8. Campaign Speeches and Campaign Promises

 

"Listen to this, Nikki," Deja says on Sunday afternoon. Nikki sits on her porch working on a lanyard key chain for her father. Deja stands on the walkway before her with her speech in her hand. At ten o'clock Tuesday morning, Deja is going to have to get up onstage in the auditorium in front of the whole school and tell why she, a third-grader, would be the best student body president of Carver Elementary School. She wonders if any of the fourth- or fifth-graders will laugh at her.

Deja walks back and forth with her index cards. Nikki looks up from the lanyard key chain. She plans to make a matching one for her mom. "I'm listening," Nikki says.

Deja clears her throat. "Now really listen, because I'm going to ask you questions afterward."

"I'm listening."

Deja has already read her speech to Auntie Dee, who helped her with the opening and made a few suggestions so her message would be clearer. But beyond that, she's left Deja on her own. Deja clears her throat again.

"Teachers, Mr. Brown, and students of Carver Elementary School, my name is Deja—"

"Everyone already knows your name," Nikki interrupts.

"We're still supposed to introduce ourselves," Deja says. She continues, "... and I am running for student body president of Carver Elementary School."

Nikki interrupts again. "I think you're saying Carver Elementary School too many times."

"I only said it twice."

"Well, it's too close together."

"I don't think so," Deja protests.

"Remember, I'm your campaign manager."

"So? You're not my boss."

"Well, you shouldn't have asked me to be your campaign manager if you're not even going to listen to me."

"Do you want to hear it or not?" Deja asks.

"I guess so," Nikki says, but she starts working on her lanyard again and barely looks up as Deja gives her speech. When she finishes, Nikki doesn't even act like she knows Deja has finished.

"What do you think?" Deja presses.

"It's okay."

"Is that all you have to say?"

"I didn't think you really wanted my opinion," Nikki replies.

"Well you're my campaign manager, aren't you?"

Nikki just shrugs and shakes her head. "I think you made too many promises."

"I have to promise stuff," Deja says. "Otherwise people might not vote for me."

"But, Deja..." Nikki begins, "more field trips for every class? How are you going to do that?"

"I don't know. I'll figure it out." Deja is sorry she even asked Nikki for her opinion. In fact, Deja doesn't know what Nikki has even done in her role as campaign manager except ask a few kids some questions. She didn't help with the posters, just because she was sulking. Just because Deja told Ms. Shelby something that could save Nikki's life.

"I don't think you will, Deja. I think you're just going to say it without figuring it out."

 

"No, I'm going to figure it out." Deja looks down at her cards.

"And longer recess?" Nikki says in a tone that shows she might be just getting started. "You can't do that."

"I can ask..."

"And, come on, fried chicken for lunch? When have we ever had fried chicken for lunch?"

"When are you not going to criticize so much?" Deja counters.

"Well, you asked my opinion."

"Your opinion is not very helpful."

"But remember, I'm your campaign manager."

"Well," Deja says, "a good campaign manager would have helped me with my posters."

"A good friend would have not been a tattletale." Nikki stands up.

"I told Ms. Shelby to save your life," Deja says, knowing she's exaggerating.

"No, you just wanted to be Miss Goody-Good, so Ms. Shelby would think you're so mature!" With that, Nikki turns and stomps up the steps into her house, slamming the front door behind her.

Deja stands there, frozen. Nikki knows her so well.

***

On Monday, Nikki remains cool. She has little to say on their walks to and from school and heads immediately to the handball court when Room Ten is let out for morning and lunch recess. When Deja asks her questions, she answers with as few words as possible. Deja decides to ignore this. Nikki has acted this way before. Eventually, she will forget why she's angry and things will go back to normal. Deja will just wait it out. Plus, when she's elected student body president of Carver Elementary, Nikki will be happy to be her best friend.

Tuesday, speech day, comes quickly. Deja can barely sit still, for two reasons. First, she is wearing the beautiful new lavender sweater that Auntie bought her. It's a little itchy, but it's the same color as the blossoms on the jacaranda tree that grows in front of a house on her street. Second, any minute a helper is going to come to Room Ten and pick her up. She will be taken to the auditorium to wait backstage for the assembly to start.

Assembly days are always good days because lots of work gets missed. Deja looks down at her open Sustained Silent Reading book and wonders why she chose one with so many pages. It's so boring, yet she's going to be stuck with it for another week because Ms. Shelby makes them keep the books they check out of the classroom library for two weeks. Nikki must have a great book. She looks as if she's really reading. Finally, there's a light rap on the door and one of the fifth grade helpers enters with a note for Ms. Shelby. Ms. Shelby reads it, nods, then smiles at Deja. "You're wanted in the auditorium, Deja."

All of the other candidates are already sitting in chairs lined up onstage when Deja enters. The last chair in the row is empty. It's her chair. She swallows hard and scratches an itchy spot just under the neck of her sweater. She suddenly feels hot.

"Oh, Deja," Mr. Willis says. He's the fifth grade teacher. "Come on up and take your seat."

