Over two weeks passed since the most embarrassing dinner of my life and I still couldn't get over how awkward that was. Now it was the first Monday of October and I had so much going on that adding that to my plate of worries seemed inconsequential. Only it wasn't. Nobody could know. At least that's what I had requested.
"No worries," Dan had told me that day as we walked out of the restaurant. "Nobody has to know about this unless you want them to."
"It's not that I'm, like, embarrased of you or anything," I assured him. "I just would much rather not have to answer everyone's questions."
And he understood. So we dropped it. And for two weeks, we kept it a secret.
Now, I walked into school followed by Bree and Carrie, from the squad as we ran into Kitty and John.
"Hey girls!" Kitty chimed.
"Oh..." murmured Bree. "Um hi... We'll, uh, talk later."
That was yet another addition to the awkwardness between John and me. Awkwardness with Kitty. I begged the other girls not to be weird about it, but they all came to an agreement that Kitty had chosen John over me by not breaking it off. I totally did not agree but once a cheer-cision has been made, it's hard to override it. Especially with Bree on board.
"I don't want to be mean to her," Bree said as we walked off. "Believe me, that's not the intention at all. I just think it's a little insensitive of her to strike a conversation with you while she's standing there in his arms. It's just not cool, you know?"
"It's whatever," I assured her. But a part of me did feel that way. I did miss John, the old John at least, but I couldn't really blame Kitty for wanting to be with her boyfriend.
Pretty soon we passed by Joe, who was in front of a poster with his face on it, telling us to vote for him in the upcoming presidential election. He turned and saw us watching him, startled.
"Oh, hey ladies," he said with a smile.
"You're running for president?" Bree asked.
"Well, yeah," he said. "I really dig helping others, you know, so I thought what better way then to carry out the legacy of fellow glee club members."
***
"Legacy," Mr. Schue said as he wrote the word on the board that day during lunch. "I just got the greatest news. Joe has informed me he signed up as student body president and he has made it to the final level."
"Elections are happening already?" said Kitty.
"At the end of the week," Joe said with a proud nod as he stood.
"The last two years," said Mr. Schue, "the school president came from this room. Actually, so did the runner ups and vice presidents."
Bree did not like the sound of that, given by the look she gave me.
"Hopefully I can count on everyone in this room to keep that going," Joe said as he grabbed his guitar. "But just in case you need more convincing, here's my main running point. I want everyone at this school to feel like they have the power to make change and I want to represent the voice inside every single student."
The music began and Joe had his usual intense look on.
Joe: Now in a world where innocence is quickly claimed... It's so hard to stand your ground when you're so afraid...
He continued with the song and I didn't really get how it connected to his message until the very last line.
Joe: Young girl don't cry. I'll be right here when your world starts to fall.
Most of us clapped for him and he thanked us in advance for our support.
"Do you have a running mate yet?" Ryder asked him.
"No, why?" said Joe. "Are you interested?"
"I think Ryder would make an excellent VP," Marley vouched for him.
"Why?" said Kitty. "The only things he and Sam, last year's VP, had in common were dyslexia and their girlfriend."
I blushed and glared at Kitty.
"Seriously," said Bree. "Why is it that every year has to be ruled by guys or girls who know absolutely nothing?"
"Yeah," said Kitty, "who's running against you, Joe?"
"I am," Unique spoke up. We all turned to her, surprised.
"You weren't at the candidate meeting last week," said Joe. "Actually, I was the only one there."
"I was sick," Unique explained. "Anyway, I want to work to make McKinley a place that's equal for anyone and everyone. Regarless of age, gender, race, economic status..."
"I'll be your VP," Bree said, raising her hand up.
"You?" asked Unique. "You're one of the reasons McKinley isn't an equal place to begin with."
Most of the room agreed. "Okay, okay," Bree said, "so I haven't been super nice to everyone in the past... But I'm super popular and can get you a bunch of votes."
"I don't want to win like that," said Unique, shaking her head. "Sorry Bree, but I'm going in a different direction."
"What about me?" said Kitty, raising her hand. "After I gave up my dress for Tina at last year's prom, I sort of shed my mean girl image. For the most part at least."
"Actually..." Unique murmured, contemplating the possibility. "Yeah, you know what, sure. Kitty, you're on board!"
"Seriously?" said Bree.
"I actually wanted to ask John to be my running mate," said Joe, quieting everyone. John and Kitty looked at each other.
"Umm..." John said, looking back at Joe. "I don't know... Uh, why me?"
"Well, we're good friends," said Joe. "We're both seniors. And we're both-"
"Guys," said Kitty. She smiled at John, "You aren't going to beat the queen and me so I don't see any harm in a little friendly competition, John."
John thought about it for a second and then looked at Joe. "Yeah, sure, why not?" he said. "As long as I'm not expected to start stripping like Sam did last year, I don't see why not."
***
"I don't know why you're upset," said Kitty. "You've been talking about the fact that the Cheerios need to win more for the last I don't know how many months and now when I agree to run you're mad?"
"Yeah," Bree responded. "Because I wanted to run for this. I'm single, I'm trying to be nice, and I'm bored."
"Well, I'm sorry," Kitty told her. "It's just that I didn't see there being a chance that you'd change Unique's mind. So I took it."
"Can you guys just shut up?" I mumbled. "You've been fighting about this all week. Can we just come up with a number already?" We were at my place, after school, trying to come up with a good number to do for the legacy challenge. It was, of course, going to be connected to the presidential election, so we had wanted to help Kitty out but Bree changed her mind.
"I'm going home," said Bree, getting up and leaving.
"Not before I do," Kitty retorted, also standing and heading for the door.
"Okay, glad we had fun," I said from the living room as I heard the front door slam shut. I turned back to my laptop and continued to skim through my music. What song left a legacy... I thought to myself. No, not what song, what artist! There were plenty of musical royalty to choose from. Beyonce, Madonna, Christina, Michael, Prince...
I began to excitedly look through my songs when I finally saw the perfect number. But then I realized that I had no use for it. It was a great song but who would I recommend it to? Joe and John? Unique and Kitty?
I wasn't sure what campaign I was going to sign onto, if any, so I decided to wait it out. However, the next day the political platforms had been literally spread across the school.
This was in the form of posters. Everywhere. Posters with my friends' faces on them. Everywhere.
I was staring at one of Unique and Kitty when I turned around and almost crashed into John.
"They really are going for that minority vote, huh?" said John as he read the poster. It read: VOTE ADAMS-WILDE FOR YOUR VOICE TO BE HEARD, NO MATTER WHO YOU ARE OR WHAT BACKGROUND YOU COME FROM.
I looked at John for a second, surprised he had talked to me, and walked away. There was no way we'd be having a conversation. Finally, I bumped into Joe and I was able to ask what I would've asked John had I felt the need to speak to him directly.
"Hey," I said as he smiled at me. "I have a quick question."
"What's up?" he asked.
"I was just wondering," I began, "why should I vote for you?"
And that was the question that sparked it all.