Vote by Gary Paulsen

Author:Gary Paulsen [Paulsen, Gary]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-0-307-97452-5
Publisher: Random House Children's Books
Published: 2013-05-14T04:00:00+00:00

8

The True Politician Finesses the Fine Line Between Personal and Professional Obligations

“Dutchdeefuddy.”

I was dreaming about Tina. She and I were arm in arm on the stage of the school auditorium, waving to the clapping audience. Cash was sitting in a corner, weeping. His face was splotchy, he looked pale and out of shape and a river of snot flowed from his nose.

“Dutchdeefuddy. Wake up.”

Tina smiled up at me while everyone chanted: “KEV KEV KEV.” And then Cash poked me in the eye with something soft and fuzzy.

“Hey, it’s morning.”

I opened the eye Markie hadn’t poked with his teddy bear and looked up into his face. He was straddling my chest.

“Umph.” I yawned and stretched. “What time is it?”

“The little hand is on the number that comes after six and the big hand is three little lines past the five. It’s four o’clock. Time for breakfast.”

I closed my eyes again, trying to picture the position of the clock hands and wishing I had a digital alarm clock. And that Markie could count past six.

7:28. My eyes flew open and I jumped out of bed, sending Markie tumbling to the floor with a soft whump. Lucky I had blown up an air mattress for him next to my bed; it broke his fall.

Oh no. I’d overslept. How had that happened? I never oversleep. It’s unheard of. Timeliness is crucial to the success of any politician. Everything appeared to be conspiring against me. It was like the universe suddenly didn’t want me to be the political success I knew I could be. I didn’t get it.

“The clock started to make a loud noise that scared me but I pushed the button very fast so it didn’t wake you up,” Markie told me. “You’re welcome.”

“Why didn’t my mom and dad wake me up? Or even Daniel and Sarah if they saw I wasn’t up yet?” I was hopping around my room with my pajamas half on while I grabbed a shirt from the nearest pile of clothes on the floor and gave it a quick sniff. Clean enough. I pulled my Buket o’ Puke ’n Snot (best band ever) T-shirt over my head and slid into a pair of jeans.

“They’re gone.”

“Gone where?”

“Dunno. Everyone drank lots of coffee standing up. Then your mom got a phone call and said a word that should get her mouth washed out with soap and wrote something on the fridge and ran out. Still in her bathrobe. Everyone else left.”

Weird. Even for Mom. “How do you know?”

“I hid in the front closet and watched like we did that one time. Your family’s not very friendly in the morning.” He thought for a minute, watching me try to find matching socks. “Are they zombies, Dutchdeefuddy?”

No one looks at socks, I finally decided, pulling on a couple of semi-clean gym socks and shoving my feet in tennis shoes. “Maybe Sarah. But probably not the rest. Ask them yourself later. Everyone left? What am I supposed to do with you? It’s Wednesday. I have school.

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