Gilda was nearly skipping as she walked down the halls.  Christmas time was here but more importantly, it was time for campaigning.  Let the girls have their fun atg the big party, she would join them soon enough.  Oh the pretty ladies in pretty clothes doing pretty dances.  Her heart soared and she hugged the flyers to her breast.  Tonight would be glorious, and the morning the girls of LeRim would see a school transformed.  Not just for the holidays, but for the new era of Astrea.  Gilda posted another flyer up on the wall.  She'd worked hard on these, it had been weeks waiting for this, the perfect moment to strike.  So while almost everyone was off at the dance, Gilda worked feverishly for her cause. 

The flyers were direct.  'Our sisters need us." they said, with a bunch of the worst pictures of the forest and Miator buildings.  'They won't stop fighting.  Gilda Hohenzollern for Peace."    They were simple, they got the point across, and they pointed out the two biggest issues of the school right now.  Way down at the bottom there was a time and place, that place being the school gates.  It was going to be the time of her first manifesto for the people.  Anyone who wanted or needed to learn more could come.  Trouble was, it wasn't guaranteed that she would be able to get Spica and Miator girls there.  They wouldn't help her since they couldn't vote for her, but their disapproval would be integral to booting out the old guard. 

Despite being there to work, Gilda had planned to go to the dance right after and was dressed appropriately.  Hilda had outdone herself.  The long flowing gown, black as midnight made her look grand and imposing, despite being short and a first year.  She felt a proper queen in this and the silvery crown was icing on the cake.  The costume made her feel powerful, of course that was proper.  She was going to be a great and powerful woman soon.  The fact that she was dressed up as the evil queen didn't matter, evil queen got things done.  That's where the real reform came from.  None of that letting animals into the bedroom nonsense or creepy boys with plastic hair.  Evil Queen had it going on.  Gilda hung up another flyer. 

Eva had to work late that night as the ongoing dance was cause for her to be on higher alert then before as she kept an open eye upon the corridors. Her usual uniform was as prim and proper as it usually was and her hair was done up int a tight bun, her white eye scanned along with her emerald orb but could not see a thing as it had lost its site ages ago. She took notice of an odd flier she had not seen before the party started and quickly examined it before her brow scrunched down and she looked more closely. “What in the world is this..... a smear job?” she asked as the images of miator and the forest were not the grand site she had seen since she arrived. “Now who in the world is posti.........” She paused as she saw the hem of a dress trape around a corner and she raised a brow. “Well lets go see what the meaning is behind this...” she then proceeded to quickly follow and find the giddy school girl with fliers. “Excuse me.....” Eva called out to the small girl, Eva being 6'6” easily towered over her. “May I ask what these are?” She said as she lifted one of the fliers she took to show the girl before her. “And why are you not at the dance?” she asked somewhat confused as to why this girl was running about and placing these fliers. Eva was still new here so she would not know a lot about this school yet.

If Gilda was startled by the interruption, she hid it well. She lightly spun to face the girl addressing her and found not a girl but a woman. And she had to look up, way way up to get a full view of her. She looked like campus security, at least the uniform matched, but tonight was a costume ball and who knew what sort of craziness the adults were doing while the children played. Still, security or not, this was an authority figure and authority figures were to be respected. Of course respect was a bit of a weird subject for Gilda.

"This? Well this is a flyer, schöne frau. To be more specific, it is the first flyer for my glorious campaign to become Le Rim President for the student council." She smiled her perfect smile up at the woman. "And I will be going to the dance once I'm done hanging flyers. It would be out of character for the beautiful evil queen to show up on time, after all, don't you agree?" She stuck another flyer to the wall. "I have permission you know, I've had it for almost two weeks but I thought it would be special for everyone to wake up after a lovely night at the ball to a dawning of a new day for the Hill, literally and metaphorically. Of course I can only do it for Lerim but I do what I can, I always have and I always will. I'm the candidate you can believe in."

Gilda was starting to get into full campaign speech mode, a dangerous place to be in for sure. She stepped in close and wrapped her arm around...well, if it was a person closer to her height, she'd have gone for the shoulders, however with such a giant next to her, Gilda's shoulder was just about equal to the woman's hip, so her arm went around the woman's waist. "Look out the window and what do you see?" She gestured witht he hand holding the stack of remaining flyers. Outside it was dark. "Well maybe if it wasn't so dark, the skies were clear, and there weren't a lot of things in the way. I'll tell you what you see, it's Astrea hill slowly crumbling. The forest of Spica burned many many years ago, it's an ashed land now and it has not been fixed. We were struck by an earthquake not long ago and Miator's old bones could not take the strain and her building is in shambles. Both of Lulim's dear sisters need help. But even as we speak, well maybe not as we speak but even as we walk the halls, the current presidents battle to drag Astrea's daughters into the pit."

