Promises, Promises Read online

  “Got a staring problem?” Avery asked Anna as she took her seat.

  “Let’s get started, shall we?” Ms. Rodriguez asked the class and calmly went about the business of homeroom.

  Avery was still steaming. Here she was all upset that her posters—every single one of her posters—were missing, and Katani was being all snooty, acting like because her posters didn’t have globs of feathers and sequins, they didn’t matter. She dug her pen into her notebook.

  Ms. Rodriguez passed out a form they needed to fill out for school pictures.

  Avery fished a pencil out of her backpack, just in case she had to erase. Ms. R was wrong. This wasn’t about friendship. A friend wouldn’t encourage you to run for president when she was planning on running against you all along. In fact, Katani had probably only said all that stuff that night in the Tower because she wanted the others to jump in and say, “No, Katani, that sounds like you!”

  Avery’s cheeks reddened, and she clutched her pencil so tightly her knuckles were white. When she started to write, she pressed so hard on the pencil that the lead broke, shooting across the aisle and hitting Robert in the ankle. It left a charcoal smudge on the paper and bits and pieces of graphite scattered about the form. Avery dug another pencil out of her backpack and started writing again.

  She’d push all those words that Katani had said behind her. This wasn’t a team effort, that was for sure. She would have to approach this the way she did soccer or tennis. Focus. Visualize. Execute. She would start by making more posters. She wouldn’t even waste time asking for help. It was all up to her now. The BSG had let her down.

  After the emotional rush of the morning, the rest of the day felt flat. Avery walked from class to class like a robot, doing only the bare minimum of what she needed to do to get by. Who knew this election was going to be such a big drain? she thought. She hadn’t even had time to take Marty to the park. Well, she’d need all of her energy, all of her emotion to get through the next week and a half of the campaign. When she won, she would extend a hand of friendship to Katani—if she took it, fine. If she didn’t—well, that was her choice. But for now, no matter what Ms. R said, she and Katani couldn’t be friendly.

  When Avery arrived in the lunchroom that day, she didn’t even look at the BSG table. Instead, she went straight to the guys’ table with Nick, Adam, Billy, Josh, Dillon, and Robert. She handed each of them a lollipop with an Avery for President sticker.

  Avery hadn’t joked around with the guys in a long time. It didn’t take long before they had her laughing so hard that little snurps came out of her mouth. At one point, she thought milk would come out of her nose.

  As all the guys at the table prepared to play milk carton football, Avery glanced over to the BSG table. It was almost empty. Charlotte and Isabel sat close together, hunched over Isabel’s sketchbook. Katani was nowhere to be found. And where was Maeve? She’d been leaving lunch early for the last week.

  Equal Space

  There was no one there when Charlotte set her tray of grilled cheese and green Jell-O on the table. She looked around the cafeteria but didn’t see any of the Beacon Street Girls. Where were they? It was the first time since she had been at Abigail Adams Junior High that she’d had to sit at a lunch table alone. It reminded her of all those horrible first days in other schools when she had to eat by herself, and she felt a sob catch in her throat, as Anna and Joline walked by, shooting their “you are so lame” look her way.

  “Tell me it’s over,” Charlotte whispered to herself. She shut her eyes, and reviewed the scene from this morning in front of Ms. Rodriguez’s class. She couldn’t remember the angry words, but she could see the angry eyes and expressions as Katani and Avery squabbled.

  “Where is everyone?” Isabel asked when she sat down. She had a salad. Somehow, Charlotte had missed seeing Isabel in the salad bar line. She was so grateful to see Isabel she could have jumped up and hugged her.

  “I don’t know,” Charlotte said.

  “I knew Maeve wasn’t going to be here. She told me in gym that she had some project to work on and that she got a pass,” Isabel told her.

  “There’s Avery,” Charlotte said, nodding toward a table of boys.

  “Maybe Katani is working in the library again,” Isabel offered.

