The Party by Christopher Pike Page A

knocking on the front door and then headed back for the stadium. She decided to keep the axe for now. In his intoxicated condition, there was no telling what he might do with it.
    She liked him. And she didn’t care that he was the guy Sara had been searching for all night. She’d seen Clark first and look where that had gotten her. Nowhere.
    When it came to love, you were a fool to be nice.

Chapter Seven
    Mr. Bark stopped Sara the following Monday morning as she was leaving his political science class. Jessica was with her.
    “What is it?” Sara asked defensively. “I stayed awake the whole period.”
    “It’s not that. I have some news for you.” He paused, and there was no denying from his expression that he thought it was bad news. “You know I am the faculty adviser to the student government?”
    “It doesn’t surprise me,” Sara said cautiously. “What’s up?”
    “You’ve been elected student body president.”
    Sara laughed. “What the hell? No, you’re kidding. What are you talking about?”
    “You were elected by a landslide.”
    Sara swallowed. “But I wasn’t running. Jessie, tell him it was all a joke.”
    “You didn’t want to be president?” Jessica asked in surprise.
    “Your name was on the ballot,” Mr. Bark said.
    “Now hold on a second,” Sara said. “I explained this to the whole school last Friday. Jessie put my name down.”
    Jessica smiled. This was great. “No, I didn’t.”
    “Polly did then. It makes no difference. I can’t be president. I hate politics. I hate politicians. No, absolutely not.”
    “I don’t want you as president, either,” Mr. Bark said. “I think you have a bad attitude. But the student body doesn’t think so. Your nearest competitor didn’t get a quarter of your votes. You have a responsibility to your peers. There’s a lot of business that has to be taken care of immediately. We don’t have time for another election.”
    “Who’s the new vice president?” Sara asked.
    “Clair Hilrey.”
    “I thought she was running for president,” Jessica said.
    Mr. Bark frowned. “I thought she was, too. Maybe she put herself down for both offices. She shouldn’t have done that.”
    “Make her president,” Sara said quickly.
    “I can’t do that,” Mr. Bark said.
    “Then I’ll do it,” Sara said.
    “No, you can’t do that, either. It’s against the rules.”
    “The President of the country never follows the rules, why should I? No, wait. If you won’t accept my resignation this instant, I’ll intentionally break every rule in the book. Then you’ll have to impeach me.”
    Mr. Bark was getting angry. “You don’t impeach student body presidents.”
    “Why not? This is a free and vicious society.”
    “Why are you being so difficult? There are kids in this school who would give almost anything to have the honor that’s been bestowed on you.”
    Sara started to speak, stopped, silently shook her head.
    “It might be fun,” Jessica said. “It might make you popular.”
    Sara glared at her. “No,” she said firmly.
    Mr. Bark had run out of patience. “I can’t stand here all day arguing with you. We’re having our first student council meeting tomorrow at lunch in Room HSixteen. If you should change your mind and want to accept the office, see me sometime this afternoon. There’re notes on the student body’s financial status you should go through before the meeting. If not, then I guess we’ll have to carry on without you.”
    Jessica had chemistry next. She had to go. Once outside Mr. Bark’s class, Sara refused to speak to her, anyway. She went off in a huff. Jessica couldn’t help laughing.
    The laughter did not stay with her. She’d had a miserable weekend. She was still sleepy and tired from her travels. She’d had to take long naps Saturday and Sunday afternoons just to be awake at dinnertime. Also, she’d been lamenting Bill Skater’s obvious interest in Clair Hilrey. The disappointment was silly, she knew.