Massie Block pulled a strand of honey-chesnut colored hair behind her ear and held her head up high. She walked with the PC trailing her into the cafeteria, but this time, instead of a blank model stare, she gave a genuine smile to let others know she was kind and loving. Taking a seat at her table, she crossed her legs and pulled out her phone, not bothering to take a second glance at the table of food LBR fans laid out for her and TPC.
ALICIA: ? is Dylan
MASSIE: IDK, she wz supposed to be hr!
ALICIA: Yeah, she's nvr missd lunch b4. ? is up w/her?
KRISTEN: um, I think I C her.
Massie whipped her head around to face Kristen.
"Where?" she demanded, knowing Dylan had a video of her fighting with Layla and could easily destroy the campaign. Kristen pointed to a table where she was holding buttons that said "Vote for M…". Massie couldn't make out what the rest said, but it was obviously Vote for Massie. She handed one to Layla and Claire, who giggled and stuck them into their bags. Dylan shrugged playfully and laughed along with them as Massie stared at Dylan until she turned around and caught Massie's "WTF?" glare.
"Hey, Mass!" Dylan mouthed, waving. Massie waved her iPhone in front of her and started texting.
MASSIE: ? R U DOING W/ Layla?!
DYLAN: Giving out 'vote for massie' buttons. Re-mem-ber?
MASSIE: Y R U laffin?
DYLAN: Layla's outfit is hideous.
MASSIE: Y were they laffin?
DYLAN: who knows? Who cares? They r psychopaths.
MASSIE: that's my girl. =)
DYLAN: yup. Bye.
MASSIE: wait, hold on. R u eating w/us?
DYLAN: I haff to pass these out.
Dylan waved a button. The back of the button. It was a dark shade of purple. So it could go either way—Layla liked purple too.
MASSIE: wut do they say.
DYLAN: vote 4 mass.
MASSIE: no they dnt.
DYLAN: yes. they. do.
MASSIE: show me.
DYLAN: I did.
MASSIE: the front.
DYLAN: look, I don't have time for this. I g2g. k? bye.
With a swift click, Dylan had turned her phone off, and for a whopping second time, Massie was completely powerless.
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"…Do you want bigger and non-scratched mirrors in the girl's bathrooms? Full length? Sinks with drawers in which every seventh grade student has their own personal makeup kept? Of course, it'll be locked with a key YOU have to prevent being stolen by a total loser." She paused, clearly for effect and to have everything sink in. "Do you want to get rid of this dull and pasty cafeteria wall? Do you want to paint a mural? Do you want lockers with more space? Better lunches? Cafeteria food that doesn't make you gain three pounds and taste like plastic? With the help of you, the voters, the school committee and staff, and my daddy's wallet, we can make it happen." Massie ended her speech, her big amber eyes staring into each individual's soul, saying "Vote for me because I am the best," but not, "Please vote for me." There was no sign of plead in her speech or her eyes—she made it seem like she could pull it off without any votes at all. That was Massie's trick. She made direct eye contact and ignored the people raising their hands, giving the effect that she didn't need this or care.
"Massie! Massie! Pick me, Oh please, Massie!" voices pleaded desperately. Massie sighed as if she were unpleased with all the hands.
"Okay, fine." Massie threw her hands up in mock defeat. "Um, you in the navy blue polo—which by the way, if I'm elected, you won't be caught dead in anything made from polyester or from the Gap, just saying—what's your question?"
The girl looked like she was about to cry. "My name is Suh-man-tha." She twirled a lock of dry dark brown hair. "Samantha" wasn't very pretty—a light trace of a unibrow, and small, dark green eyes. She wore a navy blue polo tucked into a dark blue, black, and white plaid skirt with white tights and black penny loafers. She was totally going with the whole "private school" theme, too bad it wasn't really working for her.
"And my question is, how are you going to get all this awesome stuff? It'll take months to replace the bathroom. Huh? You never said 'how' you're going to do anything, just 'what' you're going to do." She smirked, proud, and kids high fived.
Massie beamed appreciation. She purposely, predicting the outcome, had "forgotten" to say any of that stuff.
"Well, Sarah--"
"Samantha."
"Well, Samantha, that's a tough, TOUGH question. But truly, I believe that with an optimist's attitude and a few thousand dollars, along with the hard work of people willing to pitch in and my supervision, anything can be done. For example, with the bathrooms, we'll re-do everything so when you open the door the lights instantly flash on, purple light bulbs, and there will be velvet toilet seats that flush instantly when you're done. The sinks will be very pretty with drawers where we'll keep makeup for those of you who don't have any, restocked every day. There's no 'how' with me, I just make it happen." Massie smiled. "With the lockers, all I have to do is get more made, and voila. We'll put two lockers together to form one, and I'll get built-in racks for your books."
