The next day was the first Monday of October, where each classroom and faculty division would assign a delegate to vote for a candidate in the primaries. Leo, who was trailing behind Mike in the polls, arrived at school much earlier than me in order to convince more people to vote for him. His actions were viewed as enthusaism by some and desparation by others. Leo mostly campaigned for the freshmen, who were the swing votes that Leo much needed.
The primaries would take place after school in a special afternoon ceremony. Therefore Leo still have a few more hours to convince the students.
Each class have a different way of choosing a delegate, but most classes would choose 5 students randomly and have them represent a candidate in the elections. Voting for the student would mean voting for the candidate the student is representing. The student who received the most votes would become the delegate of the class and must vote for the candidate he or she is representing. Of course, some classes have their own unique rules in choosing delegates passed down by tradition.
In general, Grade 12 will choose their delegates in the 1st period, Grade 11 on the 2nd period and so on. Therefore, Leo have until the 4th period to convince the Grade 9 students to vote for him.
When class started, Leo have been to busy posting on social media to even listen to the teacher. This went on until lunchtime, where we met Rebecca and James, who were both in different classes than us.
"Don't worry Leo! I have already convinced my class to vote for you!" Rebecca exclaimed, patting on Leo's shoulder to reassure him.
"I have also convinced my class to vote for you." James added quietly.
Leo gave a smile, stating, "I'm really not worried about the Grade 10 students. Most of them would be forced to vote for me anyways to maintain the dignity of our grade. After all, I'm the only Grade 10 candidate running. I'm more worried about the Grade 9 students."
James, Rebecca and I nodded.
"I'm going to go to the freshmen and campaign for them." Leo said. "You guys eat lunch without me!"
As Leo walked away, Rebecca commented, "He's really hardworking when he's doing the stuff he's interested in, isn't he?"
"You don't see him that enthusaistic in class." I snorted. "It's better to get good grades than doing these random things."
"Now, now." Rebecca soothed. "Leo's just doing what he likes. You should just support him with the best of your ability."
"Aren't I doing that already?" I rolled my eyes.
****************
In the third period, the classes of Grade 10 started voting for their delegates. Our class unanimously elected Leo as our delegate, since Leo's fame is our class' fame. Other classes also selected their delegates.
After fourth period, the afternoon ceremony started. Leo was sitting nervously next to me, moving around in discomfort. I patted my hand on his shoulder to calm him down.
The staff asked each delegate from each class and faculty division to come up on stage. Leo headed up, with a nervousness that I've never seen before.
There were a total of 30 delegates. The staff moved a whiteboard towards the middle of the stage and gave each delegate a magnet with the sign of a tick. One tick would represent one vote. When a delegate placed a tick on a candidate, the staff would announce the class and the candidate the class voted for.
The sequence of the voting starts from the freshmen to the teachers in ascending order. Threfore, the candidate from Class 9-A walked up to the whiteboard first.
"Class 9-A votes for Mike Alexson."
The first vote of the day started with a disappointment for Leo.
"Class 9-B votes for Mike Alexson."
Leo's face turned ugly.
"Class 9-C votes for Mike Alexson."
Leo's face turned grim.
"Class 9-D votes for Leo Wilson."
Leo gave a sigh of relief.
"Class 9-E votes for Owen Stark."
Leo gave a look of surprise. He did not expect someone other than him and Mike getting a vote from the freshmen.
"Class 9-F votes for Leo Wilson."
After the freshmen delegates stepped down, the people from Grade 10 headed up.
"Class 10-A votes for Leo Wilson."
"Class 10-B votes for Leo Wilson."
"Class 10-C votes for Leo Wilson."
"Class 10-D votes for Mike Alexson."
Leo gave a look of surprise. Class 10-D was James' class. Even though he thought there might be some faithless delegates in Grade 10, he did not expect it to come from James' class.
The rest of Grade 10 voted for Leo Wilson.
Afterwards, the Grade 11 students headed up, all voting for Mike Alexson except for Class 11-F, who voted for Owen Stark and Class 11-E, who voted for Leo Wilson.
Class 11-E was Adrian's class. To my surprise, Adrian was actually the delegate for his class. It seemed I completely underestimated Adrian's abilities.
When the Grade 12 studnents came up, people expected Mike to lose some votes to the other Grade 12 candidates. However, to everyone's surprise, all the delegates from Grade 12 voted for Owen Stark, becoming the dark horse of the primaries. Even the classes from Mike's and the other candidates' class voted for Owen. I narrowed my eyes.
The votes are now tied between Leo, Mike and Owen. Therefore, it is now up to the teachers' votes to determine the winners and loser of the primaries.
****************
[This section is under the POV of Mike Alexson]
As a senior student, Mike was sitting on the front row of the gymnasium. He stared up at the stage, smiling. If Hunter were to see his smile right now, he would want to punch him in the face.
