Jenny Pox (The Paranormals, Book 1) (6 page)

She let Seth reach into the top of her blouse, even into her bra, and grope around in there.  She felt distracted and a little bit nervous.  Senior class president was one of the last big check boxes.

She’d started in ninth grade, when she’d not only been elected freshman class president but also founded the Future Leaders of America club, which invited businesspeople and local politicians to give talks about how to succeed.  She’d been president of that club ever since, growing it to seventy members so far. 

Her sophomore year, she’d started a chapter of the national, youth-led Cool Crusaders ministry at her church, for kids 12-18.  She’d taken the idea for their first big project from the Cool Crusaders website: campaigning to ban the
Harry Potter
series from the school libraries on the grounds that it promoted witchcraft.  Ashleigh didn’t really believe
Harry Potter
had an evil influence, and actually liked the books personally, but she also liked organizing the kids, having them write letters to church leaders, newspapers and radio stations.  She liked convincing the Women’s Steering Committee at her church to support her.  She even got herself elected President of the ‘Christians Act!’ student prayer group in school, to enlist more kids.

They’d given out anti-
Potter
pamphlets all over town, at church, the county fair, the Wal-Mart.  They held protests.  They were opposed by the school librarian, the school principal Mr. Harris, some English teachers, and a few members of the school board.  Eventually, Ashleigh was invited to a Christian radio station in Greenville, one that half of South Carolina could hear.  She told the talk show host lurid stories about how Satan worship was really popular among the kids, because everybody wanted to be like the students at Hogwarts.  How it involved lots of drugs and sex.  And, of course, how the kids were brilliant at hiding the devil worship from their parents.  She even took calls from listeners.

Afterward, Ashleigh and Cassie and Neesha rolled on the floor of Cassie’s room and laughed until their throats ached.

After that media attention, Ashleigh’s crusade was joined by Cassie’s father Mayor Winder, the County Commissioners, and even State Senator Rutherford “Randy” Hoke.  They pressured the county school board until they caved, Ashleigh won, and the books were removed from both school and public libraries.  Then everybody in town knew Ashleigh was a force to be respected, on her own terms, not just because her dad was the white preacher. 

Then last year, she’d become the first junior in the school’s history to be elected captain of the varsity cheerleading squad, a job that always went to a senior cheerleader.  This was helped along by some incriminating photos of a few of the senior girls, which Ashleigh had arranged, and which those girls were very eager to keep secret.

This year, Ashleigh was once again varsity cheerleader captain, president of the Future Leaders of America, president of Christians Act!, editor of the yearbook, and on track to becoming class valedictorian.  All she needed to cinch the perfect Georgetown application was to win today’s election.

“
Stop,” Ashleigh said.  She pulled Seth’s hand from her blouse, then adjusted her bra and shirt.  “Drive, or we’ll be late for school.”

***

The senior class met in the cafeteria first thing in the morning.  Student council candidates, and Mr. Harris the principal, sat on plastic chairs on the raised stage at one end.  The A/V club had set up the podium, microphone and speakers.  The rest of the senior class and several teachers sat at the cafeteria tables to watch the speeches.

Ashleigh kept a cheerful smile as she listened to the other students give their halting, nervous speeches.  There were three candidates for class treasurer, and Ashleigh’s chosen was Bret Daniels, a linebacker and friend of Seth’s.  She made a big show of smiling at him in apparent admiration while he gave his short speech in a flat monotone.

Neesha gave her speech for the class historian position.  She proposed a spectacular spring musical that would incorporate all the various creative clubs, a big stadium-sized production the town would never forget.  Wendy Baker looked shocked, then horrified, then sick to her stomach as she listened to a larger and more elaborate version of her own big idea.

When it was finally her turn, Wendy stumbled through the first two sentences of her speech.  Then she burst into tears and ran sobbing out of the cafeteria.  Ashleigh watched with a look of concern on her face as Wendy ran away.

The spring musical itself would never happen, since it sounded like a huge, lame waste of time to Ashleigh.  She couldn’t see how such a thing would fit into her own plans.  But the point was to shepherd her people through the election.

Mr. Harris announced the presidential candidates.  Brad Long did what stupid debate club kids always did—talking way too fast, with too many big words.  He got a smattering of applause as he sat down.

Ashleigh, the incumbent from last year, cleared her throat into her fist and approached the podium.  She adjusted the microphone height—she was taller than Brad, so this brought a few laughs.  Then she looked up and beamed a smile at the eighty-three kids in her graduating class.

“
Hi, I’m Ashleigh Goodling, and I’m running for president.” This brought some applause and whistles.  Nobody had whistled for Brad Long. Ashleigh looked out on the crowd.  For a moment, she met the evil blue eyes of Jenny Mittens, the bitch who looked like a skinny corpse with a bad, self-administered haircut and horrible clothes.  And the gloves, of course.  An arc of hate crackled momentarily between them, like electricity leaping from one pole to the next, and Ashleigh quickly shifted her gaze to more pleasant people.

“
I want to say something before I start,” Ashleigh said. “Wendy Baker’s out of the room now, but I just wanted to say that stage fright is not easy.  I’m dealing with some right now.” She got laughter out of that. “When I was a kid, I struggled with it a lot, giving talks at church, and other places.  It’s something you learn to deal with.  But it’s hard, and I hope nobody makes fun of her about it.  Can we agree on that?”

This brought a murmur of agreement, and all the teachers smiled at Ashleigh.  Then Cassie’s boyfriend Everett, probably prompted by Cassie, shouted “You said it, Ashleigh!” which made people laugh.

“Okay, now for my speech,” Ashleigh said.  She’d practiced it so many times that she didn’t really need the note cards in front of her. “We’ve been together a long time, haven’t we?  Most of us have gone to school right here in Fallen Oak since kindergarten.  And this is our last year together, y’all.  And that’s actually pretty sad when you think about it.