Gilda shook her head sadly. "Spica and Miator need care and attention, but the presidents, through some terrible pacts and manipulations, have taken power and are using it to fight some personal vendetta. They hate each other for some past wrongdoing and use their influence and their loyal followings of young lovestruck girls to influence the schools. My president is no better, she allows this to happen, as do the Etoiles, powerless to take advantage of the true potential as the rallying point of the school." Gilda looked up at the woman. "I am campaigning under a platform of unity. The three sisters need to turn to each other and support each other if we are to become beautiful again."

EVa tried her best to listen to the purpose of what she was doing but when the girl touched her Eva could hardly keep her enraged glare off of her face. She waited until she was done speaking and then slowly grabbed the girls wrist and removed her from her hip before then gently grabbing her by the collar and picked her up so she could look her directly in the eye. She stared into the girls eyes for some time before whispering to her a simple sentence. "Dont ever touch me again!" She then gently set her back down and then straightened out her uniform before taking on her more cold demeanor. " Now then... you say you have permission to do this but did you show these flyiers to the staff?.... there rather cruel to your fellow students and this is a school, not a political place for students to slander one another and try to make others look inept. If you are going to do this I would suggest you use less slanderous materials and try to be more kind to your fellow students."

Gilda was taken by surprise as she was suddenly dragged up into the air. 'Well, this lady was a bit touchy' she thought to herself, she would have smiled at the pun if she wasn't frowning with so much annoyance.  She adjusted her collar coldly.  "That was rude, my sister worked hard on this dress and you could have ruined it and for why?  Because I wanted to show the kindest feeling to you."  Gilda marched over to one of the posters on the wall.  "Now, look closely, miss.  What is slanderous about this?  Is it the photos?  They could be called alarmist but they are real photos of our school.  Sisters were hurt in the earthquake and since then many girls have been caught or not caught sneaking around the rubble and the crypts beneath it.  It's not safe.  As for the forest, have you seen the so called ashed lands?  You need a bath after being in them.  It's been years since they burnt down, natural forest fires see recovery in far less time but we still have a thick layer of ash and burnt husks of trees that are charcoal through the core.  Is that healthy to breathe in every time the wind picks up?  None of this is slander."

Gilda pointed to the words.  "Our sister's need us." she read.  "This is and will always be true because the schools and all the students are my sisters and sisters depend and love each other."  She moved her finger down.  "They won't stop fighting.  It's been well documented that Miator and Spica have the biggest rivalry of the schools.  If people would read through the minutes of the student council meetings they would see that the schools are each trying to get the funding to fix their school's problem and there's barely enough for one.  Slander is a false statement, nothing I have posted is false and slander is against a person, I have named no names on my poster nor implied whose fault it is on the poster..  My words may be harsh, but I know the rules of the campaign."

Gilda folded her arms and spun to face the woman.  "It would do me no good to slander or harm my sister schools, I wish to recruit them to my cause.  The resurrection of Astrea as a whole.  It would be wonderful to put all the petty rivalry behind us and live as a trinity of beauty.  My Le Rim sisters should not be told that Spica is bad, they can't cast a vote for Spican change.  They should not be told that Miator is a bad place, they have no power over Miator.  Le Rim needs to be reminded the hill is for every one of us.  That they need to vote and voice their opinions to help everyone.  My poster is to remind them that Miator needs help.  That Spica too has troubles.  Le Rim is not a separate entity even if we are not Spica or Miator."

Gilda flipped her long hair back over one shoulder.  "Anywhere people go to discuss ideas that can affect the future of the majority is political, miss.  The power lies with a select few.  That is why we have a vote, and if the students aren't informed, then the Student Council might as well be just like the Etoiles, a popularity contest."

