It's Not Easy Being Bad by Cynthia Voigt

Author:Cynthia Voigt
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Atheneum Books for Young Readers

10

Lose Some, Win Some

“You have to come with me,” Mikey told Margalo. “It’s all your idea.”

“Is not,” Margalo argued. “Do not.”

“Yeah, but you made the plan different from how I was going to do it.”

Margalo agreed. “Made it better.”

Mikey wanted to argue about that. Margalo could tell. But Mikey also wanted Margalo to go to Mr. Saunders’s office with her, to co-present the petition and co-argue in its favor.

“My appointment’s at the end of first lunch tomorrow,” Mikey told Margalo.

Then Mikey opened her mouth and instead of letting words out she put food in, a forkful of lasagne. When she tasted it, she swallowed quickly and asked, “You want to trade?”

But Margalo was happy with her egg salad sandwich. Her anti-sog experiment of toasting the bread had proved successful. She just ate on, and didn’t say anything.

So when Frannie put her tray down on the table beside Margalo, and pulled out the chair to sit, one-track-mind Mikey started right in. “Don’t you think that Margalo should come with me to present the petition to Mr. Saunders?”

“I’ll go with you, Mikey,” Frannie answered. “Come with us,” Frannie urged Margalo.

“Okay,” Margalo said, because Frannie was the kind of person you wanted to say yes to.

“When is this?” Frannie asked.

But before Mikey could tell her, Tanisha slipped into a chair to ask, “What did Saunders say?”

“I haven’t talked to him yet,” Mikey answered her.

“He probably already knows about the petition,” Tan remarked. She reached over to take a piece of lettuce from Frannie’s salad—“Okay, Fran?”—and eat it like a potato chip, bite after bite. “They always know everything. D’you think they have spies?”

“I think they have friends among the students,” Frannie said.

“Teachers can’t be friends with students,” Margalo pointed out.

“They’re the boss,” Mikey explained. “Bosses and workers can’t be friends. They’re natural enemies, like, owls and mice.”

“Predators,” Margalo supplied. “Like me and my sandwich.”

“Your sandwich doesn’t care if you eat it,” Tan said.

“Really? Have you ever asked a sandwich how it feels, sitting there in its paper bag, alone in the dark, in the locker, with the door clanged shut, knowing that the hour of execution is coming closer?”

“Yeah.” Tan grinned. “I asked. It didn’t answer. So I ate it.”

“I have an appointment with Mr. Saunders tomorrow,” Mikey said.

“What do you think our chances are?” Tan asked.

Mikey shrugged. “They’re worse since this teacher uprising cropped up. He almost wouldn’t make any appointment with me. Or, I should say, the secretary tried to refuse to.”

Frannie supplied the name. “Mrs. Chambers. She likes to have everything go her way, but really she’s nice.”

“She’s all right, she’s just Hitler reincarnated,” Mikey echoed Frannie’s earnest voice.

Frannie laughed, but maintained, “They had a hard time figuring out what credits I should get, and Mrs. Chambers was really helpful.”

“Yeah, but everybody helps you,” Mikey maintained. “So that doesn’t count.”

“You have the appointment, don’t you?” Tan pointed out. “I’ll tell people about it. I’ve always wanted to be a mouthpiece,” she said, rising.

Margalo was half-hoping to be able to say

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