Make a Choice

Jude had not expected to get advice from Wolfgang of all people. But he had. He'd sat Jude down, talked it out, and then told him he should be talking to someone else. It hadn't been hard to figure out who might be good, and he'd sent a text to Chloe later that night, hoping to meet up with her the next day over lunch.

Jude had his own packed, and he arrived at the courtyard with his usual messenger bag, looking more tired than he probably should have, considering he didn't actually get tired, and didn't need to sleep.

He just had a lot going on.

He grabbed a seat beside a fountain, waiting for Chloe to arrive and staring into space.

Okay. This wasn't his problem, which made things... well, a lot easier. Asking about his problems? Hard. Asking about others? Easy. This was sort of his problem, but he could also just wash his hands of it if he needed. He was handling this because he was the kind of person who stuck his nose into things, but it wasn't do or die.

"So, before I can say anything," Jude said, "I basically have to swear you to secrecy. It's not my thing, and I don't think you would tell, but this is one of those 'ask for sure, so it's clear it's secret,' kind of things."

He made a point of unpacking his lunch as he did, wondering what Wolfgang was doing... and why he seemed to even care. Was he finally warming up to him?

Jude raised an eyebrow slightly at the way she worded it. It wasn't that serious, and it wasn't quite... his secret. But okay. He could do that.

His promise properly extracted, Jude went ahead and explained the problem.

"Okay, so, during elections I was talking with the other people who were running, and I ended up talking with Elisa. She... well, she lied to me a bunch. I have a perfect memory, so it's pretty easy for me to spot it when someone says 'I'm new to the school' and then later says 'I've been at the school a while'. So I got suspicious, and I talked to Alma, and Alma told me about some of the stuff that happened in the old elections, so I went digging. Only it turned out that the secret was..."

Jude let out a sigh, because it was kind of painful just to say it.

"So Elisa Pelham is Eli Pelham. They're the same person. They're... I don't know if this even counts as transitioning, but they're using a charm, and acting like they're a whole new person. I've been around a few people who are transitioning, and in that case it was... like, yes, it was a thing? But none of them ever like, pretended to be someone new and lied to people's faces. But then it got even more confusing, because all this is only happened within the last month or so, but it turns out that Elisa has a boyfriend, and when she mentioned it, apparently she hasn't told him anything. She's just lying to him about who she is and how long she's been on the island and all this stuff, and it..."

Jude's expression looked... pained? Definitely pained.

"I don't want to out her? Like, I don't have much experience that I know that's bad. But I also think it's unfair that she's just... lying to everyone, especially this guy who doesn't even know who she is? I can't imagine dating someone who I was lying to about everything. Like, if it was just her name, sure, but it's everything."

Jude felt like he'd just peeled a mostly healed scab open for Chloe. The hurt was obviously there, raw and painful. It wasn't anything like what he'd been through, and it wasn't anything like what his friends had been through. It was an entirely new thing, and he made himself stay quiet, listening to Chloe as she talked, explaining.

"So," Jude concluded. "It's... I don't know. It's a complicated issue. Part of me feels like it's not even my business, only the whole reason I even changed my campaign to the president was because I knew Elisa was hiding something, but not what. If I'd just known in the first place, I'd probably be treasurer or something like that. I guess I just don't know what I'm supposed to do. Not like I can do much to... help or anything. Pretty sure I'm firmly in the position of antagonist for Elisa." For Eli?

Who knew. He sure as hell didn't.

"I mean," Jude said, realizing he'd made things sound awfully confusing, "I talked with Alma, and she explained a bit about things that had happened in old elections. So all I knew was that Elisa was lying about who she was to people. I didn't know what they were hiding, just that they were. So I wasn't sure if you were going to have some kind of... I don't know, serial killer or mass-poisoner or something like that."