Free Web NovelChapter 202: Beam Is Winning
There were like 15 students contesting for presidency in the school, but only three people were at the top. The digital board in the hallway flickered with real-time updates, and the gap was depressing. Beam had the highest numbers; her ranking chart was far above the other two, a giant blue bar towering over the rest of the competition.
The four of us sat in the classroom staring at the screen charts projected onto the whiteboard. The hum of the projector was the only sound for a while. We had been looking at them for almost ten minutes, our eyes scanning the percentages, wondering how Haley, who happened to be among the top three, was supposed to become number one before the election ended. It felt like trying to climb a mountain with no gear while someone else was already at the peak taking a nap.
"Well, we already know who the next president is..." Malo said as he gave up looking at the screen, leaning back until his chair creaked.
"Come on, there has to be something we can do for Haley to be number one.." Sasha said, her voice filled with that stubborn optimism that usually made me want to roll my eyes.
I stared at her, trying to give her some hope, but the data said it all.
I looked at the numbers again, doing the math in my head. There was no fucking way Haley was going to surpass Beam. The lead was too massive, the momentum too strong.
"Well, if she passes the other person, she could at least be vice..." I said, trying to find a middle ground that didn’t feel like a total loss.
"Wow, I can’t believe you guys are giving up. We still have a week left and you’re already surrendering.." Sasha said, her hands on her hips as she looked at us like we were traitors.
"Beam is a Trios. As long as they have each other’s backs and a similar goal, no one can surpass them. It’s like a rigged system without being actually rigged," Malo said, ticking points off on his fingers. "Kiara has influence, she is the most followed student on Oakgram. All she did was tell everyone that she and Princess were voting for Beamer Frost and everyone followed like sheep to a slaughter. It’s a popularity contest, Sasha, not a talent show."
Sasha and Malo kept going back and forth about the fucking politics. Sasha still had hope, saying never say never, her voice rising with every sentence. Malo kept telling her the reality of the situation, his tone dry and defeated.
Princess might have stepped down, but the Trios were still in control of the school’s pulse. They owned the narrative.
I didn’t include myself in the conversation because my mind was somewhere else. I kept thinking about the biker girl Beam killed and how the body disappeared into thin air. The image of that empty road kept flashing in my mind, the bloodstain the only proof that anything had happened at all, which was also gone.
How does a dead body just walk away?
Haley stayed quiet, watching them argue with a strange sort of calm, until she finally broke the silence.
"Guys, stop. I really appreciate your efforts, but Faye and Malo are right. Beam already won, so let’s just focus on being second.." she said, accepting defeat before the game was even over. Her voice was soft but final. Her eyes stayed on the screen, and she was wearing her glasses today, which she hardly ever did. They made her look smarter, but also more tired.
Malo and Sasha stopped arguing and immediately switched to discussing how to beat the guy in second place, some nerdy grade 11 student who happened to be ten percent ahead of Haley. He was some math wiz with a clean record, exactly the kind of person teachers loved.
Sasha suggested bot voting, her eyes lighting up with a mischievous spark, and we all stared at her like what the fuck. Then she laughed it off, waving her hand in the air, saying she was joking. But I wasn’t so sure.
After that, they did the thing again where I somehow became the solution to the problem. Malo said I could talk to Princess and ask for help. He suggested she could ask her followers for votes just to push Haley past the guy, using her clout to tip the scales.
I didn’t even let him finish before shouting a huge fucking no.
I could help design as much merchandise as they wanted or campaign for them, I’d stay up all night making banners or free bowties, anything except asking Princess for that. Lately, I had been trying to be independent, not needing Princess for every little thing that went wrong in my life. I even woke up in the middle of the night just to eat leftover pizza from the fridge because I didn’t want to ask her to go out and find me something fresh.
It wasn’t about me still being angry about the car ride or the way she shut me out. I just wanted boundaries. I needed to know where I ended and she began. Princess treating me like I was some fragile egg, like I was some glass doll that would break if the wind blew too hard, had gotten so deep under my skin that I almost forgot I needed to stand on my own too. I didn’t want her thinking she could easily tame me just because I was carrying her pups.
I was more than some fucking pup bearer..
Some words were getting to me and I didn’t want to give it to those words.
Malo kept pressuring me, his voice getting whiny, but the second I gave him a sharp look, the kind that promised a very bad day, he shut up. He looked back at his notes, mumbling something under his breath.
So the meeting ended with us deciding to find more voters the natural way, which mostly meant a lot of boring class-to-class talking and promising.
After the meeting, the tension finally broke. We switched back into normal friend mode and completely forgot about the election, the charts, and the stress.
Malo started.
"Recently I found out something shocking. You two wouldn’t believe it..." Malo said to Haley and Sasha, leaning across the desk. He was looking way too excited to spill whatever tea he had, his eyes wide behind his frames.
They both leaned forward, matching his energy, ready to hear the dirt.
"Two days ago I found out that Beamer Frost and Kiara Petro have been hooking up for a long time... even when Kiara was dating Princess..." he said proudly, like he had just exposed the greatest secret in Oakland’s history. He sat back, waiting for the gasps.
"Is that it?" Haley said, her face completely unimpressed.
"Holy donuts, you two already knew?" Malo asked in disbelief, his jaw dropping. He looked like he’d been robbed.
"Yeah, I saw them making out in the school bathroom sometime last year... it wasn’t exactly a secret if you knew where to look," Sasha said casually, picking at her fingernails. fгeewёbnoѵel.cσm
"And Sasha told me..." Haley added, nodding.
I stared at both of them as a thought suddenly entered my head. A weird, uncomfortable thought that made my chest feel tight.
"You guys tell each other everything?" I asked.
"Yes, we tell each other everything. Sasha even told me how she hooked up with Kiara last year, the first time she realized she had powers, and some other secrets only I should know..." Haley said, her voice confident.
"And Haley tells me her secrets too... we don’t keep anything from each other. Everything. No filters, no hiding," Sasha added, looking at Haley with a smile that was genuine and warm.
As they started talking about their love lives, recounting stories and laughing about old mistakes, I couldn’t help wondering what kind of stories Princess and I would even have together.
We had been dating for months now, so shouldn’t we have cute stories too? Shouldn’t we be that transparent? freewebnσvel.cøm
I wasn’t jealous, or at least I told myself I wasn’t.
But maybe I was comparing my relationship with Princess to theirs. They seemed so open, so light. I just listened as they both talked before the bell rang.
