While again nothing noteworthy happened during the following lessons, Rhonda did note herself somehow being the center of attention even more though. But what could she say? The latina was on a three day streak of weird things happening to her body. On that note, getting used to her additional tails and arms went pretty seamlessly. She already had some experience with extra body parts and them not having a mind of their own made them more convenient by miles. Even the red hair Abigail gave her was endearing itself to the part-dragon, part-slime, part-rubber-doll-thing girl. It was weird how her opinion of transformations had changed so fast. She initially only kept the dragon-form because it was something cool for once, might discourage others due to already being transformed and, most importantly, it not adhering to the school curse and being reversible whenever she wanted. Though just the last hour had undone the first and last points, strangely enough, she didn't care as much as she would have just before this week. Maybe Rhonda really was starting to appreciate transformations… or her hormones were playing with her head because a cute girl had said she looked pretty.
As Rhonda entered the cafeteria at the start of lunch time, she could feel all the stares shifting onto her form. Certainly not something she was unused to, trying to keep magic hidden in a human school (despite it being pretty much an open secret nowadays) ironically enough made you the center of attention quite often, who would've thought? But that wasn't her concern at the moment anyways. Sweeping her own eyes over the hall she tried to find Margo.
While doing so the tables surrounding the latina suddenly went completely silent and seemed to cease all movement. An oppressive atmosphere was rapidly spreading through the cafeteria and some swore the temperature had actually dropped by a few degrees. A girl approached and stopped right behind the dracomorph, her shoes making abnormally loud clacks while doing so. Rhonda's still fairly new draconic instincts were telling her to run, but before she could attempt anything a hand firmly clamped down on her shoulder. Looking over that same shoulder Rhonda locked eyes with Margo Keischo, the albino fixing her with an impressive glare. In spite of the height enhancements the transformations gave Rhonda, the other girl was still bigger than her.
“Rhonda Martinez, we need to talk!” came the heiress’ commanding voice. She turned around and Rhonda followed her without any words. For a moment she seriously thought she was about to be scolded for some rules she broke unknowingly.
In what seemed to have already become a routine between the two they walked through the halls as Rhonda couldn't help but admire a bit how Margo carried herself, head held high, arms crossed behind her back like an army general and every step perfectly measured, the textbook image of a strong leader. They still attracted the looks of everyone they walked past, but she could feel they were drawn not to her weird, sexy (weirdly sexy? sexily weird?) form, but to Margo’s presence. It almost made Rhonda forget how she nearly blurted out their now shared secret to Sofia.
With an unnecessarily dramatic flourish the albino girl opened the door to an empty study room. After entering and closing the door again Margo turned to Rhonda with wide eyes. “I almost did a double take in front of everyone! What the heck happened? What did I miss? Was it the Countess? Is Sofia alright?”
“E-Everything's fine. The Countess was kinda involved, but everyone’s fine and most are in bodies they're comfortable with.” Rhonda was still getting used to Margo's ability to switch between no-nonsense hardass and casual teen girl at the drop of a hat.
“Ohh… One of Rhonda's adventures right under my nose and I missed it…” Thankfully she perked up quickly. “Anyways, you being here means you’ve made a decision regarding my offer?”
Frankly, Rhonda still hadn't fully come to a decision when she opened her mouth. “So… um… yeah… uh… the thing is…”
If anyone had told Rhonda before that Margo Keisho, the girl who fearlessly stood up to the orc teacher Miss Lancaster, would give her puppy dog eyes… She couldn't really blame her though. The main reason Margo made this proposal was to have an easy excuse to spend time with her sister she only met a few days ago for the first time. (Supposed sister, jury was still out on that) How often did she try out the weirdest things just in an effort to better connect with her adopted brother? And if she was being honest, she had always wanted to have a sister. Where could be the harm in trying? Her whole life she felt like she had been walking around with a target on her back, what does it matter if it gets slightly bigger?
Her decision finally made, Rhonda Martinez took a deep breath to seal it. “Margo Keischo, I will help you become student council president.”
