Chapter 9: Election Day

The next day was a Tuesday. At lunchtime, Head mistress Victoria Valerius had all of the first year students gather together under the geodesic dome where there were tables and chairs for them to sit. A blonde boy bumped into Alexa on the way to get to a seat, and a ring he was wearing brushed against her skin. Alexa didn't pay attention to what he was doing or where he went. There was a podium, and Victoria stood there making an announcement. 

"There will be a student president for each year. There are two candidates for student president for all six years. The two first year candidates for student president will give their speeches now, Recto will go first, followed by Verso. Sissy Spreitler will represent Recto house, and Alexa Lockport will represent Verso house. When they are done, the second year students will have their turn, then the third year candidates. Ms. Spreitler, you are up." 

Sissy Spreitler made her way up to the podium carrying her electronic tablet. Alexa paid close attention to Sissy's speech, in case she needed to ad lib. 

"I want to stand for Recto values and morals," Sissy began. "Even though Recto composes 52 percent of the student population, Verso house is a vocal minority. If they succeed in Morgan Lefevre's plan to take over the world, then that would threaten our past."

Most of the Recto students started clapping.

"There are rumors that students here are helping the Dark Mistress on her latest goal of trying to take over the world once again. She was defeated fifty years ago, but if she manages to rise again, it will be Recto students who will rise to the occasion to stop her!"

Again, a large group of Recto students began clapping. Alexa had her speech on her electronic tablet, and went over some of her key issues while listening to Sissy.

Sissy continued: "I also want to stress that I share common goals with Recto and Verso when it comes to issues that affect both houses, and I feel that we must work together as a whole unit to accomplish our goals this school year. If we continue to act as enemies, we will never get anything accomplished. As the famous patriot Thomas Jefferson once said, united we stand, divided we fall."

"Now it is Alexa Lockport's turn to give her speech for Vero house," said Victoria.

Sissy stepped down from the podium to cheers and clapping from the audience. She shook hands with Alexa and wished her luck as Alexa stepped up to the podium. Alexa set up her tablet so her speech that she had typed up was visible, and began her speech. She took to public speaking like a duck to water. In elementary school, she had always excelled at oral reports. She had wanted to be a lawyer from a young age, so she had always known that public speaking would be important.

"I am the Verso house candidate, my name is Alexa Lockport. You may have heard of me already, I know rumors travel faster than truth. As my opponent Sissy Spreitler has said, Recto house and Verso house need to work together to meet common goals. If you have any doubts about whether or not I plan on serving the Dark Mistress, I have already thought about it, and though I admit I was tempted, I would never jeopardize our ancestry in the ephemeral world to achieve my own ends."

When Alexa stepped down from the podium, there was clapping and cheers from Verso house, but as she turned and walked toward the audience, a strange device appeared out of nowhere in front of her and sprayed her with a dark liquid. Alexa was covered with a brown dye.

An amazing event happened, a duplicate of Victoria Valerius arrived, and took the podium. Her counterpart who had announced the student election speeches, stood nearby.

"I just came from the temporal recon office of the academy, a student named Carl Vidler is guilty of creating mischief. Victoria turned a device toward the small cylinder that sprayed the liquid on Alexa, and did a DNA scan. Carl, you  can go straight to the office. This is inappropriate behavior for a member of Recto house!"

A crowd gathered around Alexa. "I'm voting for you, Alexa!" said a boy, "Even though I belong to Recto house. I don't like people who play dirty!" 

Sissy Spreitler was taken to the office, despite her pleas that Carl had acted alone. More people from Recto were telling Alexa that she had their vote. The second version of Victoria asked Alexa to follow her, and escorted her to the medical facility to get cleaned off.

Once inside the medical office, Alexa was taken to a tank where she stepped inside, and in a few moments, after some kind of energy surrounded her and the messy grease that had covered her was removed. When she stepped out of the chamber, she was as good as new. Victoria approached Alexa with an electronic tablet. She showed a video to Alexa. It was Carl, the boy who bumped into her, planting the device that sprayed her.

"He planted that device early this morning, and used a continuum shifting initiator so it was hidden in another dimensional continuum until he summoned it. Did he touch you in any way before you approached the podium?"

"Yes, he had a ring that scratched my arm," Alexa replied. "I thought it was an accident."

"It was no accident," Victoria replied, "He got a sample of your DNA when he scratched you with that ring, and he used it to program that device to phase back into this space-time continuum to spray you."

"Why would Carl do that to me?" Alexa asked. "Is it because he's in recto house? Am I going to constantly have problems with them?"

"Carl is the youngest of seven brothers," said Victoria. "His older brothers were pranksters, and he feels that he has a lot to live up to. I'm sure he's perfectly harmless, the pranks his brothers pulled when they were students here never harmed anyone."

"That's good to know," Alexa replied, "Do you know if Sissy was involved?"

"Not that we can ascertain at this point, though I assume a lot of students will blame her."

