We were in a sunny week, mid-685. Everybody was ready, yet there was so much work to be done yet. People's expectations were changing; the context, led by President Fördern, was rapidly transforming, and so had to be our law proposals. Our meetings soon became daily, so Naria and I had to travel as often to the capital. I felt like my health was about to wear itself out, but I didn't like the idea of giving up so close. Naria's energy was incredible; ever since she learn how to write, she never stopped writing, and she insisted to give her papers to Greta herself. She knew how to lead a group, even if all the members were older than her. She was respected and appreciated within the Party, and somehow I'm sure Basch would have had the same talent, had he been at her place.

Amidst the sweat, the suffocating warmth and the stress, we all managed to be ready for the first electoral weekend. The first, and obviously longest part of the campaign was over, and to be honest I had many doubts on the law proposals I made, even if they had been corrected and approved by the Party. Doubts about the 'attractive' part. According to polls, Green Progress had no chance of winning the first round of the election, and apparently it wasn't Greta's main concern. The aim was to make a difference against the long-time rival of the president's party, Free Republic. They had a lot of innovative ideas and their posters were well-thought and attracted a lot of people. What's more, they did a lot of door-to-door to hand out their flyers and copies of their program. They historically gathered a lot of voters, and some people in the GP building even told me we were no match against them, and should be expecting the third place. But of course, Greta's public opinion was different, she encouraged everyone to believe in this small victory and to believe the change we made during the campaign could well be reflected in the results.

'Is it over yet?'

'No, people are still voting in Waldgott!'

'When will the damn votes end?'

'Half an hour left, guys! Let's stay alert!'

The results were given region by region, each region having a relatively big city as a capital like Waldgott or Kalthof, and opening hours for votes were of a wider range in those capitals. Out of the seven regions of Landis, two were still voting. Of course, these were Waldgott's and Kalthof's.

'Five! Four! Three! Two! One… Coooooount!'

The count was organized by an independent agency, approved by all the parties. But of course, members of all the parties were present in the majority of polling stations. In Kalthof, the city center's station was overcrowded by journalists who restlessly moved from delegation to delegation, with much noise. The count was scheduled to take all night, and the following morning. No official results were to be announced before noon of the following day. But of course, here again, polls were very active, and as the results were given, station by station, people started counting their own results.

Greta Pfirsich had prepared a giant room, on the third floor, for this electoral evening. She ordered vegetable quiches as a dinner, and Naria brought several fruit pies with her to share – Book was almost going to collapse during the trip. Several tables had been laid, and there were flowers everywhere, from floor to ceiling. The room had been re-painted and mostly decorated in yellow and pink. On the other side of the tables, there was a blackboard, and one member of the Party – named Drugi – was standing in front of it, regularly writing polling stations' results as they were coming.

'How is it going, young lad? You're not disappointed, are you?'

Danek joined me on my table as all my neighbors had stood up, walking nervously.

'No, I am not', I said.

'Electoral nights are hard, but you'll see, they are short. Hopefully a good outcome awaits for us at the end!'

'Let's hope.'

'What do you think of the campaign? Naria has been much more involved in the field than you have, being an official member of the Party. But it's interesting to have your opinion as well!'

'Well…' I said, 'I think I'm glad we finished what was planned.'

'And what was not! That's the magic of the elections! Oh, listen; Drugi is giving the results of Uwielbinie. Isn't that your home village?'

He was right. I listened carefully to what the man was saying but I was too far from the blackboard to catch up with his words, there was also too much noise. And I was too afraid to stand up and get closer, so I just read what he was writing.

UWIELBINIE STATION:

ORDER AND JUSTICE : 34.6%

FREE REPUBLIC : 25.7%

GREEN PROGRESS : 19.3%

Third place… I felt something close to shame. My own village chose our rivals instead of us. I took a look at Naria's direction, she was in tears.

'My friends!' said Greta, 'the count is not over! Keep faith in our hard work and in what we have achieved! There is still hope!'

But I could see many had already lost this hope and accepted the fact that we were third.

'Still not disappointed?' asked Danek.

'I am, a little', I admitted. 'But earlier, we saw many stations where GP came second. I think we should listen to Greta and hope for the best.'

'Typically the words of a youngster!' he said laughing. 'But that's why we need people like you among us. Let's listen to the rest of results.'

The rest was not as enthusiastic as the beginning. It was a series of Uwielbinie results repeating, over and over.

'We can't lose this way after putting so much effort!' Danek shouted. As the others, he was beginning to lose his nerves.

Outside, it was a ballet of chocobos running back and forth between the polling stations of all Landis, the parties' headquarters, and the official State buildings. We could see them through the light of storm magicites, that had been placed along the roads on this special night. I had begun to believe the final results would never be announced; the sun was showing up in the horizon and there were still an enormous number of results we were waiting for.