  “I guess since Maeve said that the election is off limits they decided they couldn’t handle sitting here,” Charlotte speculated. “They’re both pretty driven. The election is all they can think about. Talk about.”

  Charlotte slowly nibbled at her grilled cheese sandwich while Isabel ate her salad.

  “Well, since we’re alone, there’s something I’d like to talk to you about,” Charlotte said.

  “Me, too! You go first,” Isabel said.

  “Wouldn’t it be funny if we both said we decided to run for class president?” Charlotte said laughing.

  “No!”

  “Vice president?”

  Isabel smiled a crooked smile.

  “It’s about the Tower,” Charlotte said. “When we discovered it and became the BSG, we divided it in four parts. You’re part of us, and I’ve been trying—well, Maeve and I have been trying—to figure out how to divide the Tower five ways. We just haven’t yet. We want you to know that you mean so much to us. We want you to have equal space. We’re just not sure how to do it.”

  A small smile crept to Isabel’s face. She gave Charlotte’s hand a quick squeeze.

  “Thank you…but just being there with all of you is enough for me. I don’t want to take away space from anyone else. I don’t want to cause any more problems,” Isabel said.

  “But there has to be a solution.”

  Just then, Charlotte heard Avery laughing at the next table. Isabel and Charlotte both turned in that direction.

  “Maybe we won’t have to worry about the space—the way things are going, we may have two open spots. We might have to worry about dividing it three ways instead of five,” Charlotte said.

  “We can’t think that way. We have to believe that this will all work out. Blow over.”

  They looked at each other.

  “Actually, you know how much I love interior decorating. I’ll think about it,” Isabel said.

  “Great! What did you want to tell me?” Charlotte asked.

  Isabel bit her bottom lip and tucked her long, dark hair behind her ears. She pushed her half empty salad bowl aside and pulled the sketchpad from her backpack. “I need your creative input. Remember I told you that Jennifer wanted edgy? Well, I adapted a few political cartoons that I saw in the The Boston Globe. Jennifer saw them this morning. She loved them, but I’m a little uncomfortable with being this edgy, and I wanted your opinion.”

  She opened the sketchbook.

  Charlotte winced as she read the comics. “Ouch!”

  “That’s what I thought…they’re really mean,” Isabel said. “Especially with what happened this morning, I just don’t think I should turn these in. The deadline’s coming soon. I know this is the election edition, and I just don’t have any ‘election’ ideas.”

  “Hmm. Well, I’ve been working in The Sentinel office all week. I know that Jennifer is writing a cameo of each presidential candidate—maybe you could do a drawing of each candidate.”

  “Like a caricature?”

  “Yeah, have you ever done that before?”

  “Not exactly, but I guess it’s worth a try. Anything is better than what I have so far,” she answered. “Thanks for the suggestion!”

  CHAPTER 15

  In the Middle

  Katani, Avery, and the rest of the candidates arrived early for the debates.

  As Mr. Danson explained the procedures for the debate, Katani watched Mr. Clauson, the janitor, slowly and methodically pull out the bleachers on the east side of the gym. He had already set up two long tables right across center court. It was a little intimidating to be right in the center of the whole gym, Katani felt, but then she remembered Candice’s pep talk and she raised
her chin.

  “Katani, you’ll be sitting here,” Mr. Danson said, pointing to a chair that was in the middle of the center court circle.

  Two of Katani’s sisters had been centers for the Abigail Adams girls’ basketball team when they were in middle school. How ironic that Katani would be sitting right here in this very spot! How many times had she watched her sisters jump in this very circle at the beginning tip-off of a game? But today Katani was starting her own tradition. From this spot in the gym, she would “jumpstart” her illustrious student government career.

  Things had been so chilly between Avery and her since their meltdown earlier in the week. Katani had talked to her mother about it and they both decided it would be best if Katani avoided Avery until the election was over…give things a chance to cool down between the two of them. Today, Avery was chatting it up with Dillon, so it was pretty easy to avoid any contact. Her mom had also reminded Katani to try and think about the election from Avery’s point of view as well. But that was easier said than done.

