Election Madness (2 page)

"But then she'll see me with a big bag of candy, and she might tell my mom, and then I'll get in trouble."

"Gosh, Nikki, don't be such a baby." Deja pays for her selections and the clerk hands her a bag stuffed full.

"Your turn," the clerk says to Nikki, yawning.

"I want a hot cinnamon sucker," Nikki says, "and two cherry sour whips."

"That's what I'm getting," Deja says. "Get something else, so we can share. Get the chocolate spiders."

"I don't want the chocolate spiders. I want what I said."

"But we can share them. I can give you a cherry sour whip and you can give me some chocolate spiders—like that."

Nikki turns toward Deja then, and her lip quivers as she says loudly, "Be quiet, Deja. Quit bossing me around. You're not the boss of me!"

At school the next morning, Ms. Shelby looks like she has a delicious secret. The way her lips are pressed together in a puckery little smile makes Deja imagine that she's sucking on a butter toffee. They are just about to go out for morning recess. Ms. Shelby stands with her back to the whiteboard and her hands folded in front of her.

"I have some good news," she says. Everyone looks her way to see what she's going to say. "But you're going to have to wait to find out what it is. By the time you go home today, you'll know what my surprise is."

The class exits slowly. Nikki and Deja spend recess guessing what the good news could be.

"Ms. Shelby is engaged," Nikki says as soon as they reach the handball court.

"No," Deja says. "That can't be it. She doesn't even have a ring on her finger. I think we're going on a field trip. We've only been on one to Riley Farms. And that was spoiled when Howard threw up and stunk up the bus the whole way back."

Nikki wrinkles her nose, remembering.

"Maybe we're going to the aquarium," Deja continues. She takes a hot cinnamon sucker out of her pocket, looks around, and then unwraps it.

Nikki's eyes widen. "Deja, you're going to get in trouble. We're not supposed to have candy at school."

"I'm only taking a couple of licks." She takes two licks, then wraps it up again and puts it back in her pocket. Nikki looks relieved.

By the middle of the day, Ms. Shelby's surprise is almost forgotten. The class walks in from lunch recess, hot and sweaty and ready to listen to the latest installment of
The Whipping Boy.
They're allowed to put their heads down on their desks and even close their eyes while Ms. Shelby reads. Deja especially likes
The Whipping Boy
because it began with the theme of getting whipped for bad behavior. She's growing a little disappointed with the direction the story is taking, though. She doesn't like that the naughty prince gets to escape his punishment and the poor whipping boy must take his place. It's not as much fun, she thinks, as seeing the prince get what he deserves.

Deja is all ready to take her seat and put her head down when Ms. Shelby reminds them about her good news. Deja sits up and yawns. She looks over at Nikki. Nikki's leaning forward a little bit in her chair, smiling as if she already knows what Ms. Shelby is going to say.

"What do you think my big surprise is?"

Hands fly up. Ms. Shelby looks around. She points to Howard.

"Pizza party?" he asks. Deja looks at him, annoyed. What have they done to earn a pizza party? Nothing.

"No, not a pizza party. Alyssa?" Ms. Shelby asks, moving on.

Everyone turns to Alyssa. She smiles. The class waits. She brings her chin down and stares at her desk, still smiling.

"Remember," Ms. Shelby says, "only raise your hand when you have something to say." Finally, she looks in Deja's direction. Deja waves her hand and rises a bit out of her seat, but then sits

back down, just in case her enthusiasm might make Ms. Shelby decide to choose someone who knows how to raise their hand calmly. "Deja?" she says.

"A field trip to the aquarium," Deja declares, certain she is right.

Ms. Shelby smiles and shakes her head. That only starts a chorus of guesses from those who don't know how to raise their hands and wait to be recognized:

"A field trip to the zoo!"

"A field trip to Hamburger Hut!"

"A field trip to Waterworks Water Park!"

Ms. Shelby puts her finger to her lips and raises her other hand, looking around until everyone has done the same. When all is quiet she says, "We, I mean the whole school, will be having an election for student body president of Carver Elementary."

All mouths remain closed. Some frown a bit with disappointment. Nobody looks like they know what to say. While everyone is taking this in, Deja is making a decision.
That president is going to be me!
She smiles to herself as if she has already won.

"Of course, the election is only open to third-, fourth-, and fifth-graders. Mr. Brown wanted to keep it open only to the fourth and fifth grade, but I convinced him that we have some very capable third-graders at this school."

Deja sits up extra straight then, feeling that Ms. Shelby is talking about
her.
She looks around. Yolanda is sneaking sunflower seeds out of her book bag. ChiChi is coloring her nails with marker again. Ayanna is rearranging the items in her pencil box. Carlos is busy making something with torn bits of paper just inside his desk. A few bits of torn paper have drifted down on the floor around his chair. These do not seem like very capable third-graders to Deja.

