Date: Thu, 14 Aug 2014 21:20:52 -0700
From: Douglas DD DD <thehakaanen@hotmail.com>
Subject: The Puget Posse  Chapter 27

Greetings and welcome back. In this chapter the Posse elects their
leader for their upcoming social studies project. Which of the five will
end up with a majority of the votes?

Please remember to donate to Nifty and help pay for this great site.

You can write me, Douglas, at thehakaanen@hotmail.com


CHAPTER 27
THE POSSE ELECTS

Mark and Matthew were busily scarfing down breakfast at the kitchen
table, clad only in t-shirts and matching blue and green striped
boxers. Megan and Michelle walked into the kitchen fully dressed and
ready for the day.

"You two are so gross," Michelle said. "You could at least put your
clothes on before eating breakfast."

"Why?" Mark asked. "This is more comfortable. And it's not your
birthday anymore, so you can't complain about what we always do."

"Mom, can't you make them get dressed in the morning?" Megan
whined. "They are the grossest, nastiest brothers in the world. I'm
embarrassed to tell my friends they're my brothers."

"Girls, that is totally uncalled for. There is nothing wrong with the way
they dress to eat their breakfast. They've been eating like that for
years," Kristy said.

"Except for Monday, when we eat naked," Matthew said.

"On Mondays you're like totally beyond gross," Michelle said as she
poured some cereal into a bowl.

"You didn't used to mind it," Mark said. "You even ate naked too."

"Now we're in sixth grade and know better," Megan said.

"And we're also twelve and know better, even if our birthday was
ruined yesterday," Michelle said. The girls were in a foul mood
because of how their birthday plans had gone awry.

"Girls, you are still having your friends over on Saturday and we will
have our family birthday dinner on Sunday. Nothing has been ruined,
it's just been postponed."

"We didn't even get to open our presents," Megan said.

"That's because you got all mad and locked yourselves in your
bedrooms," Mark said. "Even we aren't that stupid."

"Mom, you have to do something about those two," Michelle said.

"We hate them," Megan added. "Both of them."

"We're going to eat in my bedroom just to be away from them." Both
of the girls walked out in a huff, carrying their cereal bowls with them.

"They must be on the rag," Mathew said.

"MATTHEW! That is just wrong," Kristy said.

"I'm just saying."

"And I'M just saying, you two brush your teeth and get dressed before
you pile up a week's worth of restriction."

"I guess we'll never be able to sell them on E-Bay now," Mark told his
brother as they scampered up the stairway.

Kristy fervently hoped the boys were joking. She sighed, rolled her eyes,
looked upwards with a plaintive, half whispered "Why me?"

The boys stopped halfway up the stairs. Mark turned and looked
down at his mom. "We didn't do nothing," he complained. "Why
should we get into trouble because they wake up all bitchy?"

"No TV tonight. Now GO! I'll take care of cleaning up." Kristy didn't
want the talk to go any farther as she wondered why she got her kids
in pairs instead of singly like the vast majority of parents.

The boys brushed and dressed, saying nothing to each other.
Sometimes saying nothing said everything as far as the two of them
were concerned. They often could communicate fully just being
around each other. They saw that there was still fifteen minutes
before they usually left for school, so they walked up the hall and
knocked on Michelle's bedroom door.

"What?" Michelle almost screamed.

"Can we come in?" Mark asked.

"NO!"

"We just want to ask you something."

"Maybe we don't want to answer anything," Michelle said.

"It's about a scientific experiment."

"You two are probably going to blow up the house," Megan said, "and
we don't want anything to do with it."

"Unless you're in the house when it happens," Michelle said.

"Okay, but it could have been fun for you." Mark turned to Matthew as
they walked away and said, "On the rag."

Matthew nodded. "Bitchy."

"We may have to use an old kiss for our experiment instead of a new
one."

"Yeah, who would want to kiss those two, anyway."

"Not me. No way they kiss as good as Patrick did, even if he is a
boy."