  Ms. Rodriguez had been right about the importance of focusing on good character, and she, Katani Summers, was going to rise above trash talk from any of her opponents. But she wasn’t going to sit by and allow Avery to call her a backstabber either! Ms. R was wrong. A friend wouldn’t call her something like that ever! But, feeling noble after her conversation with her mother, Katani decided that after she won, she would give Avery a chance to apologize. But if she didn’t, well…Katani was sure she would be too busy to really miss her at all!

  “You each have a microphone and a bottle of water,” Mr. Danson said, pointing to the table. “A podium has been set up on either side of the candidates’ table for the questions from the seventh-grade student body.”

  By the time Mr. Danson asked if there were any questions, the seventh-grade class was filing into the gym. Once everyone was seated, Katani and the rest of the candidates watched from the hall as Mr. Danson addressed the class and explained how the town hall forum format worked. Then he motioned to the candidates. He called their names, and each candidate stepped into the gym and walked across the court to their seat.

  Dillon raised his arms in the air as he walked to his seat. Katani thought he was such a showoff. Avery also waved to the crowd, pumping her arms in the air. Henry Yurt gave his bow tie a tap and it spun around like a pinwheel. Kids went crazy with laughter.

  Katani sighed, Henry Yurt was so immature. This was not comedy hour. When Mr. Danson called her name, Katani nodded to the crowd, smiled, and then walked to her seat with as much dignity as she could gather.

  She turned all her focus on the first question…a challenging one by one of the smartest girls in the class, Samantha Simmons. “I would like to ask each of the candidates to tell us why their platform is better than everyone else’s.” Soon Q&As accompanied by cheers and whoops were flying through the air.

  Debates sure were fun, thought Avery.

  No-Smiles Award

  It was difficult for Charlotte to tell who was winning the debate. She thought all of the candidates were doing an amazing job—even the Yurtmeister, who had his classmates in stitches most of the time. Charlotte knew that she would have frozen if she’d had to debate in front of everyone.

  Katani and Avery each had notecards, but it seemed they never looked at them. When they were asked a question, they didn’t hem or haw, they just started right in with the answer as if they knew what question they’d be asked. They were totally prepared. How did they do that?

  Charlotte thought Katani sounded great when she talked about how the class could do car washes at the football games to raise money. It made sense. It would make cents. Charlotte smiled at her pun. She loved wordplay.

  When asked what projects she would push, Avery did a great job of explaining her ideas. Charlotte was really proud of her for not going overboard and listing all the things that she wanted to do for the rest of junior high, high school, etc. Charlotte wished she could catch Avery’s eye and give her a thumbs up. But Avery had avoided all of them since the big incident in the hall. Instead, she ate lunch every day with the boys. Not once had Charlotte caught Avery looking in their direction.

  Charlotte wondered if Avery really believed that none of them liked or supported her, or if avoiding everyone was easier than trying to get along.

  Charlotte couldn’t resist sneaking a quick look at Isabel, who was sitting next to her sketching the candidates as they spoke. She was drawing fast and furious. Isabel tilted the pad toward herself when she noticed Charlotte peeking over, but she gave her a smile and wink to let her know she was okay—that she liked this much more than the “edgy” cartoons she had shown her earlier in the week. Charlotte understood how Isabel felt. She didn’t like to show early drafts of her writing to anyone—not until she had a chance to go over it and over it.

  Charlotte turned to see another girl, Chelsea Briggs, squatting down in front of the bleachers holding a camera. She was kind of a chubby girl who kept to herself a lot. Charlotte felt a little bad for Chelsea because she didn’t appear to have many friends.

  Nick Montoya was now approaching the podium. As he climbed up the stairs, he looked over to Charlotte and smiled. Maeve poked her in the ribs and Charlotte felt her cheeks flush. Nick really was so cute and she knew that he really liked her. He always asked her about assignments and once he even tried to kiss her. Maeve kept telling her that she should ask him out. But Charlotte just couldn’t do that…yet.

