"Alright!" Wilbur announced, the same way he had when he had the fantastic idea for L'Manburg...by slamming his bag down in Tommy's lunch table, which had recently become the L'Manburg lunch table, "Time to plan out our campaign, it's been heavily rumored we'll have opponents this year, so I propose we have more of a platform!"
"Why? Promising free chocolate milk seemed to work last year," Tommy shrugged.
"Yeah, but we got that, how do we make something double free?" Wilbur asks.
The table buzzed looking for some way to get out of doing the clearly insane thing...hard work.
"Maybe you could run under 'who else?' I mean, it worked for a lot of presidents who ran for a second term!" Niki shrugged.
"Or what about, 'Pog 2020'?" Tubbo suggests.
"'Pog 2020'?" Wilbur asks.
"Yeah," Tubbo shrugs, "wait were we not talking about running parties?"
"Oh, like, Pog is a party? Yeah, that...that makes sense, I mean, who doesn't like the Pog emote?" Wilbur laughed.
"I like it!" Sally nods.
"Yeah! POG 2020!" Fundy yells.
"POG 2020!" Jack Manifold yells.
"You guys are doing this shit again?"
Instead of what was expected to be Dream making his way over, it was Quackity.
"God, what is it with you guys and starting revolutions?"
He was smirking, taunting the small group of teens. Infinitely less intimidating than Dream, but definitely more annoying.
"Quackity, whatever you're thinking of doing I suggest you stop before it gets ugly," Wilbur crossed his arms, his teeth clenched.
"Oh, I'm not thinking of anything, Wilbur," Quackity leans over the table and into Wilbur's face, or about as close as he could get...with a ten inch height difference, "except maybe running for president,"
"Quackity, the sign-ups are closed, you can't do anything about it," Wilbur shakes his head.
"Oh but I did sign up Wilbur," Quackity smirks, "And George is my Vice President,"
"Whoa! Big Q, you can't just make Dream's boyfriend your Vice President!" Tommy grumbles.
"We're not dating!" George approaches the table. It was hard to tell how he felt saying that. He didn't look exactly upset, or angry that they would have assumed that. He just seemed like it was a fact. He was just politely informing them.
"Okay, well," Wilbur began, "Debates start tomorrow, I trust you'll be there,"
"Of corse we will, I mean, who else? Schlatt?"
———
"Wilbur, we're running against the most popular guy in school's...whatever-he-is, we just can't win this!" Tommy exclaims.
"Tommy, listen to me, I know we can beat him! D'you know why?" Wilbur asks.
Tommy shakes his head.
"Because you beat him once before," Wilbur smiles, "and that is the kind of motivation we need! We fought for our independence like a country, now we'll run it like a country, with a president!"
The table cheered.
———
When Dream came home that night and had absolutely no problem with Puffy giving him a well-needed haircut, something was clearly off.
"So," Puffy began, as she grabbed hair scissors off the bathroom counter, "what's going on with you?"
"What?" Dream asked, resisting the urge to turn to look at his mom.
"You have been off lately, you're even letting me cut your hair, and you've told me to stop texting George about what's going on with you, but <i>you</i> certainly won't tell me," Puffy rambles.
"Well, I'm fine, thanks for asking, just a lot of...homework," Dream bites his lip.
The room was silent before Puffy decided to drop the bomb, "so, I texted Karl..."
"KARL!?" Dream couldn't help it anymore, he turned back and glares back at his mom, thankfully, she wasn't cutting hair at that point.
"Dream I was worried about you, and you weren't giving me answers, I was trying to make sure you were safe!" Puffy confirmed.
Dream sighed and turned back around, "what did you say?"
"I just asked him what you had been up to, he didn't tell me anything I didn't already know...the prank war with...L'Manburg, was it? Then you guys having a treasure hunt on the beach, something about discs?" Puffy explained calmly.
Dream started to relax, "I told you, nothing to worry about,"
"Well..." Puffy began, "I <i>did</i> hear something else about the beach..."
A cold silence brushed over the room.
"So," Puffy began again, "George, huh?"
"<b><i>Mom!</i></b>" Dream yelled, getting a little flustered and red.
"I always thought you two would make a cute couple, green and blue are very good complimentary colors," Puffy continued.
"What <i>exactly</i> did Karl say?" Dream probed.
