Molly for Mayor Read online

  “She’ll tell everyone, and the Pee Wees will all come to see,” said Mary Beth.

  Some people on the street walked by and stopped. They didn’t say anything. They looked at the words and then walked on.

  Another man came by, muttered, “Graffiti,” and walked on.

  “What’s graffiti?” asked Mary Beth.

  “Maybe it’s like spaghetti,” Molly said.

  “Maybe he remembered he had to get some at the store on the way home,” said Mary Beth.

  Soon Rachel came along on her bike. The girls waved. “Look!” they shouted. Rachel looked. She leaned her bike on a tree and came and sat down on the steps.

  “Do your parents know you did this?” she demanded.

  “What’s the difference?” said Mary Beth. “It washes off.”

  Rachel went up and put her finger on the paint. “Not anymore,” she said. “It’s dry.”

  Rachel was smart, Molly knew, but not about everything. She must not know about paint, thought Molly. She was better at things like dancing and music.

  Kevin came by, walking his dog.

  “What did you guys do?” he shrieked.

  Rachel told him.

  “It’s washable,” said Molly. “My parents won’t care.”

  “We washed the brushes out, clean as can be,” said Mary Beth.

  Kevin whistled a long, low whistle. “It’s not washable once it dries,” he said. “That stuff is on there for life!”

  CHAPTER 10

  The Big Mistake

  “I told them that!” said Rachel, waving her arms. “Wait till your parents see this,” she said.

  Molly felt like crying. What had she done to her house? Would she have to live in a house all her life, all through high school and college, that said “Molly for Mayor” on it? Every time they took pictures of birthday parties or Fourth of July parties or Christmas parties in the front yard, it would say MOLLY FOR MAYOR in the picture! Even when she was an old lady!

  Molly might doubt Rachel, but she knew Kevin wouldn’t make a mistake like this. This was for real! Rat’s knees, this was huge bad news! Worse than losing the election!

  Kevin scratched at the paint. It didn’t come off. It was stuck on tight.

  “How could housepaint wash off?” asked Rachel. “If it washed off, all the houses would be bare when it rained!”

  Why hadn’t Molly and Mary Beth thought of that?

  “I’d probably better go home,” said Mary Beth. “I think it’s time for supper.”

  Mary Beth left, and so did Kevin and Rachel.

  “Good luck,” called Kevin, shaking his head.

  I’ll need good luck, thought Molly. She tried to scrape the paint off with a stick, but it didn’t budge. What would her mom and dad say? What would they do? Molly was starting to cry when a car drove up. Her parents were back!

  “Hi, Molly, how are—” her dad began to say. Then he saw the house. His mouth fell open and he got out of the car and stared. Her mother was speechless. She looked as if she might start crying.

  “Who did this?” her dad asked.

  “We thought it would come off,” cried Molly. “It said washable on the paint can.”

  Molly’s dad was quiet for a moment. Then he told Molly to go to her room. This was not a good sign. She hadn’t eaten dinner yet.

  Molly could hear her parents talking in the living room. She heard words like “Punishment” and “What was she thinking of?”

  After what seemed like ages, there was a knock on her bedroom door. Her parents came in. They did not look happy.

  “This is very serious,” said her dad, who usually laughed and teased Molly. He was not in a teasing mood now. He’ll probably never tease me again, Molly thought.

  “I’m sorry,” Molly cried. “We never thought—”

  “That’s just it,” said her mother. “You didn’t think.”

  The phone rang. Molly heard her dad talking.

  When he hung up he said, “That was Mr. Kelly. Mary Beth told him the whole story. He said he’ll help repaint the house.”

  The house would have to be repainted! Molly knew that would be a lot of work.

  Molly’s dad talked to her for a long time about how she should ask before acting. He told her how expensive paint was, and what a big job it was to repaint a house.

  “I’m sorry,” said Molly. “I’ll ask before I do anything. And I won’t listen to Mary Beth ever again.”

  Her mom laughed. “You can listen,” she said. “But ask us before you do anything rash.”

  Molly wasn’t sure what rash was, but she was glad to see her mom laugh again. They still loved her! They would paint the house and fix the mistake. And Molly would never make such a big mistake again. At least she hoped she wouldn’t.

  The next weekend Mr. Kelly and Mr. Duff sanded the front of the Duffs’ house. Molly and Mary Beth helped. The neighbors and Pee Wees watched.

  “At least this is good publicity,” said Mary Beth as they sanded away. “This will make people remember Molly Duff.”

  “It’s a pretty hard way to get votes,” said Molly, whose arms were beginning to get stiff from the work.

  On Tuesday the girls met Roger on the way to the Scout meeting. “What a dumb idea,” he said. “You guys were really nutzo, do you know that?”

