CHAPTER 22

Sofia had thought all night about what she was going to say to the class. She didn’t want to tell them that Iggy didn’t vote. Voting was secret. So she figured that not voting should be secret, too.

Toward the end of the school day, Miss Greer asked Sofia about the tiebreaker. Sofia presented what she’d learned about tied elections. Then, as election commissioner, she asked the other students what they wanted to do. Nobody wanted to call off the election. Only two students wanted to redo the entire election. Twelve liked the coin toss because they thought it was more exciting. Two people wanted Miss Greer to decide.

“No,” said Miss Greer. “This election is yours to decide. Not mine.”

In the end, the class agreed on the coin toss.

Miss Greer handed Sofia a shiny quarter.

“As election commissioner,” she said, “you should toss the coin.”

Sofia took a deep breath.

“Heads is Turtle,” she said. “Tails is Bird!”

Sofia balanced the quarter on her thumbnail for a moment, then flicked as hard as she could. The coin twirled up, up, up into the air and then tumbled down, down, down into Sofia’s open palm. As soon as it hit her right palm, Sofia slapped the coin onto the back of her left hand. The class leaned forward. All eyes were on Sofia’s hands. Miss Greer held her breath.

At last, Sofia pulled back her hand and revealed the coin.

“Heads!” she said. “The class pet is a turtle!”

Team Turtle cheered! Iggy cheered.

“Rats!” said someone from Team Bird.

“Congratulations, Ada,” said Rosie, holding out her hand.

“Thank you, Rosie!” said Ada.

They shook hands. Soon, the class was talking about a good name for a turtle and how to raise money to buy one. They decided to name the new turtle after the author of Frankenstein. Her name was Mary Shelley. Everyone cheered.

The bell rang. Sofia slowly packed her backpack and headed out of school, dreading the walk home. She knew she had to tell Marisella that Miss Greer’s class was getting a new pet.

And it wasn’t going to be Pickles.