Election Madness (7 page)

"What do you have there?" Nikki's mom asks.

"My campaign posters."

"Oh, for the school election. How exciting." She smiles down at Deja; a smile that seems full of encouragement. "Who else is running?"

"There's this boy named Arthur from Mr. Beaumont's third grade; a girl named Sheena from Mrs. Miller's third grade; me; two kids from the two fourth grades, Lashonda and ... I forgot the other one's name; this girl named Paula from fifth grade; and Gregory Johnson from the fifth grade." She says his whole name because everyone always says his whole name.

"Wow, so you have some real competition. Let me see your posters."

Nikki's mom moves the salt and pepper shakers and a napkin holder that looks like an apple cut in half to make room for Deja's posters. Deja stands there. She realizes that she doesn't want to put her mistakes and poor quality posters on display, but she knows she can't get out of it.

She takes her time pulling out the first poster.
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1! Deja looks at it as if she's seeing it for the first time. It has a big apple tree. Why did she put an apple tree on it? Probably because she knows how to draw a tree with apples kind of good.

"Oh," Nikki's mom says. "Okay, well ... that's certainly some poster."

Deja looks at the lettering. She had tried to make bubble letters but she never really learned how. She likes the balloons that she drew floating above the tree and colored with blue and red markers. She put a little square on each to make them look bright and shining. The squares turned out looking a tiny bit like doors, but maybe people wouldn't look at them like that. Then she had tried to decorate the misshapen bubble letters with glitter and there were some globs that got in the wrong places, but maybe people wouldn't notice that, either.

Just as she's pulling out the second poster, which actually looks a little bit worse than the first, Nikki shows up. There they stand, the three of them, looking down on a green poster with many, many noticeable eraser marks. The marks make it look stripped of color in too many places. Deja kept misspelling
serious.

First, she spelled it
cirreus.
When it didn't look right, she took it to Auntie Dee. Auntie told her the correct spelling. But Deja still accidentally left in the extra
r.
Even after she made the corrections,
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looked too small and it wasn't centered.

Standing next to her, Deja can feel Nikki's regret that she had left her on her own.

"I had another poster but I kind of messed it up. So, I just have these two."

"I see," Nikki's mom said. "Did your aunt see these?"

"She was real busy, so I just did them by myself."

"I see," Nikki's mom said again. Then she smiled another encouraging smile.

The campaign posters, with Post-its on them designating where they are to be hung, have to be turned into the office. Deja's relieved that hers are still in the big bag. She gives it to Mrs. Marker, the office lady. But the bag doesn't help when Room Ten is dismissed for recess and everyone sees the poster beside the door. The laughter begins then, and seems to follow her around the yard all during recess.

"Deja, what happened to your posters?" Carlos yells as he runs by.

"Deja, who did your poster? Your baby brother?" Richard adds.

"I don't even have a brother," Deja calls back. Then she turns to see Ayanna, ChiChi, and Keisha with their heads together, laughing and whispering as they wait for their turns at tetherball. When Deja gets in line behind them, they suddenly stop. Then ChiChi starts to giggle again and Keisha and Ayanna soon join in. Deja knows they're laughing at her.

Antonia announces calmly, "Lashonda has the best posters."

"No," Ralph counters. "Gregory Johnson's posters are better. They look more
professional.
" Deja wishes everybody would just stop talking about the posters. Ralph probably doesn't even really know what the word
professional
means. She can't wait until recess is over.

Ralph gets into the tetherball court just as the freeze bell rings. He doesn't get to do his killer serve. Hah, hah, and
hah!

"Listen to this, Nikki," Deja says on Sunday afternoon. Nikki sits on her porch working on a lanyard key chain for her father. Deja stands on the walkway before her with her speech in her hand. At ten o'clock Tuesday morning, Deja is going to have to get up onstage in the auditorium in front of the whole school and tell why she, a third-grader, would be the best student body president of Carver Elementary School. She wonders if any of the fourth- or fifth-graders will laugh at her.

Deja walks back and forth with her index cards. Nikki looks up from the lanyard key chain. She plans to make a matching one for her mom. "I'm listening," Nikki says.

Deja clears her throat. "Now really listen, because I'm going to ask you questions afterward."

"I'm listening."

Deja has already read her speech to Auntie Dee, who helped her with the opening and made a few suggestions so her message would be clearer. But beyond that, she's left Deja on her own. Deja clears her throat again.

"
Teachers, Mr. Brown, and students of Carver Elementary School, my name is Deja—
"

"Everyone already knows your name," Nikki interrupts.

