Chapter Ten
"Are you trying to be funny, Flannigan?" the Deputy Principal snarled in greeting as she walked into school the following morning.
"I don't know what you mean, Mr. Crivitz", Vicky replied. Vicky wondered if someone had blabbed about her sabotaging her opponents' posters. Crivitz grabbed Vicky by the wrist and pulled her over to the quad.
"Then how would you explain that?!!!" Mr. Crivitz snarled, gesturing to one of her own election posters.
Vicky's eyes widened as she saw her poster visage smiling while giving the viewers the finger gesture on both of her hands. She dropped her books and stared.
"Well?" Mr. Crivitz demanded.
"I-I-I-I-I-I", Vicky stammered, then quickly thought of an out.
"It-it-it must have been the same person who sabotaged those other posters", Vicky said, pointing to the other election posters on the quad.
Crivitz walked over to the other posters. He saw Kutyourknackeroff's posters with the communist emblems added, Bodacious' posters with the bio-hazard emblems, Stimpyson's posters with pictures of megaphones taped to his visage's mouth and the newly attached slogan VOTE FOR BIGMOUTH beneath it, then finally Sphere's posters with the newly attached slogan BIMBOS RULE along with a dunce's cap pasted to the head of Sphere's visage. Vicky had been rather busy with her sabotaging yesterday afternoon after the rest of the students had left.
Crivitz looked critically at the posters, then without any further word, stalked off. By this time other students had come into the quad and were laughing at the various posters.
"Hey, Vicky", one student called out, "great gesture to the school!" At that, the other kids applauded. Vicky's annoyed gesture gave way to a smile. Maybe this wasn't such a bad thing after all…
"I don't believe this!" Timmy exclaimed, looking at Vicky through the magic sunglasses. He was home and in his bedroom. He had just gotten up in order to see what would happen to Vicky, hoping that the school authorities would remove her from the candidacy list, but thanks to the vandalism that she had inflicted on the other candidates' posters, his little bit of creative vandalism deflected the blame from her!
"Our efforts are backfiring, Sweetie", Wanda confirmed needlessly, "Thanks to her posture gesture, she's more popular than ever!"
Cosmo poofed out of the fishbowl. He was wearing a VOTE FOR VICKY button and doing the finger-gesture.
"That's to the establishment. Vote for Vicky!" he yelled.
"Wanda!" Timmy shouted in that certain tone. Wanda waved her wand.
"MMMmmmfffffff!" Cosmo said as his mouth was zippered shut.
"Wait!", Timmy said next, "something is happening". Timmy peered intently though the magic sunglasses while Cosmo and Wanda looked through their wands.
"Attention, all students", the voice of Mr. Crivitz sounded over the High School intercom, "This is the Deputy Principal. With the latest round of sabotage, all election posters are to be removed from school property by the end of the day. No further electioneering will take place until the live debate next Thursday".
"Well, that's a relief. Icky Vicky won't be able to canvass for votes, which means we don't get to do any more slave labor. That's a nice way to spend Friday", Timmy commented as he put down his glasses.
"Okay, Twerps!" Vicky snarled at Timmy, A.J., Chester, and Tootie after they arrived that afternoon for their 'mentoring session' in Vicky's 'election headquarters', "You and the other elementary school twerps are to report to the lunch room in an hour for briefing on the voting and vote counting procedures. As I can't canvass anymore, there will be no further need for you to make my buttons and flyers".
Timmy and the others smiled broadly, but Vicky then said something to make those smiles fade.
"You have until the briefing to remove my posters from where you put them up", she ordered, throwing at them scrapers and cans of glue stripper, "and when you get to the lunch room for your briefing, "you're going to record everything that the briefer tells you and bring the tapes back to me when he's through!"
With that, she threw to each of them a pocket-sized cassette recorder. Timmy and the others pocketed them.
"I'm pretty sure that one of you twerps tried to sabotage my election campaign, but rest assured that I'm going to get to the bottom of this!" she threatened as she gestured with her thumb to the door. Timmy, Tootie, A.J., and Chester got the hint. They headed out of the room.
By the time that the elementary school children in the mentoring program had to report to the lunchroom, Timmy and the others managed to remove Vicky's posters. They had noticed other children removing the posters of the other candidates. They had all had a good chuckle at the sabotage of all the posters – especially Vicky's, and it was kind of sad having to take them down, but it was either that, or Vicky's cattle prod…
"Okay, Children", the teacher in charge of the student election said, "the mentoring program is working well, and you will have this opportunity to learn about the democratic process".
"How it's supposed to work, you mean", Wanda said sotto voce. She and Cosmo were disguised a pens that were in Timmy's shirt pocket.
The teacher spent an hour talking about the ballot boxes and the ballots, including information as to where they were made and how to ensure that the students participating in the election voted only once. In addition, the tabulating of the votes after the polls close was covered.
"As it had been decided that some of you – along with a teacher supervisor – will be manning the polling booths and handing out the ballots, plus assisting with the vote count, this will give you experience as to how elections work. This is your first exercise in democracy, and I hope you all learn from it", the teacher concluded.
"When will we know which of us will be staffing on Election Day?" Timmy asked.
"That will be announced to you after the live debates are completed", the teacher replied, "and those who are chosen will report to me on that morning to set up and open the polls".
Timmy nodded. The procedure seemed straightforward. The teacher continued.
"You have the weekend to relax. On Monday afternoon, report to me here so that we can start printing up the ballots, the election register, and start producing the ballot boxes", the teacher instructed, "We only have four days to get those jobs done and we have to be ready by the time the live debate starts on Thursday".
"Okay, Twerps", Vicky said after she listened to the tape. Timmy, Tootie, A.J., and Chester were back in the room chained up while Vicky listened to the recording of the briefing, "You've got the weekend to relax, but on Monday, you come early and report to me for my little 'briefing'. Got it?" she asked in a tone that meant that no one had better forget.
Timmy and the others shook their heads. Vicky nodded and unchained their shackles.
"Then get out of my sight", Vicky ordered, "We're going to be busy next week – making sure that I'm elected!" She gestured with the cattle prod
As Timmy, Tootie, A.J., and Chester left the room, Vicky sat back in her chair, thinking carefully.
"I'm probably going to win anyway", she said to herself, "but I'm going to have some extra insurance just in case…."