I get that. And I’m not proud of it. “I’m sorry if I was being selfish,” I say, then I add the thing that’s been on my mind since this campaign started. “I just wish you had told me you wanted to run, too.”
Meghan looks down for several seconds, then back up at me. “There’s something you need to know,” she finally says. “It was Bree’s idea for me to run against you and for her to be my vice president.”
Confusion swirls around me. I don’t get it. “Why didn’t she just run for president?” I ask.
Meghan bites her lip before responding. “She didn’t want to be president. Too much work. And she thought it would be funny if two best friends ran against each other.”
“Funny?” I ask, not sure how that’s funny.
“I know. It was wrong. I think she just meant that everyone would be into an election with one best friend running against another.”
My nose wrinkles. “I don’t like the idea that Bree thought you versus me would be good entertainment, but I get it. I guess what I don’t get is why you went along with it.”
Meghan pauses before answering. When she starts to speak, her voice cracks, like she’s trying not to cry. “Amanda, I feel awful about what I’m going to say. But when Bree told me she wanted to be friends, I went along with her plan because I wanted to be friends with her, too. I’m embarrassed to admit this, but she’s so popular, and I was just kind of surprised and happy she wanted to be friends with me.” Meghan shrugs. “Stupid. I know.”
I stare down at a fuzz ball on my cardigan. “Wow,” I mumble, unsure what else to say. My lifelong best friend dumped me for cool, pretty, popular Bree Simon.
“Amanda.” Meghan says my name, and I look up to see tears pooling in her eyes. “I’m so sorry. It was mean. And stupid. Now that I’ve gotten to know Bree, I’m not even sure I like her.”
I listen quietly while Meghan elaborates. “After the interview, I told Bree that I knew by the way you were tapping your foot when you were answering Stella’s questions, you hadn’t even asked your mom about taking us on the field trip,” she says.
Meghan gives me a tentative smile. “Don’t forget, we’ve been best friends for a long time, and I know you tap your foot only when you’re lying.” She pauses, then adds, “It was Bree’s idea for me to do the liar post. And she was the one who drew on your posters. But I didn’t stop her… and I should have.”
I blow out a breath. On one hand, it’s kind of cool to think that Meghan knows me well enough to know when I’m making something up. But on the other hand, it hurts to think she went along with Bree just because she wanted to be her friend.
“Amanda, I know I shouldn’t have done what I did. It was really wrong, and I’m sorry.”
Now, tears are rolling down Meghan’s cheeks, and she wipes her nose on the sleeve of her new white sweater. It leaves a gross wet spot, but Meghan doesn’t seem to mind.
This makes me get teary-eyed. Not rolling-down-my-cheeks tears. Just the kind that roll slowly from the corners of my eyes and make me realize how much I’ve missed my best friend. What Meghan did was wrong. But she wasn’t the only one who did something wrong.
“I’m sorry, too,” I whisper, even though we’re the only ones in this little room. “I feel awful that I told everyone about your secret crush.”
Meghan’s face is the color of a red apple. “Umm, yeah. That was bad.”
“I know,” I say. “I wish I could undo what I did.”
“Me too,” says Meghan. “I wish we could undo everything we both did.”
“We’re boneheads,” I add.
Meghan giggles, then gives me a hopeful look. “Think we can go back to being besties?”
I don’t have to stop to think about my answer. “Yeah,” I say. “I’d like that.” Meghan and I did bad things to each other. But I’ll always love Meghan and want her to be my best friend. Hopefully she’ll always feel the same way about me.
Meghan holds out her right pinky in my direction. “Let’s pinky swear that nothing—not an election or another person or anything—will ever come between us. EVER!”
I repeat the word. “EVER!”
Meghan and I pinky swear and hug. We sit there for a minute, in happy silence. But then we both realize that the only sound in the room is the clock ticking on the wall. We’ve used up almost an hour, and there are other things we need to be doing. AND FAST! Before Mrs. Lee and Principal Ferguson return.
My eyes focus on Meghan. “Um, Meghan,” I say, “if either one of us is going to win this election, we’ve got a lot to do and not much time to do it.”
“Yeah,” she says. “We’re not giving this to Frankie Chang.”
“No way,” I say. Meghan and I have our differences, but we have one thing in common: we both like to win. And even though we both know two candidates can’t win one election, neither will win if we don’t figure out a way to work together.
So Meghan and I get to it.
MY CAMPAIGN INSPIRATION NOTEBOOK
Barack Obama
BORN: August 4, 1961, in Hawaii
SIGN: Leo. Traits: Inspiring, optimistic, humorous. Known for believing the world is a stage.
PARTY: Democrat
STATUS: Married to Michelle
KIDS: Sasha and Malia
PRESIDENCY: He became the 44th president of our nation in 2008
NICKNAME: No Drama Obama, because he ran a campaign that didn’t have much of it. And because he was known as being super chill, patient, and relaxed.
PETS: Bo and Sunny, Portuguese water dogs
SIDE GIGS: Makes good chili, and loves sports and his dogs!
