The President ✎ᝰ. short story written for ELA The President Everyone thought women were inferior, even Elliana’s mother. It’s what was told to everyone since they were born. Elliana had never considered herself inferior to most of the men she knew. She knew her gender didn’t affect her knowledge. Elliana had been raised by her mother, and she loved her. However, she didn’t agree with everything her mother thought. Her mother always thought women weren’t as smart or powerful as men. This is why Elliana finally had the nerve to tell her mother about her plan. She was furious. “Elliana, this isn’t a good idea! You are a 19-year-old girl, this is not how it works on Ship 226, you can’t just run for president!” Elliana tried to cut her off, but she continued. “We already talked about this. You will become a maid, like me. End of the discussion!” Elliana stormed off and slammed the door, she wasn’t ready to give up, yet. She and her two best friends, Kyle and Clara, had been working their butts off to get more signatures on her Statement of Candidacy. She had been giving out flyers and doing speeches all over the ship. This was her dream, her only goal. Becoming the president of Ship 226. At first, when she had thought of the idea, she had rejected it thinking it was impossible. But when she jokingly told her friends, they insisted on her persevering and reaching her goal. Kyle and Clara had lived in an orphanage their whole lives. Their dad accidentally killed their mom because of beating her too much, because she wasn’t ‘working hard enough’. They had been since then trying to find a way to give women more rights, when Elliana told them her idea, they didn’t hesitate to help her. Living on a ship in outer space made it hard for everyone to get along, so the government created laws prohibiting things that could start a riot. They had been even more alert since the Rebellion of Working Women, a rebellion, which had happened a little bit before Elliana’s birth. A group of women wanted their working wages to be higher, so they stopped working for a week, expecting the government to take action, however, all the government did was put all of the women who participated on Ship 216. The prison ship. Elliana hurried through the gloomy hallways of the ship, she got to, her, Kyle and Clara´s meeting spot, in a little custody closet a little bit earlier than she had predicted so she sat down on an upside-down bucket and took out an apple from the pocket of her black pants. She dusted her long-sleeved black shirt, as the door opened to Clara and Kyle. “So, how did it go?“ Clara asked, twirling her honey-blond curls, a sign of stress from her. Elliana looked down. Kyle and Clara bent down and hugged her. “She’ll understand at some point, and she’ll help us,” Kyle whispered, comfortingly. Elliana smiled looking up at four comforting blue eyes. “Thank you so much for helping me with everything. “ She answered. “Yeah, well we’re not done yet, we still have to get you to only the most important speech of your life!” blurted Clara, her blue eyes shooting with stress. “Stop stressing her out so much, she got this!” Answered Kyle. Elliana bit into the apple she was holding, deep in her thoughts. She had reviewed her presidential speech at least a hundredths times and had recited it to Kyle and Clara so many times. She was ready. The next day, Elliana was waiting in a small, fancy crowded room. Only one other man was running against her. Roy Avery. He was the last president's son, his whole life was leading up to this. But so was Elliana’s. Roy Avery went first, his speech promised a lot of things like better transportation, better food, and better housing. Elliana slowly breathed, trying to get in control. She couldn’t have a panic attack right before her speech. Then, it was time for her, she slowly advanced to the small stage. Almost all of the ship’s population was there, looking at her and whispering. It smelled like sweat, making her suffocate a little. This was the first time a woman was on this stage. Elliana breathed out and opened her mouth to start her speech, when a loud noise, like a gun, sounded. The last thing Elliana saw was Kyle’s frozen face. ✎ᝰ.hii, i'm charlie ꣹ // come with me to write my first book꧔ ꞌꞋꞌ ! [book reveal coming soon] : !꒳ ✧ ˚ ˓˓ ꣹ // writing vlogs ꧔ author q & a Ꞌꞌ !
Clara entered, pushing the curtain as she passed. “You got shot.” She rushed to her bedside and hugged her tightly. A tear rolled down Elliana’s cheek. She got shot, that explained the pain. She asked again, “What about the speech?” Clara shot up, “You almost die, and all you can think of is your speech?” She heard a scream, it was Clara’s voice. That was the last thing she heard before passing out, the feeling of pain spreading everywhere through her body. When Elianna woke up, her vision was blurry. She shot up straight. “Woah, calm down” Kyle was sitting on a small chair next to her bed. A white hospital bed. “What am I doing here? What happened? What about the speech?” Elliana screamed. “You’re fi-” Kyle didn’t finish, a tear spilled out of one of his eyes. He ran and hugged her, “I really thought we lost you” Elliana stiffen. What had happened? “Can you please answer my questions, what happened?” She shifted to look at him and felt a sharp pain in her abdomen. Elliana twisted her hands and finally answered, “It’s time I told you guys the real reason I’m running for president…” Kyle looked at her with a questioning look. Clara opened her mouth, and then closed it again. “It’s funny you’ve never asked about my dad, he’s the reason of it all.” Elliana took a deep breath, “He used to beat my mom. When she got pregnant with my little brother he beated her very badly. He didn’t want a second child. I guess he wasn’t happy with how I turned out. She lost the baby because of him, he hit her too hard.” A tear rolled down her cheeks. “We had already planned the name, we had the clothes, everything… When it happened, my mom was scared he’d start beating me too, I was only 9 years old. So one night, she woke me up and we left.” Elliana’s cheeks were now shining with tears, reminiscing on her past wasn’t easy. “Becoming president would solve all of our problems. I could change this ship, we could have women’s rights.” Elliana curled in a ball under her bedsheets, her tears rolling down her cheeks as she thought of what her dad could've done to her mom, that fateful night, if she hadn’t taken a kitchen knife and stabbed him in the leg, to let her and her mom have enough time to escape. Clara and Kyle took her into their arms, Clara softly drawing circles on her back, Kyle softly whispering “It’s okay, everything’s fine now.” When suddenly, Clara shot up. “Wait, everyone knows that if you become president you will take steps into women's rights. So we know every single woman on this ship is going to vote for you! Roy Avery probably knew this and decided to hire a hitman to shoot you so you wouldn’t be at the Receiving speech in time, making it impossible for you to officially accept the duty, making it not possible for you to become president.” Elliana shot up and added, “I just have to go there right now!” She looked at her watch, “I have three minutes!” Elliana got up on her feet, Kyle and Clara following her, she felt the sharp pain again on her left side, making her flinch. Kyle grabbed her right arm and Clara her left to help her run. They suddenly stopped, almost dropping Elliana to the ground. Two very tall and bulky men were standing in front of them, blocking the hospital’s exit. “Excuse me, sirs” Articulated Clara. The three of them knew they weren’t just two random men waiting outside of the hospital. One of the men, the taller one, grabbed Elliana like a luggage. “Here, we’ll take care of her…” The hitman smiled menacelly, Kyle pulled her back, she had passed out and he wasn’t about to let these men take her. “We’re okay.” He pulled her even closer, the man sent her a menacing glare and placed his hand, which was as big as Kyle's face, on his face and pressed it making him feel dizzy. He was about to crush his head into pieces when Clara took a disabler out of her pocket and pointed it at his face. She smiled triumphantly, to show them she wasn’t afraid of pulling the trigger of the small, silver weapon.