  Molly paid no attention to Roger. And no one else mentioned the incident.

  The Pee Wees all gathered around the big table in Mrs. Peters’s basement. There were flags everywhere and signs saying VOTE HERE!

  “Well, today is the big day!” said their leader. “We’ll find out who the new officials of Peeweeville are! You’ve done a wonderful job campaigning, and now all the work is over and we’ll see who ran the best campaigns! Today we vote.”

  Mrs. Peters passed out slips of paper.

  “The names of all the nominees are on each ballot,” she said. “You vote for just one candidate for each office by checking the box next to their name. Give your decision a lot of thought; don’t hurry with your voting. Choose the person you think can do the job best. The laundry room is the voting booth, and we’ll take turns just as at the real polls.”

  Mrs. Peters opened the door to the laundry room. There was a place to write on top of the dryer and a box on top of the washing machine. The box had a slot in the top.

  “You mark your ballot and drop your vote in the ballot box.”

  “Do we put our own name on them?” asked Tracy.

  “Of course not, silly,” said Rachel. “No one is supposed to know who you voted for.”

  “That’s right,” said their leader. “This is a secret ballot.”

  “I could tell by the handwriting whose vote it is,” said Mary Beth. “I mean, Tim writes real messy and he spells wrong.”

  “The names are already on the papers,” Mrs. Peters reminded her. “You just put a check in the box after the name you choose.”

  The Pee Wees studied the paper. One by one they went into the laundry room. Most of them thought about their votes a long time. But Tim didn’t. He went in, made some checks on the paper, and came right out.

  “Roger is trying to see what I’m writing, Mrs. Peters!” said Rachel. “That’s illegal. He’s breaking the law.”

  Mrs. Peters glared at Roger. “Come back from the door,” she said. “Don’t try to peek.”

  Molly wondered if it was illegal to vote for herself. She was sure presidents did. They wouldn’t vote for the other guy. And she surely didn’t want to vote for Roger or Tim.

  Finally only Jody still had to vote. Jody was last, Molly guessed, because he was the most thoughtful. He wouldn’t rush into something so important.

  When everyone had voted, they all sat down at the table. Mrs. Peters gave each Scout a cookie in the shape of a flag. It was red, white, and blue and had candy stars on it.

  And now, at last, it was time to count the votes and announce the winners!

  CHAPTER 11

  The Winners Are …!

/>   Mrs. Stone came down the steps to help Mrs. Peters count the votes. They went into the laundry room.

  Meanwhile the Pee Wees argued about who would win.

  “I hope Roger isn’t mayor,” said Rachel. “That would be a disaster.”

  “My mom says a lot of times the wrong person wins,” said Tracy.

  “A lot of people don’t keep the promises they make,” said Lisa. “So you have to wait for the next election and vote for someone else.”

  At last Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Stone came out of the laundry room. They put up a sign with all the candidates’ names on it. Mrs. Peters started to write. After each name, she listed the number of votes the candidate got. The Pee Wees waited breathlessly.

  “What if there’s a tie?” asked Kenny. “Who would win then?”

  “There can’t be a tie,” said Mrs. Stone. “With Mrs. Peters’s, there are thirteen votes. With an uneven number of votes, there cannot be a tie.”

  “Good,” said Rachel. “I’d hate to share the job of councilperson with Kevin.”

  “Well, I’m not going to share the mayor’s job with anyone!” boasted Roger.

  “You’ll only be mayor in your dreams,” said Mary Beth.

  “I won!” said Lisa, jumping out of her chair when the dogcatcher’s votes went up. “Kenny got six votes, and I got seven!”

  Kenny was a good loser. He shook hands with Lisa and congratulated her.

  “It was close,” he said. “But you put up a good fight.”

  “That’s really cool,” said Rachel. “Kenny is so professional.”

  But when the votes for councilperson went up, Kevin had eight votes and Rachel had five.

  “What?” shouted Rachel. “I worked harder than he did, campaigning! I demand a recount!”

  She stamped her foot and looked as if she might cry. She was definitely not as cool as she’d said Kenny was.

  “I think we have to take some time here to talk about being good losers,” said Mrs. Peters. “Only one person can win in each category. And the best lesson we can learn from this experience is how to be a graceful loser.”

  “ ‘It’s not whether you win or lose,’ ” said Patty. “ ‘It’s how you play the game.’ My grandma says that.”

  “And it’s true,” said Mrs. Peters, looking at Rachel, who was now sobbing. “No one likes to lose, but losers have a chance to be more courageous than the winners.”

  Now Rachel sobbed harder.

  “Nobody likes a sore loser,” said Roger.

  “Ha,” said Mary Beth to Molly. “Let’s see how he likes it when you win!”