Alexa returned to where the speeches were being held. Before she could reach the geodesic half dome where the older students were giving their speeches, Gamma and Stratus ran up to her to give her good news.

"Lexie, you won the election!" said Stratus. "The election isn't over yet for the older students, but the first year votes have been cast and tallied."

"That was a quick election!" said Alexa.

"Here at the academy, everything is done by computer," Gamma explained, "so it's faster than it would be in the regular world."

The three girls jumped up and down, excited at Alexa's victory.

"I think getting sprayed by that kid helped you win," said Stratus. "A lot of Recto house kids voted for you, because they assumed that Sissy was involved."

"Head mistress Victoria said Sissy wasn't involved," said Alexa.

"Be quiet!" Stratus whispered. "You don't want them to re-do the voting, do you? If you won, you should take it however you can!"

"Yeah, I guess you're right," Alexa replied.

The three of them watched the speeches given by the older kids. Umbra joined them, and pointed out how some of the candidates ran for student president every year. After each candidate in a particular year gave their speeches, the election was held. Only the students in the same year as the candidates voted.

When all six presidents were determined, Victoria escorted them to the committee room. There was an oval table surrounded by chairs.

"I know it's still lunch time and you all have class soon, but this is where you'll hold meetings. Believe it or not, the student presidents have a lot of sway in what goes on at this academy. You can all make a difference in the lives of your fellow students!" Victoria dismissed them, and they all went to their classes. 

After their last class of the day, the girls in Verso house had root beer floats in the common room to celebrate. They toasted their drinks to Alexa's victory. When the celebration was over, Alexa took her root beer float to her dorm room. She set it down on her desk, and got her terrarium and set it on the desk and took the lid off. She scooped her captive out.

"Guess what?" Alexa asked. "I won the student election for my year! I'm class president!"

"Congratulations," said the captive.

"Since you're eight years older than me, can you give me any advice on being class president?"

"I have a sister who ran for election in high school," said the captive. "But I never hit her up for information about what the process was like, or what she did after she was elected."

"Did she become class president?" Alexa asked.

"No, she became treasurer," the captive replied. "But the process was the same, she was sophomore when I was a senior. I was pretty busy, and didn't get involved in the student election."

"Then how can you help me?" Alexa asked.

"Can you let me contact my sister, and ask her for the details?" the captive asked.

"I'll have to ask my friends for advice on that," Alexa replied. "I have an older friend named Umbra, and I rely on her wisdom. But the short answer is no, I don't think that it will be possible. You're considered missing in the real world, and if you contacted your family, they would find out your fate. That could lead to ephemerals finding out about the Futurians."

"What exactly are you people?" the captive asked. "You've never bothered to explain any of that to me. I don't even know where I am."

Alexa explained how her ancestors journeyed from nearly one million A.D. and became trapped in the year 1800, and how they have blended in with society since that time. After several minutes, she had her captive all caught up. Alexa even explained the plans of Morgan Lefevre, the Dark Mistress.

"So, all of this time, I've been in a parallel reality, shrunk down to an inch tall?" the captive asked.

"Yes, and you'll live a longer life here. I'll take you home with me during the Holidays." Alexa gave her captive a prize winning smile as she collected him in her hand. "You used up the question you won by answering correctly about what food was in my stomach."

Alexa dropped him back in his terrarium, and closed the lid. After setting the terrarium back on the shelf, she finished her root beer float. 

She took her electronic tablet and went to the library to study. Now that she was first year class president, she had more responsibilities to deal with, in addition to her regular class work. It took her an additional half hour to finish her homework, because of her civic duties.

Sissy approached her. "Alexa?"

"Yeah, sissy?" Alexa replied.

"I just wanted you to know that I was in no way responsible for that prank today, Carl acted alone."

"Victoria told me she didn't think you were involved," said Alexa. "I believe you," and Alexa gave Sissy a hug.

"All of my older sisters went to this academy, and they all became student president their first year, except me!"

"Well, don't let it get you down," Alexa advised. "It's not good to follow in the footsteps of other people, you should blaze your own trail.”

"Thank you, Alexa!" Sissy replied.

"Maybe you can accomplish things in life that your sisters didn't." said Alexa.

"I can give you advice about how to govern," said Sissy. "I've learned a lot from my older sisters."

"I'll keep you in mind," said Alexa. "But don't count on it, because people might think of me as a confederate leader, because I'm getting advice from you. They might think I'm your puppet."

"I understand," Sissy replied. "I think you'll be a good leader, you really seem able to stand on your own two feet. If our positions were reversed, I would've jumped at the chance to have you help me. Maybe I don't have what it takes to be a good leader."

"Being a good leader doesn't always mean standing on your own two feet," said Alexa. "I think a leader who listens to the advice of his or her top people is better than someone who tries to wing it when they don't know how to proceed."

"That's good advice," said Sissy