"Just that he saw you two hanging out on the beach a lot," Puffy giggled.
"So he didn't tell you about the kiss or the wedding," Dream muttered.
"What?" Puffy asked.
"Nothing!" Dream replied.
"No, I heard you!" Puffy smirked, clipping back a few dead ends, "what wedding?"
Dream sighed, "nothing, forget it, you weren't supposed to know,"
"Says who?" Puffy teases.
Dream couldn't help it, he cracked a smile, "Says Sapnap I guess. That weekend all of you guys were away for the Teacher's convention, Sapnap, Karl, and Quackity had a wedding, between themselves,"
"No!" Puffy teased, "where!?"
"Sapnap's house, they decorated it too! Techno officiated, Karl even had a wedding dress!" Dream explained.
"Aww, I need pictures, that must've been so cute!" Puffy giggles.
Dream rolled his eyes, "Yeah, and then Karl handed me the bouquet during the bouquet toss, which kinda defeats the whole purpose if you ask me, but then he said George and I had to get married, and since it was a joke I thought was funny, we went along with it, and George ended up in the dress..."
"Did he look good?" Puffy teased.
"Mom!" Dream clenched his teeth together in order to keep his face from going red, but it still did, "yeah, he did...he looked really nice. So, anyway, then George and I kinda...got married,"
"So you kissed too?" Puffy smirked.
"Not...exactly-OW!"
Puffy had tugged on a section of Dream's hair a little too hard, "sorry, keep going, why didn't you?"
Dream shrugged, "I don't know, I kissed him on the forehead, but it didn't really count I guess..."
"So what did you mean by 'the kiss'?" Puffy interrogated.
"Well, Quackity was teasing it to us in computer science and George suggested that we have a real kiss after the beach fundraiser," Dream laughed.
"Stop!" Puffy teased, way too dramatically.
"Well, remember that thing you suggested to Drista? Digging the holes?"
Puffy nodded.
"Well, she did that under the blanket we were sitting on..." Dream confessed.
Puffy dramatically gasped, "that jerk!"
"But I still gave him a peck," Dream shrugged, "still not a-"
Puffy finished, "-real kiss, I get it,"
The two continued on in silence for a minute before Puffy had finished.
"So, you think you're ever gonna get that real kiss?" Puffy teased.
Dream shrugged, "Don't text anyone that I told you this,"
———
"Good morning students, if you don't know me, I'm Mr. Schlatt, I will be overseeing this election, I want everything said to be school appropriate," Schlatt announces, "make sure you pay attention, this isn't just an excuse to miss class. To make sure we are dealing with only student issues, Karl Jacobs here will be moderating with questions he'd come up with himself and I have approved. Karl, take the podium and begin,"
Karl knew very clearly that Schlatt had not approved his questions.
The entire school was sat in the auditorium, waiting for the debate to begin.
"Okay boys, let's talk about cafeteria territories, who's allowed in, who's not?" Karl began.
Some teachers looked confused, but <i>clearly</i> since Schlatt <i>approved</i> this list, it must've been a serious issue.
"I'll let Quackity go first," Wilbur smirked.
"Alright. Alright. Karl. Karl," Quackity begins, "L'Manburg has a long history of discrimination against people not a part of L'Manburg. I, myself, am not able to enter L'Manburg because of the policy these men have put into their property,"
Karl fake gasps.
"And it deserves to be seen by every student in Essempi Highschool!" Quackity yells.
The entire auditorium cheered.
"I don't know about that one. I don't know about that one," Tubbo whispered.
"Tubbo, we'll be fine. We'll be fine," Tommy reassured.
"Wilbur," Karl makes his voice loud and clear , "your response,"
"For days, may I say weeks, the students of Essempi Highschool have ostracized my group of people, my European brethren stood behind me," Wilbur begins.
Quackity scoffs.
Wilbur ignores him and continues; "L'Manburg is not a place for oppression. It is a place of sanctuary for our people. What you are intending to do is coming to our land and open it up to the people, to the very people we seek to escape, just because we've created a better life for ourselves. This in itself is a tyranny, and I will not stand for it!"
"I agree!" Tommy smirked.
"Two wrongs don't make a right, Wilbur" Karl suggests.
"Wilbur, I disagree. Is there anything I have to say after that? Because I just don't agree with that statement," Quackity sighs and rolls his eyes.
