Chapter Text
MONDAY
SEPTEMBER 6th, 2004
TDA (Toronto Division Academy)
The homeroom bell rang loud through the halls while students settled into their seats. First day of senior year. Courtney sat next to her closest friend of 4 years, Bridgette. The two discussed what they did over the summer break.
“Well, my trip to San Clemente was so fun! How was your summer?”
Before Courtney could answer, the sound of microphone feedback filled the classroom. It’s not like her summer break was any fun anyway.
“Good Morning S-Students. Welcome to another year at Toronto Division Academy.”
The boy speaking tried his best to hide that he was reading off of cue cards but it didn’t work. He continued with the announcements.
Courtney, not being used to being up that early again, zoned out like every other student did during the announcements. When she zoned back in, the boy on the intercom was talking about the school’s Student Government Association.
“-And…. if any seniors would like to become class president…”
He took a long pause as the sound of papers shuffling filled the speakers.
“... sign up for SGA in the office!”
The know-it-all that sat behind Bridgette uttered “What’s the point of signing up anyway? We all know Heather’s gonna win.”
The whole class groaned.
Heather has been in SGA for all 4 years of high school and despite never having an official title in the club, she always got her way.
“Even if anyone ran against her, she would probably find a way to cheat her way to the presidency.” Bridgette added.
“Hey, the announcements are over. It’s time for English.” interjected Mr. Bonner, the buzzkill.
Courtney couldn’t focus for the rest of the period; she was too focused on her plan to become TDA’s 2005 President.
LUNCHTIME (1ST LUNCH)
Courtney couldn’t stop thinking about the morning announcements.
She pulled her lunchbox out of her backpack while she sat down in front of Bridegette and her boyfriend, Geoff. Courtney wasn’t great friends with Geoff but she tolerated him enough to be around him, unlike most of the other guys in the school. Plus, the two blondes were attached at the hip whenever they were near each other so Courtney had to get used to him.
“I swear I'm already flunking economy, Bridgie.”
“It’s literally the first day, babe. You need to believe in yourself more!”
“Aww, alright only for you.”
Courtney could care less about their conversation so she decided to interrupt it.
“Would it be crazy if I signed up for SGA and ran against Heather?” Courtney proposed.
Bridgette replied almost immediately.
“I was literally thinking of you running in first period! You should totally run!”
“Yeah I can totally see you doing presidential things, dude.” Geoff agreed.
“We should sign up together after we’re done eating!” After finishing their lunches, the girls walked towards the office to join SGA.
“When I win, you should definitely be my Vice President.” Courtney joked.
Bridgette laughed it off. They both knew she didn’t need one.
“No way, you know I’m not fit for that. Your Vice President should be someo- oh Hey, Gwen!”
A pale faced, goth girl passed the duo and waved which derailed Brigette’s train of thought. Bridgette started to talk to her but Courtney remarked that she wanted to sign up before lunch was over. Gwen only gave Courtney a short, sad glance before she and Bridgette exchanged goodbye’s.
Bridgette noticed and looked over at Courtney.
“What was that about?”
“I don’t want to talk about it right now, let’s just sign up.”
SUNDAY
JULY 5TH
DUNCAN’S ROOM
Courtney couldn't stop crying after she heard the rumors.
“Duncan… please tell me they’re not true, please.”
She already had the suspicion that Duncan was cheating on her with some goth whore. It was written in the girl’s bathroom stalls last year and people didn’t shy from talking about it near her.
Courtney always knew Gwen was more of Duncan's type but she never wanted him to leave her for the other girl.
“Babe, come on. You’re overthinking again. Gwen is nothing more than a friend, ok?” Duncan tried his best to comfort the crying girl on his bed.
“Ok.. you know how I overthink.”
Courtney spoke through tears but tried to laugh them off. She was tired of crying.
“Hey, we can watch that dumb wizard movie I hate to cheer you up.”
Duncan started to search his messy room for his car keys.
“Hey! Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban is not dumb. It’s a cinematic masterpiece.”
“Ok princess.”
Courtney wiped her tears on her sleeve while she followed Duncan out of the room and into his car.
She didn’t believe a word he said.
WEDNESDAY
SEPTEMBER 15th
Courtney and Bridgette walked into TDA chatting about Geoff’s weekly injury. Before Bridgette reached the climax of the story, Courtney interrupted her.
“What the hell?”
The halls were littered with posters and flyers belonging to Courtney’s only competitor. They read “ Vote Heather! There’s no one better!” “A vote for Heather is a vote for excellence.” All the posters were decorated with Heather’s smiling face.
“Why is she campaigning so early?” Bridgette asked.
“No clue…”
Courtney went up to one of the posters. All of them appeared to be professionally made.
“Looking at your 2005 Class President, I see!”
Heather emerged from nowhere to ridicule Courtney; her voice was so shrill that it made both the blonde and the brunette jump.
“Why are you doing this so early?” Courtney questioned, trying to ignore that she was blushing out of embarrassment. “We have the election in December.”
“Well I want people to know I’m campaigning… unlike you.”
Before Courtney could respond, Heather was already strutting away to her homeroom.
“She’s the worst! How could anyone vote for her?” Bridgette scowled.
Courtney turned to Bridgette to ignore the sight of Heather.
“She does have a point Bridge… she might win just based on the fact that her face is all over the school.”
“Courtney come on, it’s literally the first month of the school year! Don’t let her get under your skin.”
Courtney wished she could take Bridgette’s advice but it was too late. She’d never admit it but the whole thing embarrassed her.
Bridgette could tell.