  Mrs. Peters posted the rest of the winners on the sign. Jody was elected school superintendent over Sonny, eleven votes to two.

  “I’ll bet everyone voted for Jody except Sonny and Roger!” shouted Tracy.

  “Booo,” yelled Sonny. “I demand a recount too.”

  “You don’t need a recount,” said Patty. “You lost.”

  Sonny began to sulk.

  Patty won the office of chief of police over Tracy, eight votes to four. But Tracy was a good loser and shook Patty’s hand. “My allergies would probably act up anyway,” she said. “Police work is hard on the nerves.”

  There was only one office left. It was the office of mayor!

  Slowly—very slowly, Molly thought—Mrs. Peters wrote the three remaining names on the board. She wrote numbers after them.

  Roger: 1

  Molly: 5

  Tim: 7!!!

  The Pee Wees all stared at the numbers.

  Mary Beth waved her hand. “You made a mistake, Mrs. Peters,” she said. “That should be Molly seven and Tim five. You just got them mixed up.”

  But their leader had not made a mistake. Tim was the new mayor of Peeweeville!

  “How could that happen?” demanded Rachel, who had stopped crying. “It doesn’t make sense.”

  “That’s what’s exciting about elections,” said Jody. “They’re full of surprises. No one knows till the votes are in what will happen.”

  “But Tim didn’t even campaign,” said Kenny.

  “He can’t even spell!” said Tracy.

  Everyone stared at Tim. He was beaming. Mrs. Peters pinned a big red badge on Tim. It was not a Pee Wee badge. It was a badge that said MAYOR OF PEEWEEVILLE!

  The other winners got badges too.

  And then the Pee Wees celebrated with an election party. There were red, white, and blue balloons and streamers. There were fruit punch and cupcakes. The winners each came up front and took a bow. Tim looked very proud. “I knew I’d win,” he said.

  “How could he know that?” said Rachel. “Unless the voting was rigged.”

  After the election party, Mrs. Peters passed out the new Scout badges. They were red, white, and blue and had the word VOTE on them.

  Molly was glad to have her new badge, but she would have been gladder if she had been the new mayor. She wished she was wearing Tim’s red badge.

  “You ruined your house and lost anyway,” scoffed Sonny to Molly.

  “So? You lost too,” said Mary Beth.

  “But I didn’t do anything as dumb as painting my house,” said Sonny. “I know better than that.”

  “You just didn’t think of it,” said Mary Beth.

  The Pee Wees sang their song and said their pledge. Then they left for home.

  On the way, Mary Beth and Molly talked about the election.

  “How could Tim have won?” asked Mary Beth, stamping her foot on the sidewalk. “I mean, the one vote for Roger was probably Roger’s. And we know five people voted for you. But who are the seven who voted for Tim?”

  “Tim is one,” said Molly. “And maybe Mrs. Peters felt sorry for him and thought he’d lose. So she wanted him to have at least one vote.”

  “Maybe Jody and Kevin felt sorry for him too, and thought they would give him one vote,” said Mary Beth. “Those are called pity votes, you know.”

  “If they did, that’s four, but what about the rest?”

  Mary Beth turned red. “I voted for him too,” she confessed. “But I thought mine would be the only vote he’d get and I’d make him feel good!”

  Now it was Molly who stamped her foot. “You’re my campaign manager!” she said. “The least you could have done was vote for me!”

  Mary Beth looked sheepish. “I thought you’d win for sure without my vote. Anyway, that’s only five,” she said. “What about the two others?”

  Now it was Molly’s turn to blush and confess. “I voted for Tim too,” she said. “It was a pity vote. There’s still one vote more, though. Whose was that? Vote number seven?”

  Mary Beth sighed. “I guess we’ll never know,” she said. “It’s a secret vote. There’s no way we can find out whose it was. It’s the American way. It’s democratic, you know.”

  “Rat’s knees,” said Molly. “Tim is mayor.”

  Molly remembered how pleased Tim had been. He never won games or prizes. He was so proud of being elected. He would definitely be a better mayor than Roger anyway.

  “I think I’m glad he won,” sighed Molly.

  “So am I,” said Mary Beth. “Race you to the corner!”

  But Molly wasn’t in the mood for any more races.

  She’d let her campaign manager win this one.

  Scouts are helpers, Scouts have fun

  Pee Wee, Pee Wee Scouts!

  We sing and play when work is done,

  Pee Wee, Pee Wee Scouts!

  With a good deed here,

  And an errand there,

  Here a hand, there a hand,

  Everywhere a good hand.

  Scouts are helpers, Scouts have fun

  Pee Wee, Pee Wee Scouts!

  We love our country

  And our home,

  Our school and neighbors too.

  As Pee Wee Scouts

  We pledge our best

  In everything we do.

  for Mayor