The Rise

The third day of the election, Wednesday. Gideon Faraday arrives at the Prime Minister's home first thing in the morning. He leaves his car hurriedly and enters the estate as two guards escort him to PM Theodore's office with a speeding pace. Gideon enters the office to find Theodore leaning his head forward on his hands supported by his elbows placed on the desk. Gideon immediately sits down and places a folder on Theodore's desk.

"What's the emergency?" asked Theodore resolutely

"You need to get rid of your Minister of Education, today." warned Gideon

"We've already went over this Gideon, I won't burn one of my cabinet members for a school election." said Theodore.

"Things have changed. I have orders from Hilda to completely purge everyone on that list" said Gideon pointing at the folder he placed on Theodore's desk.

Theodore picks up the folder and skims through it, he immediately looks up at Gideon in anger.

"Half of them are in my cabinet." said Theodore heatedly

"Exactly, nearly more than half of your own people are royalists Theodore, you need to make an example of them - make sure they don't overstep their boundaries." said Gideon

Meanwhile at Unitare High School, George arrives at school and makes his way towards the entrance. He's suddenly stopped by Tasha, the Vice President of the school newspaper.

"Hey Georgie!" she called

"Hey there Tasha." said George politely

"Here you go, I wanted to make sure you got this first thing in the morning." she said smiling and giving George the new polls.

George burrows his eyes in distress as soon as he notices that he has dropped dramatically in the polls.

'Did I make a mistake playing by Leon's rules...' he thought to himself.

"Georgie?" she said waving her hands at his face

"Ah, yes, thank you." he answered

Tasha suddenly leans in close starts whispering.

"I'm not supposed to tell you this, since all the voters are supposed to be anonymous. But when counting the votes, I saw something I thought you may want to know." she said

George keeps silent waiting for her to continue.

"Layla seems to have voted for Leon." she said with a serious face

George burrows his eyes at Tasha.

"Okay Tasha, sure thing." he said dismissively and instantly walks past her passive-aggressively.

He wanted to lash out at her and tell her that he won't tolerate her trying to cause a divide between him and Layla. Instead, he held himself and decided to ignore her.

"I'm not lying!" she shouted at George's back as he continued to walk away.

Meantime Theodore is considering Gideon's request, given that Hilda has given an order that could destroy his party from the inside out. Gideon's phone suddenly vibrates, he takes it out to check then sighs as soon as he sees the message.

"What is it?" inquired Theodore

Gideon shows Theodore the message, it was from Elizabeth, the VP of the school.

"No. You have to tell her she can't do this." said Theodore as soon as he read the message.

"It's out of our hands Theodore, the principal is a royalist. This whole thing was planned by Thomas and Lance. You'd be naive at this stage to continue to bat an eye. You must remove the Minister immediately before things get out of hand." demanded Gideon

"You knew Lance was behind this? You could've stopped them - you wanted this to happen to George, didn't you?" asserted Theodore

"We knew, and so did you. Elizabeth told him to not do the photo shoot but he didn't listen." said Gideon

"She told him he won't get in trouble for it."

"We knew they were planning something, but we didn't know what, we can't protect him from what we can't predict. Now is not the time for blame, Theodore, it's the time for action. Are you going to sit back and let Thomas slap your son around like this without rebuke?" said Gideon.

Theodore curls his lip at Gideon in disgust.

Back in the high school, George makes his way towards homeroom but is immediately called by the class representative to go to the Vice Principal's office. George was hesitant to go, but had no choice. He walked slowly towards the office as all kinds of thoughts attacked his mind. He was being called, first thing in the morning - the day right after the photo shoot. He knew something was wrong, it was that gut feeling of his that he trusted so much. A part of him wanted to believe it was nothing, but his racing heart and sweating palms told another story. He felt as he was walking into an inevitable death.

Upon entering the office the Principal and Vice Principal were sat next to each other behind the desk. The VP didn't look up or make eye contact with George, but the old, aging Principal was looking directly at him.

"Please, have a seat George." said the Principal with a heavy trembling voice

George hesitantly made his way towards the desk and sat awkwardly. He didn't know where to put his hands or his legs, so they ended up in awkward places. He took a deep breath as soon as he remembered that he had forgotten to breathe.

"You've been an outstanding president at Unitare, a real champion of the students - loved and popular. And for that we thank you for your hard work and dedication and we want you to know that we are always here to support and help you whenever you need it." said the Principal

George stays silent and looks at the VP who is still looking down at the papers avoiding eye contact with George.

"Unfortunately, we must enforce the rules regardless of whom we are dealing with." said the Principal.

After those words, George's arms and legs turned into jelly, he became weak and his heart dropped. Like a rabbit caught in the mouth of a fox, he knew he was done for.

In the PM's office Theodore stands up still looking at Gideon with disgust.

"You people will do anything to get what you want. Couldn't you have left my son out of this." said Theodore as he picks up his landline phone.

"Trust me Theodore, we never wanted George to be effected by this. But as you know, the bigger you are, the bigger the target on your back. This is Thomas' doing, we have to act now." said Gideon

Theodore calls his receptionist.

"I need to see Natalie immediately, take a driver to her and bring her as soon as possible." said Theodore looking at Gideon with sharp eyes. Natalie was the Minister of Education.

In the VP's office, George looks at Elizabeth.

"You said the photo shoot won't get me in trouble!" he protested

"Yes, you're not in trouble for that specifically George." she said looking up at him

"Finally, you looked me in eyes." said George

"Excuse me? Do not think for a moment I pity you George. I warned you to not go to that photo shoot. It was your own undoing, your vanity and greed that caused this problem. Now face the consequences instead of trying to point fingers." she said coldly

"Now, now, no need for such aggression. Just to clarify, George, as soon as the magazine with you on the cover was released, the school saw it as a promotional device - and therefore a part of your campaign. Therefore is it subject to budgetary constraints. Upon inquiring with Mr. Lance and PopEight magazine, we found that there was a payment made for this cover. You have unfortunately maxed out your budget constraints on the staged event, including beverages and food, on Monday as well as the printing of your posters." said the principal.

George looks down as his eyes shake - the 'small fee' that Layla's father told him about went right over his head.

"But this was made by Layla's father, not me. I didn't know, you can't punish me for something I wasn't aware of." said George desperately.

"That'll never hold up George, if every kid had their rich parent or rich parent's friends pay for their campaigns and say they knew nothing about it - this election would turn into a circus. It is your job as the person taking part in this photo shoot and promoting yourself to make sure you follow the guidelines of the election and no one else." said the Vice Principal.

"So George, I regret to inform you, that as of today, you will no longer be part of the presidential race and your name will be removed from the voting card." finalized the Principal.