School Spirit

by Meredith Badger

  Hands shot into the air as everyone strained to get picked first.

  ‘OK, Layla,’ said Mr Mack. ‘Your nomination.’

  ‘Aysha,’ said Layla, smiling at her twin.

  ‘Aysha, do you accept or reject Layla’s nomination?’

  ‘Accept, please,’ said Aysha.

  Mr Mack wrote her name on the board.

  Holly and Lily glanced at each other in alarm. That had been so quick, and now there were only three spots left!

  Holly almost lifted herself out of her chair trying to wave her hand higher than everyone else.

  ‘Umm …’ Mr Mack looked around the room. ‘Olivia?’

  ‘I nominate Ching Ching.’

  ‘And I accept!’ Ching Ching called out, before Mr Mack could even ask.

  ‘Done,’ said Mr Mack, writing her name under Aysha’s. ‘And … Zoe?’

  ‘Isabelle!’

  ‘And Isabelle?’

  ‘Yes, I accept. Thank you.’

  Isabelle’s name went up on the board.

  ‘Now, one final nomination for girl class captain.’

  Holly thought her shoulder would come right off if she tried any harder to get Mr Mack’s attention. But he wasn’t even looking at her.

  ‘Let’s see … Iris?’

  Holly dropped her arm and slumped back into her chair. Beside her, Lily did exactly the same thing. Obviously, Iris would nominate her best friend, Zoe, so it was all over.

  But then Iris said, ‘I nominate Holly.’

  Holly blinked. What?

  ‘Holly?’ said Mr Mack. ‘Accept or reject the nomination?’

  Holly bit her lip and looked sideways at Lily. If she rejected the nomination, then there was still a chance for her to nominate Lily, and Holly knew how badly Lily wanted it.

  On the other hand, she thought, I want it, too, and there’s no guarantee that Mr Mack would ask me for a nomination anyway …

  Avoiding Lily’s eye, she looked up and said, ‘I accept.’

  ‘Excellent,’ said Mr Mack. ‘Four great candidates. Now for the boys.’

  Holly didn’t pay attention to the boy nominations. She was tingling all over, feeling so happy that Iris had thought of her for class captain.

  But then she noticed that Lily was hunched over in her chair, crossing out something in her diary, and looking seriously upset.

  Uh-oh, thought Holly, the tingly feeling disappearing.

  The boys’ nominations went up as quickly as the girls’. Joe, Oscar, Nelson and Cooper were nominated.

  Holly barely noticed. She was too busy trying to figure out how to get Lily’s attention, and what to say when she did.

  Lily was stubborn, though, and ignored Holly completely.

  ‘All right,’ said Mr Mack. ‘We’ve got our eight candidates. It’s time to vote. Each of you, grab some paper and write down one boy’s name and one girl’s, then put them in this ice-cream container.’

  Excited chatter broke out, and Holly heard kids discussing with each other who they were going to vote for. She strained to hear if anyone was saying her name.

  ‘So, who are you voting for?’ asked Lily, finally speaking to her.

  ‘Um, I don’t know,’ said Holly, feeling relieved that they were actually talking. ‘Maybe Cooper?’

  ‘No, I mean, which girl?’

  ‘Oh, right,’ said Holly. ‘I reckon probably Isabelle.’

  Lily gave her a small smile. ‘I’m voting for you. You should vote for yourself, too.’

  ‘Oh, well … nah,’ Holly said, shaking her head. ‘That would be weird. I mean, what kind of a budget-brain would vote for themselves?’

  Across the room, Oscar was standing on his chair and showing his paper to everyone around him. ‘Look carefully, friends,’ he was saying loudly, pointing at his name. ‘You spell it O-S-C-A-R. That’s right. And remember, a vote for Oscar is a vote for less homework.’

  ‘That,’ said Holly, ‘proves my point.’

  Lily laughed, and by the time they went to put their votes into the container, things were feeling a bit more normal.

  The mood in the playground was pretty tense. Isabelle was standing by the canteen with her diary, asking all the kids in Mr Mack’s class who they’d voted for. She kept jotting down names and adding up the votes to see if she could figure out who was going to win.

  Oscar, on the other hand, was still trying to talk people into choosing him for captain, as though he’d forgotten the vote was already over.

