Cast Your Ballot! (4 page)

I was so annoyed that all I could do that night was homework. I didn't even check my e-mail or anything. When I woke up early the next day, I read my usual news feeds and blogs and stuff, and then I opened my e-mail to send an interview request each to John Scott and Anthony Wright.

But there were a few very interesting e-mails in my in-box. One was from Michael. It said:

Paste,

I'm sorry I ran off on you. I felt terrible after. A nose for news should never mean ditching your friends. Your instincts were better. Anthony wasn't all that prepared either, so it was kind of a waste of time. Nice guy, though. Will compare notes after you meet him and conduct a much-better-prepared interview than I did. Sorry if I made you doubt your instincts and manners (not to flatter myself; I probably didn't). I'd like to make it up to you. Hot-chocolate date?

M

Wait . . . did he say date? I sighed happily in my chair. A three-fer! An apology and date offer from Michael, a vindication of my noninterviewing instinct, and a confirmation of my good first impression of Anthony Wright. It couldn't get any better than this.

The next e-mail was a forward from Mr. Trigg. He mans the e-mail submissions for Dear Know-It-All—first he reads them, and if they're okay, he forwards them to me. I had an incident where someone cyberstalked me last year while Mr. Trigg was away, so now he controls all the Internet access to the writers at the paper.

I read the forwarded e-mail, then sat back to mull it over. It said:

Dear Know-It-All,

My parents say I should be taking all these particular classes and doing only certain extracurricular activities that will help me get into college one day. The only problem is, I'm not interested in the stuff they want me to do, and the stuff I want to do, they say is a waste of time! (By the way, I'm only in seventh grade.)
What should I do? Suck it up and do these boring activities that they want me to do, or refuse? And when do I get to do what I want to do?

Signed,

College Reject Already

At first glance it was kind of a boring letter. I thought,
Reject: You're too young to worry about college; next case.
But then it occurred to me that this was a letter I could turn into a bigger message, the way I liked and what the column was really supposed to be about. The way that got everyone at Cherry Valley talking when they read my column. This was a letter about being true to yourself. In fact, just being yourself. Sure, we all need to work hard and think about the future, but to ruin your life right now and suffer hard for the future? Well, it wasn't good.

I tapped out a quick reply to Mr. Trigg to thank him for the forward; then I printed the e-mail, filed it behind my headboard, and deleted the original.

Finally there was an e-mail from John Scott, of all people. I had e-mailed him asking when he would be available for an interview. It said:

Dear Samantha,

I am excited to hear that you're covering me for the Voice. I have loved your articles on Pay to Play and school lunches and think that your coverage is fair and smart. I am available for a meeting between eleven and twelve on Wednesday and Friday, and I can also talk by phone (see number below).

Looking forward to hearing from you.

Best regards,

John Scott

Wow! He'd done his homework. I was flattered.

I fired back an e-mail making a plan to meet him for lunch on Friday and made a mental note to stop by the library to review the newspaper's archives ahead of time.

So much accomplished already today and it was only seven thirty a.m. It was going to be an awesome day! In a great mood, I even replied to Hailey:

Scary movie it is. Pizza first.

At school, things just kept getting better. I ran into Anthony Wright first thing and apologized
for not being free to chat yesterday. He said he understood and that we should plan a meeting time, but we struggled for a bit to find an opening when we'd both be free. With the article due next week, I didn't want to waste any time. It turned out the only time we could both meet was Friday at five, back at the Java Stop. I'd have just enough time to run home after school, change for my night out, interview Anthony, and meet the other girls at Slices before the movie. Anthony thanked me profusely for my flexibility in planning the meeting with him after school on a Friday, but I waved it off. “It's fine,” I said.

Then I saw Michael, who was so sweet and apologetic and asked me to save him a seat at lunch. I accepted his apology and told him I was moving on. No point in staying mad at him, right? “It's fine,” I said again.

Finally, I ran into Hailey, and she jumped on me and hugged me hard for saying yes to the scary movie. “It's fine,” I found myself saying for the third time this morning. It seemed I was making people happy all over the place, which should
have been great. There was only one problem: It didn't really feel that great. It didn't even feel fine.

Now I would be stuck seeing a movie I didn't want to see, interviewing someone at a really inconvenient time, and having lunch with someone who'd annoyed the heck out of me just yesterday. It made me flash back to the Know-It-All letter Mr. Trigg had forwarded to me just hours ago. There was even more to it than I'd first realized, something about spending your time in a way that makes you happy. I'd just need to mull it over some more.

At lunch Hailey chattered on happily about the scary movie. I nodded and acted like I cared while watching the door for Michael's arrival. Bored, I picked at my organic chicken-curry wrap and made a mental tally of the homework assignments I'd received so far today. Then I spotted Michael.