  Nick cleared his throat, tapped the microphone, and asked what was the most important thing to each of the candidates. Charlotte thought he looked very together in his blue shirt and khaki pants, and his voice was strong and clear.

  Mr. Danson, who was acting as moderator, motioned to Dillon to start first.

  “That’s a good question,” Dillon said. Charlotte noticed that was how Dillon started each of his answers. “I can sum up it in three words…‘whatever you want!’ My goal as president is to do what YOU want.”

  Charlotte thought Katani did a good job of not making too much of a face. Charlotte knew how Katani felt about Dillon’s promises to do whatever anyone wanted. Katani had her hands folded together in front of her. She drew herself up straight and tall and cleared her throat. “Nick,” she said when it was her turn to speak. Katani had started each answer by addressing the person who had asked the question. Charlotte thought it made her seem very personable and professional.

  “Now that we are seventh graders, we finally have a say in how class funds are spent. We are finally at that age when we can decide what we want to do and set up plans to reach our own goals…” spoke Katani.

  But before she could finish, Avery cut her off. “That’s where you’re wrong, Katani. We have reached a time in our life when…”

  “I wasn’t finished!” Katani snapped, shooting Avery a nasty look.

  “So-o-o-orry!” Avery said as she rolled her eyes. A few kids laughed.

  Katani finished by saying, “We are at an age where we can not only decide what we want, but also HOW we’re going to achieve those goals. I feel the best way to do that is proper management of our budget. As class president, I’ll make sure we’ll be able to do more by properly managing what we have.”

  Avery put her hand over the microphone, but Charlotte could hear her from her front row seat. “Are you finished NOW?” Avery asked Katani.

  Katani didn’t say anything. She just narrowed her eyes and glared at Avery.

  Charlotte couldn’t believe Avery was being so insensitive.

  Avery turned back to her microphone. “What my…”

  Charlotte hoped Avery was going to say friend, but instead she stressed the word, opponent.

  “What my OPPONENT said is wrong. We should stop thinking about ourselves all the time and always wondering ‘what’s in it for me?’ We are at a point in our lives when we should start thinking, planning, and DOING what we can to make the world a better place. You know…save the planet.” Everyone cheere
d at that one.

  While Avery was right, making Katani look bad in front of everyone left a bitter taste in Charlotte’s mouth. Avery was so oblivious sometimes…just saying things to make a point and forgetting that sometimes that could hurt people’s feelings.

  Charlotte was so busy looking from Avery to Katani that she missed the beginning of Henry Yurt’s answer. Whatever it was, it made everyone laugh, and he smiled at the crowd before he went on.

  “Who says school has to be dull and boring?” Henry asked. “I want to make school a fun place. We can make that happen! Ask yourself right now, ‘Who have I made smile today?’ I think there should be an award for the person that brings smiles to the people around them. I’d call it…uh…the SMILE award. Yeah, that’s it! The Smile Award!”

  Henry’s comment got Charlotte thinking. Who had she made smile today?

  “That’s all the time we have,” Mr. Danson said. “Thank you all for your participation.”

  There was a round of applause before students started filing out of the gym.

  The candidates were gathering their cards. But Katani was staring at Avery.

  As soon as Mr. Danson left to supervise the north entrance of the gym, Katani’s glare intensified.

  “What?” Avery asked.

  “You know what! You cut me off!”

  “I said I was sorry!”

  Katani rolled her eyes.

  “Careful, Katani, or you won’t win Yurt’s Smile Award,” Avery said when Henry was out of earshot.

  “That’s the dumbest thing I’ve heard. Vote for me! Let’s all smile about it!”

  Avery giggled.

  “Too bad for you he’s not giving out a Laughs-At Anything Award. You’d win that for sure,” Katani huffed.

  “Well, at least it’s an award,” Avery quipped.

  Katani struggled to keep the corners of her mouth from turning up, as she walked toward Isabel and Charlotte.