  Ching Ching had shared out the leftover lollies, and was playing handball as though it were an ordinary day.

  Holly would have liked to look at Isabelle’s diary, but she didn’t want to make things any harder for Lily.

  ‘What a fuss!’ Holly said. ‘Come on. Let’s see how long the queue is for the handball game.’

  ‘Yeah, OK,’ said Lily gratefully.

  Holly sneaked one last peek at Isabelle, who was still writing in her diary.

  When the bell rang for the end of lunch, Mr Mack’s class was all lined up and ready to go back inside.

  ‘This is unusually eager of you,’ said Mr Mack, opening the classroom door. ‘What could the reason be?’

  He waited until everyone was sitting quietly at their desks, and then he got out a fresh whiteboard marker and said, ‘Take out your maths books, please. We’re going to start learning about the wonderful world of fractions.’

  A groan went up from the class. ‘Oh, Mr Mack!’

  ‘What’s wrong with fractions?’ he asked, sounding huffy. ‘Yes, Dylan?’

  ‘What about the class captains?’

  ‘What class captains?’ said Mr Mack. ‘We don’t have any class captains.’

  Everyone groaned again.

  ‘We just voted!’ said Joe.

  ‘Oh-ho! Those class captains,’ chuckled Mr Mack, as though he’d made a hilarious joke. ‘It must have slipped my mind.’

  Holly and Lily rolled their eyes, and some of the cheekier kids started a slow clap.

  ‘I swear, he’s worse than my dad,’ whispered Holly.

  Mr Mack put down the whiteboard pen and went back to his desk. ‘All right, all right, no need to riot. Now … where did I put those results? Let me think. Oh, here they are.’ He smiled at them all. ‘Now, the votes were very interesting. We had a very close result.’

  Being careful not to let Lily see, Holly crossed her fingers under her desk.

  ‘First, the boy captain,’ said Mr Mack. ‘You have voted for … drum roll, please.’

  The whole class started thumping on the lids of their desks, making a loud thundery sound.

  ‘Oscar Morgan!’

  ‘Yes!’ Oscar leapt to his feet. ‘Thank you, people. You have chosen wisely!’

  Holly laughed and said to Lily, ‘What a nightmare the girl captain is going to have working with him!’

  ‘Yeah, well,’ said Lily. ‘Luckily, it’s not something I’ll have to worry about.’

  Holly looked at her friend with a worried frown, but said nothing. She knew Lily was disappointed, but this wasn’t like her at all.

  While Oscar was standing on his chair and making sure everyone had seen his captain’s badge, Holly looked around at the other girls in the running. Ching Ching, Isabelle and Aysha.

  There’s four of us, thought Holly, and one of us is already class captain without even knowing it.

  Holly thought Isabelle wanted it the most. But Ching Ching was probably the most popular, and Aysha was probably the smartest. It could be anyone, really.

  She wondered if she had a chance against them. Nah, she decided. It was fun, but I don’t think I’ll get more votes than those girls. Being nominated was cool enough.

  It wasn’t a bad thing to realise. In fact, it took a lot of pressure off.

  It had been cool standing up and making a speech in class, but sometimes the captain had to talk in front of the whole school at assembly. That would be scary.

  Mr Mack interrupted Oscar’s cheering
. ‘All right, that’s enough, captain!’ he said, smiling. ‘Please sit down while we find out who the girl captain is.’

  Holly leant forward, glancing with excitement between Ching Ching, Isabelle, and Aysha.

  Who will it be?

  Mr Mack cleared his throat. ‘Now, our new girl captain is …’

  The desktop drum roll started up again.

  Holly was banging away furiously, partly to cover up her own nerves. In fact, she was making so much noise she didn’t hear what Mr Mack said.

  ‘What did he say?’ she asked Lily.

  ‘You heard!’

  Holly realised Mr Mack was looking right at her. ‘Come on, Holly,’ he laughed. ‘Stand up and take a bow.’

  Holly stood up slowly. Is he really saying that I am the girl captain?

  But then all her classmates started cheering and clapping. She turned and peeked at them, still in shock.

  It is me! she thought, grinning and blushing at the same time. How amazing!

  It was like a dream, or the end of a really good movie where everything works out perfectly.

