"So this is how it is going down." Lil announced as she looked around the table at her friends gathered in the courtyard. It was just before homeroom and Lil had insisted that they all have this meeting. "The homeroom teacher will pass out the nomination sheet. I don't care who you put in for queen, but make sure that you write Chuckie's name for King. Got it? Try to convince others to do so as well. We don't need a lot of people-just enough to draw interest. A lot of kids are going to nominate themselves so anyone who gets more than one nomination is going to be put on the top of the pile."
Chuckie raised his hand. "Why am I doing this again?"
Lil then pointed at him as everyone's gaze followed her finger to Chuckie. "You are doing this because you are my very good friend who is going to help me stick it to the system."
"Oh. Well, since you put it that way." Chuckie commented, "Since we are sticking it to the Man, and all."
"That's right, Chuckie. We are sticking it to the Man. We are doing it for all of the people who should have gotten the crown instead of that snob, Brianna!" Lil proclaimed.
Kimi whispered to her brother, "Not that she's bitter about losing or anything." The bell then rang and everyone stood up to go to their separate homerooms.
Tommy went into his homeroom and sat down. The teacher passed out the nomination sheets as predicted and gave a brief explanation about how their name write-in will be considered for Homecoming King and Queen. Once Tommy got the sheet, he said aloud so that those around could hear him, "I am going to write in my friend, Chuckie Finster."
A girl raised her head and looked at him. She had freckles and brown hair, but was otherwise unremarkable. Tommy didn't even know her name. "Why?"
"Because he's my best friend and the coolest guy. No one else deserves it more. You should write him in too."
"Why?"
"Do you have anyone else in mind?"
The girl thought a moment and then shrugged. Tommy smiled as he leaned over and saw the name Chuckie Finster written on her sheet.
Lil took a different approach in her homeroom. She stood in front of the class and announced, "1% of the school gets all the glory, all the titles, all the attention. 99% are forgotten. I am part of the 99% and I want a king who will represent me and my ideals. Write in Chuckie Finster!"
Phil, also in Lil's homeroom, grumbled to her as she then sat down in her seat. "Are you Occupying Homeroom?"
Lil grinned to her brother. "You gotta reach the people, Philip." She then wrote in Chuckie's name, but left the Queen nomination blank. She thought about putting in her own name, but then her face turned downward. She couldn't take the rejection again. Blank it would stay. Phil, seeing her face, wrote Lillian's name in the Queen nomination line. He then showed it to his sister, which brought a small smile to her face. "Thanks, Philip."
Kimi was in her own homeroom taking an even more different approach. "Write in my brother! Do it! You too! Do it!" She then turned to Z, her green haired bad boy friend, who was sitting in his chair just watching her. "Z, can you help me out, here?" Z nodded and then glared at a kid behind him. "You heard her. Write in her brother. Finster. Learn it. Spell it correctly. Let it haunt your dreams."
Kimi grinned and then wrote in Chuckie's name for King. She also wrote herself in for Queen.
The rest of the school day went on as normal, as did the evening. The next day was School Colors day and the schools colors were blue and gold. Kimi came to school wearing blue track pants with gold trim down the sides. She also wore a blue shirt with a yellow long sleeved shirt underneath. She had three ponytails all tied with blue and gold ribbon. Chuckie just wore blue jeans and a yellow tshirt. Tommy wore his favorite shirt with yellow sleeves.
Lil refused to participate in the themed days. "She's still making a statement." He mentioned.
Though it wasn't mentioned, everyone was anticipating the announcement of the nominees for King and Queen in Homeroom. Time seemed to drag for Chuckie until homeroom, even though he tried to tell himself that it didn't matter and that he wasn't going to get nominated anyway because that would be absurd.
Chuckie wasn't the only one who had the nominations on his mind. Angelica had been painstakingly calling every contact in her cellphone. She'd also added "Nominate Angelica Pickles for Homecoming Queen" as a signature on her Ask Angelica advice column. As she sat in her own homeroom, she had her fingers and her legs crossed for luck.
Then Vice Principal Pangborn's voice came over the PA system. "It's that time of year again-Homecoming! When the best football team in the whole district is celebrated by wearing Hawaiian shirts and making floats. We've lost every Homecoming game for the past seven years, but don't let our sad and embarrassing losing streak dampen the celebrations. Now I will read out the names of those students who were nominated for his year's Homecoming King and Queen. The nominations for Queen are: Savannah Shane, Tiffany Lander, and Angelica Pickles. The nominations for king are: Darryl Kramer, Drew Willard, and Charles Finster. Finster-really? I mean...good luck to all those nominated. The winners will be voted on Thursday in homeroom and then crowned at the coronation dinner Thursday night."
Chuckie's mouth dropped open.
In another room, Tommy's mouth dropped open. "It worked. Chuckie is nominated for Homecoming King." He said aloud to himself. When the homeroom bell rang, Tommy raced out of the room to find his friend. Once he did, he ran over quickly and gave Chuckie a high five. "It worked! We got you nominated!"
Chuckie didn't look as excited about it as Tommy. In fact, he looked nervous. "I see no good coming from this."
"But Chuckie, don't you understand? You are actually nominated for Homecoming King! This is amazing!"
"Like anyone is going to vote for me." Chuckie remarked, being his usual pessimistic self.
"I am going to vote for you, Buddy." Tommy said, putting his hand on Chuckie's shoulder.
Suddenly Kimi came from out of nowhere and threw herself at her big brother, embracing him in a tight hug. "Ahhhhhhhh! This is sooo cool! Chuckie, you could actually be Homecoming King!"
"Angelica was nominated too." Chuckie pointed out.
"Yeah yeah, whatever." Tommy said. "Dude, we gotta get the word out. We have only a few days to get you elected."
Lil came up then with Phil. "And that's not a lot of time. We need a strategy. I'll think up one in Government today. Everyone meet at the far table in the cafeteria at lunch. This is only the beginning." Phil was behind her shaking his head as he saw the way his sister was obsessed with this.
Chuckie gulped.
Susie then approached the group. "So how'd you pull this one off-getting Chuckie nominated?" She looked around the gathered preteens, a knowing smile upon her face. Her eyes finally landed upon Tommy.
"We all just wrote him in." Tommy answered with a shrug.
"Simple but effective. I like it." Susie nodded her approval.
Chuckie then lowered his head, his shoulders slumping. "But now I've been set up for supreme rejection, not just normal rejection-which I'm used to."
Susie put her hand on Chuckie's shoulder. "No necessarily, Chuckie. What you need to do is to take the underdog platform." She then waved with her other hand down the densely populated hallway. "Tell me, Chuckie, do you know all these kids?"
"Uh...no." He answered.
"Neither do I. The fact of the matter is, there's a lot more nameless, faceless, unpopular kids than there are popular kids. The nobodies will vote for the name they recognize. You got to make them recognize your name, and they need to feel like they have something in common with you."
"Being a nobody." Chuckie voiced what he felt Susie was too nice to say.
"A somebody, Chuckie. Somebody they can relate to."
Lil grinned deviously as she rubbed her hands together. "Oooh, this is good. Do you want to help us out, Susie?"
Susie shook her head. "Conflict of interest, Girl. I'm not getting in this. Angelica has already been all up in my face since she was nominated. You got my vote, though, Chuck-a-roo. I don't really like Darryl and Drew anyway." She said before she waved her goodbye and headed off to class.
Tommy patted Chuckie on the back. "That's five votes if you count all of us."
Chuckie sighed. "That's five votes better than zero."
