pen to paper. "Okay, name: Cody Allen. What's your Student ID number?"

"J, I'm not gonna–"

"We'll fill that part in later. Address." He filled in Cody's address, phone number, and email. " 'Other obligations you have during the academic year,' " he read. He continued writing, speaking aloud as he did. "Internship at Governor Kekoa's office. Job at Food Land. Taking care of younger brothers and sisters. Driving best friend wherever he wants to go–"

"Don't write that," Cody said, trying to grab the pen.

Jadon grinned. "Just kidding." He looked at the next section. "References. Well, obviously SuperSEAL is your number one reference. How about Catherine? Or maybe you shouldn't put both of them because they're married. What do you think? Oooh," he went on without waiting for a reply, "what about Governor Kekoa? Do you think she'd do it? They'd probably just automatically give you the job if the governor was your reference."

"That's not how elections work, man."

"Well, they'd automatically let you run at least." He shrugged. "You should probably ask first anyway." He flipped the paper over. " 'Interest and Experience,' " he read. " 'One: Briefly list your past and current campus and/or community involvement.' " He began writing again. "Came up with Just Drive program to stop teens from texting and driving. Got Citizenship Award from the governor of Hawaii at high school graduation." He moved on to the next question. " 'Two: Why would you like to be part of the student organization?' " He looked up at Cody. "Why would you like to be part of the student organization?"

"I don't want to be part of it," Cody insisted.

Jadon rolled his eyes. "Oh, come on, man. This is me you're talking to. I know you. This is what you do. You say you don't want to because you don't want the attention and you think you wouldn't be good at it, but I'm telling you you'd be awesome. This is like the next thing you're supposed to do."

"There's probably tons of other people who would do a better job."

"Doubt it. Until about ten minutes ago I didn't even know we had a student government and I bet I'm not the only one."

"And I don't want to, like, have to make speeches or anything like that. You know I hate that kind of stuff."

"Okay, but you do want to make improvements to the school, right? Like getting more study tables and rooms and stuff like that?"

"Well, yeah, I've got some ideas, but that doesn't mean I'd be a good student senator."

"It doesn't mean you wouldn't be a good one, either." Jadon put the pen down and looked at his best friend seriously. "Look, man, most people here … I bet they never think about anything other than their own classes and lives and doing their own thing. But you actually think about how to make things better for other people. 'Cause that's what you've always done. Think about other people, not just yourself."

Cody looked down, surprised at his friend's words and turning them over in his head. After a long pause, he looked back up and then at the form on the table. He picked it up finally.

"Okay, I'll think about it."

Jadon grinned, slapping the table. "That's what I'm talking about!" He winced, realizing he had spoken louder than he probably should have in a library. "That's what I'm talking about," he repeated, more quietly.

"I said I'd think about it," Cody said, slipping the form into his bag.

"Okay, okay," Jadon said, holding up a hand. He stood, putting his pen in his pocket and picking up his backpack. "I gotta get to work anyway."

"Yeah, me, too."

Jadon smiled hopefully. "Any chance you got time to give me a ride?"

Cody huffed a laugh. "Yeah, I can drop you off."

"My man," Jadon said, clapping him on the shoulder. "Like I said, always thinking about others." He gave him a playful shove. "Now think about that cafeteria food next, okay?"

Catherine was heading back toward her office when she nearly walked into Cody who was coming around the corner, head down in thought.

"Whoops!" she said, neatly catching the file folder he dropped in the near-collison.

"Catherine!" he said, startled. "I'm sorry. I wasn't … um … obviously I wasn't watching where I was going." He accepted the file she handed back with a smile. "Thanks."

"No problem." She studied him a moment. "You okay? Why don't you come in for a minute?" She motioned toward her office.

He followed even as he said, "It's really nothing. I was just … thinking about something. It's not important."

"Important enough that you weren't watching where you were going," she said gently. As they entered the outer office, Catherine smiled at her assistant. "Jen, do you have the updated budget projections for the after school program we're rolling out next week?"

"Right here," Jen said, handing over a file.

"Thanks," Catherine said. "I just need a couple minutes and then we can go over the list of invitees for the kickoff event."

"Ready when you are." Jen smiled at Cody. "Hi, Cody."

"Hi," he said politely before following Catherine into her office.

She closed the door behind him and asked. "Now, is everything okay?"