"We're still supposed to introduce ourselves," Deja says. She continues, "...
and I am running for student body president of Carver Elementary School.
"

Nikki interrupts again. "I think you're saying Carver Elementary School too many times."

"I only said it twice."

"Well, it's too close together."

"I don't think so," Deja protests.

"Remember, I'm your campaign manager."

"So? You're not my boss."

"Well, you shouldn't have asked me to be your campaign manager if you're not even going to listen to me."

"Do you want to hear it or not?" Deja asks.

"I guess so," Nikki says, but she starts working on her lanyard again and barely looks up as Deja gives her speech. When she finishes, Nikki doesn't even act like she knows Deja has finished.

"What do you think?" Deja presses.

"It's okay."

"Is that all you have to say?"

"I didn't think you really wanted my opinion," Nikki replies.

"Well you're my campaign manager, aren't you?"

Nikki just shrugs and shakes her head. "I think you made too many promises."

"I have to promise stuff," Deja says. "Otherwise people might not vote for me."

"But, Deja..." Nikki begins, "more field trips for every class? How are you going to do that?"

"I don't know. I'll figure it out." Deja is sorry she even asked Nikki for her opinion. In fact, Deja doesn't know what Nikki has even done in her role as campaign manager except ask a few kids some questions. She didn't help with the posters, just because she was sulking. Just because Deja told Ms. Shelby something that could save Nikki's life.

"I don't think you will, Deja. I think you're just going to say it without figuring it out."

"No, I'm going to figure it out." Deja looks down at her cards.

"And longer recess?" Nikki says in a tone that shows she might be just getting started. "You can't do that."

"I can ask..."

"And, come on, fried chicken for lunch? When have we ever had fried chicken for lunch?"

"When are you not going to criticize so much?" Deja counters.

"Well, you asked my opinion."

"Your opinion is not very helpful."

"But remember, I'm your campaign manager."

"Well," Deja says, "a good campaign manager would have helped me with my posters."

"A good friend would have not been a tattletale." Nikki stands up.

"I told Ms. Shelby to save your life," Deja says, knowing she's exaggerating.

"No, you just wanted to be Miss Goody-Good, so Ms. Shelby would think you're so
mature!
" With that, Nikki turns and stomps up the steps into her house, slamming the front door behind her.

Deja stands there, frozen. Nikki knows her so well.

***

On Monday, Nikki remains cool. She has little to say on their walks to and from school and heads immediately to the handball court when Room Ten is let out for morning and lunch recess. When Deja asks her questions, she answers with as few words as possible. Deja decides to ignore this. Nikki has acted this way before. Eventually, she will forget why she's angry and things will go back to normal. Deja will just wait it out. Plus, when she's elected student body president of Carver Elementary, Nikki will be happy to be her best friend.

Tuesday, speech day, comes quickly. Deja can barely sit still, for two reasons. First, she is wearing the beautiful new lavender sweater that Auntie bought her. It's a little itchy, but it's the same color as the blossoms on the jacaranda tree that grows in front of a house on her street. Second, any minute a helper is going to come to Room Ten and pick her up. She will be taken to the auditorium to wait backstage for the assembly to start.

Assembly days are always good days because lots of work gets missed. Deja looks down at her open Sustained Silent Reading book and wonders why she chose one with so many pages. It's so boring, yet she's going to be stuck with it for another week because Ms. Shelby makes them keep the books they check out of the classroom library for two weeks. Nikki must have a great book. She looks as if she's really reading. Finally, there's a light rap on the door and one of the fifth grade helpers enters with a note for Ms. Shelby. Ms. Shelby reads it, nods, then smiles at Deja. "You're wanted in the auditorium, Deja."

All of the other candidates are already sitting in chairs lined up onstage when Deja enters. The last chair in the row is empty. It's her chair. She swallows hard and scratches an itchy spot just under the neck of her sweater. She suddenly feels hot.

"Oh, Deja," Mr. Willis says. He's the fifth grade teacher. "Come on up and take your seat."

The walk down the center aisle seems to take forever. She feels all eyes on her until she settles in her chair. Mr. Brown is fooling with the microphone onstage. He repeats, "Testing, testing, testing..." until his voice finally booms across the auditorium, making Deja jump. She feels her heart beat faster and, it seems, louder, too. She wonders if anyone can hear it. Surprisingly, her mouth feels dry, and the itchy spot just under her collar has now spread down her arms and across her back.