Wednesday, January 18th, 1984

     I’ve only taken Ruby’s aerobics class twice and I’ve certainly seen enough of Mary Margaret, but as mayor there are certain obligations. Today was Career Day at Storybrooke Elementary. I had to go to Miss Blanchard’s classroom with all of the other leading examples of the community and speak to children who would be too young to hold a job in this world for the rest of their cursed lives.

     Children ran around the classroom while the adults stood out of their way in a corner. Miss Blanchard was unphased by her students’ lack of decorum. She projected her voice and asked the children to quiet down and sit at their desks for their guests. She then offered an arm and gestured to all of us to take the seats placed for us along the wall. I chose a chair between Graham and Granny. Soreness spread through my thighs as a reminder that I still had a ways to go before I’d be in shape again. It took more time for me to sit down than it did for the children to quiet.

     “Perhaps we should take it easy for a while?” Graham spoke low so as not to distract from Miss Blanchard talking to her students.

     “It’s not that. I’m taking this aerobics class with Kathryn to help me lose weight.” I spoke low too. Granny was looking at Miss Blanchard, but I knew she was listening to us. That woman has better investigating skills than Sidney, who was the first to go up before the class.

     “You don’t need to lose any weight. I like you just the way you are.”

     “Sheriff, you would like me even if I shaved off all of my hair and painted myself blue.”

     “What shade of blue?”

     Granny cleared her throat and shifted in her seat away from me, confirming my suspicions. Sidney finished explaining his job and took some questions about the paper from the students before returning to his seat. Graham was next. All the children were enthralled by him. As soon as he was done he had to go back to work. The rest of us sat through Dr. Hopper, Dr. Whale (who pointed out to the students that he was a real doctor, with a look to Archie) and then Granny. Finally it was my turn.

     The children didn’t seem to be as interested in what it was like to be mayor as they were about the position of sheriff, but that was fine.  Miss Blanchard then opened it up to questions.

     “How did you become mayor?” A little boy asked.

     I wasn’t prepared for this. I don’t know why. I thought back to my first day here. It was in Sidney’s paper. Granny told me too, I think.

     “I was elected.” I said, rather proud of myself for remembering.

     “Like the president?”

     I must have looked like I didn’t know what a president was, because Miss Blanchard stepped in.

     “We’ve been learning about the presidents, since this is an election year.”

     I knew this was an election year and I knew what a president was. I’ve been learning things in our library and I’ve slightly paid attention to the news commercials in between “Hibiscus Hollow” episodes. I didn’t need Miss Blanchard to interrupt me like that. What I hadn’t thought about until then was these people thought they’d be voting in the next election. I entertained the idea of telling the children that we don’t vote in Storybrooke, but as far as everyone knew, most of them had voted for me. Maybe.

     “Yes, just like the president.” I smiled at the bored little boy. “Except there are so many more people voting all over the country. The president might be announced before all the votes are counted. It isn’t as important to vote in the bigger elections as it is the smaller, more local ones.”

     “That’s not true!” A man with a dark beard shouted from the back. I recognized him as one of Snow White’s dwarves, but I didn’t know his name here. His brown shirt and trousers suggested he was on the janitorial staff here. “Election day is the one day when everyone has a say. No one’s voice is more important than someone else’s!”

     “Leroy’s right, children.” Miss Blanchard had the nerve to do damage control in front of me. She took one look at me and shrank. “But so is Mayor Mills—sort of! It is a much larger election, but everyone’s vote counts. It just takes longer to count everyone’s vote!” She laughed at her own play on words, but one look from me assured her it wasn’t funny.

     I didn’t pay any attention to the rest of Career Day. As Leroy spoke about how important cleaning toilets was, all I could think about was how important voting was to him. If it was important to him, how many others would think it was important? What would happen if those people found out that no one outside of Storybrooke would come to collect their ballots? This is something I’ll have to prepare for. It should be easy.