Samantha stood, speechless, while Alicia kicked her shoes and pulled her out of her trance.
"Vote for Mass," Alicia handed her a fat-free cupcake (take that, Layla!) and smiled. "No regrets, I promise." She flashed a big smile and moved on to the next person, the same amount of honey dripping from her voice.
"Okay," Massie said. "Next question?"
"Hi, Massie, um, why is it so important to you to be president?" a girl with short, thick, razor-sharp black hair ran a hand through her hair.
"Well, gee, why is it so important to you to look like a caveman's wife? Complete with the uni-brow, hairy arms, and ugly one-shoulder dress?" Massie wanted to shout.
"Because, Candace…" Massie tried to guess the stocky girl's name. She didn't resist or make a face, so Massie assumed that she had guessed right. "Because there are things the school wants, things the school should have, and things the school needs. That is where I come in. I can give you those things. I want to give you those things, I want it for OCD, and I want it for you." Massie grinned at the vague answer and moved on.
Next, Layla walked up to the stage.
"Uh, hi. I'm Layla. This is my first year at OCD, and I decided to run for president. All I ever wanted was to fit in with you guys, and I never even got that. See, a chance was never given to me—I came to OCD and I made friends, but someone pounced on me. Was I a threat? Or just irritating? I'll never know. But I thought that maybe, I could change that horrible feeling that I had, and turn OCD into a welcoming place with friendly people. That's all I will promise you, because I can't promise you a built-in wardrobe in your locker or mirrors on the desks. All I can say is that I want to change OCD for the better. That's it…thank you." Layla stepped off the stage and walked off. People looked around and shrugged, wondering what that was, why it was so short, and why Layla was gone.
"What the heck,"
"What was that?"
"Who does she think she is?"
"Layla? Layla? Layla? LAYLA!" Soon, people were chanting her name.
"Layyy-la! Layyy-la! Layyy-la!" Layla ran back onto the stage and smiled.
"They like me! They really like me!" she whispered to a grinning Claire. There was no doubt about who would win. Massie turned her head to oppose.
"HEY!" she shouted as loud as she could. "HOW ARE YOU BEING BOUGHT BY THIS CRAP? WOULDN'T YOU RATHER HAVE A WARDROBE IN YOUR LOCKER THAN NICE KIDS?" Massie yelled at the top of her lungs, but no one heard her. Everyone was chanting loud enough to be heard in houses nearby, and a few wolf-whistles and standing ovations were given. "SHE'S INSULTING US! SHE'S SAYING WE'RE MEAN! PEOPLE!"
What the hell? Massie thought. Layla's speech was like, 30 seconds long and so vague—plus all she promised was kindness, and then she ran off! Layla couldn't win, it wouldn't be fair. Massie searched the crowd for The Pretty Committee.
"Oh, crap." She rolled her head back as she realized that Dylan was also chanting "Layla!"
"Backstabber." Massie cried, and then almost ran into Alicia, headfirst.
"Whoa, girlie." Alicia giggled.
"Dude." Kristen's familiar voice kicked in as she walked right next to Massie and Alicia.
"Hey, guys!" a sweet voice said. It was Claire, dressed in white capris and a sea-green Old Navy babydoll.
"Whatevs." Alicia rolled her dark brown eyes.
"Yeah, whatevs." Kristen agreed.
"They're right. What are you doing?" Massie kicked in.
"Congratulating you."
"Why?" Massie demanded.
"Your speech was nice, and good luck." Claire gave one last smile and walked off.
What was that? Why was that? Who was that? Where was that—real life or hallucination? Massie tried silently to answer her questions, telling herself it was not Claire, but her not-evil twin, it was purely a hallucination, and it was because her mind wanted Claire to be jealous of Massie. But none of it worked. This was purely real.
Nothing made sense.
She shook everything out of her head and walked over to the voting table to take a sneak peek at who everyone was voting for. It was for the best—to save her from the embarrassment that was known to come.
A/N: I combined two chapters into one. Happy holidays, sorry I couldn't post in time for Christmas. I hope you guys all got what you wanted. && also, I AM FREAKING EXTREMELY SORRY FOR BLOWING YOU OFF THIS WHOLE TIME, IT'S BEEN FOREVER SINCE I UPDATED!!!! (I just didn't want to wait until 2010, then you could yell at me && say I haven't updated for a year, haha.) Well, I hope you guys review, && as for my Charmed & Dangerous story, I haven't even read the prequel, so though the book is already out, I WILL continue it. Thanks for reading, and reviewing like I know you will (: We're so far into the story, I'm not sure how long it's going to be. Maybe four or five more chapters. ILY (: