Class President (2 page)

He raised his hand.

Patsy Gatsby raised her hand, too.

“Yes, Patsy,” said Mrs. North.

“The president of what?” Patsy asked.

Mrs. North stared at her as if she thought Patsy was an alien from another planet. “The president of the United States,” she said.

“Duh!” said Travis.

Patsy blushed.

“Sometimes I wonder about you, Patsy,” said Mrs. North.

“What’d you think? The president of Mexico?” asked Clarence.

Marvin turned red, too, but nobody noticed. He lowered his hand.

“Yes, Marvin, did you have a question?” asked Mrs. North.

He shook his head. “No, I was just stretching.”

Mrs. North explained that even Mr. McCabe hadn’t known the president was coming until ten minutes ago. It had been kept secret for security reasons.

“Now, I know I don’t have to tell you how to behave when the president gets here,” she said.

Then she told everybody how to behave.

“Be respectful. Be attentive. If you get a chance to speak to him, remember to speak loud and clear. You should call him ‘Mr. President.’ ‘Yes, Mr. President.’
‘Thank you, Mr. President.’ Remember to—”

Mrs. North suddenly stopped talking. “Oh, my gosh!” she exclaimed. “I have to change my clothes!”

Mrs. North didn’t know what time the president would come. So she couldn’t go home and change out of her torn clothes.

“I hope it’s not during recess,” said Nick.

“We’ll adjust our schedule,” Mrs. North assured him.

“Good, because I don’t want to miss recess,” said Nick.

While they waited for the president to show up, Mrs. North told everyone to write
down a question he or she would like to ask the president.

“Like what?” asked Nick.

“Anything,” said Mrs. North. Then she looked at Nick and said, “Well, not
anything
. There must be something you’re curious about, Nick. What’s it like to live in the White House? What does he have for breakfast? Does he ever just sit around and watch TV? Think, Nick.” She tapped on the side of her head with her finger. “Use your brain.”

Marvin tried to think, too.

He remembered that he was going shopping for new shoes right after school, along with his brother and sister.

He wondered if the president bought his own clothes. It would be pretty strange, he thought, for the president just to walk
into a store and try on a pair of shoes. But if someone else bought them for him, they might not fit. Or he might not like the color.

He wrote down his question.

Do you buy your own shoes?

No, that’s stupid
, he decided. He thought he should ask the president something more important. He should ask about war or pollution.

He tried to erase what he wrote.

He looked over at Casey. She had her finger in her mouth. Then she took it out, picked up her pencil, and wrote very fast. She laughed, then wrote some more.

It was a long question. Her ponytail bounced up and down.

“What will you ask him?” Marvin asked.

“I’m not telling you,” said Casey.

Marvin wrote down a new question:

Are we going to get into a war anytime soon?

He hadn’t done a very good job erasing the old question. His paper was messy and hard to read. He hoped the president wouldn’t see it.

“Does spelling count?” asked Judy.

“You’re not being graded on this,” said Mrs. North. “It’s not a test. It’s an opportunity. Try to make the most of it.”

Clarence raised his hand and asked, “Does the president have a dog?”

“Um, I don’t know,” said Mrs. North. “But that might be—”

“I want to ask him his dog’s name,” said Clarence. “But first I have to know if he has a dog, don’t I?”

“Well, why don’t you ask him if he has any pets?” suggested Mrs. North.

“Oh, yeah,” said Clarence. “Thanks.”

Marvin wrote down his second question:
What are you doing about pollution?

He was still trying to think of a third question when the classroom door opened.

Marvin dropped his pencil.

A tall man stepped into the classroom.

Marvin stared at him in awe. He was pretty sure it was the president. He was certain he’d seen the man’s face on the news.

Marvin’s father watched the news every evening before dinner.

The man was tall and wore a suit and tie. He looked very important.

Behind him was a woman carrying a big camera. CHANNEL 2 was printed in big
letters on the camera.

Marvin stood up. He put his hand on his heart, as if he was saying the Pledge of Allegiance. He could feel his heartbeat.

“Are you the president?” asked Kenny.

The man laughed. So did the woman holding the camera.

“What an idiot,” said Heather.

“Don’t you even know what the president looks like?” said Gina.

“Duh!” said Nick.

Kenny blushed.

“Marvin, why are you standing?” asked Mrs. North.

“Uh, just stretching,” said Marvin. He sat back down.

“Did you get that on camera?” the man asked the camera woman.

“No,” she said.

“All right, let’s do it again,” said the man. “I’ll walk in again, and you …” he pointed to Kenny. “What’s your name?”

“Kenny,” said Kenny.

“I’ll walk in again, and Kenny, you ask me if I’m the president. And try to look cute.”

Kenny seemed very confused.

“No, he will not,” said Mrs. North.

The man looked at Mrs. North’s belly button. “Who are you?” he asked.

“I am Mrs. North. This is my classroom. Who are you?”

The man seemed surprised she didn’t know. “I am Clark Rogers from Channel Two News.”

“Well, Mr. Rogers,” said Mrs. North. “I do not like the way you walked in without knocking. You disturbed my class. And I
don’t want you embarrassing any of my students on television. Now, if you want to stay, you may wait,
quietly
, in the back of the room. Otherwise you will have to leave.”

Clark Rogers stared at her a moment. Mrs. North stared right back at him.

“Sorry,” he said. He and the camera woman moved to the back of the room.

Marvin felt very proud of his teacher.

More news people came from other TV stations. They all crowded into the back of the room. There were three television cameras, and also a photographer from the newspaper.

Mrs. North went ahead with the arithmetic lesson.

They’d been learning to add big numbers. Mrs. North put a problem on the board.

She said the numbers out loud. “Sixty-three million, eight hundred and eighty-eight thousand, two hundred and twenty-seven
plus
seventeen million, one hundred and six thousand, five hundred and forty-seven.”

Marvin’s mouth dropped open. He had never heard anyone add such big numbers.

“Marvin,” said Mrs. North, “would you like to come to the board and give us the answer?”

He closed his mouth.

Then he stood up and made his way to
the board. He looked at the problem.

It was impossible.;

Mrs. North gave him a
you-can-do-it
smile.