Just when Sarah thought she had dodged the last of the reporters, a small camera shot up through a grate on the sidewalk and flashed in her face.

“Leave me alone!” she shouted.

The reporters had thought of everything. They’d followed her into the bathroom at the press center, out onto the street, and continued shouting questions at her no matter how many times she said “No comment.” Finally she had just started running and eventually outlasted the reporters, but she knew they could be lurking around every corner.

She heard a vehicle approaching. She ducked into a doorway and hid her face as a flying news van with satellites on the roof sped by.

The whole thing was ridiculous and she just wanted to go home. Jacob had already been hypnotized by the stupid princess of the universe and wouldn’t even try to rescue his best friend, never mind that he had been a quivering wreck when Sarah had left him behind on Numonia once upon a time. And to think her biggest worry had been that he would forget all about her when he was busy passing laws and flying around the universe. No, he was already betraying her and Dexter just a few hours into the election. She hoped he’d lose in a landslide.

As she stepped back onto the sidewalk, a manhole cover flew off and clanged down the street. The reporters started climbing out of it, looking very pleased with themselves.

“You were in the sewers?!”

They were covered in grime and smelled terrible, but were soon pressing microphones in front of her and shouting questions.

She was quickly surrounded by the pack and couldn’t move.

“Miss Daisy! Miss Daisy!”

One of the young reporters elbowed a cameraman in the face and then jostled her way to the front. “Miss Daisy!” she shouted. “Is it true that Jacob Wonderbar is the most wanted criminal on Earth?”

Sarah smirked and almost shouted “Yes,” as well as many other lies that could sink his campaign, but she was too hurt by Jacob’s decision to even summon insults. She looked at the ground for a moment, and said, “Jacob Wonderbar? I don’t even really know him anymore. Now, if you’ll excuse me…”

She started to walk forward, but the reporters weren’t satisfied and started shouting more questions. Sarah clenched her fists.

“Oh wow!” she yelled. “I heard there’s a kitten being rescued from a tree by a very cute fireman only a few blocks from here! What an uplifting story, you’d better hurry!”

The reporters looked at one another for a moment and then all started running away, pushing and shoving each other as they scrambled off in different directions. Sarah was finally free.

She made her way back to the spaceship parking facility, where Lucy was waiting. If Jacob was too occupied to go rescue Dexter Goldstein, she’d just have to do it herself. She was just about to board when a figure stepped out from the shadows.

“Going somewhere, Sarah Daisy?”

Mick Cracken grinned at her.

“Ugh. What do you want?” Sarah asked.

Mick’s teeth looked whiter than ever, and Sarah wasn’t sure she had ever seen hair parted in a straighter, more perfect line, which was really saying something, considering some of the hairstyles she had seen on some of the reporters.

“I don’t think your talents were properly utilized by the Wonderbar campaign,” he said. “What a disappointment that you were forced out under such… dubious circumstances.”

“Right. Sure. Nice of you to worry about my feelings, Mick. Good seeing you and everything, but I’m… yeah.” Sarah stepped toward Lucy.

“I want you to be my running mate.”

Sarah stopped in her tracks and turned back to face him. “What?”

Mick looked incredibly pleased that he had her interest. “I want you to be my running mate. I could use you in the campaign.”

Sarah looked around the parking facility. “Is this one of your stupid tricks? Are there cameras somewhere recording this?”

Mick acted like he was in a great deal of pain. “Oh Sarah, surely you think more of me than that.”

“Nope.”

Mick smiled.

“This isn’t a trick,” he said. “I have the reporters on standby for a press conference. We could announce it immediately.”

Sarah tried to figure out why Mick would want her on the campaign. While she hated to even consider the idea that anything Princess Pointyhead said remotely resembled the truth, Catalina was definitely right that Sarah really didn’t know much about Astrals and how to run an interplanetary presidential campaign. And it was becoming abundantly clear that most Astrals thought Earthers were dangerous. So what could Sarah possibly offer Mick that would help him in a campaign?

She imagined standing beside Mick at a press conference, announcing that she was his running mate, and it suddenly dawned on her.

“It would look bad for Jacob if one of his friends decided to run against him.”

Mick feigned confusion. “Would it really? Oh. Why… I hadn’t thought of that, I was just hoping to have your talents to help me…”

“Spare me,” Sarah said.

She knew Jacob would be furious if he found out that Sarah was campaigning against him, but he had already dumped her overboard for Princess Pointyhead, so it wasn’t as if his hands were so clean. And if she was helping Mick’s campaign, she could make sure that Jacob would really lose, and once Mick won she could resign the vice presidency and go back to Earth with Jacob after the election. Then everything would finally go back to normal.

Plus, she thought, gaining a little bit of steam and confidence, Mick was right about one thing. Her talents really weren’t utilized in the Wonderbar campaign. Astral knowledge or not, it wasn’t as if she was completely useless.

“I’ll think about it,” she said.

Mick nodded as if he expected this. “Would you at least like a tour of my new ship?”

She walked with him over to a sparkling black spaceship. It was long and sleek, forming a perfect triangle with a small teardrop of a cockpit on top. There were two massive boosters at the back, and a small gangway leading into the hold. The words “Mick Jr.” were plated in silver cursive along the side.

“What’s this?” she asked.

“This,” Mick said, his voice bursting with pride, “is my new spaceship. I had a hand in designing every detail. It’s the fastest ship in the universe, the most luxurious… it has stealth capabilities and the greatest gaming system on any spaceship in the universe.”

He ran his fingers lovingly along the hull, then took out a handkerchief and carefully wiped the place where he had touched it.

“Where did you get this?”

“It was my twelfth birthday present,” he said.

Sarah recalled Mick’s father, the king of the universe, saying that Mick was done flying spaceships for a while. “How did you convince your dad to give you this?”

Mick looked terribly concerned about a tiny speck that had appeared on the hull. He gave it a gentle flick and then sighed in relief. “Um. It might have also been a reward for finally getting a D in Earther Studies.”

“Wow, Mick. Your dad must be so proud.”

Mick didn’t seem to notice her sarcasm, and when he reached the gangway, he bowed and gestured. “After you, mademoiselle.”

He led her onto the ship, which was all gleaming black plastic and leather inside. Electronic lounge music was playing softly. There was a large painting on one of the walls, upon which was spray-painted “Mick Rules!” Sarah noted that the painting was signed by Mick Cracken.

“So?” Mick asked. “What do you think?”

Sarah thought about the election ahead, and she knew she had to do it. She wanted to make sure Jacob would lose, even if that meant aligning herself with a conceited buccaneer with poor taste in art.

“All right, Mick,” Sarah sighed. “Fine. I’ll do it. But on one condition. Dexter Goldstein was captured by space monkeys, and we have to find him, or I quit.”

Mick’s eyes glinted, but he didn’t smile. “I think that can be arranged.”

Sarah crossed her arms. “Last time we made a deal you were lying out of your teeth.”

“I’m sure that won’t happen again,” Mick said.

She didn’t believe him, but she didn’t see much of a choice either. It wasn’t as if she knew how to save Dexter from space monkeys. She waited a moment before saying, “Fine.” She reached out and shook, then had a sudden urge to disinfect her hands.

“See, Mick Jr.?” Mick shouted. “I told you she’d agree!”

“Ha!” Mick’s voice echoed back. “Great work, master. The presidency will soon be ours… Er… I mean yours…”

Sarah’s jaw dropped. “You programmed the ship’s nav system to be… you? The spaceship talks like you?!”

Mick looked immensely pleased with himself.

Sarah was already beginning to regret her decision.