Keena Ford and the Field Trip Mix-up by Melissa Thomson Page A

running for student council in his class, because hisfriend Chad promised to give Eric two brownies on Friday if Eric wouldn’t run against him.
    My mom got a big piece of poster board for me. I put the poster board on the kitchen table, and I got my markers and crayons out of my art box. Eric and I stared at the poster board for a while. We were trying to think up what to write.
    “Chad already brought his poster to my class,” Eric said.
    “What did it say?” I asked.
    “It said, ‘Vote for Chad and You will be Glad,’” Eric told me.
    “Hmmm,” I said. “We should think of something that rhymes with Keena.”
    “Or Ford,” Eric said. He got a piece of paper out of his backpack. “Let’s make a list of ideas,” he said. I started saying words that rhymed with my last name and Eric wrote them down. I said snored, sword, roared, scored, and ignored.
    “Florida,” Eric said.
    “That doesn’t really rhyme,” I told him. We kept thinking.
    “I’ve got it!” I said. “How about ‘You won’t be BORED if you vote for Keena FORD’?”
    “I like it,” Eric said.
    We wrote the words carefully on the poster board. Then we drew a bunch of smiling kids. Eric drew one girl who was sleeping, then he crossed her out to show that people would NOT be bored if they voted for me. After drawing for almost one whole hour, Eric’s dad called and said it was time for Eric to come home.
    “Thank you for your help, Eric,” I said.
    “Your poster looks very good,” he told me. “I think you will be the champion of the class election.”
    “Queen champion!” I said. “I hope so.”
    When it was time for bed I whispered my speech six times to myself. Then as I fell asleep I imagined what it would be like if I won. It would be so cool.
    This morning I brought in my poster and showed it to the class. I was the first person to give my speech. I was very nervous, and I couldn’t really talk at first. “I . . . I . . .” I said. I looked out at my class and saw my friend Linny Berry. She gave me a thumbs-up, and I felt a little bit better. “I’m Keena Ford and I want to be YOUR student council person,” I said. I pointed my finger when I said YOUR, which I had practiced. Then I talked about how I would be a good listener and try to stay out of time-out so that I could go to the student council meetings. I also talked about how I would be a good helper at Spaghetti Night.
    Then Tiffany, Shay, and Royann made their speeches. Tiffany said, “My name is Tiffany, with a Y at the end. Y should you vote for me? For one thing, I think we should have a tea party instead of a holiday festival.”
    Shay called out, “Hey! That’s the stuff I was going to say!”
    “Shhhh,” Ms. Campbell said.
    “But I read my speech to Tiffany on the phone and she just said all of my ideas,” Shay said. Then she started to cry.
    “Nuh-uh,” Tiffany said. “I had already written my speech when I heard Shay’s,” she told Ms. Campbell.
    Ms. Campbell told Shay that she was sure that Shay’s speech was going to be very good, and that it was almost time for her to say it.
    Tiffany said some more stuff, then Shay got up to give her speech. She had it written on little cards. She started with, “My name is Shay with a Y at the end. Y should you vote for me?” Then she started sniffing like she was going to cry. She sniffed through the whole rest of her speech.
    I felt very sorry for Shay that Tiffany had copied her speech. But I still wanted to win the election.
    Royann’s speech was a lot like mine. She said she would listen to people’s ideas because she wanted to make friends at her new school. Her poster did not say anything that rhymed, but it looked very neat. Royann is very good at drawing.
    After Royann’s speech, Ms. Campbell gave each student a little piece of paper called a ballot where we write down our votes. I voted for myself, of course. Now we are writing in our journals while Ms. Campbell counts the votes. Every