  And I wasn’t even going to run! she thought to herself, as Mr Mack handed her the shiny new captain’s badge. It was all Lily’s idea!

  That made her think of Lily. Holly looked down at her best friend, hoping to see Lily grinning up, but it wasn’t like that. Not at all.

  This time, Lily was concentrating very, very hard on sharpening a pencil.

  Oh, thought Holly. It’s like that.

  When the clapping died down, Holly said, ‘Thank you for voting for me! I promise I’ll work really hard to make this term great!’

  She sat down quickly and looked again at Lily. Lily didn’t look at her.

  ‘Lils?’ whispered Holly.

  Lily ignored her.

  ‘Hey, Lily,’ Holly tried again. ‘You OK?’

  ‘Yep,’ said Lily, staring straight ahead at the whiteboard.

  ‘OK,’ said Holly.

  Lily was obviously mad, and she obviously didn’t want to talk about it. Holly wasn’t going to push it. She hardly wanted to get busted for talking in class in her first minute of being captain.

  I’m class captain! thought Holly, feeling another rush of excitement as she pinned the metal badge onto her shirt. Unbelievable!

  She glanced again at her friend, but it was like Lily had put up an invisible wall between them.

  Holly sighed. I hope we can sort this out at lunch. I don’t want to fight with my best friend over being class captain.

  Talking to Lily at lunchtime wasn’t as easy as she’d thought, though. For one thing, all the girls wanted to congratulate her.

  ‘You’ll have to keep Oscar in his place,’ said Layla. ‘Otherwise, he’ll try to make us all call him Captain Oscar every time we speak to him!’

  ‘Yeah, you might have a tough time captaining with him,’ laughed Olivia.

  Holly smiled, and then looked around for Lily. She’d thought Lily was right beside her when they left the room, but then she’d disappeared.

  Holly stood on her tiptoes and craned her neck to look past the girls standing in front of her.

  There she is! Up by the oval, watching the boys play football. Holly frowned to herself. As if Lily’s ever watched football in her life!

  When she rocked back on her heels again, Holly saw that Ching Ching was now standing beside Olivia.

  Ching Ching grinned at her. ‘Congrats!’

  ‘Thanks,’ Holly said, then she lowered her voice. ‘Can I ask you something? Are you upset you didn’t get in?’

  ‘Nope,’ said Ching Ching. Then she scrunched up her nose. ‘Well, maybe a tiny bit, but not really.’

  ‘So you don’t feel ripped off? Or, I don’t know … mad at me?’

  ‘No!’ said Ching Ching, looking shocked by the idea. ‘You deserve it. I wish I’d thought of raising money for planting trees. Anyway, you didn’t become captain by yourself. The whole class voted.’

  ‘Yeah,’ said Holly thoughtfully. ‘Thanks, Ching Ching.’

  I don’t think Lily sees it that way …

  Holly wanted to go straight over to Lily, but there were still loads of girls wanting to talk to her. Lots of them wanted to help with the tree-planting idea, and others just wanted to say they’d voted for her.

  Some wanted to know how long it would be before the watermelon would be on sale at the canteen, and how much she thought it would cost.

  Nothing like it had ever happened to Holly before. It was incredible to see how things she had imagined in her bedroom could become actual plans.

  She’d never thought of herself as someone with something to say, but suddenly everyone in her class wanted to listen to her.

  And tree-planting and watermelon is only the beginning! she thought. If we all work together, we could really change our school forever! It was such an exciting thought that she just had to share it with the girls around her.

  ‘After all,’ she explained. ‘Only one girl was voted class captain, but that doesn’t mean we can’t use all the girls’ ideas! We should try to do all the things we thought up for the election.’

  ‘Gloves for the rubbish duty!’ grinned Isabelle.

  ‘Free-dress Fridays once a month for charity!’ beamed Aysha.

  ‘Exactly!’ said Holly.

  There was so much to discuss, and Holly was dizzy with the possibilities. By the time she looked up again to find Lily, lunchtime was almost over. The boys were still playing football, but Lily wasn’t watching anymore.

  No longer paying attention to the conversations around her, Holly began to turn a slow circle, scanning the whole playground from where she stood.

