Election Madness by Karen English Page B

forehead. He looks tired even though it's still morning.
    Deja moves to the counter. "Nikki, come here." Nikki is still staring at things on the wall.
    "I'm not finished looking," she protests.
    "Come on, Nikki. You know what you always get." Deja turns back to the clerk. "I want five hot cinnamon suckers, five sour whips—cherry—and, um..." It's hard for Deja to decide what else she wants to spend her money on. She scans the case in front of her. Everything looks so good.
    "Auntie Dee said one thing, Deja," Nikki reminds her.
    "I know what she said."
    "Well, you're getting more than one thing," Nikki says, and Deja doesn't like the goody-good tone in her voice.
    "I'm only going to eat one thing today, one thing tomorrow, and one thing the next day," Deja explains.
    Nikki narrows her eyes. "Your auntie is going to be really mad, Deja, when she sees all that candy."
    "You can keep it for me at your house and then I'll just get one thing a day."
    "I don't know..."
    "Come on, Nikki."
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    "But then she'll see me with a big bag of candy, and she might tell my mom, and then I'll get in trouble."
    "Gosh, Nikki, don't be such a baby." Deja pays for her selections and the clerk hands her a bag stuffed full.
    "Your turn," the clerk says to Nikki, yawning.
    "I want a hot cinnamon sucker," Nikki says, "and two cherry sour whips."
    "That's what I'm getting," Deja says. "Get something else, so we can share. Get the chocolate spiders."
    "I don't want the chocolate spiders. I want what I said."
    "But we can share them. I can give you a cherry sour whip and you can give me some chocolate spiders—like that."
    Nikki turns toward Deja then, and her lip quivers as she says loudly, "Be quiet, Deja. Quit bossing me around. You're not the boss of me!"

2. Ms. Shelby's Good News
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    At school the next morning, Ms. Shelby looks like she has a delicious secret. The way her lips are pressed together in a puckery little smile makes Deja imagine that she's sucking on a butter toffee. They are just about to go out for morning recess. Ms. Shelby stands with her back to the whiteboard and her hands folded in front of her.
    "I have some good news," she says. Everyone looks her way to see what she's going to say. "But you're going to have to wait to find out what it is. By the time you go home today, you'll know what my surprise is."
    The class exits slowly. Nikki and Deja spend recess guessing what the good news could be.

    "Ms. Shelby is engaged," Nikki says as soon as they reach the handball court.
    "No," Deja says. "That can't be it. She doesn't even have a ring on her finger. I think we're going on a field trip. We've only been on one to Riley Farms. And that was spoiled when Howard threw up and stunk up the bus the whole way back."
    Nikki wrinkles her nose, remembering.
    "Maybe we're going to the aquarium," Deja continues. She takes a hot cinnamon sucker out of her pocket, looks around, and then unwraps it.
    Nikki's eyes widen. "Deja, you're going to get in trouble. We're not supposed to have candy at school."
    "I'm only taking a couple of licks." She takes two licks, then wraps it up again and puts it back in her pocket. Nikki looks relieved.

    By the middle of the day, Ms. Shelby's surprise is almost forgotten. The class walks in from lunch recess, hot and sweaty and ready to listen to the latest installment of
The Whipping Boy.
They're allowed to put their heads down on their desks and even close their eyes while Ms. Shelby reads. Deja especially likes
The Whipping Boy
because it began with the theme of getting whipped for bad behavior. She's growing a little disappointed with the direction the story is taking, though. She doesn't like that the naughty prince gets to escape his punishment and the poor whipping boy must take his place. It's not as much fun, she thinks, as seeing the prince get what he deserves.
    Deja is all ready to take her seat and put her head down when Ms. Shelby reminds them about her good news. Deja sits up and