Bagging It

“Look on the bright side,” says Mrs. Daily. “There are a lot of cans!”

That part is true. The food drive is over, and we definitely collected a lot of cans of corn, green beans, sweet potatoes, cranberry sauce, gravy, and pumpkin pie filling.

But as I look at the faces of the class reps who are packing those cans into bags for the food bank to pick up after the assembly tomorrow, no one looks very happy.

“I still can’t believe the cans got mixed up,” Max Garcia mumbles as we start to line up the bags of food along one side of the gym. “Everyone in my grade wanted to win the contest.”

“The sixth grade wanted to win too,” says Jake like he can sympathize with Max.

“So did the fifth grade,” says Zoe.

“And the third grade,” adds Marcus.

Before the first- and second-grade reps have a chance to say how much they wanted to win, Annabelle Blake joins in the conversation. “It was your job to keep the cans straight,” she says to Joey and me.

Joey points to the sign we made. “It was everyone’s job to keep the cans straight.”

Mary Ann and Zoe roll their eyes like that doesn’t change anything.

“No one gets the homework-free week like you promised,” says Jake. “It’s not fair.”

“It’s not just about a homework-free week,” I say.

Mrs. Daily nods. “Mallory is right.” She gestures to the bags that are now neatly stacked along one side of the gym. “Our efforts were more than successful,” she says. “You all set out to help collect cans of food for people in need, and you should be very proud of the job that you did. This food will make a big difference to a lot of families in our community.”

A bunch of the reps nod like they get it. But as we leave the gym to walk back to class, it’s easy to see that everyone is still upset about the contest.

“I feel bad,” says Joey.

“Me too,” I say. “Even though the homework-free week wasn’t the point of the food drive, I still feel like we let everyone down.”

Joey nods. “I wish there was something we could do.”

Suddenly an idea pops into my head. I don’t know why I didn’t think of it before. “Maybe there is something we can do,” I say.

Even though no one is near us as we walk down the hallway, I lean over and whisper my idea into Joey’s ear.

There’s a good chance the person who needs to give the OK for my idea will not be OK with it.

Still, it can’t hurt to try.

“What do you think?” I ask when I’m done explaining.

Joey looks at me and grins. “Let’s give it a shot,” he says.

As we walk down the hallway together, I can’t help but think that this will be our third trip to the principal’s office in the past two weeks.

Hopefully, it will be our last.