The boys retrieved their books and walked downstairs to wait for their
sisters and their mother. The ride to their respective friends was a
quiet one. The girls were in a sulky mood, the boys were afraid to say
anything lest they add to their restriction, and all four could see that
their mother was seething. It was not a pleasant morning for the
Kirkwood family. When they arrived at the girls' friend's house,
Megan and Michelle left the SUV in silence, making sure from their
looks and the rolling of their eyes to let the world know that they were
unhappy with their mother and their brothers.

After the girls were dropped off, silence continued to be the order of
the morning. But when they got to Patrick's house, Mark reached
across the seat and gave his mother a quick hug. "Bye mom, we love
you," he said.

"Yeah, we both love you," Matthew agreed. Their parents had often
told them that it was always good not to go to bed angry or to leave
the family full of anger. They took that advice seriously, at least most
of the time. It was something the Megan and Michelle knew as well,
but as pubescent girls they chose to ignore a lot of what they once
knew as right.

Kristy took a deep breath and smiled at her sons. "I love you boys as
well. Make it a great day at school."

"Thanks, mom," Mark said. "We plan on kicking serious academic ass
today."

The twins scrambled out of the SUV. She sat for a moment watching
them run to Patrick's front door. For all of their issues, she knew Mark
and Matthew were great kids and she was fortunate to have such a
loving pair of sons. Her daughters were great kids as well, but were
quickly getting lost in the morass of puberty. She drove off as the
boys entered the house.

"Hey, Patrick," they said in unison as their friend opened the door.
Patrick was clad in a long tattered t-shirt and socks.

"Hi," Patrick said shyly. The presence of the twins caused a quick
shiver to go through him as he remembered what had happened the
afternoon before.

"Hey, Grannana," Matthew said, giving Maxine a heartfelt hug. "I
promise not to run naked in front of you, today."

"That is very good of you Matthew," she said, knowing it was Matthew
who had been the streaker the day before.

He started for Patrick's room, then stopped and looked over his
shoulder. "At least not when I've got a boner," he said with an impish
smile, knowing he was well out of danger of a brooming. He zipped to
Patrick's room, giggling all of the way.

"What are you laughing about?" Mark asked as Matthew entered the
room.

"I was just having fun with Grannana."

"Be careful," Patrick said. "Sometimes, I think I'm having fun with
Grannana and I end up with a brooming." He had removed his t-shirt
and was now naked. If he had any qualms at all about being naked in
front of the twins, yesterday's happenings quelled those for good. He
pulled a pair of briefs out of a dresser drawer and started dressing.

"Are you okay with what we did yesterday?" Mark asked.

Patrick nodded as he grabbed his uniform polo shirt and started
pulling it over his head. "Are you?" he asked after his head
reappeared.

"It was great fun," Mark said.

"Yeah, and you're a great kisser," Matthew said.

"Better than our sisters, who won't even talk to us."

"Why not?" Patrick asked as he pulled on his pants.

"They're being bitches because they didn't get their way on their
birthday," Matthew said.

"They're just jealous because they only get one birthday a year and
we get two," Mark said. "Anyway, there was no way we could talk to
them about our experiment. But, so far, kissing the goalie is way
better than a tie soccer game."

Patrick smiled as he put on his shoes. He then put on the pullover
sweater. The days were starting to get cool and he found having the
sweater was a help staying warm. If he got too warm, he could
always take it off. Grannana was all about dressing in layers; at least
when he actually dressed. He had dressed quickly and was ready for
the bus.

"When did you get the sweater?" Mark asked.  He hadn't seen it
before.

"On Monday. I paid forty credits for it."

"It's a cool sweater," Matthew said.

"Yeah, if we win this week's quiz, I'll have enough credits to buy one,"
Mark said. The twins weren't quite as frugal with their credits as
Patrick was. A lot of their spending went toward snacks at the school
store.

When the bus pulled up they boarded quickly, sitting in their usual
seats. Mark and Matthew swore that Mrs. Deaver had given them a
strange look.

