Robbie Castinon raid his hand and blurted out, "Why do guys have to vote. It''s lame to have guys vote."
"Robbie ... ," Mrs. Simmons warned.
"Seriously! What are we suppod to do? Vote for our friends or our enemies?"
A lot of people snickered, and Mrs. Simmons scowled, but he had a point. Twenty of the school''s eighth-grade boys would be made to pack a piich for two and be aued off to the highest bidder.
"Being a basket boy is an honor —" Mrs. Simmons began, but she was interrupted by Robbie.
"It''s a joke!" he said. "It''s embarrassing! Who wants to be a basket boy?"
All the guys around him muttered, "Not me," but Mrs. Simmons cleared her throat and said, "You should want to be o''s a tradition that has helped support the school si was fouhere have been geion after geion of basket boys helping make this campus what it is today. It''s why we have flower beds. It''s why we have shade trees and a grove of apple trees. Visit another junih sometime and you''ll begin to realize what a little oasis our campus really is."
"All this from the sweat and blood of basket boys," Robbie grumbled.
Mrs. Simmons sighed. "Robbie, someday when your children go to school here, you''ll uand. For now, plea just vote for whoever you think will earn a high bid. And class," she added, "we''re down to nine minutes."
The room fell quiet. And as I read down the list of over one hundred and fifty eighth-grade boys, I realized that to me, there had only ever been one boy. To me, there had only been Bryce.
I didn''t let mylf get al. I had liked him for all the wrong reasons, and I certainly wasn''t going to vote for him now. But I didn''t know who el to vote for. I looked at Mrs. Simmons, who was eagle-eyeing the class between gla the clock. What if I didn''t choo anybody? What if I just tur in blank?
She''d give me detention, that''s what. So with two minutes left to go, I put dots o the boys I kneeren''t jerks or s, but were just nice. When I was through, there were all of ten names with dots, and of tho I circled five: Ryan Noll, Vince Olson, Adrian Iglesias, Ian Lai, and Jon Trulock. They wouldn''t make basket boy, but then I wouldn''t be bidding, so it didn''t really matter. At the bell I handed over my ballot and fot all about the au.