Just like every year, the campaign for class president started off slow. No one put much thought into it except for the candidate, and since Victor had been the only one running for three years straight, everyone just turned up to cast their vote and then left.

This year, the campaign started slow, but with three candidates, more people were getting interested. Calvin and Hayley had both decided to run for class president. Since the police hadn't been able to find the driver responsible for crashing into Sarah and Calvin, and because most of the kids in the school were so unaware of the dangers of drinking and driving, the couple was sure they would be able to make some changes from a position of power. However, first, they needed to be class president.

"You're going to be fine," Brody encouraged Calvin as they waited backstage for his turn at the speeches. Hayley was already on the stage, delivering what sounded like an incredible speech. She had always been a lot more comfortable than Calvin with public speaking, and with Kelly and Preston on her side, Kelly could write her an amazing speech while Preston was used to performing in front of others and would certainly had some tips that he could share with her.

He was proud of her. He knew regardless of who won, one of them would be raising the issue that had them both running. However, right now, he needed her words of encouragement more than anything. Unfortunately, he had to settle for Brody, who didn't have much of a clue about what an election was, and Sarah, who was too excited about anything to understand Calvin's hesitation.

He and Hayley had decided to split their friends. Since Levi wouldn't be able to vote, as he wasn't a student, the Rangers were split straight down the middle. It kept the race fair, as no one would be forced to pick sides, and it allowed Hayley and Calvin the help they needed.

"What if I forget what I'm going to say?" Calvin asked and Sarah held up his cue cards.

"That's why you have these."

"But what if I forget how to read?" Calvin asked and Sarah glared at him. He shook his head, "No, like seriously. When I get nervous it's like my brain stops working and…"

"It's going to be fine," Brody said. "I mean, what's the worst that can happen?"

"I forget what I'm going to say, say something stupid, everyone laughs at me, when I run off the stage I trip, fall and wind up brain dead in a hospital somewhere with you guys pulling the plug."

Brody and Sarah looked to each other with a shrug.

"Oddly specific, but okay," Sarah said. She put her hand on Calvin's arm, "Look, that's not going to happen. You're not going to say something stupid, no one here is going to laugh…"

"It's a high school," Calvin said. "Everyone will laugh."

"So then laugh with them," Sarah told him. "Laugh at yourself. If you forget what you're going to say, just roll with it. They're not electing cue-card Calvin. They're electing you and what you believe in and what you can do."

"Okay…"

"And you won't fall and get brain damage from a little trip," Brody said and pointed to Sarah, "It took her quite a few blows to the head before it cracked."

"Ha-ha," Sarah stuck her tongue out at Brody, then nodded at Calvin, "Though, he is right. And it's not the worst thing in the world. Look, the worst that can happen is you mess up here and people don't like Hayley so Victor is president again. Right?"

"I guess."

"So go out there!" Sarah could hear Principal Hastings calling Calvin up to the stage and had to push him on. Calvin stumbled over to the mic and looked out at all the students waiting for him to speak. He gulped, which echoed on the speakers and then looked to his cue cards. The words were spinning, so he blinked, looked to the crowd again and tried to find something to focus on. Hayley had told him once about that trick. If he could look at the back of the room, or find one familiar face that made him feel comfortable, he could focus his attention there and drown everyone else out. He saw Levi, who had offered himself up as a volunteer for set up and clean up after the speeches and decided to speak just to Levi.

As Calvin presented his speech, Hayley found her way backstage to Brody and Sarah, looking more nervous than she had been before her own speech.

"Was he okay?" she asked her two teammates, who shrugged.

"He's up there now."

"Public speaking is a huge fear of his," Hayley said. "We always do presentations together. This is his first time going solo."

"He's doing fine so far," Brody said as he looked to the stage. "Looks like he's found Levi."

"At least he's reading off the cue-cards," Sarah pointed out. "He'll be fine. I know it."

As soon as she said it, one cue-card slipped out of Calvin's hand, and as he reached to pick it up, they all fell and scattered across the stage. Calvin stumbled as he picked them up but he couldn't remember the order they went. He felt his face get hot and knew he was turning bright read. He decided just to gather up his cue cards and hope for the best as he straightened himself up. The others students were laughing at his disaster and he didn't know what to do.

"Oh boy," Preston whispered. He had been in this position before. His magic shows never went exactly according to plan and until he learned to anticipate a hiccup or two, this would often be the moment where his magic shows became comedy, and he was the butt of the joke. "This isn't going to be good."

"You just had to say it, huh?" Kelly asked and nudged Sarah, who shrugged.

"Overconfident," she said and then stepped up to the stage. Staying behind the curtain, she whispered to Calvin, who was still trying to find where he left off. "Keep it going, Cal. You've got this!"

Calvin looked to her, nodded his head and used what he had of his notes to remember his points.

"Right… um… so, uh, as I was saying…" Calvin glanced at his cards once more, then tucked them in his pocket. "I think I would make the best class president because I… I know this school and I have good ideas and… um… well, unlike Victor, I'm not just going to pass off all my duties to the rest of student council. There's no Monty behind me, doing all the real work."

