Vintage Red [GL]

While I was eating some cake I got some time to look around the Student Council room for a bit longer. It was actually more pragmatic than I had imagined, I mean, it was still really fancy, this table probably cost more than any furniture I have ever owned, in my last house at least, but there weren’t that many paintings or busts or anything like that. 

“What are you looking at, Aurora?” Pres asked. 

“It’s less… I don’t know… less luxurious than I had imagined.”

“Were you expecting a painting of the student council presidents?”

“Something like that.” I admitted. 

“Would be a bit unreasonable to have a painting painted every year or so, no?” Pres smiled. 

“Hey, this is Saint Katherine’s we are talking about. There’s plenty of stuff here that I find rather unreasonable.” I chuckled back. “Would you be that surprised if the student council did have a painting made every year?”

Pres tilted her head, thought for a second, took a sip of her tea and nodded. “That is fair…” 

“We don’t have paintings but we do have photographs of the entire student council team, of the student council president and vice-president and then a solo picture of the president herself.” President Cornwallis butted in. “Taken every year and going back all the way to 1827.”  

“Wait, for real? That’s just after the photograph was invented.” I looked at the president in surprise. 

She nodded and beckoned both me and Pres along towards one of the bookcases next to the wall. We walked past a couple of other students who were acting as if they weren’t paying attention to us, but it was clear they were at least a little bit jealous about the time the president was spending on us. The president then proceeded to take a leather bound book with a nicely decorated back from one of the shelves and opened it up for us. “These aren’t the original pictures anymore, those have been donated to a museum for display and preservation, but they made copies for us to keep.” She continued by flipping to a page and turned the book around to us. In it were a couple of pictures marked by the date ‘1st of September 1827’. 

From the look of it the first student council only really existed out of four girls. Then again, the school must’ve been really small back then as education for girls was not really big back then, and that’s an understatement. All the girls in the picture were wearing quite intricate dresses and even more intricate hats. They definitely looked to be very high nobility. 

“Wow, that’s quite something.” I commented. “It must’ve been a pain to take a picture like that. Considering the time you needed to be captured on photo…” 

Pres nodded. “I didn’t know these existed.” 

President Cornwallis smiled. “Feel free to come and borrow the book to browse through it. There’s a lot of interesting people to look for as well.” 

“I bet there’s a couple of really famous people who are in this book, right?” I asked. 

Cornwallis nodded. “More than a couple.” 

“Looks like you have a good future to look forward to, Pres.” I smiled at our own Pres. 

She blushed ever so slightly. “Hush, it is not a done deal by any meaning of the word.”

The President just smiled in response. “Well, if you don’t mind, I’m going to go around to the others so they stop staring daggers at us. Enjoy the cake. Just put the book back when you are done with it.” 

“We will.” Pres nodded yet again to which the other Pres walked off with a wave to one of the other groups of students. 

 

With the President now otherwise occupied I took my sweet time eating my cake. It was a kind of cheesecake with strawberry flavor. Pretty darn good to be honest. Pres, in the meantime, was browsing through the book a little while occasionally taking sips from her tea. 

The other students had calmed their gazes a bit which also allowed me to blatantly stare back at them for observation. 

“Are you one of the only first years, Pres?” I asked. 

“In the student council?” 

“No, at the bakery club.” I replied sarcastically. 

“At the bakery club, no; here I am, though. At least when it comes to people who are present for most meetings. Of course every class has their president but not many of the first years take it very seriously. Generally they only start doing so in the second year.” 

“Do the others look down on you because you are a bit younger?” 

“Not really.” She shrugged. “I’m actually on quite the friendly basis with most girls here, but election fever makes people a bit jealous.”  

“Got a lot of competition?” 

Pres nodded. “A lot of the second years are going to run as well. It’s the last election many of them will be able to attend before going to the college division of Saint Katherine’s. Running there is a lot easier if you have had previous experience here so for many it’ll be the last real chance for a good seat. That said, it’s not unheard of that people come out of the blue in the college division, but people like to have the highest chances they can possibly get.” 

“Understandable.” I took another bite from the cheesecake. “And another question.” 

Pres flipped to the next page in the book before she looked at me. “Yes?” 

I pointed with my fork towards one of the duo pictures. “How does the vice-president stuff work?” 

“Like how they get elected?” 

“Yeah.” 

“Generally it’s the person who gets the second most votes who then gets put in the position of vice president, but that’s not always what happens.” 

“Pray tell.” I smiled. 

“When you do your election campaign you can also bring along some kind of running mate, much like they do in the United States.” Pres explained. “That has both it’s advantages and disadvantages.” 

“Like being able to work better with someone you’ve ran with?”  

“Yes, there will be less jealousy at work, that’s for sure.” Pres nodded. “But in a way it’s also harder to get elected because the student body will vote on you based on the ideals of two people rather than one, so you both need a rather strong platform to get elected as a team. I’ve heard from people that there have been very competent people who didn’t make the cut because their running mate didn’t really appeal to the people as much as the primary candidate.” 

“And what if the running mate is more popular than the prime candidate?” 

Pres shook her head and picked up her cup of tea again. “That’s not as much of an issue.” After which she took a sip. “People who go as running mates generally don’t want the seat of president. They are just there to offer support to the president. Being more popular or more competent doesn’t really hurt the partnership much.” 

“Unless they start to get envious of course.” 

Pres shrugged. “Yes, but in those cases they generally run separately to begin with.” 

“Hmm, I suppose that makes sense.” With a couple of last bites I finished off the piece of cheesecake on my plate and then looked together with Pres at the book. 

 

We browsed like that for a couple of minutes before she looked at me.  “Any reason why you are interested in the vice-president? Would you like to be my running mate?” 

“Ah, no, not really.” I shook my head. “I don’t think I’m brave enough for politics.” That excuse was only partially true. In fact, if Pres really asked me too, I would probably consider it, but seeing as these photobooks contain important people… I guess it seems wise to me not to get the picture of my face in it. Considering my prolonged lifetime and all that jazz. 

“Oh well, that’s fair.” Pres smiled. 

“Would you have considered me?” I smiled back. 

Pres looked up from the book and looked at me without saying anything for a couple of moments. “I think you would do the job well. And you would probably also be quite the boon for my election campaign.” 

“For real?” 

“Yes.” Pres continued smiling and closed the photobook while she was at it. “Your looks make you rather popular with the girls after all.” 

I snorted. 

“While being competent is important, how you look does always play a role. It’s undeniable.” 

“I know, it was just surprising to hear you say that about me.” 

Pres shrugged. “It’s a fact though. If you think it’s only the girls from our class doting on you, you would be wrong. As much as Corelia and Emma would want a monopoly on seeing you, reality makes that rather hard.” 

“Pres, you are going to make me blush if you continue like that.” 

She smiled. “In all seriousness, I think anyone would be lucky to have you support them in their endeavors. Don’t undersell yourself.” 

“Thanks Pres.” I put my plate down and gave our rather stoic looking class president a hug. She hadn’t really expected that, obvious by the fact that she froze for a second as I did so, but she hugged me back, albeit a bit shyly, a few moments later. “I won’t run with you but you can definitely count on my support, from the bleachers that is.” 

“Thanks, it’s very much appreciated.” She smiled as I released her from my hug.