6 Where’s Andrea

6 Where's Andrea? Finally, it was Saturday morning, April 30—the last day of National Poetry Month. My parents made me wear my nice clothes, even though we weren't going to a wedding or funeral. We were driving over to Mayor Hubble's mansion so I could compete in the finals of the poetry contest—

and try to win a lifetime supply of Zip-Zaps, of course. I was nervous. The parking lot was filling up with cars when we arrived at eleven o'clock. Just about everybody from school was there—kids, parents, and teachers. Inside Mayor Hubble's fancy mansion, it was a real party. There were balloons and banners and decorations all over the walls. In the corner of the room where everyone was gathering, Uncle Fred, our music teacher, was playing background music on a little organ. The finals were going to start at noon. Until then, waiters were coming around carrying trays of finger food.* But I was too nervous to eat anything. Ryan and Michael saw me and came over to wish me good luck. "You're gonna crush it, dude!" said Michael, chewing on one of those tiny little hot dogs in a tiny little hot dog bun. "Your raps are way better than Andrea's poems." "Where is she?" asked Ryan, munching on some chicken nuggets. "I haven't seen her yet," I replied.

Mayor Hubble was walking around saying hello to everybody. He had been in jail last year for stealing, but he was out now. You can read about him in a book called Mayor Hubble Is in Trouble! "I hear you're quite a rapper and poet, young man," the mayor said to me after shaking hands with my parents. I was going to drop some awesome rhymes on him just for the fun of it, but I didn't have the chance because at that moment I glanced out the window and saw a truck pulling into the driveway.

And you'll never believe in a million hundred years what it said on the side of the truck, in big letters... ZIP-ZAP CANDY BARS. Yes! It was the lifetime supply of Zip-Zaps!

"WOW," I said, which is "MOM" upside down. "There must be a thousand Zip-Zaps in there!" "Five thousand, actually," said Mayor Hubble. Everybody ran over to the window to see the Zip-Zap truck.

"Where do you think Mayor Hubble got a Zip- Zap truck?" Ryan asked. "From Rent-A-Zip-Zap-Truck," I told him. "You can rent anything." I ate one little hot dog in a tiny little bun even though I wasn't hungry. I kept looking around for Andrea, but I didn't see her anywhere. I knew she was going to show up at any minute in one of her fancy party dresses with her book of dumb poems about butterflies or flowers. Mrs. Stoker and Ms. Coco came over to wish me good luck and tell me that even if I lose the contest, I'm still a winner, which makes no sense at all. Grown-ups always tell winners and losers that they're both winners so the losers don't feel bad that they're not winners. That's the first rule of being a grown-up. "I wonder where Andrea is," said Ms. Coco. "It's not like her to be late," said Mrs. Stoker. Oh, Andrea is never late. She's afraid that if she's ever one minute late for anything, she won't get into Harvard. But it was getting close to noon. The teachers started telling us to put down our food and move