The race is on, p.4
The Race Is On,
p.4
“Good morning, students of Bayport Elementary. Most of you know me, and those of you who don’t know me probably remember yesterday. . . . I know I do!” Chet smiled wide.
A few kids in the front row laughed. “But don’t think I’m some slimy politician,” Chet went on. “Or that I’ll be slippery if things go wrong when I’m president.”
As soon as the crowd realized he was kidding, more and more kids started laughing at Chet’s jokes. Penny Cross, a girl with blond pigtails, nearly spit when he made a joke about being “green” with envy of Cissy Zermeño’s presidency.
As the speech went on, Chet became much more relaxed. He kept making different jokes to make the kids laugh. Then he went on to tell them what he’d do if he were fourth-grade class president. And besides things he wanted to do for his grade, he even talked about ideas for the school, too—like different lunch foods and his idea about morning announcements.
When he finished, the entire audience stood up and clapped. Even Cissy was cheering from where she was in the audience. “That was so brave of him to get back up there,” a girl beside Joe said. “I can’t believe he did it. I thought for sure he would drop out of the race.”
Frank and Joe clapped so hard, their hands hurt. After Chet sat down beside them, they barely heard Cissy’s speech or even the last few minutes of the assembly, when Dr. Green had Art get up and say sorry to Chet for what he’d done. They were too happy to notice any of it. They were just so proud of their friend.
• • • •
“Everyone’s saying they voted for you,” Frank said as he sat down on the desk beside Chet. It was the last class of the day, social studies, and the winner of the fourth-grade election was going to be announced any minute. Mr. Parkins, their teacher, had let them take a break to talk.
“I don’t know,” Chet said. “People love Cissy. It’s probably going to be pretty close.”
“But so many kids I talked to loved your speech and said they would vote for you,” Frank said. “Seriously. Almost every single one!”
It was true. People had been going up to Chet all day long and telling him how brave he was to do the speech again after what had happened yesterday. Some people were still laughing at his jokes. He called himself a slimeball! a girl in band had repeated. That’s so funny!
That afternoon during lunch, everyone had gone to the cafeteria and used the voting booth one by one. Each student had a ballot to fill out and drop into the secret box inside the booth. For the last two hours Dr. Green and some of the teachers had been counting the ballots up to see who’d won. Any minute now they’d tell the whole school.
“I’m rooting for you, Chet!” a boy across the room called. He held up his button.
“Me too!” a girl said.
Cissy was in the class next door, but she’d stopped by before social studies to wish Chet luck. “Whatever happens,” Chet said, turning to Frank, “I’m lucky to have you and Joe as friends.”
Just then the loudspeaker on the wall crackled. Art normally did all the announcements, but instead it was Dr. Green’s voice that filled the room. “Good afternoon, students of Bayport Elementary. Thank you all for voting today for your two candidates for fourth-grade class president. It was a very close race. I’m pleased to announce the next fourth-grade class president is . . .”
There was a long pause. Chet squeezed his eyes shut, scared of what she would say. “Chet Morton!” Dr. Green continued. “Congratulations, Chet! And thank you to Cissy Zermeño, who was a great leader this past year.”
Chet stood up, and it seemed like the whole class rushed in around him. “You did it!” Frank cried. “You won!”
Chet threw his arms around his friends and hugged them as the rest of the class went wild. Some kids were cheering. Others were chanting “Bet on Chet!” Mr. Parkins had to tell one boy to not stand on his desk.
“No, Frank,” Chet said, smiling bigger than ever. “We did it! We won!”
Frank and Chet high-fived. Frank couldn’t wait to celebrate with Chet and Joe later. Their friend had gotten the votes he needed, and they’d been able to figure out who had played the prank on him. This case was officially closed.
SECRET FILES CASE #19: SOLVED!
Catch up on all the Hardy Boys® Secret Files
#1 Trouble at the Arcade
#2 The Missing Mitt
#3 Mystery Map
#4 Hopping Mad
#5 A Monster of a Mystery
#6 The Bicycle Thief
#7 The Disappearing Dog
#8 Sports Sabotage
#9 The Great Coaster Caper
#10 A Rockin’ Mystery
#11 Robot Rumble
#12 Lights, Camera . . . Zombies!
#13 Balloon Blow-Up
#14 Fossil Frenzy
#15 Ship of Secrets
#16 Camping Chaos
#17 The Great Escape
#18 Medieval Upheaval
This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and events are products of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or places or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
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First Aladdin paperback edition December 2015
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Series design by Lisa Vega
Cover design by Karina Granda
The text of this book was set in Garamond.
Library of Congress Control Number 2014957740
ISBN 978-1-4814-2271-0 (pbk)
ISBN 978-1-4814-2272-7 (eBook)
Franklin W. Dixon, The Race Is On