“
All of you know who I am, and I know each one of you.  I know people say things about me.  I’ve heard some of that, and I’m sure you have.

“
People make fun of me for being the head cheerleader.  But to them I say, excuse me for having a little school spirit, and trying to make things fun for everybody.  I think we should all have a good time at our games, and support our team.  That’s just how I feel.

“
They laugh at me for starting the Future Leaders of America club.  Well, I just personally think it really does matter that you and I learn all we can, so we can build an even better, more powerful America tomorrow, when it’s our turn to run the world.  You don’t have to agree with me, but those are my values.

“
They laugh at me for being so busy with church.  Well, I’m sorry, but I happen to believe in spirituality, and in giving back to the community.  I just think it’s right.  It’s important to me, and it’s hurtful when people make fun of me for that.

“
They laugh at me for wearing my abstinence ring.” Ashleigh held up the ring finger with the silver band. “Okay, that’s fine.  I just think it’s important to have self-respect, and to respect your own body, and not let people take advantage of your feelings.  You know, it’s easy to fall in love and easy to get hurt, and easy to screw things up for yourself.  I think abstinence is about responsibility and making the right choices for the future.  I don’t insist everybody does it.  I don’t make fun of people who don’t choose abstinence.  So why make fun of me just for my personal choices?

“
So, you don’t have to agree with everything I stand for,” Ashleigh said. “But remember, this is the year that counts.  Senior year.  Student council is responsible for homecoming, and most of all, prom.  These are the memories that will last our whole lives.  You want responsible people to make sure they turn out great, and you know that my friends and I are the people who can take care of all that, and do it in a way that makes everybody happy.”  This was a little over the line, since candidates weren’t supposed to endorse other candidates, but what was Mr. Harris going to do, disqualify her? 

“
So, please vote for me, Ashleigh, for president.  And I’ll take care of everything.”

The cheer squad, football team, prayer club and Future Leaders all stood to applaud her, as she’d personally, secretly asked them individually to do.  Most of the class followed the trend.  Ashleigh looked carefully among the crowd.  Jenny Mittens was still seated, of course, looking at her own shoes.  A few other kids, mostly friends of the other candidates, stayed in their chairs and looked morose.

The whole “Ashleigh ticket” won the election in a landslide.

The Saturday morning after the election, Ashleigh and friends were back at school for cheer practice while the football team scrimmaged in their practice jerseys.  It was Labor Day weekend.  The day was hot and sticky under the scorching blue sky.

As they drove away from practice, a light drizzle began to fall.  Ashleigh was riding with Seth in his convertible, and she had been looking forward to letting the hot day blow dry her hair, shirt and shorts.  She sighed as Seth put up the roof.  He needed a blow dry himself.  Dirt and grass stained his practice uniform, and his strawberry blonde hair was damp and reeked of sweat from hours inside his helmet.

Up ahead, Cassie and Neesha rode with Everett and Dedrick in Everett’s red Ranger with the stupid yellow-flame decals.  The plan was to drop the girls at Ashleigh’s so they could clean up, change into bathing suits, and fill Ashleigh’s picnic basket with sandwiches and snacks.  The boys would change out of their pads, possibly shower (one could hope) and round up some beer and pot for the night.  Then they were meeting everybody at Barrett Pond, the town reservoir.  The afternoon and night would be all about swimming and getting totally hammered.

But right now, while they were alone, Ashleigh needed to talk with Seth.

“
What are you doing about your SAT?” she asked him.

“
What?” Seth asked back, without turning his head from the road.  An obvious delaying tactic.  He played his stupid Mos Def CD at ear-splitting volume. 

“
Are you practicing for the SAT yet?” Ashleigh shouted, letting a little shrillness creep into her voice as she turned down the stereo. “You don’t have much time left!”

“
Oh, that,” Seth said. “Yeah, totally.  I’m starting on that next week.”

“
You should have been doing it all summer,” Ashleigh snapped. “I kept telling you—”

“
I said I’m going to work on it!”

“
You’d better,” she said. “You’re not getting into Georgetown with your scores from last year.”

“
Not everybody can get a perfect SAT score like you, Ashleigh.”

“
Maybe not, but your score has to come up.  It just takes practice, like football.”

“
Yeah.” He watched the road quietly for a minute. “What if I don’t get into Georgetown?”

“
Then we go to NYU,” Ashleigh said. “I have to be in the center of things, where the action is.  How many times do I have to tell you--”

“
And if I don’t get into NYU, can we just go to Clemson instead?”

“
Clemson?
  I know you’re kidding.  Tell me you’re kidding, Seth.”

Seth shrugged. “My dad went there.  Turned out okay for him.”

“Okay?  Seth, just running your family’s little toy bank in this shitbox little town is not okay.  My life is going to be about way more than what’s okay.  I am not spending my life at the Eldrid Country Club, drinking mimosas and spitting out babies.” This was a direct swipe at Ashleigh’s own mother and her friends.

“
I know, Ashleigh.  But my parents spend a lot of time in Florida, too.  They’ve got a boat.  That wouldn’t be so bad, would it?”

Ashleigh gripped the armrest, her knuckles whitening as her frustration mounted into fury.

“I am going to Georgetown for undergrad,” she said. “And you are coming with me.  Do you understand?”

“
Hey, I know, believe me,” he said. “Maybe there’s a short-bus school for me near there.  We can still get a place together or something.”

“
No.  I need you by my side, shaking people’s hands.  It’s all about who you meet in those schools.” Ashleigh reeled in the anger and put on her sweetest smile.  She rubbed his thigh through the grass-stained practice pants. “I just want what’s best for us.  I know you can go far if you just try.  I have faith in you.”