FAMOUS SPEECH: His 2004 speech at the Democratic National Convention
IMPORTANT FIRSTS: First African American president
The campaign for president of my class officially ends tomorrow, Speech Day. And the speech I’m going to make is totally different from the speech I thought I would be making. But here’s the good news: Mrs. Lee liked it a lot. So did Principal Ferguson. Best of all, Mom and Dad did, too. Which was a VERY, VERY good thing! Because my parents were really mad (like a ten thousand on the mad scale) at me about what happened.
But when they heard how Meghan and I resolved things and what I have planned for my speech tomorrow, they got a whole lot less mad. Not un-mad. They still banned me from all social media for a month. But they both said they believe I learned an important campaign lesson: That no elected position is worth having if you have to fight dirty to get it.
Then Dad reminded me that I still needed to kill tomorrow’s speech. To do that, he suggested I read up on our nation’s forty-fourth president, Barack Obama, who, he said, will be remembered as one of the greatest speakers of all time.
So here goes.
What is it that made President Obama soooooo good at speaking?
One: President Obama knew what to say and when to say it.
Even more important, how to say it. President Obama spoke slowly when he wanted people to remember what he had to say and sped up when he had a lot to say that people might not want to spend much time listening to. Personally, I think that is something teachers at Liberty Middle School were not taught to do. Especially Mr. Corbett, who always takes his sweet time explaining algebraic equations like they’re something that the students in his first-period class actually want to hear about.
Not the point.
Bottom line: Keep your audience awake.
Two: President Obama had a lot of style.
He had a good sense of humor. He knew that people like a good laugh. (I bet President Obama and Ben would get along great.)
President Obama’s voice was loud, strong, and clear. Dad has always said that if you have something to say, say it like you mean it. Obama nailed that.
President Obama used hand gestures to make a point. I’ve never thought about it before, but according to my research, confident speakers use a lot of hand gestures when they speak.
And when President Obama had som
ething super important to say, he repeated it. Not in an annoying way. But in a way that let his audience know it was important to him, and he wanted whatever it was he was talking about to be important to them, too.
Bottom line: Tomorrow when I make my speech, I need to be funny. Speak loudly and clearly. Throw in a few hand gestures. And repeat the important stuff.
Um. Yeah. That’s a lot to remember. All I can do is my best.
Moving on.
Three: President Obama had something important to say.
Dad told me I should look up the speech he made at the 2004 Democratic National Convention as an example of a speech with an important message. It was about bringing together a divided nation. So I looked it up. Here are the most famous words from Obama’s speech:
“There’s not a liberal America and a conservative America; there’s the United States of America. There’s not a black America and white America and Latino America and Asian America; there’s the United States of America.”
I know the message Dad wanted me to get here is that words can heal. Tomorrow, mine need to. Another thing that’s cool about Obama’s words (besides the words themselves) is that he wrote them himself. One thing I’ve learned in my research about past presidents is that they all had speech writers. Obama did too. Sometimes he used them. And sometimes he didn’t, like when he wrote this speech.
Obama had something important to say, and he said it.
Bottom line: I have something important I need to say, too. I’m nervous, but I’m also excited to say it.
Four: President Obama believed in his message.
Obama’s speech writers referred to his 2004 speech about one United States of America as “Obama’s love letter to America.” After that, whenever they wrote speeches for him, that’s the speech they would use for guidance. Obama was emotional about his message. He believed in what he was saying. He spoke from his heart and found his way into the hearts of the people.
If I want to win this election, that’s exactly what I need to do, too.
Chapter Twenty-Two
AMANDA’S “LOVE LETTER” TO THE SEVENTH GRADE OF LIBERTY MIDDLE SCHOOL
I shift in my chair and glance at the other presidential candidates and vice presidential candidates seated alongside me on the auditorium stage. Then I look out at the sea of seventh-grade faces in the audience. Some look like they’re paying attention. Others look like they’re bored out of their minds. A few are asleep.
I refocus on the task at hand. My classmates have already heard two candidates speak. Yesterday, Principal Ferguson decided the fairest way to determine the order of speakers was to choose names out of a hat. So Frankie went first. He was introduced by Annalise. Then Bree introduced Meghan and she spoke. Now it’s Ben’s turn to introduce me.
I give him a good-luck nod as he walks to the podium.
Ben taps the microphone and the sound of his fingers drumming against it echoes loudly. Several of the sleeping kids jolt upright. Not a bad start. I’d like everyone to be awake to hear what I have to say. Ben leans over the microphone and begins.
“What would you get if you crossed a gorilla with the sixteenth U.S. President?” He doesn’t wait before delivering the punch line. “Ape Lincoln.”
There are a few giggles, but mostly groans. I see Mom and Dad, who came to hear me give my speech, exchange a look. I send a no-more-jokes signal from my brain to Ben’s. Fortunately, he seems to get it. His post-joke grin disappears and his face turns serious.
“I’m Ben Ball, hopefully your next vice president, and I have an important job this morning,” he says. “I get to introduce our third and final candidate for president of our class.”
He turns and looks at me, then speaks loudly and clearly into the microphone. “I’m proud to introduce Amanda Adams, my pick for president. And after you hear what she has to say, I feel confident she’ll be yours, too. Give it up for Amanda.”
