but he handles it better than most. I had to tread carefully here if I wanted to know more.
“You haven’t been yourself lately.”
He rolled his eyes as he stormed into the kitchenette and grabbed a cold beer. He took a swig when he returned.
“You came back here the night the envelope arrived reeking of swamp water and smoke. I just hoped it was a cigar you were smoking and not-“
“It wasn’t,” David reassured me.
“What was it?”
“You try running back to campus and finding your way to Lake Alice in the dark,” he said.
“Is that what one has to do before switching majors from political science to criminology?” I asked.
Saying nothing, he just glared back at me.
“And all the secrets?” Lauren asked.
He looked at his girlfriend. There was a pain in his expression that made her look away. She seemed to shrink her already short, slight frame, into her chair.
I looked at Tyler. He was wisely keeping out of it.
“Well?” I demanded. The question had to be answered.
“I didn’t like them any more than you all did. I hated keeping things from you, Lauren. But they all told us to keep it quiet until we were inducted or we’d be blackballed.”
He turned to look at me, and glared. “I couldn’t risk saying something that might work its way into one of your notebooks or worse, Mike.”
“What?”
“Those leather notebooks you carry around. I’ve seen you drop everything you’re doing and scribble into them. You even brought one with you when you were on pledge duty scrubbing floors.”
“I write fiction,” I pointed out. I only wrote truths in my notebook when it was important or could be useful in my stories.
“Still, it couldn’t be risked. I had to make it in.”
“But why?” Lauren asked. She finally stood up, and cupped his face in her hands. “Your father is a congressman. They’d need you more than you need them.”
“That’s not entirely true,” David admitted. He sat down.
“The FBI is not going to care if you joined some leadership honorary at college,” I said.
“I know my father being who he was probably helped me get in earlier than normal,” he said. “And I have no real use for their usual way of doing things, especially in how they coerce people into supporting candidates. However, and you may know this Mike from working in SG elections last year, but every single person who ever became Student Body President was a member of this honorary.”
We all nodded. It was an open secret on campus.
“Well, step one is complete.” David smiled weakly.
“You’re?”
“I’m running for Student Body President!” The smile grew into a huge grin.
“Whoa!” That came from all three of us. That shifted the mood drastically. But I was not completely sold. I needed to call his bluff.
“It’s going to take some time. I’ll become Budget chair in a few weeks. Next Spring, I’ll run for Treasurer. And after that, the sky is the limit!”
“Awesome, man!” Tyler said, slapping him on the shoulder.
“I’m with you, Davy,” Lauren cooed.
“Mike?” David pleaded.
“Well, I have to admit, even with all of the craziness of the past few days and weeks, I still can’t think of anyone I trust more to do the right thing,” I admitted.
“That means a lot to me.”
“Well, let’s give that honorary a taste of its own self-serving medicine!”
I raised my beer. We clinked glasses.
“By the way, who won that hand?” Tyler asked.
David and I glanced down. Neither of us had turned over our face-down cards. I looked up and shrugged at him.
“I have to know,” David said. He revealed a three, five, and six of hearts. It was a straight flush, six high.
I smirked as I overturned a ten of diamonds, a queen of clubs, and a king of hearts. I looked down and saw a five of clubs.
David whistled. “You were bluffing this entire time?”
I laughed. “The House always wins.”
Sneak Peek at “The Young Mike Adams”
In the 2009 novel Confirmation, U.S. Senator Mike Adams exposed a deep secret in his hometown. Now, in a collection of short stories, discover the young Mike Adams – a shy freshman who rushes a fraternity, grapples with his first love, and discovers a passionate sense of loyalty to friends and principles that will guide his life’s work.
Mike caught up with the exiting crowd and asked them, “Hey, where is everyone going?”
Kyle turned back and replied, “Grant’s got something to say to us. We’re finding a quieter place to chat.”
This seemed simple enough. On the north lawn of the Student Union, they found the quieter locale for their huddle. Most of the party was there, some in their green party t-shirts; others like Yasmine were a little more normally dressed. At least one guy was wearing his pajamas.
Grant stood atop one of the picnic tables. A normally short guy, he now towered over everyone.
“Let them have their beer and their fun. Let them have their cerulean keys and the Student Government for another year. They may have won tonight, but we’ve only begun to fight!” Grant thundered. Several nods and cheers in agreement.
“We lost a few good Senate seats tonight, and some of us,” Grant said as he glanced down at Yasmine among others, “some won’t be back next year.”
Kyle handed him a copy of the results, and Grant began flipping through. “But we won Arts & Sciences, we won Graduates, we won Engineers. Hell, we won Environment and came damn near close to winning Journalism and Law, old Greek strongholds.”
“And get this. You all know Mike Adams, our Freshman candidate. He wasn’t a politician when he started but took a chance with us anyway. Because of his tireless efforts, we not only won the sober hotline referendum, but he came in just a dozen votes behind our lead for those seats.”
Yasmine spoke up, “We won the battle for ideas, and we gained ground on The Circle. We came at them with everything we had, and they feared us, tarred us with slander, and bullied their own pledges into voting.”
“We are going to win,” Grant added. “Obviously not tonight, and maybe not next year, but time is on our side. And as long as the issues are on our side, and the student body is on our side, we will win this.”
Kyle shouted out, “All you new Senators! Let’s fuck some shit up!”
There was laughter, and more than a few angry nods of approval. Even Grant grinned. “Damn straight!”
Copyright Information
2013 by Kenneth Kerns.
All rights are reserved.
This book is a work of fiction. Any similarity to real characters or incidents is purely coincidental and unintentional.
ISBN: 978-1311320506
Other fiction by Kenneth Kerns
Reunion at University Avenue (2005)
A veteran of Student Government returns to his alma mater to film a satire, only to find he has an angry stalker on his hands.
The Proxy Senator (2006)
A best-selling author finds himself enveloped in the world of modern campaigns, where anything is fair game. All of that changes when his girlfriend gets kidnapped.
Confirmation (2009)
While a seemingly unrelated Supreme Court vacancy consumes Washington, a key Senator discovers his university's longest-held secrets.
The Stepford Student (2013)
After his best friend abandons their weekly poker game, only to return reeking of swamp water and talking of changing careers, it is up to Mike Adams to find out what happened to him. This is a short story.
The Young Mike Adams (2013)
Rush Week, fraternity pranks, “I Voted” stickers, filibusters, and brightly colored shirts. These defined the college experience and inspired a career. This is a collec
tion of short stories.
From Maverick to Statesman (2008)
This anthology includes political writings from a long-running Internet character. It includes three booklets and a collection of speeches and campaign platforms.
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