AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Oh, no, Mr. Bone!” said Angeline and Gary together.
“They’ve been out of water all this time,” said Angeline.
“They’ve drowned,” said Gary.
Miss Turbone told Gary to open the box.
“I don’t want to look,” said Angeline as she peered over Gary’s shoulder.
Inside the box were three big cookies, each shaped and decorated like a fish.
“One for each of us,” said Miss Turbone, “for setting up the fish tanks.”
“Thank you, Mr. Bone,” said Angeline.
“Oh, yeah. Thank you, Mr. Bone,” said Gary.
“I’ll try to get real fish for the tanks tomorrow,” said Miss Turbone. “Right now, I’ll go get us some milk from the cafeteria for our cookies.”
Angeline thought Mr. Bone was wonderful. She knew Mrs. Hardlick would never eat a fish-shaped cookie. “I don’t want any milk with my cookie, Mr. Bone,” she said. “I’ll have a glass of salt water.”
Six
Secretary of Trash
The next morning, Angeline met Gary on the way to class.
“What’s new?” she said.
“An animal at the zoo,” said Gary.
“Huh?”
It was a joke. There is an animal at the zoo called a gnu, which is pronounced like new. So, see, when Angeline asked, “What’s new?” Gary replied, “An animal at the zoo.” After Gary explained it to her, Angeline thought it was the funniest joke she’d ever heard. Well, maybe not the funniest.
She hurried to class. She was looking forward to seeing Mr. Bone again, and also Mr. Bone’s fish, if she got them yet, especially the saltwater ones. But first, in Mrs. Hardlick’s class, they were having class elections, and she was looking forward to that too, not that she thought she had a chance to be elected for anything.
Everybody already knew that either Philip Korbin or Christy Mathewson would be elected president and that the other one would be elected vice-president. Angeline hadn’t decided for whom she’d vote—probably Christy. At least she got to vote, just like all the other sixth-graders.
Besides, she didn’t want to be president anyway. There was only one position that she really wanted, and that was Secretary of Trash. But then, she thought as she looked around the room, who would even nominate her, let alone vote for her?
Philip Korbin nervously approached her desk. “Hi,” he said.
Angeline stared at him. She guessed he was going to ask her to vote for him, and after he had called her a freak the other day, too.
“So, uh, who you gonna vote for?” Philip asked.
“I don’t know,” said Angeline.
“You wanna vote for me?” Philip asked. He smiled sheepishly.
“No,” said Angeline.
“I didn’t mean it the other day when I told you to shut up,” Philip said. “I just wanted to play baseball and Goon wouldn’t get the ball.”
Angeline thought a moment. “I’ll make you a deal,” she said. “I’ll vote for you for president if you promise to nominate me for Secretary of Trash.”
Philip thought it over.