Mike thought, "The votes from the students have gone just as I planned, except for Class 11-E, who was supposed to vote for me. However, this slight mistake will not make a dent on my plans."
"I have already discussed with the principal of my arrangements. If the teachers voted for me in both the primaries and the elections, my father will donate $10 million to the school. Enough for them to build a new swimming pool and new equipments with plenty to spare."
As he waited for the teachers to vote, he couldn't help but deepen his smile.
However, once he heard the next announcement, his face immediately turned ugly.
"The Faculty of the Natural Sciences Division votes for Leo Wilson."
Mike completely did not expect that the teachers would vote for Leo. He cried in his heart, "What is going on?!"
"The Faculty of the Life Sciences Division votes for Leo Wilson."
There were black lines on Mike's forehead.
"The Faculty of the Mathematics Division votes for Leo Wilson."
"The Faculty of the Arts Division votes for Mike Alexson."
"The staff members vote for Leo Wilson."
Finally the principal headed up to the stage and placed his tick next to Leo Wilson's name, signifying his decision.
"The principal votes for Leo Wilson."
"Please give a round of applause for the nominees of this school year for Student Council president: Leo Wilson and Mike Alexson!" The principal headed to the podium and spoke on the microphone.
*******************
[This section is in the POV of Hunter and Leo]
Leo immediately jumped from his seat. He immediately hugged me excitedly.
"OMG! OMG! I WON! I WON! I became the front-runner for this year's elections!" Leo screamed in happiness. He was crying from excitement, jumping up and down while hugging my back.
"Congratulations," I said, surrounding my arms around Leo and smiled slightly.
All the students stood up and clapped.
After the clapping stopped, a staff member announced,
"The final results for this year's primaries are:
Leo Wilson: 13 votes
Louis Wong: 0 votes
Mike Alexson: 9 votes
Adam Lincoln: 0 votes
Owen Stark: 8 votes
Leo Wilson have won the plurality of votes, becoming the front-runner for the elections. The runner-up is Mike Alexson, lagging behind by 4 votes. Leo and Mike please come up to the stage and retrieve your nominee badge."
Leo happily ran up the stage and took the nominee badge and front-runner badge from the staff's hand, immediately replacing it with the candidate badge.
Mike Alexson walked up the stage looking quite gloomy, he reluctantly took the nominee and runner-up badges from the staff and stood next to Leo.
A staff member took out a camera and took a photo of Leo and Mike standing next to each other, before asking them to head back to their seats.
"This concludes today's electoral primaries. The presidential elections will take place on Friday, two weeks from now." The principal said.
[This section is in the POV of Mike Alexson]
Mike acted respectful in front of his fellow classmates as the crowd dispersed from the gymnasium. He headed towards the mostly empty school building and up towards his designated locker. After taking a look to the right and left to make sure there were nobody watching, he used all of his strength to punch his locker repeatedly until he squirmed from the pain.
If one could see him now, they would find that Mike is filled with anger, his face completely twisted and his eyes glowing red. After calming himself down by breathing deeply, he headed towards the principal's office.
Mike did not even knock on the door before slamming the doors open. He stomped in arrogantly and arrived before the principal. He was sitting behind his desk, working on something on his computer. When he saw Mike coming in, he did not even stand up. He simply took a glance at him before returning to his work.
Mike, who was being ignored, was furious. "What is the meaning of this Mr. Thomas?!" He shouted rudely at the principal.
The principal, who was disturbed, stopped working and stared at Mike nonchalantly. "I don't know what you mean, Mr. Alexson, didn't we do exactly as you asked?"
"I asked you to make me win the elections and the primaries!" Mike cried angrily, his face was completely red, his eyes looking down at the principal with fury.
"But you did win the primaries, didn't you Mike Anderson? Oh, and I would like to offer a belated congratulations for being a becoming nominee for Student Council President." The principal was calm, like he was dealing with trifling matters.
"You!" Mike did not know what to say at the moment. He was so furious that his mind cannot process the principal's snide remarks.
Mike took a deep breath, trying to calm himself down. "Then you better uphold your end of the bargain for the elections in two weeks, Mr. Thomas, or else don't even think about getting your $10 million, Hmph!"
Mike stomped out of the office. Just then, as he exited the door, he saw someone walking towards him. His face was dashing, giving him a youthful appearance. His school shirt was wrapped around his body tightly, exuding his strong muscles that give a manly charm. It was Hunter Lee. As he walked past Hunter, he tilted his head around and stared at Hunter's behind, narrowing his eyes.
"He must have done something!" Mike thought to himself. He couldn't believe that he was stumped by a junior that was younger than him. This made it the 5th time Mike lost to Hunter at something. He felt indignant. "How come I, an Alexson, am being stumped by that puny peasant! Just wait for me, Hunter, I'll make you pay for your insolence." He thought in his mind, planning many things.