The walk down the center aisle seems to take forever. She feels all eyes on her until she settles in her chair. Mr. Brown is fooling with the microphone onstage. He repeats, "Testing, testing, testing..." until his voice finally booms across the auditorium, making Deja jump. She feels her heart beat faster and, it seems, louder, too. She wonders if anyone can hear it. Surprisingly, her mouth feels dry, and the itchy spot just under her collar has now spread down her arms and across her back.

The auditorium doors open then, and in file the kindergarten classes. They take the front rows. Right behind them are the first- and second-graders. By the time the third-graders come in, the room is buzzing with anticipation. She can barely make out her own class. She can't even see Nikki. She'd feel better if she could see Nikki, even though Nikki's still being cool to her. In the car that morning (Nikki's mom had taken them to school), she'd kept her face turned toward her window and didn't speak to Deja. The fourth and fifth grade classes file in, and by the time they take their seats they are just a dim blur. Deja can't focus on the students in the crowd, but she can hear their rustling and their excited voices.

Mr. Brown takes the center of the stage and raises his hand with his five fingers spread out. "Five!" he says and looks around, waiting until most of the auditorium catches on.

"Five!" they repeat with their hands held up.

"Four!" he says, and looks around until they repeat what he says.

By the time he gets to three, the auditorium is perfectly quiet.

"That's better," he says. Then he gives a long talk—at least it seems long to Deja—about auditorium behavior, which is different from playground behavior. He reminds them how important the day is and how hard the candidates have worked and how worthy they are to represent their classes. A lot of what he is saying doesn't sound all the way true. Deja looks down the row of seated students onstage. Gregory Johnson is sitting up straight and confident. Lashonda is yawning, and Paula is shuffling her feet. Sheena is playing with the ball barrette at the end of her braid, and Arthur is slouched, showing poor posture. The other fourth-grader is biting her thumbnail. But Deja supposes they are just as worthy as anyone else. She takes a big breath and slips her hand behind her back. She's able to scratch on the back of her neck just under her sweater. For a second, it feels better.

Suddenly, she hears her name. Mr. Brown is looking down the row at her with a big grin on his face. He's calling her up. She'd thought it would start the other way around, with her going last. But she's first.

Slowly, Deja gets up. Slowly, she walks to the microphone, which Mr. Brown is lowering to her height. This is it. She has her index cards clutched in her hand. She hasn't looked at them since that morning before school. She's a little panicked to see that they aren't in order. Where's the one with her introduction? She shuffles through them quickly, and they spill out of her hands. Laughter spreads across the auditorium.

"Excuse me?" Mr. Brown says in a booming voice.

It stops as suddenly as it started, but it leaves Deja feeling even more jittery.

"My name is Deja," she says. Mr. Willis rushes over and adjusts the microphone just as she's saying, "and I'm running for student body president of Carver Elementary." Her voice suddenly booms out in the middle of her sentence, startling her. She stops and looks at her cards. They seem as if they're covered with scribble. She can't make out one word.

She blurts out all of the things she'll do for the school if they elect her. Nikki was right. All her promises suddenly sound silly. They're just promises, with no thought behind them. She wishes she had something else to say, but she can't remember anything else, not even her closing. She just says thank you and takes her seat, feeling a tiny bit relieved that it is over.

Arthur is next and he is not much better. He basically lists all the reasons people should vote

 

for him. He sounds scared and unconvincing. Sheena holds her speech, written on a piece of notebook paper with torn holes, right in front of her face. She keeps stumbling over her own handwriting. Deja wants to laugh, but she suppresses it. Lashonda and the other fourth-grader wrote theirs kind of like poems. Lashonda's is better, Deja thinks. It's even funny.

Paula, from Mr. Hick's fifth grade, simply reads her speech like Sheena. But it sounds as if it was written by someone way older. Deja thinks Paula's mother probably wrote it because it it has a lot of big words that Paula can't pronounce. Deja really wants to laugh now. But she knows that would look bad, so she bites her tongue. Gregory Johnson does his in a kind of interesting way. After he introduces himself to the audience, they cheer. He then answers questions about what he will do as student body president from a question box he'd placed on a little table just inside the entrance to the school building. Deja wonders why she didn't think of that. She can feel everyone's total attention as he answers each question smoothly and with a big, confident smile. He even has on a shirt and tie. He already looks like a student body president.

When he's finished there are cheers and loud, enthusiastic applause, which is more than the polite response Deja got. He takes his seat and Mr. Brown steps forward, clapping as he approaches the lowered microphone. He bends toward it to give his usual end-of-assembly talk about how to exit the auditorium in an orderly way. The candidates remain in their chairs onstage until everyone leaves. Then Mr. Willis dismisses them to their classrooms. Deja leaves the stage feeling she could have done better. She wishes she had another chance.

As soon as Deja enters the classroom, Ms. Shelby leads the students in applause for their classmate. "I know we're all excited about the election and the announcement of the results on Friday morning."

Some kids glance over at Deja; some don't even look like they're paying attention. Nikki gives her a tiny smile.