"You guys were crazy yesterday," Will said to the twins after he
boarded the bus.

"We were just paying off our bet," Mark said.

"Yeah, we won't be doing that bet again," Matthew added.

"But it was kind of fun, though," Mark admitted. The morning went
normally until Jeremiah and Tony boarded the bus.

"Hi guys," Jeremiah said as he greeted his four fellow fifth graders
with studied politeness.

Will and Patrick grunted replies while the twins said nothing.

"Hey, Will, I hear those two said they're going to beat you up,"
Jeremiah said, pointing to the twins.

"Jeremiah, do you plan on taking a seat some time this month so we
can get started?" Mrs. Deaver yelled back.

"Sorry, Mrs. Deaver," Jeremiah said. He shot the group a knowing
look and took a seat next to Tony two rows back.

Will looked back at the twins. "Did you really say that?" he asked.

"No way," Mark said. "He's just trying to make trouble for everybody."

"Yeah, that's the way he is," Matthew said.

"All we said was we'd kick anybody's ass who bullied Ellis."

"And that part is true."

"Did somebody say I was bullying Ellis?" Will asked.

"Nope," Matthew answered.

"He just said that the F-n Five didn't like him much," Mark said.

"Well, he is kind of weird," Will told them, "but I swear nobody is
bullying him."

"We believe you," Mark said.

"Yep, both of us do," Matthew confirmed.

Patrick looked back at Jeremiah as the exchange went on between
Will and the twins. He didn't like the smirk on Jeremiah's face. In fact,
he didn't like Jeremiah much, which said a lot since Patrick liked just
about everybody.

He turned around and faced the front of the bus. His three friends had
stopped their chatter about Ellis. Patrick liked Ellis, in part because he
was so different. But, there was something about Ellis that nagged at
him, and it wasn't the fact that he painted his nails or had been so
eager to get naked during the challenge. Patrick thought that was all
kind of cool. There was something about Ellis, however, that he didn't
quite trust—he just wasn't sure exactly what it was.

The talk had changed to the soccer game the Penguins would be
playing after school. They were playing St. Andrew's school. The four
boys knew that Puget Academy was good enough to win the game if
their best players played most of the game. But, as they helped
Coach Walsh teach the less-skilled players, they had also learned
that there could be more to being part of a team than being the best
player. They found they were able to save their competitive fires for
their select teams and become totally immersed in being teammates
on the Pelicans.

When Social Studies began after lunch the Puget Posse members
pulled out their homework. They looked at each other, wondering who
was going to be the first to read his leadership proposal. Since there
was nothing at all shy about the twins, Mark and Matthew started at
the same time. Matthew deferred to Mark, and the boys listened to
his proposal.

The five boys noticed Mr. Jackson lurking in the background. He was
far enough away not to be intrusive, but close enough to hear most of
what was going on. He knew the Posse would be choosing their
leader, but he hadn't been told how they would go about it. He was
impressed with the concept of presenting the leadership proposals
and wondered whose idea it had been.

Neville decided to go next just to keep the twins from monopolizing
the start of the process. His proposal was short. He had no desire to
be the project leader, and even if he did want the position, he was
certain nobody would vote for him after he'd almost betrayed the
team the day before.

Misha had a more complete proposal than Mark or Neville. He read it
in his usual precise English, impressing Mr. Jackson with some of his
ideas. Matthew read next, leaving only Patrick to read his proposal.

Patrick had held back on purpose. He wanted to see what the older
boys had to offer. He was confident that what he had written was
complete and well-thought out. He knew his father was sincere when
he'd praised Patrick's effort and wasn't just stroking his ego. But, he
also was worried that the older boys would present something better
than what he had written. To top it off, he was worried that no matter
how good of a job he had done, they wouldn't want to elect someone
who was a long way from turning ten.

