At school on Monday, Collin and Ryan, along with their friends Conner, Damien and Daniel, talked about how sneaky their parents were in trying to find out what they did on their dates. Collin replayed the details of his conversation with 'mom' Mary, yesterday and how she tried to get him to tell her what he and Ryan did with their dates.
Daniel and Conner both related similar tales and when Abbey and Brittany heard what they were talking about they, too, added their own mom's second-degree inquisition, as they called it, over what they did on their dates. They all headed off to their first classes of the day when the bell rang.
Over at Three Finger Cove, Ken Thomas' first meeting of his day brought him the reports on all ten people who wanted his support as they ran for either the School Board or the Hospital District seats. As he read through them, he decided to call each of them and invite them to a collective meeting that night so he could talk with them individually about their goals and desires. After personally making the calls he decided to ask Bill Jackson, his confidant and lawyer, to also stop by and give him his opinion. They only had until end of business Thursday to get the six names officially registered to be on the May Ballot.
That evening Collin sat in on Mr. Ken's meeting with all the potential candidates. He explained he wanted to hear what these men and women had to say, so he could talk to his school friends and try to get them to help these people in their campaigns. All of the people there were amazed that this teenager wanted to help them out, so they all enthusiastically invited him to stick around and listen in.
Ken Thomas explained up front that he really didn't want to see ten people seek only six seats up for election. He explained that additional candidates would tend to dilute the vote and potentially give the incumbent another win. He asked them to think long and hard about their candidacy and promised those who decided to sit out this year, that he would back their campaigns next year for the other seats. Everyone there was in agreement that they needed to replace the old thinking regimes. Now, all they needed to do was have four people agree to sit out.
It took the better part of four hours before Mr. Ken had his 'team'. The four individuals who took their names out of contention said they only wanted someone to 'run against' the 'old school politicos' and were happy to support the six in any way they could.
Collin and Mr. Ken went to bed that night feeling really good about the process. Each had their own idea of how they would help their 'Team'. Ken Thomas, of course, would support the candidates with lots of money, and he promised he would campaign all over for them too. Collin, for his part, decided he would tell his friends about those who were running and ask them to help in any way they could, so their literature got delivered and people would attend the candidate's rallies.
The focus for the next three months would be campaign, campaign, and campaign some more.