The Contest (continued)
After he won the handsomest kid in his class contest, “Billy” was happy, but he knew that it was just a fluke. He wouldn’t have a chance against the really popular kids, like Angus Broadsworth, the quarterback for the school football team. Angus didn’t really need to be the handsomest, and he’d still probably win the handsomest kid in the whole school contest, just because he was so popular.
Billy played on the football team too, but he was a linebacker, which is a defense position, so he wasn’t popular like the quarterback, the running backs and the receivers were - the high-profile players on offense that sports reporters always make the center of attention.
The contest would be held at the end of the next week’s classes. On Monday when he went to school, Billy saw some campaign-type signs and booths some of the most popular kids in the whole school had put up around campus. Billy was far too shy and humble to do anything like that, and that made it even less likely that Billy would have any chance at all of winning. Winning wasn’t on his mind anyway, as he dismissed even the possibility. He was always humble and selfless.
Some of the girls had started to say things to Billy, and he didn’t know how to react. He knew that some of them thought he was handsome because some of them voted for him. What he didn’t know was that ninety nine percent of the girls voted for him to be the handsomest kid in his class.
The upcoming contest was causing a lot of suspense at school, with the most popular kids going all-out, posing for pictures, and giving speeches like they were running a political campaign. Things were getting crazier, the closer the contest day came.
Jason Charles had a booth set up and he wasn’t even a contestant. He would beat his chest and say he’s the handsomest even though not enough kids voted for him to beat Billy as the class contestant.
A girl in Billy’s class, Kathleen Ferguson, had a question for him one day; “Why aren’t you trying to get kids to vote for you Billy, like all the other kids are doing? They have booths set up and everything, but you don’t have anything. Don’t you want to win?” Billy thought for a moment, and then told her that being the handsomest kid in his class was an honor, and it was better than anything he had gotten before.” To Kathleen, he wasn’t making any sense, but she decided she’d vote for him anyway.
Jason Charles kept trying to scam his way into the vote for the handsomest kid in the whole school, since he lost out when Billy won the class vote. He even had his dad try to pressure the school into giving him an “alternate entry” into the final, whole school vote, but he had been refused entry, each time so far.
Jason Charles was a lot like his dad. Both of them were vindictive and got angry if they weren’t the center of attention. So even though Jason Charles’ dad had been turned down by the school several times, he had connections with some of the city council members. Those council members pushed the school to include Jason Charles as a contestant even though he hadn’t won a preliminary vote like all the other eligible kids did.
The day that voting for the Handsomest Kid In the Whole School Contest arrived, Billy wasn’t even thinking about it, when his name was announced and he wasn’t present when the other candidates were introduced in the auditorium. He was busy in the library, reading a book titled, “How To Be The Best Person You Can Be,” and he’d forgotten all about the contest vote.
Things were well underway when Billy finally remembered, and headed to the auditorium. He thought he heard some gasps when he entered and looked for a seat. He had missed practically all of the ceremony, and soon after he sat down, they passed out the ballots. Billy voted for Angus, since he thought he was the sure front-runner, and he was friends with Angus.
When the ballots were collected, the principal announced that they’d have the results in about fifteen minutes.
Billy’s reaction to being declared the big winner, was one of unbelief and doubt that the votes were correctly counted. He was surrounded by girls younger than him and older than him, all trying to get close to him. He saw Kathleen standing a distance away, her eyes trained on him, as she smiled and applauded him.
Kathleen and Billy got together after that and dated for a while, but eventually, Billy gained quite a bit of cover with his win in the contest. Some teen magazines had stories about him along with pictures, and he became a teen heart-throb. Too many girls were after him for Kathleen’s liking. Later, he became a male model and did very, very well in that profession.