Her eyes drift over to Antonia. Antonia is sitting ramrod straight, hands folded, with just a hint of a triumphant smile on her face. Deja frowns. Antonia looks as if she is just that capable person Ms. Shelby is talking about. Deja narrows her eyes. Then, as if Antonia can read her mind, she turns and looks directly at Deja and does a little eye roll.

Ms. Shelby continues talking about all the boring stuff. Deja looks as if she's listening, but she's really wondering why on earth they have to know all about elections. Ms. Shelby asks the class what qualities they think a student body president should have. Alyssa's hand flies up and Deja knows that she probably doesn't have anything to say. Ms. Shelby calls on her and sure enough, she just lowers her eyes and smiles to herself, again.

Antonia raises her hand. "Antonia?" Ms. Shelby says.

"A good president should have a good homework record," she says primly. Her hands are still folded.

"Definitely," Ms. Shelby says.

Deja quickly raises her hand, but Ms. Shelby calls on Carlos. "A good president should have straight A's."

That's just what Deja was going to say. Now she'll have to come up with something else. Ms. Shelby smiles kindly and says, "Well ... they should at least be the kind of student who tries his or her best." Everyone knows that's just Ms. Shelby's polite way of saying, "
Wrong, Carlos. Dead wrong.
" Deja's glad that she didn't get called on. She's surprised when she hears Ms. Shelby say, "Deja, you had your hand up."

Everyone turns to Deja, including Antonia, who has her eyebrows raised expectantly. Deja doesn't have anything to add—not yet. She hasn't had a chance to think. "A good president should be a..." Her voice trails off. She's going to be just like Alyssa. Always raising her hand with nothing to say. "A good president should be..." Deja can't help glancing at Antonia. Now Antonia has raised her eyebrows even more. "A good president should be someone who is..."

"Do you want me to come back to you?" Ms. Shelby offers.

Deja shakes her head. "A good student body president should be someone who is...
always fair!
" It comes to her all of a sudden, and she can tell by Ms. Shelby's smile that she has hit the jackpot.

"Excellent, Deja. We would want someone who is fair—no matter what. Someone who would think of everyone's benefit, not just a select few."

Deja doesn't even know what Ms. Shelby is talking about. She just knows that it sounds good and that her answer inspired all this extra talk. Nikki looks over at Deja and gives her the thumbs-up. Suddenly, Deja knows just what role Nikki is going to play in getting Deja elected as student body president of Carver Elementary School. Nikki will be her campaign manager.

"So...," Ms. Shelby is moving on, having finished listing all the characteristics of a good student body president. Most of them were her own suggestions, since she had a hard time wringing appropriate answers from the class. It's after lunch recess and everyone is tired and wanting to hear
The Whipping Boy.
Ms. Shelby takes out the book, opens it to the right page, then half sits and half leans on her desk. However, she doesn't start reading right away. "Before I get back to our book, let me explain what comes next. Tomorrow before recess we'll have nominations. Each of you will get to nominate a classmate for the office of student body president. The student who gets the most nominations will represent our class and run in the upcoming school election."

Her words stir a little flutter of excitement in Deja's stomach. She looks around the room to see how many nominations she can count on. It's tricky. At least she knows she has Nikki's vote.

Ms. Shelby begins the story, but Deja's attention drifts from
The Whipping Boy
to the list on the whiteboard.

A good student body president is
-a student who has a good homework record.
-a student who tries his/her best.
-a student who is always fair.
-a student who is always on time.
-a student who is enthusiastic.
-a student who works well with others.
-a student who listens to what others have to say.
-a student who is creative.
-a student who takes initiative.
-a student who is a problem solver.

Deja wonders about that list. Some of the characteristics are puzzling. For example, she doesn't quite know what the word
initiative
means. What is that, exactly? And how would someone be creative as student body president? She thinks she can work well with others, as long as they don't have a bunch of stupid ideas. She mostly tries her best, and she's almost always on time to school. She's mostly fair, even though Nikki sometimes says she isn't. She listens to others, she thinks, and she can solve problems—though she doesn't know what kind of problems would come up if she's president. But
initiative
...what on earth does
taking initiative
mean?

"Who do you think is going to win the election?" Deja says as they skip down the school's front steps and turn toward their street. Deja asks this just to see if Nikki will say that it will be her, Deja.

"I don't know," Nikki says. "Maybe Gregory Johnson in fifth grade. He's real popular."

Deja is silent.

"Oh, no, wait," Nikki says. "Maybe Antonia. I betcha everyone's gonna vote for Antonia, because her mother brought cupcakes when our class's perfect attendance was in the newsletter."

Now Deja is annoyed. Why hasn't Nikki mentioned Deja?

"You know what?"