He got his lunch and, with his tray held aloft, crossed the room to join us. I felt a smile blooming on my face despite my best efforts to conceal it.
I couldn't help but be happy to see the guy, even though I was annoyed at him.

Hailey cocked her head and looked at me. “Oh! Michael's coming up behind me, isn't he?” she said.

“What?” I asked, looking back at her.

Hailey grinned. “I can tell! You've got your special lovey-dovey face on!”

And, of course, Michael plopped his tray down right after she spoke, just verifying everything she'd said.
Psychic Friend Drives Girl Batty.

“Guess who I'm meeting after this?” he said, by way of greeting.

I shrugged, acting disinterested.

“Uh-oh! Are you still annoyed at me for yesterday even though you said you weren't?” he teased.

“Maybe. A little,” I said. I didn't want to play games, but I did feel I'd glossed over it a bit quickly this morning.

Michael suddenly dropped to his knees with his hands folded, in begging posture. “Please, please, forgive me, Sam Martone, for being an
idiot and a rude person. I apologize. I'm begging your forgiveness!”

I covered my face with my hands in mortification as kids at other tables turned to stare at the spectacle he was making.

“Get up! Please! Get up!” I said through my hands. My face was burning with embarrassment.

“Only if you really and truly accept my apology!” he demanded from the floor.

“Fine! Just get up!” I peeked through my fingers. I could see Hailey laughing and clapping with joy.

“Nope! You have to say it. Say you forgive me!”

“Okay! I forgive you!” I cried, and he got up.

“See how easy that was?” he said, settling into his seat and beginning to eat.

“You are so embarrassing!” I said, my blush starting to subside.

“That was awesome!” Hailey giggled. “People thought you were proposing!”

“Oh, please!” I protested, mortified.
Note to self: Fire Hailey as best friend later.

Michael just grinned and kept shoveling food
into his mouth, so I decided to change the subject. “So who are you meeting after this?” I asked.

“John Scott!” he replied, taking a bite out of his roll and chewing.

“Oh, interesting. I'm meeting him for lunch on Friday and Anthony at five that day.”

“I think I'd better meet with Anthony again, too,” he said between bites.

“I'm going to do the research tomorrow. By the way, I'll look in the
Cherry Valley Voice
for you while I'm there, to see if there's anything you need on John. So you'll be meeting them cold, and I'll be meeting them maybe prejudiced or maybe with an agenda, depending on what I find in my research. That should be fair, anyway,” I said.

He nodded. “Then let's set up our Buddybook poll for the weekend. Just a simple ‘Who's Your Candidate?' poll. No posting, no saying why. Just ‘Who gets your vote?' Okay?”

I nodded my agreement. “Don't tell me anything before I meet with these guys,” I said. “I don't want your observations to cloud my opinion.
I want to think for myself,” I said.

“Don't you always?” mused Michael.

“Yes!” Hailey nodded emphatically.

“Hey! No comments from the peanut gallery!” I said. It was something my mom always said; I think it's from a TV show when she was little.

“Okay, so lunch Monday, then, to compare notes?” suggested Michael. It seemed so far off.

“Sure,” I agreed. “If we don't see each other before then . . .”

“Yeah, like at the movies Friday night!” said Hailey.

I stared daggers at her.

“Oh, what are you going to see?” asked Michael as he gathered up his stuff to leave for the interview.

Hailey shrugged casually. “That new scary action movie everyone's talking about.”

“What? Are you kidding me? That's supposed to be awesome! Can I come?”

Now I truly hated Hailey.

“You'll have to ask the boss,” said Hailey, raising her eyebrows and gesturing toward me.

“Is it okay if I come?” he asked.

It's fine,
I almost said. But it wasn't. I knew Hailey would be okay with it, but she sometimes gets her feelings hurt if I talk about Michael too much or if I try to involve him. We had been planning this for a long time. I needed to speak up or risk doing something against my own best interests again.

“You know what? I'd love to see it with you and I don't want to be mean, but we're doing a girls' night with Jenna and Kristen that night—dinner and a movie. Maybe I can see it with you at another time”—I winced at the thought of seeing it twice—“but we just can't sit with you Friday. I'm sorry. For real,” I said. My stomach was in knots, dreading his reply by the time I'd finished talking.

But Michael nodded. “I totally get it. You girls go, and I might get a bunch of guys together if I get organized. Maybe if we're all there, we could grab some ice cream after or something. Unless that would that be in violation of girls' night?” He grinned his adorable grin and his eyes twinkled.

“That would be fine,” I said calmly.

Hailey was still smiling.

“Okay, catch you later,” he said as he took his tray and left.

“Good luck!” I called after him.

“See you Friday night!” called Hailey.

And then I did what any girl would have done to her BFF in the same situation.

I kicked her.