I tried to escape from the atmosphere of anxiety surrounding me, since I didn't have anything to lose or gain after all. Unlike what Danek had told me, hours were passing very slowly for me. The last hours…

'Ladies and gentlemen! The first round results!'

Greta's thundering voice woke me up from the sleep where I had fallen.

'You awake, lad? We'll finally have the final word!' Danek said, half mocking.

Greta exchanged some more words with the people who'd been riding chocobos all night, then nodded and turned towards us.

'My dear friends', she began. 'I have sad news to announce. Our Party did not win the first round of this election!'

Everyone was more or less aware of this fact, so only reassured whispers could be heard here and there. The whispers became more anxious once Greta spoke again:

'My dear friends. I have other news. Let us listen to them by the voice of Drugi, who's been working hard since yesterday to gather the results! Congratulations to him!'

There was a huge applause, then everyone became quiet again.

'My friends', said Drugi. 'In the name of the Party, I first wanted to thank you all for your continuous effort since the first day of the campaign. The long-time veterans, as well as the talented new recruits!'

He winked at my direction.

'Today is a great day. We strove to bring to the political landscape of Landis a new dawn, bringing in green fields and innovative projects instead of the eternal industrial mistakes that had been made by our government and suggested by our rivals. This hard work has certainly paid off: we are now recognized as a strong political force within our Republic, and we gathered many new members and allies, whom we all thank from the bottom of our hearts!'

I hadn't noticed the presence of journalists, who came during my sleep.

'And now', Drugi continued, 'let us proceed with the official final results of the first round of the Landisite Presidential Election.'

Everybody was holding their breath.

'With almost 40% of the votes, the party of the incumbent president, Błażej Fördern, are qualified for the second round of the election with 38.63% of the votes cast for Order and Justice.'

Some began booing after hearing those names.

'However, having not won the absolute majority, they cannot be considered as the definitive winners and Błażej Fördern is not certain to be re-elected!'

The boos transformed into hurrays.

'Now for the second place. Please, my friends…'

Silence came again. We expected Drugi to keep on talking, to finally know if Free Republic arrived second as expected, but instead the silence hadn't been broken.

'What's happening?' I asked Danek.

'I don't know', he whispered.

But soon, something unusual happened. Drugi fell on the ground and began to cry!

'Come on, come on Drugi, now is not the time', said Greta while pulling him up, visibly embarrassed. People began to talk again. Suddenly, Drugi stood up again and shouted from the bottom of his lungs:

'GREEN PROGRESS IS SECOND WITH 29.87%!'

The young man, still in tears, let himself fall into Greta's arms while Danek hugged a random woman behind us who was just beginning to smile. I was about to join the others in shouting and dancing when a familiar shape came straight towards me from the other side of the room.

'Noah! Noah, we're second!'

I tried to catch Narezscie as she was running, but I failed and we ended up on the floor, the table all upside down.

'I'm so happy Noah! We made it! We're the best!'

As we could hear Greta's speech of victory to the journalists, I raised my eyes to the top, storm and fire magicites giving a softened light, flowers garlands decorating the ceiling, and my best friend crying and laughing in my arms.

'Noah? Noah, where are you going?'

After the jubilation following the results of the first round, I fell asleep as soon as I got back home. Basch did not understand anything and my mother had to restrain him from making noise near the bedroom. The following morning, I woke up almost in a good shape and prepared to join Naria in Kalthof.

'To the capital, Mom.'

'But you just came back from that electoral night, darling! You should rest a bit! Why not read one of your law books?'

'The Party has more of them in its library than I could even dream of. I'll be back early, Mom, I promise.'

As usual, my mother was forced to see me go, powerless.

The battle between rounds was far from being won. Order and Justice had a comfortable advance over Green Progress, and after all they were the traditional party in Landisite minds, governing the country for ten years. They benefited from a solid popularity, a stable basis of voters, and an overall positive image due to good economical results. So Green Progress had to stand out even more, proposing solutions where Order and Justice had been blind, showing up matters that the others had forgotten, while still offering to the people an image of… order and justice.

That day was organized a new brainstorming session, especially for the in-between period we were living. A debate between Gretel Pfirsich and Błażej Fördern had been planned, and it was scheduled for two days later. Naria was there, as always, and impatiently waited for her turn to talk, to propose one of her out-of-the-blue ideas. When my turn came, I simply recalled some of my proposals that had not been retained by the Party's hierarchy, but that were very relevant at this time. They all listened carefully and Greta took notes.

The day of the debate eventually came.