He held his paper in front of him and started reading what he planned
to do and also what he expected from the rest of the team. It was the
expectations that separated his proposal from the rest. The other four
had read a list of the things they planned to do and how they were
going to organize the project, but only Patrick wrote down what he
wanted each member of the Posse to do.

Mr. Jackson was captivated by what he had heard. He wondered if
the proposal was actually Patrick's doing, or if he was reading
something his father had written up. The test would be if Patrick got
elected as the project leader, because then he would have to actually
start enforcing what he had laid out for the other four Posse
members.

"We all read, so I guess it's time for the election," Matthew said.

"Hey, Mr. Jackson, can you bring us some of your scratch paper to
use for ballots?" Mark asked.

"You know where they are," Mr. Jackson said with a smile.

Mark grunted, but managed not to roll his eyes, as he went to Mr.
Jackson's desk and picked up some of the small blank sheets the
teacher cut up for various uses. Mark passed out a sheet to each boy
and then sat down.

"Aren't you going to ask for comments on your proposals?" Mr.
Jackson asked.

"Nope," Mark said. "We just said we were going to read and vote."

"We did?" Patrick asked.

"That's how I remember it," Matthew said, backing up his brother.

"I think if somebody wishes to say something he should before we
vote," Misha said. "It is the fair way of doing it."

"Whatever," Mark said. He looked around at his teammates, waiting
on a comment.

The only boy to say something was Neville. "I know you are not going
to vote for me, which is why I did not write very much."

"Neville, chill out," Matthew said. "You don't know squat."

The Posse was quickly deteriorating into one of its endless
squabbles. Mr. Jackson was about to step in when Patrick beat him
to the punch. "We said we were going to vote. We can't vote and
argue at the same time." Patrick scribbled a name on his sheet and
folded it once. He looked around the table as if commanding the other
four to do the same. Misha followed his lead as did the twins. Neville
looked at all four boys with a look that said, "I want nothing to do with
this." He then wrote something on his own ballot.

"Mr. Jackson, would you please read out the names on the ballots?"
Misha asked.

"With pleasure." The five boys handed him their ballots. Mr. Jackson
had no idea what names he would see, but he suspected all of the
votes would be going to one or the other of the twins since they
obviously dominated the group. The only question would be which of
the two would end up with the most votes. He had no problem with
one of the twins running the group's project, even though they had
done as much as any of the boys in keeping the group from getting
on task. But they both had written good proposals and had shown
their leadership skills in many ways over the first six weeks of school.

While he felt Patrick had the best proposal, Patrick was also much
younger and less mature than his teammates. While scholastically he
was at the top of the class and was obviously not overmatched, Mr.
Jackson felt Patrick, at age nine, was not ready to lead a group of
strong-willed ten-year-olds. He would be an excellent leader of a
fourth grade group, but was not ready to lead here.

He unfolded the first slip. "Patrick," he read aloud, setting the slip on
Misha's desk so everyone could read it. He opened the second ballot,
reading "Patrick," once again. Ballot three was Patrick, giving him a
majority already. Ballot four was Patrick. He opened ballot five and
read "Patrick" for the fifth time.

"Holy guacamole," Matthew said. "Patrick got all of the votes." He
looked at Patrick. "That means you voted for yourself."

"If I want to be the leader, then I should vote for me or you would
think I didn't think I was the best."

"Makes sense to me," Mark said.

Misha nodded in agreement. Neville felt uncomfortable because the
vote total meant that everybody knew he'd voted for Irish. He never
thought Patrick would win, but he didn't want to vote for one of the
twins. He wished now he'd voted for Misha, who was getting to be a
friend, but for some reason he'd voted for Patrick. He was trying to
get a grasp on what he'd been thinking.

"Now we need to decide who is doing what projects," Patrick said,
getting the group right on task. "I said we needed to get the dioramas
started first since they would take the longest."

"Yeah, but we only need to do one, and you said we're doing two of
them," Mark said.

"That's because we have a big group with five people," Patrick told
him. "Mr. Jackson said we could do two dioramas. So, one of things I
said on my homework is we'd do two dioramas."

