CHAPTER 28

Janet arrived at Jordan’s soon after the polls closed. She’d spent the day meeting as many voters in person as she could. And now she was here with us, her campaign staff, to watch the results come in.

Dahlina put the news on the big-screen TV, and we all filled up bowls from the candy machines and settled in to watch the results.

“Lawrenceville is divided into thirty-two precincts,” the news reporter was saying. “We’ll report results from each precinct as they come in, but remember that it takes some longer to report than others. Our first precinct reporting this evening is the twenty-fourth.”

The TV showed a map of the town with the twenty-fourth precinct highlighted, and Isabelle proudly announced, “That’s where I live.”

“The twenty-fourth precinct reports five hundred and eighty-five ballots cast for Lucinda Burghart and one hundred and thirty-one for Janet Teneman,” said the newscaster.

The mood in the room sank immediately. Janet’s face drooped, and a few kids let out outraged gasps.

“No offense,” Dahlina said to Isabelle, “but your neighborhood stinks.”

But the next precinct they announced was Dahlina’s, and that one went for Lucinda, too—437 to 294.

“Your neighborhood stinks,” Isabelle told Dahlina.

“This whole town stinks,” said Lucas.

“We’re still at only 6 percent reporting,” I reminded everyone. “Anything could happen. The next 94 percent of votes could all be for Janet.”

But that wasn’t what happened. The next precinct came in, and it was 514 to 291 in favor of Lucinda. So far, Janet had picked up more than 700 votes, which wasn’t bad. Given that ten weeks ago nobody knew who she was and eight weeks ago she was just “that girl who cheated in high school,” it was impressive that more than 700 people trusted her enough to go out and vote for her.

But Lucinda already had more than double that many votes, and they just kept coming in. Every time Janet edged up, Lucinda did, too.

“She’s cheating!” My Friend Daniel squawked.

“How is she cheating?” I asked.

“Because . . . she’s winning!” Daniel said.

“Winning is not the same as cheating,” I pointed out.

“Yeah, but we worked a lot harder than she did! And Janet’s a better candidate! It’s not fair!”

I shoved away my bowl of candy. I wasn’t hungry.

When Lucinda passed 2,000 votes and Janet was still at 1,200, Janet stood up to address the room. “I know that this evening isn’t going the way we hoped,” she said. “And it’s okay to feel upset about that. We all worked really, really hard. I am so proud of every one of you.

“When we started this race, I knew we were fighting an uphill battle. I didn’t know if we could win, but I knew that we could call attention to the issues that mattered, fight strong, and fight fair, and that’s exactly what we’ve done.

“I’m sorry if I’ve let you down by not being a good enough candidate. But I want to make sure you know that none of you let me down. You did the exact opposite. You have given me so much hope for the future.”

I wished I could pause time right then. I could see my life unrolling before me like a road with no turnoffs. Tonight, Janet would lose. Tomorrow, all my classmates would go back to not spending time with me, not relying on me, not including me. Next year, art class would go away. I would always remember that there had been this brief period of time when I was important and valuable, when people wanted to hear what I thought. A brief period of time when I could do things right. But that time was almost over.

Enjoy it right now, I told myself, because it’s never coming back.

Then Holly cried, “Look!”

She was pointing at the big screen behind Janet. The seventh precinct had just come in, and it was reporting 650 votes for Janet and only 358 for Lucinda.

Lucinda’s lead had been cut down to 500 votes.

She was still winning. But not by much.

When the next precinct came in with 610 for Janet and 347 for Lucinda, the room started buzzing. And when the one after that gave Janet 599 votes and Lucinda 269, there was a collective gasp.

By the time half the precincts were reporting, Janet’s total vote count had surpassed Lucinda’s.

“What’s happening? What’s happening?” My Friend Daniel asked, frantically shoveling candy from my bowl into his mouth.

“I don’t know,” I told him.

Janet’s eyes were so wide I thought they might pop out of her head. I crawled through the rest of the kids to stand next to her and hold her hand.

When the next precinct reported, Janet’s total was 150 votes higher than Lucinda’s. With the one after that, it was back down to only fifty more. Then it was back up to 130 more. Then 200. Then 240.

“With all thirty-two precincts reporting,” the newscaster said, “the final vote counts are 12,474 for Janet Teneman and 12,101 for Lucinda Burghart.”

The room erupted.

“Does that mean we win?”

“Is it over? Can I look?”

“I can’t hear what they’re saying!”

Janet’s phone began to ring. I let go of her hand so she could fumble it out of her pocket.

“Everyone shut up!” Dahlina hollered. “Janet has a call!”

We all shut up.

“What was that? What happened?” we all cried.

Janet looked dazed as she slid her phone back into her pocket. “That was Lucinda Burghart,” she said. “She was calling to concede.” And Janet started to laugh. “We won, guys. We won! I’m going to be mayor!”