***************
[This section is in Hunter's POV]
I was not surprised as Mike Alexson walked past me after school while heading to the principal's office. The fact that the Art Faculty voted for him proved that he must have made a deal with the teachers beforehand. Luckily, most of the teachers weighed the pros and cons and thought my deal was better than Mike's.
The door was already opened wide when I walked into the principal's office. I stood before the principal calmly and asked politely, "Mr. Thomas, may I sit down."
"Please." The principal gestured for me to sit in one of the two chairs located across of the desk from him.
I sat down on the right. I reached into my backpack and took out an envelope. "This is my letter of acceptance to enter my country's team for the International Math Olympics. I have already signed my name in it. Would you please stamp the school seal and sign your name before sending it to the Association?" I asked.
The principal stared at me, stating, "Aren't you afraid that I will renege on my promise and vote for Mike Alexson for the next elections, Hunter Lee?"
"I believe you would not do this with your reputation and stature, Mr. Thomas." I replied calmly. "Besides, now that you have offended Mike, based on his personality, even if you and the teaching body voted for him in the elections, he would still find a way for revenge against you. He's quite a vindictive person, after all. Furthermore, the pros of voting for me outweighs the cons."
Mr. Thomas nodded, taking my letter. "I look forward to your performance at the Olympics next summer, Hunter." He said amicably.
"Thank you, Principal." I stood up and walked out of the office, closing the doors behind me.
*************
[This section is in the principal's POV]
The principal clasped his hand, fingers crossed and placed them in front of his mouth, making a G*ndo pose. He took out the school seal from the drawer located beneath the desk and stamped it on the bottom left corner of the letter with red ink. He then signed his name below the stamp. He folded the letter and placed in on the envelope, placing it on the side for his secretary to mail it tomorrow morning.
He had already made considerations between Hunter Lee and Mike Alexson. Although $10 million sounded very lucrative, it would only increase the equipments and facilities of the school, not the quality of the students. However, if Hunter Lee wins the IMO next summer, many elite students will be scrambling to apply for his school, overall increasing the quantity and the quality of the next batch of students. Furthermore, this is a private academy, where students have to pay quite a sum to enter, the tuition fees earned made per year made the $10 million a small sum. If Mike would donate $1 billion, then he might consider, but a child would not be able to get so much money even with the backing of his father.
*************
[This section is in Hunter's POV]
I headed to Adrian's mansion with Leo. Leo seemed very cheerful the whole way, peeking at his nominee and first-runner badge once in awhile. When we arrived, he gleefully headed to Adrian's room and jumped on his bed, rolling around.
Adrian, who was surprisingly doing his homework, stood up and looked at me. "Hunter. I've done what you asked." Adrian did not stutter this time and looked at me with a new sort of conviction.
I was surprised by his change in attitude. "What happened these few days?" I wondered to myself.
"Mhm." I replied to Adrian. "What's the favor you want to ask for?"
"Um..." Adrian tapped his index fingers against each other, his eyes not daring to stare at me. "Can I tell you my favor in a few weeks... I don't wanna say it right now..." His voice grew smaller and smaller as he lost his confidence.
"Fine." I nodded, ignoring his plight.
Later, I still trained Adrian until he felt like he was physically dying. However, I felt as though he was more diligent than before. I did not like barging into other people's businesses so I did not ask. Leo, who was happily playing on his phone, was waiting for us as we finished our homework after dinner.
We headed home with Leo contently sleeping on my lap for the whole journey.
"Leo unexpectedly won." I thought to myself. "I must do something to reward him." With this in my mind, I allowed Leo to continue sleeping on my lap until we reached home.
I was invited to Uncle Evan and Aunt June at night today to celebrate Leo's win. Aunt June spent the whole day diligently studying the recipe to make a cake and baked it with love. Cake was always Leo's favorite dessert, even though he likes all sweet things in general.
Aunt June made a strawberry chiffon sponge cake. The cake was topped with a layer of whipped cream, with multiple strawberries placed on top. Inside the cake, there were two more layers of strawberries and cream. The chiffon cake was made with less sugar than the ones sold at a usual cake shop, making the cake more healthy.
Leo happily wolfed down half the cake by himself, much to the dismay of Uncle Evan.
"You'll get fat!" Uncle Evan shouted at Leo grumpily.
"Dear, it's Leo's big win today! Let him indulge in his favourite food." Aunt June coaxed.
"Hmph!" Uncle Evan pouted. Inwardly, however, he was quite happy for Leo as well.
I cut a small piece of cake for myself and ate it slowly. I am not a fan of sweets unlike Leo, so I simply gave the rest to Uncle and Aunt.
Afterwards, I headed to Leo's room to sleep, with Leo following behind. Both Uncle and Aunt were used to us sleeping on the same bed so they did not say anything.
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