Chapter 154 – A Fair Vote – Silver Brooks

Today was the day of the vote and Holly wasn’t holding anything back. This vote wasn’t being held inside the Old Science Wing as a group-only discussion. It was being held in the library with a few uninvolved spectators, most notably the other members of the student council and the school principal himself.

Naomi was here too, at the principal’s request. She wouldn’t be participating in anything or even speaking a word to anyone, but she was here to witness the outcome. The principal talked to Naomi’s parents about this over the phone after consulting with Holly. He, like Holly, believed these things needed to be handled decisively.

Naomi was sitting at one of the far library tables along with the members of the student council. The members of our gang were sitting across several of the other library tables, me included. Holly, Alyssa, and the principal were sitting up front, beside a whiteboard on wheels.

There was a box on the table sitting just in front of them. This event was being given such heavy consideration because everyone wanted this thing to be decided once and for all. Both Casper’s faction and Perri’s faction expressed how tired they were of treating their friends like strangers.

Everyone was ready for this to be solved. This vote was currently taking place during first period. Everyone was excused from class and Holly sent emails to the members of the staff about the permitted absences. Holly took a place in front of the voting box and prepared to speak.

“Now that everyone’s gathered and ready I’d like to begin.” Holly said. “Everyone here will accept the outcome of an honest, democratic vote, right?”

Most of the girls nodded, but Perri raised her hand. Holly nodded at her.

“How can we expect you to be honest?” Perri asked. “I know you’ve got a reputation, but I also know that you’re biased against me here. How will we know that the votes are what you say they are if we don’t see them ourselves?”

Holly pointed over to the girls standing on the sides, near the bookshelves.

“These girls are random volunteers that I gathered this morning in the cafeteria lobby. I don’t know all of them and they haven’t been told anything other than they’d be overseeing a vote. I didn’t offer them anything other than some time off from class for helping us. If you don’t trust me, you can trust them.”

Perri gave the dozen or so girls a curious look over.

“Will you accept the outcome of the vote?” Holly asked in a stern voice. “Or will I defer things to Ms. Sampson over the phone?”

Perri turned back to Holly with a scowl.

“Fine.” Perri said. “I’ll accept the outcome, but I’ll still be watching you for any funny business.”

Holly smiled.

“There’s no need for any funny business. This will be a fair vote. It will be a fair, ranked choice, school vote.”

My eyes widened at this announcement.

I immediately realized what Holly was going for. This was why she was so confident about the vote! If this were a regular one-person-one-vote setup then Perri held an advantage. A ranked choice vote wasn’t particularly in her favor against three other competitors.

I turned around in my seat to see that the student council girls all looked mildly surprised by Holly’s announcement. She hadn’t told anyone this. Perri and Casper gave each other confused looks. The other members of our group were sharing similar looks.

“Ranked choice…?!” Perri blurted out. “What the hell is that supposed to mean?”

“You’re probably most familiar with first-past-the-post styles of voting where each person has one vote. In ranked choice you’ll be listing candidates from most preferred to least preferred.”

“How is the winner determined in this system?” Casper asked.

“As the votes are tallied, the lowest preferred candidates are eliminated from the vote, and their tallies handed over to their next preferred candidate until all votes have been considered and one candidate has a majority.”

Perri sat up straight in her seat as she realized that she didn’t hold all the cards here. Whatever she had planned had just been thrown out the window. Even if she had the votes of everyone from her faction, it wasn’t enough to win this type of vote outright.

There were 24 of us assembled here altogether and 12 or 13 wouldn’t cut it. She’d need to be selected in second place from members of Casper’s faction too, which probably wasn’t going to happen. The two groups had been in such heated disagreement with each other that they were probably too jaded to vote for the leader of the other faction.

That was bad news for Casper too because the same held true for her. Sure, she’d be in the first slot for roughly half of the group, but the other half would never put her as their second most preferred candidate. After arguing between each other for so long, how could they? This type of vote favored a more moderate candidate.

Holly knew it. How long had she been planning this? Was this what she planned from the very start? Is this why a vote was suggested in the first place? Everyone was looking around at each other with a sense of awe, because now no one knew what could happen. The outcome was anyone’s victory.

Holly wrote the names, Perri, Casper, Sam, and Silver up on the whiteboard, each name given a different color in marker. She signaled to Alyssa and Alyssa started handing out pens and papers. Holly also signaled to the spectators standing on the sidelines, allowing them to move around the room and keep an eye on things.

“Rank all four of the candidates from one to four.” Holly said. “Fold your papers and put them inside this box. We’ll tally up the votes only once everyone is done. You may now begin.”

The first name I put down was Casper. I wasn’t sure if she’d make a great leader, but I felt like Perri would lead our group down a destructive path. Casper was the safest choice. The second name I put down was Sam. Sam was another moderate choice compared to Perri. I also trusted Sam to be more stable.

Sam was one of the closest people to Naomi, despite coming into our group fairly late in high school. She felt like she could be a natural continuation to Naomi’s leadership. If I wasn’t such close friends with Casper then I might’ve put Sam first. Now I was left deciding between myself and Perri.

I put Perri’s name down next. It wasn’t because I thought she’d be a better leader than me. It was because I wasn’t sure that I really wanted to be leader in the first place. It would be time consuming to be the center of our group and there were other things I wanted to do now that I knew the truth behind the Killing Cat.

I couldn’t afford to be bogged down in social affairs and also have Holly’s back the same way that Alyssa did. Casper was already spending most of her time socializing with our group so it wouldn’t be a big deal for her. The same was true of Sam, while she wasn’t grounded at least.

Sam was always skipping out on her student council responsibilities just to be with us at critical times. She was a socially outgoing and understanding person, although maybe not in the same manner that Holly was. She was someone that everyone in our group was friends with, including Perri.

