The Four Of Them

Hazel

I looked down to the letter in my hands. It was marked with our school’s trademark symbol, a dolphin, and was adressed to me, Hazel Grant. I wondered if this was it, if this was going to the letter that told me I got into student council, the letter that I’d been hoping for all summer. Or if this letter would be kind condolences for not getting in. The anticipation set my fingers moving and I ripped open the envolope. I usually opened envolopes with the upmost care, least I tear the letter, but this time I just couldn’t wait. Eagerly, I took out the piece of paper with trembling hands. It said :

Dear Miss Grant,

We are delighted to inform you that you have won a place on student council next year. We hope that you will make the most of this opportunity, and improve life at school for both you and your fellow students. However, this will be especially important this year, as our new principal has decided to give more power to this year’s student council as part of a program to teach students responsibility. This means that members of student council also have the ability to :

1) Give or take away detentions

2) Decide what the school does with its extra money

3) Choose what lessons will be incuded in our PSHE curriculum

4) Control all extra curricular activities

And many other things. The principal has seen it fit to give student council members almost as much power as a member of the board of governers would have. In regards to this matter, the board of governers have also agreed to step back this year to help you with this new arrangement. However, we would like you to understand that this by no means undermines the principle’s authority, as he is still the head of this school and still has the power to expel students and give detentions. We would also like to remind you that all decisions to do with the school have to be agreed to as a group, with the majority vote, and have to be presented to the principal with all of you present. However, the principal would also like to remind you that he will back almost any decision you make as long as it’s decided by the student council as a group. The student council members are:

Daniel Ramirez

Corinna Brooks

Alaina Bacher

Alyssa Lynch

Lauren Smith

Hazel Grant

Derek Aldrich

Jerome Cleveland

Many Congratulations,

Deputy Head

I was overjoyed that I’d gotten in student council. it was what I’d been hoping for all summer! But I knew most of the others and they were not who I'd have expected to be on student council. I’d expected Corinna, she was the smartest in our year and her grades never dropped below 90%, she was quite a sensible person to be on the council. Danie,l I suppose I could understand why he got voted on. He was very popular, handsome and he was very fit from all the sports that he did, however, he could sometimes be brash. Although he might have changed over the summer! Alaina......I always thought she could do with a little more positivity and kindness, it’s not that she was unkind, she was just too full of sarcasm and dry wit, but I could see how she got on the council as she was quite popular and could be charming when she wanted to be (Which was not er. Alyssa was the prom queen and she was very popular, I wish I could be like that, she was a little inconsiderate sometimes, but that’s probably just accidental. Lauren was Alyssa’s friend, and she seemed nice. Jerome, on the other hand, was.. if I was being honest, a bit of a jerk. He was popular, but I got the feeling that everyone just wanted to suck up to him because of how influencial his family is. I didn’t know Derek at all. I just remembered him as another person on the football team. I hoped that the school would be alright though. This much power, given to the school council.....Perhaps it’d be alright, perhaps this was set up so that people like Jerome would learn responsibilty. I wasn’t that hopeful though. I just wished that we could get through this school year without damaging the school. I headed downstairs to get breakfast then, and thought no more about it.

Corinna was eating breakfast when the letter came. She haphazardly put down her utensils on her waffles as she rushed over to get the letter. With anticipation and excitement, she opened the letter with trembling fingers. This was it. This would either be another accomplishment of many, or one of the biggest disappointments of her school life. She read through the letter, and a slow raident smile spread across her face. She had made it! And with the extra power, she could now optimise how the school was run. She’d have to get everyone else on board, but she wasn’t too worried about that. They were sure to see reason. After all, they were going to this school too, and it would be better to have a optimised system for students’ eveyday life, wouldn’t it.She went back to eating her waffles, and she contemplated all the improvements they could make in the school as she ate.

Alaina opened her letter and laughed when she got to the other council members. What a bunch of idiots, she thought. Alyssa was vain and rude. She didn't have the right to look down on everyone else just because she was popular, and Lauren was such a quiet lapdog, following Alyssa around everywhere. Hazel was nice enough, she supposed, but she was also quite naive and far too optimistic. She wouldn't last a day in the council if she always tried to please everyone. Corinna.....she didn't really have much of an opinion on Corinna, she admired her dedication and she supposed that Corinna was quite logical and clever, but she'd never had the opportunity to really talk to her. However, she had a feeling that she wasn't quite as quiet as she seemed. Daniel though, was a different matter. With his arrogance, hot-headedness and annoyingly loud voice, he irritated her to no end, especially when he talked and roared with laughter with his friends in the

library

of all places. Why he couldn't shut up and keep his voice down was a mystery to her. Perhaps he'd die if he had to be quiet for more than five minutes. Jerome was even worse. He was incredibly snooty and rude, and looked down on

everyone, including

his so called 'friends' who were likely only trying to cozy up to him for his family's power. Even though she absolutely hated him, Alaina knew that it wouldn't do to piss off him or his family, as they were very rich and very powerful and could make all her work towards her future null and void. So she avoided saying or doing anything that might anger him, and steered clear of him overall. She knew she could have tried to use his familiy's influence, but it would take large amounts of work just to gain a 5% chance of his help, so she had decided that it wouldn't be worth it. She dismissed Derek altogether. He seemed like a very normal, unremarkable person. She had no idea how he'd gotten on the council in the first place, but he'd probably just got a lot of friends. The extra power though.....That she could make use of, though she wished that Daniel wasn't on the council so that she could give him detention and make him miss one of his football meetings the same way he'd interupted her studying and made her miss homework deadline. She sighed, as she realized she'd have to put up with them all year, but perked up as she remember all the perks that came with having to put up with them.