The Rise - Chapter 15

Immediately after arriving back home after meeting his grandmother, Leon took his notebook and drove to Justin’s home to talk campaign strategy. Upon arriving he was let through the gates of the Tundra mansion. He found the car of his father’s driver parked in the front.

Leon came storming out the car rushing towards the house ready to confess to Justin what happened between him and Veronica. Veronica came out suddenly of the house walking past him on the stairway towards door.

Talking through her forced smile “Don’t tell him.” she said as she momentarily paused then continued to walk past him.

Leon looked at her then looked at the door to see Justin suddenly appear

“Leon! You’re late, come on let’s get moving.” said Justin

“Veronica, where are you going?” said Leon turning around towards Veronica

Veronica stopped abruptly then turned her heard around slowly with a distraught look on her face.

“F-for a walk?” she said barely able to make a sentence.

Leon turns towards Justin

“Justin, I need Veronica if I’m going to win this election. She’s president of the newspaper club right? I need her to sit on all our meetings from now on.” said Leon locking eyes with Justin.

Justin had never seen Leon so serious. Justin looked at Veronica confused and she looked back with her eyebrows burrowed worriedly.

“All right, that makes sense. I don’t see why not.” said Justin rubbing the side of his forehead.

On their way to Justin’s room they passed their fathers sitting in the living room with several other people surrounding them. They were most likely party members, campaign leaders and lawyers. Leon convinced himself that they looked far too busy for him to stop and say hello, but a deeper part of him didn’t want to confront his father.

Inside Justin’s room was Taylor laying upside down on Justin’s king size bed playing with a rubix cube. His room was vast enough to have its own vending machine and drum set with a row of guitars perfectly placed for display.

Taylor with his head still upside down rolls his eyes back to see the three enter the room, he rolls around upright as soon as he sees Veronica. He stares at her with his mouth in a circle, then looks back and forth between Leon and Justin for a few seconds of silence.

“She’s just here because she runs the school newspaper” said Justin

“Oh! Am I allowed to make eye contact?” said Taylor smiling

“Very funny, stop making it into a big deal. We don’t have a lot of time.” said Justin

Taylor sat on the bed with his legs crossed, whilst Justin and Leon sat upright on large bean bags facing Taylor. Veronica was in the corner sitting at Justin’s desk facing the three from afar, with her head resting on her hand unamused. Her and Leon’s eyes would meet every once in a while.

Leon briefly described what his grandmother told him about the shadow council and the election.

“I always thought the shadow council was just a conspiracy theory.” said Taylor

“The only reason I knew about it was cause my dad didn’t want me to accept George’s student council invitation last year.” said Justin

‘Why Jessica?’ thought Veronica to herself about why did Hilda choose to back her

“The principle and Thomas are backing Sinclair, Hilda and the vice principle are backing Jessica and we can only guess the prime minister is supporting his son George.” said Leon

He looks at everyone in the room “Which means, we’re not dealing with high school kids anymore. Every move we make will have to take into consideration who’s pulling the strings behind the scenes. This changes everything.” he continued.

Taylor raises his hand after a short silence.

“Just talk” said Justin

“I’ve got you some numbers Leon” said Taylor taking out his laptop

“Your stat dad help you out with those?” said Justin jokingly

“If by ‘stat dad’ you mean CEO of the largest consulting firm, then no. And once again Justin, he’s not my dad” said Taylor

“Oh ~ CEO of the largest consulting firm” said Justin laughing teasingly

It’s popular among large family dynasties to marry within the family, even Justin’s parents are cousins. . However, to avoid the genetic complications of rampant inbreeding, some families used to pay large amounts of money for sperm donors with desirable characteristics. Taylor was part of this generation, his true father is an unknown sperm donor. However, fifteen years ago, it became extremely unpopular after in-vitro fertilization became a norm allowing for birth without genetic deficiencies despite inbreeding.

“Usually 30-40% of the high school population just doesn’t vote, but you can expect that number to drop cause of the huge attention the election is getting. Meaning around 60-80% of the population can be targeted.” said Taylor

“Not really, each candidate most likely has a group of loyal voters based on their interaction in school. For example, George was previously the president so he probably has the most amount of people that will vote for him regardless. Jessica is president of three clubs and vice president of two more – most likely all those people in those clubs are loyal to Jessica so she most likely has the second highest.” said Veronica

The three look at her in bewilderment

“What? I covered last year’s election, I know this stuff.” she said fiercely

“That means those that haven’t made up their mind up will decide the election. The problem is they usually ride bandwagons and vote for whoever they ‘feel’ should win. No one really cares about student council elections – so policies and promises mean nothing. It’s nothing more than a popularity contest and as it stands Leon, your very unpopular but George is extremely so.” said Taylor

“I wouldn’t be so sure, Leon’s dad has some cult like followers.” said Justin

Leon remembered the woman on the train who seemed to support her father regardless of the corruption allegations.

“I think I may have met one them…” said Leon

“If the children of those loyal to your dad are in high school, then they may support you as well.” said Justin

“If they were there, I think you would’ve met them by now.” said Veronica

“Would you talk to the son of your boss? You’d probably be afraid to mess things up. But this election may make them come out of their shells thinking they have something to offer.” said Justin

“Nevertheless, that leaves two ways to win. Either sway the voters to believe I’m the one that should win, or” Leon pauses “effectively remove everyone else from the race.”