“Yes! Yes! Yes! Yay! Yay! Yay!” Margo almost literally exploded from joy, hugging the dragon girl in a surprisingly strong grip and jumping in place. “We’ll have so much time to spend together, to bond, talk about our interests, have adventures more exciting than my fanfictions!” –”Wait, wut?”– “Trust me, you won't regret it. I can't believe it. I hope Mom is watching right now, she’ll definitely tear up. After so many years the Keischo twins are finally reunited again.”
Not having expected such exuberance from the girl proclaiming herself to be her younger sister Rhonda gently removed herself from the embrace. “Yeah, that's, uh, great, just don't go announcing it to the whole school.”
“Don't worry, something like yesterday won't happen again. I wasn't prepared to meet face-to-face with Sofia so early. Meeting your idols, and such.”
“Can't really blame you, I also made that experience.”
“I know, not one of your proudest moments.”
Awkward pause.
Rhonda cleared her throat. “So what's on the agenda regarding student council stuff?”
“Great that you ask, sis, can I call you sis in private?” Rhonda nodded. “Our first goal will be to get all the freshmen on our side. They should be the easiest to convince as they aren't really familiar with the current council yet. I was expecting to need at least two weeks to convince you, so that moves us up in the plan quite a bit, though it’ll still be close.”
“When are the elections, anyway?” Rhonda asked.
“Very soon, already in May.”
“...May? The school year just started. That's at least 8 months from today.”
“As I said, barely enough time. We need to establish ourselves as a viable alternative to the current president and potential other candidates, make all the necessary connections and convince more than half the student body to vote for us. There's a reason why only the best, our rope-obsessed, older sister Marni, managed to do so. But we have a bit of an advantage.”
With a flourish of her wand Margo made a folder appear in front of Rhonda. “I made use of some connections of our family and got some information of every girl in our grade to gauge which of them have the best potential to help us accomplish our goal and would make for a good student council. I highly doubt the current members will want to stay after we toppled their leader.”
“On that note, what role do you have planned for me?” Rhonda spoke up. “I hope it's not secretary, but I think I’d make for a decent treasurer myself.”
“Vice president, obviously,” Margo answered nonchalantly.
“W-w-what? Why?”
“This already is a rare situation, having two Keischos in the same school at the same time. It's the best possible solution, unless you want us both to compete for the president position.”
“But I have no interest in being president or anything similar. I’m not the type for a position of power. Even during our adventures I always let Sofia lead the way.”
“Don't sell yourself short, sis, you let your beautiful friend take point, because most of the time she's better equipped to deal with everything. A good leader knows when to step down to let more qualified people take over. In your case that just happened to be almost every week. But not only that, you're kind, compassionate, take action in tough moments, people instinctively trust you and you can reign someone like Sofia in when she loses her patience. Just look at how differently you and Sofia treat Niamh. Let someone tell you who has watched you her entire life.” –”Again, wut?”– “You are oozing with protagonist energy. Keischo blood is flowing through your veins. You're a natural born leader.”
Rhonda wanted to continue arguing. She knew quite a bunch of people who were better leaders than her, her best friend Sofia, her own cousin Melissa, heck, even Abigail. But she also couldn't really refute anything. Why did all the weird stuff Margo said make sense?
“Let's just continue about this later. It won't matter much anyways, if you don't win,” Rhonda offered. “What can I do to help right now?” She picked up the folder and leafed through it without actually reading anything.
“This folder is a list of potential recruits I’ve chosen for our future student council. Report cards and psychological evaluations can only get you that far, though. So over the next week we’ll have to gauge them in person, if they really have the required potential and what it’d need to convince them to join our side. In short, if you happen to come across one of them try to start a conversation and see how they tick. That'll be everything for you for now. I know you're new to this, so I don't want to overwhelm you.” She glanced at the clock. “You should also still have enough time for lunch.”
They said their goodbyes, but before Rhonda could open the door to leave, she was enveloped in another, more gentle hug by Margo. “It feels so good to finally be together, sis. You know, despite everything they did to hide you, you still have mom’s eyes. Well, you had before you turned draconic.”
Rhonda couldn't help herself but lean into this embrace. Like Margo said, it felt good, familiar even. Ultimately they reluctantly parted and Rhonda left.
Once the dracomorph was out of earshot, Margo quickly took out her phone and typed a quick message to her mother. “Oh god… please tell me you recorded everything,” she said out loud. “I need to see what happened in the last 24 hours.”