The Rise

Leon was the only student in detention that day. One of the student council members watched over the detention - this was the same girl that gave Leon the note from Veronica. She was sitting at the front desk of the class reading a book.

"Just sign in here" she said pointing at a sign in sheet on the desk as Leon walked in.

Leon kept staring at her as he signed his name. He immediately recognized her. He placed his bag down and sat in the front row facing her. She paid no attention him, continuing to read her book flipping through the pages.

"How long have you known Veronica?" asked Leon

She raises an eyebrow at the sudden question.

"Uhm, since first year?" she said returning back to her book

She notices Leon continuing to stare at her. She rubs her forehead and takes a deep breath.

"Are you worried I'll tell George about you and Veronica passing secret notes to each other?" she said

"There was one note, and she was the one who sent it." he replied

"That's just as far as I know, Veronica could've used other couriers to send messages" she said closing her book with one hand.

"She didn't" said Leon

"Whatever, don't worry, Veronica trusts me and I don't really don't care about George. Besides, if I were you, I wouldn't be worried about how this will destroy your image when you're so far behind in the election anyway." she said

"Thanks for the advice" he said half-sarcastically

Leon paused

"What kind of case studies do they give you guys?" said Leon changing the subject quickly

She squints her eyes at Leon suspiciously.

"I was gonna ask how do you know about the case studies, they tell us to keep The Umbra secret. But then I remembered who your grandmother is." she said

The Umbra was referring to the cover name given to the shadow council. As students, they wouldn't know they are in the shadow council and often they don't know it even exists until they reach higher up the ranks. Leon quickly picked up on this and assumed she was talking about the shadow council - even if she didn't know she was in it.

"Actually, now that I think about it, do you even need to win this election to join The Umbra - can't your grandmother just slide you in?" she said

"My family seems to think tough love is the best way to raise me - no special treatment." said Leon shrugging

"Well if you're asking about the case studies - they rarely give us stuff to do and when they do it's tough as nails. We spend hours on coming up with solutions, the last thing we did was relating to a conflict between two big families and how to resolve the dispute." she said

"Do they tell you how good your solutions are?" he asked

"Nope, but George is pretty good at solving them so I'm assuming we're doing just fine for now." she said

She suddenly starts smiling

"Know my turn to ask a question." she said

"Sure" he said

"Do you like Veronica?" she asked.

Leon freezes.

Justin and Taylor knock and enter the room immediately saving Leon from the question.

She snaps her towards the door

"What are you two doing here?" she said annoyed

"There's no rule that says we can't come to detention voluntarily right?" said Justin as he and Taylor walked towards Leon

"Leon isn't allowed to hang out with his friends during detention." she said

The two ignore her and Taylor places his laptop in front of Leon and starts a live feed from the NNA (National News Agency) one of the largest news corporations in the country.

"It's starting soon" said Taylor

"That's enough! You two need to leave right now" she said standing up from her seat

The three simply look up at her and then look back at the laptop, but then Leon slightly moves his eyes up towards her keeping his head down and mouths the word 'please' very slowly. She notices it, sighs, folds her arms and sits back down.

"Hello, good afternoon, this is the NNA, it's Monday April 16th and I'm Jennifer Jordan. For the next following weeks, at this same time, we will be briefly following the Unitare High School Presidential elections. Today marks the first day of the elections as the four candidates as shown on your screen aim to become Unitare's next president." she said

"I can't believe the school elections is on the news..." said Justin

"The media has been strictly prohibited from entering school grounds or interviewing the candidates, however our sources tell us the first day was more eventful than previous elections - proving to be a tight race. We have also received the first polls of the election - the results can be seen on your screen."

"Crap." said Taylor

"It seems George Tomhawk is following in his father's footsteps and leading the presidential election by a large margin, Leon Lapuzi however is not and is lagging behind, having less votes that the number of those that abstained. Sinclair Vinzent, the Crown Prince's brother, is in second place and looks to garner more votes as he takes on George in what seems to be a two horse race." she said as she turns and faces another camera on the screen "In other news..." she continued as Taylor closed the laptop shut.

Justin and Taylor left as per Leon's request. After detention, the three met to talk about the news segment.

"That was so biased towards Sinclair" said Justin

"The NNA is state owned, it doesn't add up" said Leon "But all I know is that Thomas, the Crown Prince, is doing everything in his power to make this election as public as possible."

"He must be behind the sudden media interest in the election" said Taylor

"Nevertheless, we can use this to our advantage." said Leon

Leon notices Sinclair and some of his friends at the backyard of the school cleaning up the tents that were set up for his campaign, preparing them for the next day. He suddenly makes his way towards Sinclair catching Taylor and Justin off guard as they try to keep up.

"Same thing tomorrow I assume" said Leon to Sinclair skipping any hello's or introductions.

Sinclair, who was holding a large box of items, pauses. He looks at Leon, then at Taylor and Justin confused.

"Yeah... I guess?" said Sinclair with an awkward half smile.

Leon moves closer towards him causing Sinclair to move back slightly.

"You see, I don't think you're trying at all. This tent stuff is weak and with the way the election is heading, you won't beat George like this." said Leon

"Uhm, what are-"

"Which only means one thing, Sinclair." said Leon cutting Sinclair off "So I'm going to ask you one question and your reaction, without even saying a word, will tell me everything I need to know."

Sinclair burrows his eyebrows starting to get annoyed at Leon's sudden intrusion. But Leon gets closer into Sinclair's face and Sinclair doesn't move back this time, standing his ground and locking eyes with Leon.

"My question, your royal highness, is just how do you plan to disqualify George?"

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