FAIR TRADE

Mayor Coogan’s speech lasted longer than the last ice age, so I’ll condense it down to the bare bones.

He explained that Shark’s Bay was a surfing town north of Sydney. The idea was that the winner of the art competition would live there for three weeks and create artwork inspired by Australian culture, then exhibit it at a special party. An Australian artist would come over to Hills Village to do the same thing. Now, I had no idea what Shark’s Bay was like, and I didn’t want to diss my own hometown, but that didn’t sound like much of a trade for the other side.

An expert panel—Mayor Blitz Coogan, Ms. Donatello (the Hills Village Middle School art teacher), and Earl O’Reilly of Earl’s Auto (the sponsor of the prize)—would make the decision.

After the assembly, someone tapped me on the shoulder. It was Ms. Donatello.

“You should give it a shot,” she said. “I think you have a real chance, Rafe.”

Ms. Donatello is always doing stuff like that. She’s a bit like my mom—saying I can do things even when I’m not too sure I can. She really believes in me. It kind of freaks me out, but in a good way.

“Don’t you want a free trip to Australia?”

Um, YES! Who wouldn’t want a free trip to Australia?

Beaches, sun, shrimps on the barbie, palm trees… uh… kangaroos. But even though Ms. Donatello had a good point, that octopus in my guts was still sloshing around like crazy.

And I knew exactly why.

It was all thanks to the Discovery Channel.