Chapter 1
Kings High School.
It’s an average high school, with average students. Every day is the same: the students come in, hang out with their friends, doze off in class and complain about homework. Eventually, numerous students will move along through their four years and grow up to do some great things and some not great things. Alumni of Kings have become doctors, lawyers, artists – some have even changed the world. The start of that journey, however, begins with the clubs.
Many different clubs scatter throughout the halls of the large building. However, this story focuses on one of the less popular options– student council. The council may manage everything that occurs in the school, but no one really participates. The generally area of “politics” isn’t really important to the rest of the student body. Nevertheless, the few students still participate and work together to make the school even better.
It is the first meeting of the year, an hour before the school year actually begins – the majority of the council’s senior year to be more exact. The previous year, they had planned to make this year the best the school has ever had. This meeting, however, is already turning into chaos.
Even though the greater part of the council is composed of seniors, the grades levels were still separated by invisible barriers of desks. The freshmen seated themselves in the front, and then the rest of the levels slowly filed in towards the back of the classroom.
Two seniors stand at the front of the classroom, their supervising teacher is nowhere to be seen. Since the podium was only made for one person, the two classmates are constantly bickering over who has the right to stand behind it.
Naturally, the freshmen are confused as to who the people are, they mumble amongst themselves and tried to decipher the names being spoken. After a few minutes, an annoyed sophomore informs the younger ones that they are the vice president and the treasurer.
Soon, they also manage to conclude that the shorter, more collected one is Aaron Burr – the vice president. The other one is a bit taller than first one, and a bit more rambunctious. He is the one doing the most talking and his dark hair flying behind him as he moved to exaggerate his points. That is Alexander Hamilton. They’re the two foster sons of the supervisor of student council – Mr. Washington.
After a couple more minutes of bickering, Aaron finally gives in. Much to his dismay, he takes a step to the side and allows Alex to take his place on the podium. His senior friends in the back help quiet the others down and allow their friend to start the meeting.
“As you all can see, G-Wash is in a meeting, so he left me in charge,” Alex starts. At the nickname, the freshmen send concerning looks amongst themselves, but they decide not to question it. “I’m Alexander, I’m the Treasurer. Students of the council, bear with me, I’m curious. Are you aware that we’re making history? This is the first meeting of our brand new council. We’re the liberty behind deliberation. I intend to prove beyond a shadow of a doubt with my assistance counsel-”
“Vice President,” Burr cuts in and sends a glare towards his classmate. “Hamilton, sit down. “We look forward to starting the school year,” that’s all you had to say.”
“Whatever floats your boat, Burr,” Alex rolls his eyes but continues on. The freshmen giggle to themselves, and that seems to boost his cocky demeanor even more. “As I was saying before I was rudely interrupted. I intend to prove without a shadow of a doubt that this year will be our best year yet. We have a few ideas from last year, but I’m sure we can get some more. We need a lot of fundraising though. The seniors last year were absolute shit, so we got to make up for that. Our student debt though, damn, don’t get me started on – do you need something, Burr?”
He glares at his foster brother next to him. He relaxes a bit when Burr stops poking him in the side, but the peace soon ends once his classmate starts to speak.
“I need you to stop talking,” Burr gestures around the classroom. “You’re getting off track again. We need to do attendance before Washington finishes his meeting so we can have an effective gathering today.”
“Boring,” someone drags the word out from the back of the room. Burr only rolls his eyes at the side comment. Alex, on the other hand, is beaming with a look of satisfaction – something he rarely thinks of.
“Herc has the right idea,” Alex agrees. He sends a wave over to that direction of the classroom. Alex leans his weight up against the podium and slouches so he can rest his chin on his hand, as if he’s waiting for Burr to go against his thoughts.
Burr sighs and grabs the attendance clipboard from the board. A few groans come from around the room, but he dismisses them with a wave of his hand. He starts off with the lower classes and works his way up to his own. Without a doubt, most everyone is there. There are two exceptions to the rule. John Jay – he’s always out “sick.” The other is the President of Student Council, Thomas Jefferson. No one really knows where he is, but the main rumor is that he’s in France for the semester. Another popular belief is that he died, another rumor once started by the treasurer.
“We wasted a solid seven minutes of my life, Burr,” Alex drops his head onto the podium. “How do you feel about that?”
“That’s seven minutes of not listening to you complaining about the financial state of the council,” Burr shrugs. “Overall, it was pretty good.”
The freshmen laugh at that extra comment causing a smug look to appear on the vice president’s face. It’s very similar to the one Alex wore only minutes before. Alex huffs with exasperation and drops his hands to his side. He doesn’t notice that his hands have balled themselves into fists until a voice speaks up from the back. Alex starts to ease up when he sees his girlfriend, Eliza Schuyler, walking between the aisles of desks.
She steps in between the two rivals and claps her hands together to regain everyone’s attention. Alex can’t help but blush a bit when she sends a warm smile in his direction before speaking.
“Hello, everyone! We’re so happy to have everyone back this year and can’t wait to get started. But, Angelica and I figured this–” she pauses for a moment and gestures towards the two brothers before continuing, “–was going to happen today, so we printed out some pamphlets to remind everyone who was elected into which spot last year and also what we are going to be working on. This will also help us with names and other events throughout the school year.”
“Best of girlfriends, best of women,” Alex sighs with a smile playing on his lips. Eliza slightly drops her gaze to the ground to conceal her smile. Within a few seconds she regains her composure and motions for her sister, Angelica, to start passing out the new papers. The juniors roll their eyes at their superiors, while the freshmen remain in awe of their carefree behaviors.
“Why don’t I ready off the names and we can become familiar with the new faces?” Eliza suggests and shrugs her shoulders a bit.
Alex immediately pushes himself off the podium and gestures for her to take his former spot. She thanks him before moving over to take charge. The rest of the meeting proceeds peacefully once Eliza and Angelica take control of the supervision. Reluctantly, Aaron and Alex retreat to the back of the classroom to let the sisters lead.
Alex heads over to join the rest of the “Revolutionary Squad.” The name had been created four years ago, when they all walked through the doors as freshmen. All of them destined to change the school for the better before they leave later this year. Alex takes a seat in the middle of the group, his friend Gilbert de Lafayette to his left, Hercules Mulligan to his right, and a junior, Peggy Schuyler, behind him. The two members left of their group remain at the front of the classroom.
Aaron, on the other hand, takes a seat with the remaining seniors on the other side of the classroom. The invisible divider between the two groups is noticeable to the rest of the committee, but the underclassmen don’t question it. The returning younger classmen remember the constant fights between them, and they hope that this year will be more composed and structured.
Little do they know that this is just the beginning of another long school year.