“Let’s just go to homeroom so Mr. Bonner can fill your brain with nonsense about Frankenstien and you can forget about all of this.”
“Come on, Courts. There’s no way you’re still thinking about what she said.” Bridgette noticed Courtney hadn't touched her lunch yet.
“What’s wrong with her?” Geoff asked his girlfriend as if Courtney wasn’t there.
She hated when he did that. She finally spoke up.
“You have to admit she does have a point.” “What’s going on?” Geoff asked again, earning no reply.
“It is literally the second week of school. You have plenty of time to get your name out there! Seriously, do not worry about it.”
“Can I please get some context, dudes?”
Courtney would rather not answer him but she did just to shut him up.
“It’s Heather. She and I are running for class president and she’s already started campaigning”
He finally put the pieces together.
“Ohhhhhhh. Well, Bridge does have a point. I had no clue you were running.”
Courtney could feel her cheeks start to flush again.
She started to leave the table until Bridgette tapped her on the hand and pouted. It somehow convinced her to stay.
“Geoff, why the hell would you say that!? Just ignore him, Courtney... What about this? You can make posters in study hall and we can hang them up together in gym! You know Mr. Wright won’t care.”
“That’s a great plan, Brigette! What would I do without you?” Courtney reached over the table to hug her best friend.
“Overthink yourself to death.”
PHYSICAL EDUCATION (6th period)
“Did you get the posters done?” Bridgette asked.
The girls were sitting down near the wall of the gym, ignoring how little physical education they were getting.
“Yeah!” Courtney said while pulling said posters out of her backpack.
“I made them myself! Ms. Fox wouldn’t let me use the printer since study hall should ‘be a time of peace and quiet.’”
Courtney showed the blonde all of her homemade posters and unrolled the poster she made as well.
“Vote ‘4’ Courtney? You couldn't have been a little more creative?”
“It’s the only thing I could come up with in time. Someone was glaring at me the entire time.”
She nodded her head towards the familiar goth, Gwen. She was walking laps around the gym with her head down.
“Gwen? Why?’ Bridgette asked, sounding more concerned than Courtney liked.
“I don’t know or care. Let’s just get started on these posters.”
The girls got up, dusted their skirts off and headed into the hallway without permission. They hung up the posters in between (and on some) of Heather’s posters.
“I bet you feel great now.” Brigette sighed while taping the last poster over Heather’s printed face.
“I sure do…. but something’s missing.”
Courtney tapped her chin and looked around.
She found a small table with some chairs outside a math class and moved them towards an empty space between some lockers. She then took the last of the tape and tapped her poster onto the front of the table. She dusted her hands off with pride.
“There! I bet Heather never thought of this!”
Bridgette smiled and sat down.
“Why don’t we just stay here for the whole period and convince all the class skippers to vote for you?” She kicked her feet onto the table while Courtney sat next to her.
“Sounds great!”
There weren’t many students in the hallway but the few that passed that table didn’t leave without hearing something about voting for Courtney.
“Hey Owen! I’ll buy you a candy bar if you vote for me!”
The blond boy stopped at the table to apologize.
“Sorry, Courtney but Heather already bought me three!”
He pulled the three melted chocolate bars from his school uniform pants, showed them to the girls and walked away from the table.
“Damn she’s good.” the brunette signed while resting her chin in her hand.
Right after the 8th period bell rang, Courtney rushed to her makeshift booth in the math hall. She wanted to catch the after school crowd and convince them to vote for her. Since her last class was calculus, it wasn’t that far.
She made more “posters'' on heart shaped sticky notes instead of doing her work. It could wait. They weren’t as good as her other ones but they were better than nothing. She reached the table and sat down.
She chatted to students who were leaving and placed the sticky notes in their hand. Courtney was proud of her work and felt relieved about the election.
Ten minutes later, Courtney decided that was enough campaigning for the day and started to pack up and leave. In the corner of her eye, she noticed the gym doors swing open. Without turning around she knew who entered the school.
Duncan.
She sat back down and prayed he didn’t notice her. Her prayers were ignored since punk strolled straight to her table.
“So what’s up with this? ‘Vote 4 Courtney’? What did I miss?”
Courtney rolled her eyes. He didn't deserve an answer but she gave him one to humor him.
“It’s for class president. Use your brain.”
“But isn’t the election in December?”
“Why are you here? Did you vandalize McLean’s car again?” After everything that happened today, she couldn’t stand to give Duncan the time of day, but she knew he wouldn’t leave her alone.
“Not yet, but I am here because of my”
He pulled out a crumpled piece of paper from his pocket and quoted it.
“‘Offensive Behavior’...whatever that means.”
He took a long pause as he searched for something else to say.
“After I’m done getting yelled at, we should talk.”
The two haven’t had a real conversation since the breakup. Courtney half-heartedly agreed so he could leave her alone once and for all.
“Why don’t you sit IN the car?” Duncan asked from the driver’s seat.
“I’m good right here.” Courtney stood outside Duncan’s hand-me-down Honda Accord, tapping her foot impatiently.
“Whatever, pr- Courtney.” There was a lull in the conversation.
“Should Gwen be in that seat anyway?”Courtney asked sharply.
“She hasn’t talked to me since August.”
“Oh.”
She knew she struck a nerve by mentioning Gwen. Seems like all Gwen does is strike nerves.
“Do you want a ride home?”
“No, I drove here.”
The words hung in the air. The silence was extremely loud. “
Alright well... good talk.. I’ll see you around.”
He drove off leaving Courtney alone in the parking lot.
“What a waste of time.” She said to no one.