There’s some clapping. On the audience reaction scale, it’s a five, which makes my nerves shoot straight to ten. Frankie got about the same amount of applause after he spoke. But Meghan got more like a seven or eight.
I step up to the podium and my eyes settle on Dad. He gives me a nod.
I straighten my shoulders and begin. “I want to start this morning by congratulating my fellow candidates, who did a really good job speaking. And trust me,” I say, my voice shakier than I want it to be, “standing up in front of all of you and speaking is harder than it looks.”
I take a deep breath. “My opponents have lots of good ideas, really good ideas,” I say, gathering my courage. “One of the things I learned in this election is that a leader needs to be a good listener. That means recognizing when someone else has a good idea, and sometimes an idea that is better than your own. Both of my opponents have some of those.”
I turn around and gesture to Frankie. “I agree with Frankie that we all could use an extra study hall to get more of our homework done in school. If I’m elected, I’ll definitely talk to the school administration about that. And if Frankie is elected, I’ll help him try to get it done.”
I think about Obama’s sense of humor and take a chance at interjecting some of my own here. “And if we can’t get an additional study hall, I’ll talk to the teachers about less homework.”
There’s laughter. Then applause from the audience. This time it’s a six on the enthusiastic response scale, and I feel myself starting to relax behind the podium.
I turn around again, and this time I look at Meghan. She smiles at me. Meghan was the first one to read what’s in my speech, so she knows what’s coming next.
And she likes it.
“I also think Meghan’s idea of cleaning up Sandy Point State Park and then having a beach party sounds like a lot of fun. If I’m elected, I’m going to appoint Meghan Hart to be on the planning committee to make sure it happens. And if she’s elected, I’m going to volunteer to be on her committee.”
“Beachbound!” someone yells.
There’s more applause. It’s a seven. Or maybe an eight. It’s pretty clear everyone likes the idea of a beach cleanup and party. Me too.
I clear my throat. The next part of my speech is the most important part. And also the hardest to say. “A lot of bad things happened during the campaign. I was responsible for some of those things. I’m not proud of my actions, but if I want to be a leader of my class, I know that I have to own what I did and vow to do better.”
Just like Obama, I deliver the next part of my speech loudly and clearly, emphasizing the importance of my words. “I want to apologize to my fellow candidates whom I wronged. I want to apologize to my classmates for not setting a better example. As well as to the administration of our school for any trouble I caused, especially to Principal Ferguson and Mrs. Lee.”
I look at Mrs. Lee, who gives me a thumbs-up, and I’m filled with an overwhelming sense of relief. Whatever happens in this election, I know my favorite teacher feels like I’m finally doing my best as a candidate for president of my class. Best of all, I know I am too.
I glance down at the sheet of paper in front of me, but I don’t need to read from it. Not when the rest of what I’m about to say comes straight from my heart.
“I also want to apologize to my parents, especially my mom. I made a promise that if I won this election, my mom would take our class on a tour of the Capitol. I’m ashamed to admit this, but she never promised to do that.”
There’s a loud gasp from the audience. Kids are twisting in their seats to look at my mom, who’s sitting in the middle of the auditorium next to Meghan’s mom and Frankie’s parents.
I wait for the crowd to quiet before I continue.
“I’ve learned that one of the most important rules of any campaign is to never promise something you can’t deliver.” I pause, then add, “Trust me, I got in a lot of trouble for doing that. I’ve learned my lesson and can honestly promise I’ll never do that again. But the good news is that I figured out a way to make t
he tour happen.”
There are whispers and more gasps. Now, lots of kids are looking at Mom. Not just like they think it’s cool that there’s a United States congresswoman in the house, but also like they’re curious about what I did to persuade her to go along with my plan. So I tell them.
“When I told my mom what I’d promised, she said that she couldn’t take our class on a Capitol tour because it wasn’t fair to all of the other seventh grades that she represents. So I thought long and hard about that.” I pause, then add, “She was right. An elected official, whether he or she is the congressperson of a state or the president of a grade, must represent all of the people, not just some of the people. And that gave me an idea.”
I smile at Mom and she gives me a smile back, like she approves of what I’m about to say.
“During the campaign, my parents made me keep a notebook about past presidents of the United States. At first, I didn’t want to do it. I didn’t see how it would help me get elected. Our nation’s leaders didn’t always do the right thing, but I learned a lot about being a leader. I learned a lot, from presidents like George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy, Richard Nixon, and Barack Obama.”
My voice is loud and clear as I deliver the next part of my speech. “But I learned even more about what it means to be a leader by running for president myself. And it made me realize that other students at other schools will learn a lot if they run, too. So I suggested to my mom that she start an essay writing contest about what it means to be a leader.”
I wait a beat before I tell everyone about the details of the contest.
“All students in my mom’s district who run in middle school elections can enter. Every year, she’ll pick a winner and give the winner’s whole grade a tour of the Capitol. My mom loved the idea, and said that our class will have the first winner. So no matter who wins this election, whether it’s Frankie, or Meghan, or me, my mom agreed to take our whole grade on a tour of the Capitol.”
The Campaign Page 12
