Episode 732: Swine

"I don’t know." Charlie kind of groaned the words from the seat beside Caroline at a table in the public library. He pulled at the front of his hair, totally stressing over his campaign for class president at his school. "I really want to win, you know?"

Caroline nodded. She knew how Charlie’s parents pressured him to be perfect, how they dumped all over him when he failed at the littlest thing, which was partially why she hadn’t dumped him for Jesse. Partially.

"We’re going to work hard on this," she said in her most positive voice. "You, me, and the rest of you’re friends, we’re in this together. You’re going to win."

"I hope so. We need something really attention grabbing for the posters though and so far I’m drawing a blank. Do you have nay ideas? I’m thinking Charlie for President doesn’t exactly have the most original or memorable ring to it."

"How about something like he’ll go to bat for you, you’re a baseball player, right?"

Both Caroline and Charlie turned their heads to the person barging into their conversation. Caroline frowned. Charlie broke into a grin, the first grin Caroline had seen on him since his parents had strongly suggested he run for student counsel.

"That’s actually pretty good," Charlie said, "we’ll have to play around with it a bit, but yeah, that’s a good start emphasizing that I’m on the baseball team, it shows I have school spirit, that has to mean something to the voters. Thanks, man."

"You know I don’t have a lot going on right now other than school and babysitting my little brother," Jesse nodded to Nate at the bank of computers in the corner, "so if you need any extra hands Nate and I are available, if that’s not too weird for Caroline."

Charlie looked pleadingly to her. "Would you be okay with that? I could really use all the help I can get and he has good ideas."

"Sure," Caroline said. She wasn’t really okay with it, certain Jesse had ulterior motives, but Charlie appeared so desperate, and it wasn’t like she would let Jesse get to her. She’d already told him this wasn’t happening, she wasn’t ditching a boy who had been nothing but kind to her for a boy who had been okay with making her worry for the longest time.

Episode 733: Let's Wait Awhile