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Drive-By Storytelling

Wow, what a wild poll that last one was!

Stephanie Wyatt scored tops in the Free Poll, and she spent most of the week maintaining a healthy lead there. And maybe that led to her supporters getting complacent, so they didn't spend many GPs on her.

If so, it was a big mistake, because in the final tabulation Stephanie got absolutely wrecked, finishing a very distant third.

In fact, she was in third place almost from the moment the poll went up, as lots of readers dumped huge GP gifts onto other choices. For awhile it was touch and go who would win the top spot, but in the end one choice pulled away for a fairly decisive win. Final standings:

Yumi Saito: 61,000
Andrea Varnsworth: 48,991
Stephanie Wyatt: 20,209
Kendra Saunders: 12,436
Kelsey Blankenship; 6,218

I guess one reader spoke for many when he wrote, explaining his GP vote: "We never get to somebody else impersonating [Yumi], so could be interesting."

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Meanwhile, I'm halting the current storyline with today's chapter—

* Interactive: "The Girl at the Drive-Thru Window" 
* Public: "The Girl at the Drive-Thru Window" 

—even though I have written past this point with a further six-chapter run. But I'm going to give readers a chance to pick another path in this area. So, that's the subject of the next poll, whether to continue the story with Will and Sydney as Marcos and Alana, or to back up to a different choice earlier in the branch. To keep things manageable, I'm giving specific alternate choices at specific places: [Poll completed and deleted.]

This poll will run a little shorter than the others, through July 2.

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And where do we go from here? Back to the doppelganger plot, which ended last time with "The Hunger" . Will was ready to pick a junior partner to help him with his scheme to run the school by replacing key students, and you guys voted to make Michelle Estrich that partner. Tomorrow we'll see how that starts to work out ...