"Yeah, yeah, everything's fine," he assured her. "Really. It's nothing bad. I was just thinking about a … an opportunity, I guess. I texted Steve but he hasn't answered yet."

She nodded. "They got called out on a case."

"I figured," he said with a nod of his own.

"If you want, I'm happy to listen." She smiled wryly. "I've been told I'm a pretty good listener."

A small smile broke out on his face. "Yeah, I know that from experience."

She motioned to the small sofa. "Have a seat." As he sat, she put the file on her desk and then took a seat on the other side of the sofa, facing him. "So what's the opportunity?"

He paused, then looked at her. "Did you know HCC has a student government?"

"I assumed they did, most schools do." She waited for him to go on in his own time.

"Well, I guess there are elections in April and … some people from one of my classes, we're working on a group project together, they said I should run for student senate."

Catherine nodded slowly, keeping her expression neutral. "And what do you think about that idea?"

"I … at first I said no way. That's not me. I mean, I know I'm studying political science, but not so I can be a politician."

"You said, 'at first,' " Catherine noted.

"Yeah, I guess I started thinking more about it. I do have some ideas on changes for the school."

Catherine motioned for him to go on, clearly interested. "Like what?"

"Well, like … they took away a bunch of the study tables in the library so it's hard to find places for groups to work together. I think they can find room in the computer lab for the computers they put in the library and then there can be more tables for group work. And a lot of the core classes only have two sections and they're usually during the day, so people that have jobs during regular business hours don't have a lot of options. And there needs to be more workshops and seminars and stuff about financial aid because that stuff is complicated and I know a lot of people who had problems getting their FAFSAs done right. Like people who don't live at home but still have to put their parents' income and everything even though they're paying for college on their own." He sighed. "And, okay, Jadon's right, the food in the cafeteria isn't very good. And I noticed there's not a lot of vegetarian options. I'm not a vegetarian, but there's a lot of people who are and maybe someday Kaitlyn will go to HCC and she should be able to find food she can eat that actually tastes halfway decent, you know?" He stopped finally, realizing how much he had said. Flushing, he looked down. "So, yeah. I, uh … I started thinking about running."

Catherine paused, her eyes on him. She smiled slowly and shook her head. "I don't think you're trying to decide if you should run for student government, Cody."

He raised his eyes to hers, brow knitted in confusion. "What do you mean?"

She looked at him knowingly. "I think you already are."

He stared at her, eyes widening slightly. After a moment, he exhaled a laugh, running a hand over the back of his neck and looking down. "Yeah, I guess you're right." He looked back up at her. "Do you think it's a good idea?"

"You mean do I think you'd do a good job?"

"Yeah."

She leaned forward slightly to catch his eye. "Cody, I think you would do an excellent job. You're smart, you're committed, and you have ideas for real problems that need to be addressed." She smiled. "You could make a real difference for students at HCC. And I know that's important to you. Making a difference for others."

He smiled at her. "It is. I was gonna talk to Mom about it later 'cause it'll be another time commitment. I don't think it'll be too much, but I'm sure there are meetings and events and things like that."

She nodded. "I'm sure you can make it work. If anyone knows how to manage their time, it's you."

He flashed her a quick smile, then paused for a moment before asking, "Catherine, would you, um …" He cleared his throat. "I have to put a reference on my application …"

Catherine smiled. "Absolutely. But are you sure you don't want to ask Steve?"

"I need two so I'll ask him, but … I would really appreciate it if you would be one of my references," he said earnestly. "It would … mean a lot to me."

"Of course, I will," she said without hesitation. "I'd be happy to. More than happy, I'd be honored."

He smiled gratefully. "Thanks."

"You're welcome," she replied. "And Steve will say yes, too, but I understand you wanting to ask him yourself."

He nodded. Looking down at the file folder still in his hand he said, "I should get going, I've gotta get these reports to Ms. Jackson." He stood, and she followed suit. "Thanks, Catherine," he said sincerely. "You really are a good listener." The corner of his mouth rose in a half-smile. "I'm glad I almost ran into you."

She smiled back, reaching over to squeeze his arm. "Me, too," she said. "My door's always open, Cody." She gave a quick nod to the closed office door. "Metaphorically speaking," she added with another smile. "Anytime you need to talk. I'll always make time for the next HCC senator-at-large."

He smiled. "HCC senator-at large," he repeated slowly. His smile widened. "I kinda like the sound of that."

Hope you enjoyed!

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