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dragged me back here. No, we’re going to sit behind her.”
    Michael didn’t like that idea. “There’s no room.”
    Bubba ignored him. “Come on.”
    They didn’t actually get the seats directly behind Jessica, but a couple of rows back. Bubba obtained the space by gesturing to a couple of sophomores to move to the rear. Bubba did not have a reputation for being violent; nevertheless, the kids jumped when he pointed. Climbing the steps, Michael had kept his head turned away from Jessica. He didn’t know if she’d noticed him.
    Sitting in the row between Michael and Jessica were a couple of Tabb’s football players. They cheered loudly as the next speaker was announced: Bill Skater. Bubba began to lay out his Indian delicacies, opening a bottle of Perrier and spreading a cloth napkin across his lap. Michael saw Jessica lean forward as Bill strode toward the microphone. She had a pudgy girl with dark hair on her left and an orangehaired girl on her right. These two girls turned and spoke to Jessica when Bill appeared. Michael leaned forward, trying to block out Bill’s opening statements, straining to hear what the girls were saying.
    “He walks like a stiff board,” the one on the left said.
    “I hear he’s the worst quarterback in Tabb’s long history of terrible quarterbacks,” the one on the right said.
    “Shut up, both of you,” Jessica said.
    “Oh, but I think he’s cute,” the one on the left said.
    “He should take his shirt off and give his speech,” the one on the right agreed.
    “Shh. I want to hear what he has to say,” Jessica said.
    “What for, we’ve heard it all before,” the one on the left said.
    “Yeah, I wish I could get down there and tell them what this school really needs,” the one with orange hair said.
    This last comment caused Jessica and her pal on the left to break into laughter. Michael didn’t know what was so funny. He wondered if Jessica was interested in Bill Skater.
    Michael listened to Bill’s speech with an open and unprejudiced mind, but never did figure out what he was running for, much less why anyone should vote for him. Bubba continued to savor his meal. When Clair Harley’s name was announced next, however, Bubba looked up.
    “Isn’t she something?” he muttered as Clair swaggered to the microphone in her cute blueandgold cheerleader uniform.
    “She’s an empty phony devoid of an iota of intelligence.”
    Bubba nodded. “True. But if you look past those superficial qualities, you’ll see her true value.”
    “Which is?”
    “It’s hard to express in words. Just imagine her naked.”
    Clair’s speech had a content similar to Bill’s, which is to say it had no content at all. But she giggled a lot, whereas Bill had been as stiff as the board Jessica’s friend had compared him to, and she did have an alluring way of propping her hands on her hips at the top of her undeniably gorgeous legs. Clair made it clear she wanted to be school president
    The name Sara Cantrell was called next.
    “What the hell?” the girl on Jessica’s right said.
    “Go ahead, tell them what this school really needs,” Jessica said.
    “No way. I’d have to start by telling them it doesn’t need me.”
    “Coward,” the girl to Jessica’s left said.
    “Don’t call me a coward, you spineless fish.”
    “Sara Cantrell, please?” the announcer repeated.
    “It took you three years to alienate everyone at Mesa,” Jessica said. “Just think of the power you’ll have behind that microphone. You can do it all in one afternoon here.”
    The logic appealed to the strange girl named Sara. Michael watched as she stood and made her way down the bleacher steps and onto the gymnasium floor.
    “Hi, I’m Sara,” she began, completely at ease. “I’m not really running for anything. My friends Jessica Hart and Polly McCoy signed me up because they thought it would be funny to get me down here.” Sara pointed toward her friends. “They’re sitting right over