Wheels

3

Approximately two weeks had passed since my appendectomy, which was awesome. Everything had gone pretty much normally with it- the surgery went well, the recovery went well, and I was back on my feet within a week. It was just in time for Mom to take me school shopping, which is an exciting time. You pick the backpack you're going to use all year, find different colored notebooks for your different classes, and figure out what outfit you want to show up wearing on the first day of school.

I already knew my schedule since about late-July.

8:30-9:15 - Psychology
9:20-10:05- Calculus
10:10-10:55- Government/Economics
11:00-11:45- English 12
11:50-12:45- Lunch
12:50-1:35- Photography
1:40-2:25- Anatomy/Physiology
2:30-3:15- Study Hall

It was a pretty generic schedule, compared to all the other seniors as McKinley. It was a relatively small school, with a student population of about 500 or so kids. I knew mostly everyone in my senior class. We'd all (besides a handful of kids) been going to the same school since freshmen year, and then a lot of us even since kindergarten. I knew pretty much everyone's name, and even if I wasn't super close friends, we'd at least made eye contact before. That exactly was the reason I was hoping to win the senior class president election. I'd been working on this campaign since practically freshmen year, designing posters and writing slogans in my head- sometimes doodling little ideas down in a notebook. I wanted to win. Not only did being the senior class president look good on a college scholarship- it was also in my blood. Both of my parents were their senior class presidents, and they got to arrange all their class reunions, give a speech at graduation, etc.

Being senior class president was really important to me, and I was determined to win.

The campaigning took place immediately every year- on the first day of school, candidates (that were chosen at the end of last year) would start hanging up posters and passing around gifts to entice votes. On the Friday of the first week of school, there was a "debate"- which basically meant a senior class assembly during the last period of the day, and each candidate gave their spiel of things they wanted to change and promises for the year, and then by the end of the following week, votes were cast. It was a fast process, and immediately after the bell rang on the morning of the first day of school, it was just go-go-go until Election Day just two weeks later. I had pretty much rattled all this off to Arthur, who was starting school in a week over at IU.

We'd gotten to know each other a lot over the past few weeks. I knew that his favorite movie was Top Gun, and he knew that when I was a kid I loved listening to Rosemary Clooney on cassette tape. There was no flirting or teasing, really- just talking, which was nice and not at all stressful. He was really nice, and very grammatically correct via text message- which was a good sign.

I stood in front of the mirror in my bedroom, looking over my outfit for the first day of school- jeans, a solid grey t-shirt, a dark purple scarf, and brown boots. Simple, but classy. My blonde curls cascaded down my shoulder, and my makeup was done ever so lightly. Perfect.

Maybe I was a bit of a perfectionist, but when I won the election like I was so terribly determined to, it'd be worth it.

I slung my backpack over my shoulder, and was about to head out of my bedroom when my phone buzzed in my pocket. I took it out, only to find a new text message from Arthur.

Good luck on your first day today! you're gonna be great.

I couldn't help but grin. It was that biological need to be validated, or something like that, that made talking to Arthur an activity that just made me really happy.