Dodger for President by Jordan Sonnenblick Page B

second chance. After all, what’s justice without mercy, right?”
    Dodger sighed. “Dr. Whistleblower, are you absolutely, like, sure about this? I know how much you enjoy suspending children, and I wouldn’t want to do anything to spoil your fun. Plus, dude, the pastel painting part is, like, completely off the hook! I’m sure you’d have a great time with the—”
    Dr. W. said, “You’re right, Dr. Chimpstone. I do enjoy a nice suspension. But then again, we have to consider what’s best for the children. So someoneelse will just have to try out your, um, wicked awesome new form.”
    â€œAll right, if you insist. I won’t take up any more of your time. Although, if you’d like to give these kids a firm scolding, I would be happy to send you Form FS-Ninety-seven: Scolding, Intimidation, and General Causation of Students’ Nightmares, Condensed Version. It’s only seventy-three pages long, and we’ll gladly send along a magnifying glass to help you read the last nineteen pages of instructions. They’re in Japanese, but I’m sure you could—”
    â€œThat won’t be necessary, but thanks anyway. I’m sure this is all just a misunderstanding. Right, kids? Now, why don’t you all just scamper back to class and we’ll pretend this whole thing never happened?”
    â€œAll righty, then,” Dodger said. “I’ll just have my brother call you next week to see how things are going. Later!”
    Dr. W. shooed us out of her office and hung up. Dodger smiled, put away his phone, sat down in the corner, and started munching on a banana. Dr. W. reached into her desk’s bottom drawer andpulled out a gallon jug of Pepto-Bismol. I had a feeling she’d need to keep it handy for a while. As we walked away, I thought I heard her mutter: “A form for scolding? My goodness, the Department of Education takes the fun out of everything.”
    On the way upstairs, James said, “What the heck was up with
that
? The haunted playground, my speech getting all jumbled up, and now the principal lets us all
walk
? Does it seem to any of you like things have been getting a little weird around here?”
    â€œNo,” I said, trying not to crack a smile.
    â€œUh-uh,” said Lizzie.
    â€œNope,” said Craig. “Just another busy day on the campaign trail.”
    At the top of the steps, James turned left, toward the nurse’s office. Good move—he really needed to get some ice on that eye. The rest of us turned right and headed for Mrs. Starsky’s room. Just before we went in, Craig said, “Hey, guys, you know we’re still going to be enemies in the election, right?”
    â€œAbsolutely. But from here on in, what if we all agreed to just play fair?” Lizzie said.
    Craig raised one eyebrow, then shrugged and said, “Why not? I’ll try anything once!” And with that, we stepped into the room together.

 
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CHAPTER THIRTEEN
The Shocking Truth
About Recess
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    AFTER SCHOOL , I went to Lizzie’s house to help her with her speech, which she would be giving the next morning. I felt kind of funny about being there. I mean, Lizzie had been to my house a bunch of times, and her parents had been driving me places for years. Plus, I’d been in her house for little bits of time before, but this was different. Now I was
hanging out at Lizzie’s house
. Lizzie’s mom offered us tea and biscuits, which sounded totally revolting—but it turns out that English people call cookies biscuits. We sat around the kitchen tableand told Mrs. Barrett all about the events of the campaign so far, leaving out the parts with magic, flight, and/or packs of vicious dogs. She said, “Wow, this is so exciting! My little girl is conquering America!” Lizzie rolled her eyes. I knew the feeling.
    When we finally tore ourselves away from the tea, cookies, and