"I think we should only do one. Who cares how big we are?"

"You had your chance to say that before we voted," Neville said.

"I didn't think it would make any difference,"

"Yeah, it only mattered if Patrick won," Matthew said.

"Well, it looks like Patrick won, so maybe we should do what he said
he was going to do," Neville said.

Patrick didn't bother to get involved in the spat. "Here are our two
groups," he said with as much authority as he could muster. Mr.
Jackson was still listening in. There was one thing he wanted the
group to do and if Patrick didn't deal with it then he would step in.

"Me, Neville, and Matthew will be one group. Mark and Misha will be
the other." Patrick understood that the twins would have to be split up
or they would totally take charge of whomever they worked with,
unless they worked alone, which was almost like their not being part
of the group. He also understood having Neville work alone with one
of the twins would be a disaster. While those specific thoughts didn't
go through his head, his instincts were right on the mark. Like Misha,
he had an uncanny sense of being able to read people.

"You can't split up me and Matty," Mark said. "We do everything
together."

"Yeah, we got put in the same class and on the same team by
teachers. So that means we work on the same project," Matthew
piped in.

"We voted you the leader, not the dictator," Mark said. "You're being
just like Will with the F-n Five."

"We should vote who goes in what group," Matthew said.

Patrick could feel stomach churning. Being a leader was quickly
turning out not to be as easy as writing about being a leader was.

Mr. Jackson was going to step in if the twins weren't split and make
sure they were split. He was pleased that Patrick saw things the
same way he did. But, he could also see that the twins were on the
verge of rebellion over the decision and could easily end Patrick's
credibility as a leader before their projects got off the ground.

He was going to give Patrick a chance to respond and then he would
have to take charge. No matter what he did, the young boy's attempt
at being the team's project leader was doomed. If he didn't step in,
the twins would take over the group. If he did step in and back up
Patrick, Patrick's authority would be shot. He wondered if the twins
had voted for him hoping he'd fail, so one of them could come to the
rescue.

Once again, Patrick took a deep breath. He knew he was about to
lose control of the group as the twins ganged up on him, but he
wasn't going to go down without a fight. "Matthew and Mark have to
be in different groups so they can help the whole Posse instead being
together and only helping part of it." Patrick rattled off. He sat back
and waited for the rebuttal by the twins, but Misha stepped in first.

"Mark is very smart and very talented," Misha said. "Matthew the
same. Patrick is saying everybody will have a smart and talented twin
to work with so we will make the best dioramas ever." One part of the
project was that the dioramas would be displayed and judged, with
awards being given out to the winners.

"Yeah," Mark said. "Then the Posse can win first and second place."

"Your group gets second and mine gets first," Matthew said.

"You wish," Mark said. "Me and Misha are ready to kick ass, right
Misha?"

"We will do our best," Misha agreed.

"Good group making, Patrick," Mark said. "I'm sorry I got on you." He
looked at Mr. Jackson and said, "Matthew and I just aren't used to
being on different teams."

"It will do you good," Mr. Jackson told them. He remembered how,
during orientation, he'd become convinced there was more to the
twins than their bluster, that they had a deep seated set of
convictions. What had just happened with the Puget Posse convinced
him he had read the boys properly. They had gracefully conceded the
leadership of the group to Patrick, a concession that carried much
more meaning than their putting his name on the ballot.

Patrick breathed a long sigh of relief. He'd been afraid of bursting out
in tears if the twins had won their argument. "We need to tell what our
diorama will be about by Monday," Patrick said. "Tomorrow we can
talk about the reports."

Mr. Jackson finally walked away. For now the team seemed to have
averted a crisis and might actually be ready to get on task. He knew
that Patrick had not faced his last challenge. The twins and Neville
had big egos and would stand up to Patrick again. But, he had
overcome his biggest challenge and was clearly in charge. And it was
quite obvious that his biggest supporter and right-hand man, er, boy,
might just be Misha.

Next: Progress