Eva raised a brow and looked the girl in the eyes somewhat confused as to why this girl thought being a member of a student council would give her enough power to completely change not one, but three whole schools entirely. "But it is a popularity contest to get into the position your trying for, You yourself are even posting fliers showing images of the school in shambles to attempt to gain either a sympathy vote or a patriotic form of vote but in the end how will you fix it? How do you know the others haven't tried but do to the fact this is a religious school getting the proper teams to work here is harder then the school itself is willing to put the effort in. You talk in absolutes without knowing all the possibilities. You presume to know the thoughts and notions of others and you even preach what you presume but that in itself is a form of slander." Eva remained cold with every word and her eyes showed it. She then reached into her bag and pulled out a book before handing it to the girl and gave her a look that seamed to say take this. "This book will honestly help you... it's Sun Tzu's the art of war, it can be applied to literally anything that you can find opposition in and it will help you to succeed in both taking the position and serving it well. You have a lot of spirit in your eyes and you show you want it but when it comes down to it will you be able to handle the position without knowing all that it requires? There are things hidden from all eyes in the most wanted positions to make them more appealing to all. Think everything through and try to understand not only what you want and can do but what your enemy wants and can do." Eva had no idea how this went from something more hostile to a lecture but she preferred it this way. "I.... I am sorry about your dress..." she muttered

"Popularity? Of course it isn't. Sure, some people end up voting for people they like which is a shame, they should vote with their minds, not their hears. But if the majority do use their head, it's not about popularity." Gilda folded her arms and nodded in agreement with her own arguments. "The pictures are of shambles because some people don't know. How often does a lulim go to the Miator building to look around? The answer isn't very often." She looked up at the woman. "And I do have ideas and plans to fix it. I took those pictures and hundreds more. If I wanted to go into this without a plan, I would have announced my plans to the school on day one of my arrival here. Instead I waited, I plotted, I planned."

Gilda looked towards the poster and the dark pictures. "Miator is not something that can be fixed by students. They need the money most. The forest can be fixed with a lot of effort on the students parts. I may not know everything about construction or forestry, but somebody does. Thousands of hard working women have graduated from the schools and yet the presidents haven't asked the graduates to help. Even if only a few responded, it would be good. And yes, I know for a fact they haven't because I asked the presidents." Gilda walked over to a bench and set her stack of papers down.

"There are far more Miator girls who went into things like flower shops and plant things and far more Spicas went on to design great works of architecture. If they could work together, they could contact some of the alumni who specialize to volunteer time or money. Who wouldn't want to give back to the school that gave them so much? Even 1% alumni help would do a lot of good. As for us, field days to try and clean up the forest, bake sales or even working with local businesses to raise money to repair Miator." She glared at the woman. "I have plans."

Gilda sighed and leaned against the wall. "And no it isn't, slander is spoken words against the character of an individual. I don't slander, I might libel if I wanted to but I can probably get around that too, there are precedents. Regardless, it's nothing that I've done so far and the poster is not slander nor libel."

Gilda took the book and looked over it, flipping through the pages quickly. "Thank you, but I have it already. My father bought one for me when I told him I was going to be Bundespräsidentin." she passed the book back up to the woman. "Right now my only enemy is lack of cooperation. If I can get the sisters to work together, even if they don't choose me to help guide the school, then I will have done a great deed. As for things I don't know..." Gilda paused and smiled up at the woman, "that's just how life is and by dealing with them, I will show what kind of leader I am."

"once again a vote is a popularity contest no matter how you look at it, students may vote with there mind but its always whose in line with there best interests even if they care at all. If they don't pay attention to the contestants and are just voting they vote for whoever they've heard of the most. So in the end no matter if you use your mind your heart or whatever to vote you vote for whoever you like the most so please tell me how its not a popularity contest and if you are preaching for something that requires a great many of your fellow students to do more work then they already do then don't expect a lot of support And even if you do win, you just expect your alumni to go, sure ill come back to school in my busy schedule to volunteer time in the current economy when most can hardly afford housing or food? I am not an alumni of any the schools in this country but if my school asked me to come back and volunteer time i would laugh and never look back. You obviously don't have any idea of how the human mind works, if someone can get out of something then they will and if someone starts to preach that they'll make lunch cheaper for students or something do you think students are just going to vote for you because its morally right? That wont happen ever provided your competition provides easier life and even if you get to that position you want how will you persuade the other student council members? You have an entire school that doesn't seem to want change and you just expect them to get up and go lets make a difference? Your rather naive in the end but i do like your spirit." Eva had grown tired of this now and turned around before walking down the hall. " Enjoy the dance little one... just enjoy your life."