An ex-couples rivalry for the spot as student body president becomes even more convoluted when two new, unexpected candidates enter the race. Chloe and Preston team up, each vowing to get one member kicked from the competition-- but when they both e...
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Fulton was redder than I knew a human being could get, and he looked less put together than ever. His dress shirt was wrinkled and untucked, and his tie hung loosely around the collar. As he continued to yell at the large group of protesters, all I could do was keep chanting with the rest of them.
"This is your last chance to get to class! Everyone who's here after the next bell will be facing suspension!" Fulton shouted, his voice nearly buried under the roar of the crowd.
Finn and I were still at the front of the group around us, which had grown from about twenty people to a hundred. I knew the nearby classrooms could hear us, but doubted there were even any students inside them— almost everyone who passed this way to get to class had ended up joining the protest. At this rate, we'd have the whole school around us by lunchtime.
Fulton had been trying for the past hour to disperse us, attempting various methods. When he first came walking down the hall, he'd been collected, clearly believing he'd have the situation sorted out in no time. There were only thirty or so of us at that point, and he told us all that if we broke it up, we wouldn't get in trouble.
When the crowd doubled, he escalated, saying we'd all be receiving a week of detentions unless we went to class immediately. A few people left, but they were quickly replaced by newcomers, so it didn't do much to ease his frustrations.
Now, he was threatening to suspend a good chunk of the student body.
"He can't do that!" Finn yelled into the megaphone, "There's too many of us!"
For a lot of the group, this didn't seem to be about the cause so much as disrupting a typical, mundane school day— but I did see some of Preston's friends in the group, and whatever they were there for didn't matter as much as the fact that they were there.
Fulton looked like a dog, shaking in anger and baring his teeth as he growled at Finn. "Keep this protest going and you'll be removed as a candidate for student body president!"
Finn lowered the megaphone, and I looked up to see him glaring. By the way his body tensed next to mine, I could tell that Fulton finally found something he was threatened by. "You can't do that."
"Your promises were one thing, but this—this is a disruption to the education of the entire student body. It's disrespectful to the staff, who I should remind you have had no part in the decision made by the school board. And most of all it's pointless, which I'm sure even a straight D student like you must realize."
My jaw dropped at his last words. How could he say something like that? Sure, Finn was disruptive, maybe even disrespectful at times. But he was a student, and Fulton had an obligation as his principal to help him, not insult his intelligence.
They held each other's gaze, fighting a silent war in the deafening hallway. I seemed to be the only one listening, my eyes shooting back and forth between them, waiting for someone to back down.
