Page 11

*official announcements*

O N M ONDAY MORNING, I very nearly ran to my seat in Mr. Holman’s homeroom.

I’d spent the weekend bored out of my mind, mostly because my mom had to work both days, Allie had to practice, and Kennedy had to “film.”

But it didn’t matter that morning.

Nothing mattered.

Nothing but the news that was coming during the morning announcements.

Today they were announcing who would be the senatorial appointees for each grade. I would finally know, without a doubt, if I was a grantee or not, because I’d wished specifically for this thing, this thing I didn’t have to grow into or wait for my mom to meet.

If I was a grantee, I would know in mere minutes.

Please, please, please, please.

An annoyingly loud voice in the back of my head had been shouting all weekend, telling me I was obviously not a grantee, but I’d forced myself not to give up on the magic.

It was possible things were cooking under the surface, and I needed to give it a little more time.

As soon as the bell rang, I sat frozen in my seat, waiting.

And then I heard it. The ding-ding-ding noise that played as the announcements began.

My heart started racing.

“Good morning, Wolverines! Today is a B-day, and the lunch offerings are as follows: fiestada, beef stroganoff, hot dog, or turkey sub. The available sides are corn, diced pineapple, mashed potatoes, or garlic breadstick.”

“Barf,” Jessie Riggs said, rolling her eyes.

“Right?” I agreed, wondering how Jessie always pulled off perfect eyeliner. “ So barf. The barfiest. Like, I barfed a little in my mouth just thinking about it.”

“Yeah,” she mumbled, then slightly turned her body in the other direction, away from me.

Normally I’d spend the next hour having a mental freak-out over my usage of the word barfiest , but not today. Who cared about my awkwardness on a morning such as this? Butterflies were going wild in my stomach as I waited.

“Today is also the last day to sign up for recycling committee, so stop by and see Mrs. Burke by the end of the day if you wish to join.”

Come on, come on.

“Now it’s my pleasure to announce this year’s governmental body. These were very tough decisions, and everyone who applied should be very proud of themselves.”

“Get on with it,” I muttered under my breath, tapping my fingers against the desk and shaking my legs back and forth.

“For the eighth grade, the selected legislator will be Senator Grace Bennett. For the seventh grade, the selected legislator will be Senator Jackson Matthews. And for the sixth grade, the selected legislator will be Senator Riley Meyers. Please join me in congratulating these very deserving appointees.”

“Are you kidding me right now?!” I exclaimed.

“What?” Jessie asked, giving me a weird look. I glanced around and saw that everyone was giving me a weird look because I’d basically shouted my words.

But I couldn’t answer her. Or care about the gawkers.

No, all I could do was stare at the loudspeaker in shock.

Surely there had to be more announcements coming. That couldn’t be it.

I couldn’t accept this.

Because if what I’d just heard was correct, that meant that not only was I not a grantee, which I guess I’d known deep down since the fourth, but Jackson Matthews had gotten my spot.

“I don’t even know who Jackson Matthews is,” Jessie said quietly, her eyebrows squished together. “He’s in our grade?”

“Yeah,” I said, blinking fast, because I was not going to cry.

But how could I have let this happen? I felt like I’d let Nana Marie down somehow by failing to be a grantee, like I’d failed at what she’d spent years preparing me for. Maybe I shouldn’t have told Allie and Kennedy. Maybe Nana would be mad that I’d reduced my odds by upping the number of wishers.

I mean, I shouldn’t have regretted it, because my friends were so happy, but had I literally given them my wishes? As Noah called it, had I handed them my “wishy-wish birthright”?

I opened my notebook and took out a pen, trying to claw back the disappointment that felt like it was burrowing into every one of my bones.

My social life, my homelife, my future—I’d been positive that they were all going to take a sharp right into happy land as soon as I became a grantee.

So what now?

How was I supposed to change the sucky things in my life without magical assistance?

“What does he look like?” Jessie asked. “I swear I’ve never heard of him.”

“He was new last year,” I said, wondering how a new kid could even be a senator. I’d had to get teacher recommendations, write a massive essay, paint old ladies’ toenails at the old folks’ home to get volunteer hours, and sit through a formal interview. How had he even had time to do those things when he’d only popped up at the end of the year? “He’s super tall now and wears a hat all the time…?”

“ That guy?” she asked, her eyes going huge in her face, which for some reason made me unaccountably irritated. “Hot Hat is our senator?”

“Hot Hat?”

“That’s how I think of him, because he’s hot and wears a hat.” She smiled and said, “Duh, Emma.”

I wanted to scream, because Jackson was definitely not Hot Hat.

Jackson was back to being Enemy Number One.