Another Saturday, another chapter. Have fun with this one!
"Good morning, class," Mrs Miller, the English teacher, started. "Today, before the lesson begins, I need to make an announcement: As everyone should be aware, Lauren will no longer be the class president. As such, a new election will take place. Anyone interested in running for the position should express their interest by tomorrow morning."
After the announcement, Mrs Miller started the class. But instead of listening, Monica imagined herself as the class president. Yes, it came with plenty of responsibilities, but the thought of being a leader and being able to control certain activities was exciting to her. Things could be done her way, which meant the perfect way, and she couldn't wait to start.
"I think I'm going to run for class president," Monica told Rachel that afternoon while they were both studying in the library.
"Oh, Mon! That is great!" Rachel answered excitedly.
"I know!" Monica exclaimed in her typical over-excited way, which earned the girls a warning glare from the librarian. Maybe they should start studying in another place if they wanted to talk because that was starting to be a frequent occurrence.
"But you know, you have to be kinda popular. People usually vote for the most popular person. That was how Amy got to be class president in her senior year," Rachel continued, assuring she lowered her voice.
Monica pondered about her friend's words for a second.
"You are popular, Rach. Why don't you run?" She asked.
"Class presidents have too much work to do. I wouldn't have time to go shopping," Rachel declared matter-of-factly.
The next day, Monica went to sign her name for the run first thing in the morning. No one else had put their name yet. But the voting campaign would only start the next day, so maybe more people would be running against her. She loved a good competition.
That night, Monica sat on her bed with a bag of M&M's and her label printer. She wanted to get a head start on her opponents and start her campaign right the next day. So, she had decided to hand out pencils with her slogan to the entire class. The only problem was that she didn't know what to write.
"Monica for class president... No, that's too basic," Monica thought to herself as she took another handful of candy out of the bag. She was about to eat the chocolates but stopped and looked at them in her hand, and suddenly inspiration hit her.
"Monica. The sweetest candidate." That sounded perfect. Now the only thing missing was printing out all the needed labels. It would be a fun night.
The next morning, Monica arrived at school with a bag full of pencils, and before the class could begin, she started to hand them out to her classmates.
"Vote on me for class president!" Monica said as she handed a pencil to two of her classmates, Grace and Brian. They both accepted her offer, but she could tell they were not very convinced.
By lunchtime, Monica had not yet seen any other student doing their campaign, which she felt happy about since she had her head start as she wanted. She spotted two familiar faces at the table at the corner, signalled Rachel, and the two of them headed there.
"Hey, Ross. Hey, Chandler," She greeted the two boys, putting her pencil bag in a corner at her side.
"What's that?" Ross asked
"Oh, this is my campaign for class president!" she answered, taking one pencil to each of the boys. They both took a second to read the label.
"Monica, the sweetest candidate," Chandler read out loud. "What are you planning on doing? Getting a bigger supply of Kit-Kat bars at the vending machines?" He said, slightly laughing at her slogan.
Oh, there it was. One thing Monica hadn't missed at all. She had almost forgotten how annoying Chandler was with his constant jokes.
"As if you could do better," She retorted.
Chandler looked around for a minute, trying to look for inspiration.
"I'm so excited about being your class president…Can I have the keys to the school now, please?" He said in his characteristic sarcastic tone, which made Ross let out a small chuckle.
"That's not a good slogan. You just sound like a jerk," Rachel said. "If I was running for class president, my slogan would be: "Vote for the best. I am the best."
"That sounds like a good slogan..." Ross stated, obviously just saying that because it had been Rachel who said it.
"Is it?" Rachel seemed to be flattered by his words. "What about you, Ross? What would your slogan be?"
Ross pondered for a moment on Rachel's question.
"Vote for me! And remember, "With great power comes great responsibility!"" He said proudly.
"You're so boring," Monica said right after her brother finished.
The week was almost over, and Monica thought she was doing great on the campaign. However, her dreams were ruined right when she entered her classroom the following morning. Right on her table was a pamphlet. She picked it up to examine it and read:
"Vote for me, and together we'll make the school a better place."
There was another candidate?! She needed to be class president! She had already imagined all the cookie sales she would propose as fundraisings. It would be so disappointing if they never happened.
"So, Monica, let's see who wins this?" Brian appeared out of nowhere.
"I will win! I am the best candidate. Why are you running too?"
"I thought it would be fun," was Brian's answer.
For the rest of the day, Monica could only think about how she would defeat her opponent. She needed to win the elections; her team always had to win at everything. She just needed something to make everyone choose her.
"I need something huge, Rach!" Monica said to her friend, when they were together, hanging out after classes were over.
"Maybe Ross's friend was right, and you should promise to get a bigger kit-kat supply to the school," Rachel joked.
"I can say I will do that. But I need to make something now to make people notice me!" Monica answered. However, she decided to take note of the kit-kat idea on her notepad.
She picked up the yellow pencil she had been nibbling on and was ready to write when she noticed the label sticked around it. It was one of her campaign pencils.
"I know! Rach, I had the best idea ever! Let's give out candy bars to everyone! They are sweet, just like my slogan says! There is no way Brian can beat that!"
"Yeah! And we have the whole weekend to find a lot of candy bars!" Rachel agreed, excited by her friend.
"I am the best!" Monica said after taking note of her idea. "I mean, we are the best!" she corrected.
For the first time since high school started, Monica was truly excited about something. And what made it all better was that she had the support of her best friend. She was doing something she loved and had her greatest friend with her.
Finding as many candy bars as they would need was proven a difficult task, so the girls opted instead for homemade cookies baked, of course, by Monica. They spent most of the weekend making the perfect packages, not forgetting to put a label with Monica's slogan on each one.
Happy about her competitive advantage, Monica arrived at school the following Monday with her cookie bags. Before the beginning of the class, as she had done with the pencils, she started to distribute bags to her classmates.
However, something caught her attention. Most of them were wearing a bright red bracelets with "BRIAN" written in bold white letters.
"My cookies are so much better than a stupid bracelet..." Monica murmured to herself.
"I think so too. Cookies are such a sweet thing to give out!" Grace said. Monica turned around, not realizing that her classmate had heard her.
"Just like my slogan!" She pointed out excitedly.
Grace smiled at her.
"Maybe I'll vote for you. Brian told me he would run just for fun because he thought your slogan was tacky."
Monica smiled and thanked Grace for being so nice to her. She felt happy that someone at least was appreciating her efforts, but at the same time, she felt her hopes of winning the elections going down. Maybe her slogan was indeed tacky, and since she was not popular, no one would vote for her.
The rest of the campaign week went by, and Monica was more unmotivated each day. Brian was getting all the attention and besides, he was much more popular than her.
It was no surprise when Brian won the elections and was named class president. Monica felt sad. Not only because she lost, but mostly she felt sad for herself. Because she had let her doubts consume her and take down her competitive nature. She knew she could have done more, and she felt mad at herself for that.
"You know, Monica," Chandler started, when they were all four reunited at lunch that day. "I know what your slogan should have been."
Monica looked at him, not knowing if she wanted to hear his next sentence. She wasn't really in the mood for his jokes.
"Give me your vote, or else you'll regret it when I run again." Chandler finished his sentence.
Everyone, even Rachel, laughed a bit at his attempt to comfort her disguised as a joke. And Monica couldn't help but smile a little.
She took a look around her and saw the smiling faces of the three people around her: her best friend, her brother, and her brother's annoying friend who didn't seem that annoying at that moment. And that was when she realized that she didn't need to be popular or class president.
She had everything she needed right there in front of her.