  Not at the mulberry tree … and not at the canteen, Holly thought, feeling worried again. Where could Lily be?

  ‘Excuse me, guys,’ she said to the girls still talking beside her. She walked off to see if Lily was down behind the tennis court, or perhaps in the girls’ toilets. I can’t believe I’ve let almost the whole of lunch go by without talking to her.

  She walked past Zoe and Iris, who were spitting their mandarins pips into the rubbish bins.

  ‘Hey, have you seen Lily?’

  ‘No, sorry,’ said Zoe. ‘I haven’t seen her since the beginning of lunch.’

  I can’t believe this, Holly thought angrily. I knew Lily was upset, and I knew I needed to talk to her at lunchtime. So what have I been doing? What kind of a best friend am I?

  I should have talked to her straightaway. All that chat about being class captain could have waited until later!

  Holly strode through the playground, feeling cross with herself.

  She was really worried that she might not be able to find Lily before the bell rang again for class. But she was sort of mad with Lily, too. I get it that she’s disappointed, but she shouldn’t take it out on me.

  Just as she marched by the staff room door, Mr Mack stepped out. ‘Holly! The very person I was looking for. I need you to do something for me.’

  Holly had been walking so quickly that she went right past her teacher, and had to come back two or three steps to stand in front of him.

  ‘I want to talk with you and Oscar about our school assembly next Monday,’ said Mr Mack. ‘Do you think you could find Oscar and tell him I need the two of you in class, ten minutes before the bell?’

  Holly nodded. Sorry, Lily. Looks like I’m not going to get a chance to talk to you at all.

  Holly raced around the playground. She’d been rushed when she was looking just for Lily, but now that she was looking for Lily and Oscar, she was sprinting.

  She ran to the top lawn where the boys were playing football. They’d be there until the bell rang, and Oscar was always there.

  Not today, though.

  Grrr, of course not, Holly frowned to herself. That would have been too easy.

  She thought about interrupting the game to ask one of the boys where Oscar was, but there wasn’t time. They were all yelling for the ball, and it would t
ake ages to get their attention.

  It’ll be quicker to go look for him myself, she decided. Maybe he’s having one of his chats with Isabelle. If so, they could be anywhere.

  She ran from one side of the playground to the other, checking all the secret spots, seeing who was in each group of kids, and hoping she’d find Lily before Oscar.

  But she didn’t find either of them.

  Three minutes until Mr Mack expects me and Oscar in the classroom, she thought, feeling panicky. What am I going to do?

  ‘Hey, Holly! What’s up?’ Ching Ching called. She was standing with Olivia by the mulberry tree. ‘You look totally stressed.’

  Holly spun on her heel. ‘Have you seen Lily? Or Oscar? I need both of them.’

  Olivia shook her head, but Ching Ching said, ‘Isn’t Oscar at a computer meeting? With Mr Campbell?’

  Holly clapped her hand to her forehead. ‘Gah! I forgot. OK. What about Lily?’

  ‘Look,’ said Olivia. ‘Here she is.’

  ‘Where?’ said Holly.

  ‘Here,’ said Lily quietly, nearly making Holly jump out of her skin. ‘Standing right beside you. Didn’t you see me walking across the playground towards you?’

  ‘No!’ said Holly. ‘Sorry, I was just –’

  ‘I know,’ said Lily, looking away. ‘Don’t worry. You were just too busy. Too busy for me, anyway.’

  ‘What?!’ Holly gaped at her best friend. ‘What do you mean, too busy for you? I’ve been looking for you all lunchtime!’

  ‘No, you haven’t,’ said Lily stiffly. ‘I’ve been watching. First you had to talk to all your fans. And then when you were bored of that, you ran off. Right past me!’

  Holly ignored the crack about her fans, even though it was a mean thing to say. Instead she said, ‘But I was looking for you.’

  Lily looked at Holly as though she didn’t believe her.

  Holly took a deep breath. ‘Look –’ she began, but was immediately interrupted by a whistle.

  ‘Hey, Holly,’ called Mr Mack. ‘It’s time! Have you found Oscar?’

  Holly scrunched her eyes shut in frustration. ‘I’ve got to go, Lily. You can be really mad with me if you want, but it’s not my fault. I’ll talk to you properly later.’