𝙸 𝙲𝚊𝚗'𝚝 𝙲𝚘𝚞𝚗𝚝 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚁𝚎𝚊𝚜𝚘𝚗𝚜

𝚂𝟸𝙴𝟷𝟷: 𝙵𝚛𝚊𝚗𝚔 𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝙻𝚎𝚘 𝚒𝚗 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝙼𝚘𝚘𝚘𝚘𝚛𝚗𝚒𝚗𝚐

Inspired by Community S2E17: "Intro to Political Science."

Piper POV

"Before we start studying," Jason says, "I just want to thank everyone that pitched in with my campaign platform, and I'm proud to announce that I made it past the application process!"

"Oh, that's nice! Congratulations, Jason!" Hazel says.

He flashes a toothy grin like John F. Kennedy or something. "Thank you for helping me put together the survey! I think my platform is going to be really popular because of it."

But Jason's not done crediting the people. He hasn't even won and already his acceptance speech is a mile long. "And Percy, thank you so much for passing around my petition. Oh, Annabeth, the stats you pulled from the survey... amazing. And the aesthetics of the graphs were just gorgeous. I think I have some ideas for my campaign color scheme!"

Annabeth and Percy smile. "Uh, thanks," Annabeth says.

"Leo and Frank..." Jason starts, "I have no idea what it is you're doing, but uh, keep doing it!"

Frank sips out of a coffee cup with his and Leo's faces on it. Strange.

Leo passes Frank a sheet of notebook paper. "What do you think about this for our jingle?"

Frank looks it over and then furrows his eyebrows. "No, too long."

"And what about me?" Piper asks. "I hung up the posters."

Jason wipes his glasses off with an actual cloth. Wow, he's all Mr. Politician now. "I hate to break it to ya, Pipes, but duct-taping all of the campaign posters to the water fountain outside the auditorium didn't make much of a dent. I mean, if you didn't want to help out, you should have just said so."

"Hey, don't blame me for thinking this whole thing was a joke!"

Collective gasps surge all around the study table, but Piper only said what everyone was thinking.

College government elections aren't all that much different than high school student council elections. You get the six or so nerds who are running, and everyone votes for the most popular people. Sure, it's great that Jason's sought out some goals, like requiring references on professors' applications and offering more vegan options in the cafeteria, but he can't think he'll actually win, can he? As far as popularity goes, well, Jason's a little lacking. Piper says that with fondness, though!

But if she were to gamble—and if she's being honest, she probably will—she'd probably bet on some smooth talker with a natural charisma. It would have to be a woman for sure, preferably someone who can represent the students at New Rome who often feel like they don't get a say...

Someone like, for example, herself.

That's not a half-bad idea. People like Piper. She's great at debating, and she's looking to dabble in some new activities. The days are just ticking by. Soon, she'll have to declare a major and figure out what she wants to do with the rest of her life.

She takes a sip of her frappuccino and pulls up the candidacy form on her MacBook computer.

Why do you want to run for student body president?

What would you like to accomplish as student body president?

Are you willing to attend debates at the following times?

That's easy. Because she wants to become an active member of campus life. As student body president, she'll open up more opportunities for students to become leaders in the student government. Say like, appointing a vice president to oversee a council... no, a senate. Piper would form a senate that would draft policies to be instituted at New Rome, leaving her with little to no actual responsibilities.