Katharine the Almost Great: The Red, White, and Blue Crew
Mrs Bingsley tapped her fingers on a poster of George Washington Your president must be an outstanding citizen I raised my hand Don’t you think I’d make a super-duper president Since my mom works here I Lady Liberty frowned It doesn’t matter what I think Your classmates vote My stomach did a flip-flop belly drop Did you know that the Baby Ruth candy bar was named after President Cleveland’s daughter It wasn’t named after the baseball player My calendar with 365 useless facts never lets me down Lady Liberty nodded Then she wrote responsible honest and fair on the board She circled responsible Being president is hard work and a huge responsibility Your meetings are during recess 8
Responsible was practically my middle name Didn’t I make my bed every morning Well except for today And yesterday And maybe a few days last week Lady Liberty traced over the words honest and fair These are important character traits that a president must have Before I declared myself a fair and square kind of girl Vanessa leaned over and growled Remember kindergarten How could I forget Her mother wrote notes to her each day on her lunch napkins But since Vanessa couldn’t read she’d ask me to read them to her Before I did I presto changed them a teensy-weensy bit Once her napkin said Have fun at your Halloween party But I told her it said Give Katharine your chocolate candy She did 9
My itty-bitty lies got me into mucho mega trouble But I’m much older now I scribbled fair on a page in my math binder and felt sparkly because I’m a fair and square kid now Most of the time So maybe I don’t always cut the last piece of cake into equal pieces to share with Crockett If he didn’t complain it wasn’t unfair was it 10
Finally said Lady Liberty you must have a platform Ideas Bingo I had oodles of ideas Who thought of the Penny Harvest Who thought of the recipe contest and cookbook Who thought of drawing tattoos and Rent-a-Kid Me That’s who She didn’t say everyone had to like your ideas Of course your classmates will decide who’s the most responsible honest and fair They’ll nominate the best candidates said Mrs Bingsley Look around and decide who has these characteristics Johnny waved to get my attention and gave me two thumbs-up Was he going to nominate me I whipped my head around to look at Crockett who was giving Johnny two thumbs-up Maybe they were both nominating me 11