Calvin heard a few chuckles from the crowd. It wasn't the laugh he thought he might get, but it was something.

"I mean, I have real issues I want to address," Calvin continued. "I want to make the school and our community safer. Victor just wants another trophy or a ribbon or whatever glory he gets from the title of president. I mean, there's already a Victor in the Oval Office. Do we really want one in school?"

Calvin got a few more laughs here and his confidence started to grow. Maybe this wouldn't be so bad.

"Look, Victor's a fun guy," Calvin said. "I mean, you can always depend on him for a laugh. When we have our dances or our parties, he'll always show up. But he's going to make a fool of himself. Hell, he might have been that one driver that nearly killed me! And this is the guy we've had a president for three years? Don't you think our school can do better?"

The crowd started to cheer with Calvin. He smiled.

"We can still have dances. We can still have parties, but aren't they so much more fun when we know we'll make it to the next one. Who wants their next party to be their last. If you vote me for president, I'm going to work with you to ensure that we all party hard, and we party safe. Victor's not going to do anything like that for you. So… A vote for Calvin is a vote for the best year of your high school lives!"

Calvin saw his school clapping for him, and while it wasn't as enthusiastic as he had imagined when he, Sarah and Brody had written his original speech, he had to admit, it felt pretty good knowing he had earned these applause on his own.

Then came questions. Calvin had just a few minutes to answer a few questions from his classmates about his promises. He got the questions he expected, like how he planned on keeping school dances fun despite the safety concern, and why he thought the school would even honour his promises, considering right now, all dances were banned any way.

Then, he got a question he wasn't ready for.

"What makes you better than Hayley?" one student asked. Calvin felt all the words leave his head. Hayley was the best thing that ever happened to him. She was his whole world, the love of his life. He could never consider what made him better than her. It just wasn't possible.

But he and Hayley were competitors. There could only be one president and so if he wanted to win, he had to come up with one reason.

Stick to the election, he told himself. Election wise, there must be something I can offer than she can't.

"I… I… I can't get pregnant!" he said before he even had much time to think about his choice of reason. "I… I mean, there's nothing to worry about there. No distractions, no crazy hormones or abortions. I mean, I'm against them, but I know Hayley, for a fact, is not!"

"How do you know this for a fact?" the student asked. Calvin was already kicking himself. He looked to Levi, who had a very worried look on his face. Like it was painful to listen to Calvin speaking now. Calvin knew he had to stop, but he couldn't let a question go unanswered.

Could he?

Before he could debate what to do in his head, his question was answered for him. The student who asked him made her own assumption.

"Has Hayley had an abortion?"

"Uh… I mean… I… I can't really say… uh…"

"She's had an abortion…"

"Okay!" Principal Hastings finally cut in, having rushed up on stage when she saw Calvin's answers had gotten away from him. "Alright, on that note, our last speech of the afternoon; here is Victor Vincent!"

Calvin rushed himself off stage, only to find Brody and Preston waiting for him.

"Well… the speech part was…"

"I mean… you did it," the boys stumbled over their words. Calvin looked to them.

"I did good at first, right?"

"Which part?" Brody asked. "The part where you completely trash talked Victor?"

"Or the part where you just revealed something extremely personal about Hayley?" Preston added. Calvin felt all the blood drain from his body. He looked to Brody.

"This is the worst that can happen. I'd so rather be brain dead right now. Where is Hayley? I have to apologize."

"She ran off," Brody answered.

"Oh god," Calvin started to sway and sat himself down on the nearest stool. That was when Levi came over, looking very concerned.

"What was that?" he asked. "You just… completely destroyed everyone up there!"

"The crowd laughed at my Victor joke, so I just went with it," Calvin said. "Do you think he's pissed?"

Levi pointed to the stage, where Victor had scrapped his own speech and was now fighting for the mic with Principal Hastings as he listed all the reasons he believed Calvin was an asshole.

"I don't think he's taking it well."

"I get nervous speaking in public," Calvin said. "I mean… Hayley knows that. She'll get it, right?"

"Calvin, that wasn't nervous," Levi shook his head. "Nervous is forgetting the lyrics to a song you've sung a hundred times and accidentally saying I love poo instead of I love you. What you did is… an actual shit show."

"I couldn't come up with any other reason why Hayley was better than me?"

"Your speeches were the same and everyone in the school and their mother knows you're a couple," Preston said. "Maybe it wouldn't have won you the election, but if you had just said that you and Hayley were both equally qualified and that you didn't care who won, we wouldn't be here right now."

"Oh man, that would have been much better," Calvin nodded. "So… so much better."

"So… is it true?" Brody asked and his friends looked to his. "The abortion thing?"

"Not now, Brody," Preston scolded, but Calvin shook his head.

"No, no, you guys might as well know the truth. God knows all the rumours that are going to be spreading anyway."

"So it's true?" Levi asked.

Calvin took a deep breath, "It was just a couple months after Hayley and I started dating…"