Her original position in the student council was student relations, after all. She was flaky when it came to that job, but I felt like she had a knack for managing people when she really wanted to. She was instrumental in getting the school a soccer field and club. If she could do that, then I felt certain she could manage our little group.

My name was last on my list. I loved our organizations culture and planned to be part of it, but I recently realized something. I loved Holly’s vision too. I didn’t care for the murder and brutality of it. I cared about the end goal. The Killing Cat was about cleaning up the past so that the school could have a new future, free from those dirty secrets.

I used to wonder how Holly reconciled her double-life as the Killing Cat and a student counselor. Now I knew. She wasn’t treating these things as entirely separate goals. Rather, these were two very different roles, in different positions, on the same front. The Killing Cat was righting the past. Holly Hayfield was helping the school move forward.

That being the case, I couldn’t afford to become our group’s leader. I was happy to be a part of it, but I wasn’t going to devote all of my time to it. That honor deserved to go to someone more involved with the day-to-day activities of our organization and that wasn’t me.

The voting session didn’t take long. Everyone came in here with a number one preference. The follow up preferences were probably the only thing giving them pause. I was one of the last ones to put my paper in the box, all things considered. It took me a moment of deliberation to write Perri’s name above my own.

“The tallying will now begin.” Holly said, dumping the boxes contents out onto the table.

Alyssa stood beside the board with a marker. Holly, the principal, and a few of the spectators all stood around the table where our votes were being considered. Holly made sure that they all got a good look at the ballots she picked up before handing them off to Alyssa.

The counting process felt drawn out do to the type of vote that was taking place. The votes all had to be reconsidered when a name was eliminated from the process. My name was the first name to be eliminated. It was no surprise to me, nor was I offended by the fact.

My absence within our group was probably felt by the whole group. I didn’t want to ‘choose’ a side between Perri and Casper during the conflict, which made me a bit of an outsider in each group. I wasn’t like Sam who went on pretending like the argument wasn’t happening.

Sam, like me, never chose a side, but she also didn’t hesitate to mingle between groups like normal. So that’s why I wasn’t surprised when her name remained up on the board alongside Perri’s. Casper looked upset to be eliminated, and gave Perri a hard stare. Perri smiled smugly, seeing her primary competitor removed from the competition.

That smug look didn’t last long. Perri was eliminated and the last remaining name on the board was Sam. Everyone turned to look at her as the final tally marks came in. She was sitting in the back, near the rest of the student council. She stood up when she realized the outcome. Naomi was the first one to congratulate her by excitedly jumping on her back and shouting.

“I told you! I told you, Sam!” Naomi shouted. “I knew it! I knew you could do it!”

“Haha, you did! Thanks! I can’t believe it!” Sam said with a wide smile.

Sam walked down the aisle between the tables with Naomi still hanging on her back like a monkey. Everyone clapped as she walked by, save for Perri and Jin. Some of the girls even stood up. I followed their example, and soon, more girls did too. Funnily enough, the principal was the first one to shake Sam’s hand.

“I love democracy.” The principal said in a monotone voice.

Holly rolled her eyes at him.

“Thank you, Mr. McMullen. You’ve helped us solve this dilemma.” Holly said. “I think we can handle things from here.”

“Then I’ll be in my office if you need me.” The principal said. “It’s been fun.”

The principal walked around the table and left for the library door. He wasn’t alone. Perri and Jin got up and followed behind him. Holly watched them like a hawk as they left. No one else followed the two of them out, which meant that this internal division was over with. Seeing that, Naomi brought several of us into a group hug.

“My girlfriends are back together again!” Naomi shouted. “I love you girls! Come on! Gather in! Group hug!”

“Too tight!” I said as I was pulled into the center. “Too tight! Let me out!”

“Haha, just a little bit longer!” Casper said. “I’m glad that Sam was the one that won!”

“Me too!” Brianna said. “She was my second choice!”

“Mine too!” Violet said.

“Actually, she was nearly everyone’s second choice.” Holly said from outside the group hug. “Only a few people had her as their first choice, but almost everyone thought she’d make a good backup.”

“I’m honored.” Sam said. “I’ll do my best. I want to develop our group into something more than it is right now. I’ve got a few ideas, but I’ll need help from the rest of you girls to plan things going into the future.”

“My parents still have an eye on me, but I’ll do what I can remotely.” Naomi said. “I’ll still be a part of the group ChatCat server, and who knows, maybe I’ll be active in the group again after graduation!”

“Let me out!” I said one more time.

The girls finally pulled out of the group hug and let me draw in a full breath of fresh air. They all laughed as I dramatically took a deep breath. Everyone started shaking Sam’s hand. Valentina broke through the group in order to put a hand on Sam’s shoulder.

“I guess this means you’ll be absent from even more student council meetings.” Val said.

“Guess so!” Sam said with a shrug.

“We should do something to celebrate!” Brianna said.

“How many of you can come to my place tonight?” Sam asked. “I’ll call my sister and talk to her about having you all over.”

The group started making plans to meet together after school. Naomi wanted to go too, but wasn’t sure she could get permission to go to Sam’s place. Sam was going to have to convince her sister Ashley to allow so many people over at once. I wasn’t part of the conversation. Holly dismissed the spectators and then pulled me off to the side.

We walked away from the rest of the group, back behind some of the bookshelves on the far side of the room. Alyssa was the only one to follow us over. Even Alyssa kept her distance from us, instead, acting like a lookout for the two of us. Holly put one arm around me and pulled me close enough so that she could whisper into my ear.

“My plan to infiltrate the news station begins after school. Are you going to Sam’s party, or are you coming with me?”

“No, I’m coming with you.” I said. “I want to meet this co-conspirator for myself.”