Karl smirked and fluttered his eyelashes like he was only thing people were looking at on the stage, "What is something you need to discuss, Quackity? You wanna get something off your chest?"
Quackity smirks back at his "husband", "Wilbur is embracing tradition here. We don't need to embrace tradition. We are a new generation of politicians, Wilbur. I hope you remember that. Alright? We are a new generation of people. Embracing your old school policies is just gonna hurt progress,"
Wilbur interrupts, "These policies were formed from blood, not long ago!"
"Blood?" Schlatt muttered, but he brushed it off, <i>these kids are just...</i>
"Is that so? Is that so?" Quackity probes.
"Yes," Wilbur crossed his arms and glares over at Quackity.
"Is that <i>so?</i>" Quackity smirks, leaning into his podium as if to get closer to Wilbur, "You policies all grow from war. Of course! You are a warmonger!"
"Of course, they have to grow from war! We were oppressed!" Wilbur yells.
"Okay, that's it, you're not oppressed, you're sixteen, Karl, next question," Schlatt announced.
"What is your stance on corruption in politics?" Karl asks.
"I didn't approve this question," Schlatt yells.
"Yes you did, you looked at my list," Karl's eyes widened, trying to cover for Schlatt to let him speak.
"Fine," Schlatt sighed and waved his arm to let Karl go ahead.
"Corruption is a big part of what I am against," Wilbur begins.
"I remind you that you are not enacting a democracy because you are well within your full knowledge that it would be a one-party system until I came up. I decided that I would be running against you," Quackity announces.
"He's talking out his ass. He's talking out his ass. He has no proof!" Wilbur yells.
"I have proof, Schlatt knows Wilbur, Tommy saw, your girlfriend saw!" Quackity accuses.
"I mean let's think about this. If it pleases the court, I would like to say that my opponent is talking shit!" Wilbur yells.
The auditorium erupted in laughter and cheers.
"Oooh!" Tommy yelled.
"You were enacting a one-party system and you didn't expect me!" Quackity yelled.
"You don't have proof!" Wilbur scoffs.
"Alright! I've decided Wilbur has won this debate!" Karl announces.
"The Vice Presidents are up next, Tommy versus George, with Tubbo moderating," Schlatt announced.
Tommy and George stood up at their lecterns.
Debate...part 2.
———
"Alright, George. Welcome. Now... listen, I don't wanna waste your time and I certainly wouldn't want to waste mine. Now I'm gonna address one of the fjirst points Quackity made, which-" Tommy begins.
George interrupts, "Fjirst?"
"Fuck off," Tommy mutters.
"Go on," George rolls his eyes.
"I'm gonna address one of the first points Quackity made, which is allowing other members into um... L'Manburg," Tommy announces.
"Now I think I'd like to address the fact that we-The reason L'Manburg was created was for freedom. The other students of Essempi Highschool wouldn't allow our rules and it wouldn't tolerate us making our own separate kingdom! And I think that the fact George, The Dream Team tainted our victory, took away all the we owned! My shoes, my discs! And merely I had to give away my discs just to get L'Manburg back? The fact that that's- Wh- I know, you know, we wanna keep that to our members, I think that is a completely fair point to make and the fact that you would pressure us out of doing that when we had to fight with our very hands and knees, my friends, we had betrayals, I had to give away my discs that is my most prized possession-"
"We fought with our knees?" Wilbur asks.
"Pardon?" Tommy questions.
"We fought with our knees, Tommy?" Wilbur implies that maybe he shouldn't have said that.
Tommy didn't care, he continued, "And our knees! And our knees!"
"And their knees," Quackity smirked.
George brought the attention back to the main issue at hand, "You talk about freedom here yet you wanna lock it up to a certain type of people,"
"I would really request you wouldn't- you wouldn't cut me off," Tommy scowls.
"You were talking about knees," George sighs, "besides, I thought you were finished,"
"Well, George, the traitor to our people-" Tommy begins.
"That's a little racist isn't it?" George suggests.
"George, those are really harsh allegations to make. The reason we had to get the certain group of people is because you and your stuck-up boyfriend, who you still stand for, mercilessly robbed us-" Tommy grits his teeth together.
"He's not my boyfri-THAT'S NOT RELEVANT!" George flushes red, but tries to regain his focus, "Why did you need to be robbed? What happened in the first place?"
"We didn't- No, George if you stand by the facts-" Tommy fumbles.
"All you care about is war. You know who wins in war? No one!" George yells.
"I think we're getting off track here," Schlatt interrupts.
"Shhh Gogy," Tommy says. These words had absolutely no impact, "where's Dream, do you need a kiss from your boyfriend?"
"Tommy, don't call me Gogy, and he's not my <i><b>fucking boyfriend</i></b>!" George yelled.
The room goes silent.
"I think this debate has been settled, please return to your classes and be sure to vote in the upcoming class election!" Schlatt announces, as he bumps into Tommy in an act to rush him offstage before any more mayhem could be caused.
<i>Maybe declaring myself President wouldn't be a bad idea</i>
———
George had rushed offstage and into the halls as soon as he could.
"Hey, you okay, George?" Dream rushed up to his friend after the big eruption at the debate.
"Yeah, I'm fine," George laughs.
"Are you?" Dream asks.
George turns to look up at his friend, trying to change the subject, "I like your haircut,"
"Thanks, my mom did it yesterday," Dream flushed, "are you sure you're okay?"
"I...I don't <i>know</i>," George admits.
It was like a heavy weight had been lifted off his shoulders.
"What?" Dream asked.
"I don't know," George shrugs, "just...there's a lot going on,"
It wasn't a total lie, he was only in the election to beat Wilbur, and even his motivations for doing that were unclear.
"That's okay, I get it, you don't have to do the election if you don't want to," Dream shrugs.
"I'll consider it," George sighs.
"Good, you don't have to tell them yet, though, Quackity would go <i>nuts</i>," Dream laughs.
George couldn't help it, he laughed too.
Maybe George could just drop out of the race, after all, there was no guarantee the Vice President would win...
———
That night, anxiety hung.
Who would win?
Wilbur who the entire school needed as their President?
Or Quackity who called Tommy and Wilbur out on their bullshit?
Or maybe even Schlatt, who was done with dealing with these kids?
No matter what, tension was high in the air, when Schlatt had discovered the verdict.
The verdict he didn't want. A plethora of forms filled in the same handwriting, the second most under exactly what Schlatt didn't want. And in last place, was one he'd written himself, hoping someone would realize what was best for the school.
And that was that.
Schlatt had the final say.
And sadly, everyone knew it, wether or not they'd seen the votes, and most didn't even hear it, the winner wasn't supposed to win. They didn't win through votes, they won through a tired, old, drunk.
———
The next morning all the students were called into the auditorium, which was weird since there was no scheduled assembly, and all that was supposed to happen that morning was an announcement as to who would be winning the election. Maybe it was going to happen in the auditorium?
"Good Morning students," Schlatt announced, as the students and teachers filed into the auditorium, "Just so I don't take up much of your time this morning, I will begin as you take your seats,"
Students and teachers looked up at the lone man on stage, who glared down with disgust at them.
Schlatt sighed heavily and sifted through some papers in front of him before continuing, "There was some fraud in the voting...over half of the votes were for Fundy Vos for President and Niki Nihachu for Vice President. All of the votes were in the exact same handwriting, almost as if they were photocopied. This is absolutely unacceptable on the part of these students, I will not be attempting to punish these students since it doesn't appear that it was either of them who made the original copy nor copied it, but any votes for them, wether real or forged will be disqualified,"
Fundy and Niki glanced at each other, they may have gotten caught, but it was absolutely the perfect crime.
"Furthermore, I would like to announce the true winners of the election, Wilbur and Tommy Minecraft..." Schlatt finished.
Most of the auditorium cheered.
"Quackity never stood a fuckin chance!" Tommy yelled.
Schlatt loudly cleared his throat, as if he wanted to say more but what more was there to say?
"Because of this <i><b>fraud</b></i> I've come to deduce that the two real winners may be the culprits, so <i><b>I</b></i> will oversee the position of President, and the second place winner of Quackity Alexander will oversee Vice President until further notice," Schlatt announced, "you may now make your way back to your classes,"
The auditorium became a madhouse, kids were yelling, surprise, anger, fear, and sadly even joy and excitement arose and the entire room sounded like a rock concert without the music.
The election was lost...no, not just lost, fixed.
And something needed to be done about it.