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—

6安德里亚在哪里？最后，这是4月30日星期六的早晨——全国诗歌月的最后一天。 我的父母让我穿上漂亮的衣服，即使我们不去参加婚礼或葬礼。 我们开车去哈伯市长的官邸，我要去参加诗歌比赛的决赛

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.

当然是为了赢得终身供应的Zip-Zaps。 我很紧张。当我们十一点到达时，停车场已经停满了汽车。 学校里几乎所有人都来了——孩子、家长和老师。 在哈勃市长的豪宅里，这是一场真正的派对。 墙上到处都是气球、横幅和装饰品。 在大家聚集的房间角落里，我们的音乐老师弗雷德叔叔正在用一架小风琴演奏背景音乐。 期末考试将在中午开始。 在那之前，服务员会端着一盘小点心走来走去。但是我太紧张了，什么也吃不下。 赖安和迈克尔看到我就过来祝我好运。 “你会成功的，伙计！”迈克尔说着，嘴里嚼着一个小小的热狗包。 “你的说唱比安德里亚的诗好多了” “她在哪儿？”瑞恩一边大嚼鸡块一边问。 “我还没见过她，”我回答。

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.

哈勃市长四处走动，向大家问好。 他去年因偷窃入狱，但现在出狱了。 你可以在《哈勃市长有麻烦了》这本书里读到他！“年轻人，我听说你是个饶舌歌手和诗人，”市长和我父母握手后对我说。 我本想给他念一些好听的押韵诗，只是为了好玩，但我没有机会，因为就在那时，我瞥了一眼窗外，看到一辆卡车开进了车道。

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!

你永远也不会相信卡车侧面用大字写着什么…… 拉链棒棒糖。是的!这是终身供应的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.

“哇，”我说，这是“妈妈”的上下颠倒。 “里面肯定有一千个zip - zap !”“实际上有5000人，”哈勃市长说。 大家都跑到窗口去看那辆Zip-Zap卡车。

"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

“你以为哈伯市长从哪儿弄来一辆Zip- Zap卡车？”瑞恩问道。 我告诉他：“从出租卡车公司买的。” “你可以租任何东西。”尽管我不饿，我还是吃了一个小热狗包在小圆面包里。 我一直在找安德里亚，但我哪儿都没看到她。 我知道她随时都会出现，穿着她那身漂亮的派对礼服，手里拿着一本关于蝴蝶或花朵的愚蠢诗集。 斯托克夫人和可可女士过来祝我好运，告诉我即使我输了比赛，我仍然是赢家，这完全说不通。 大人们总是告诉赢家和输家，他们都是赢家，这样输家就不会因为自己不是赢家而感到难过。 这是成年人的第一准则。 “我想知道安德里亚在哪里，”她说。 椰子树。“迟到可不像她的作风，”斯托克太太说。 哦，安德里亚从不迟到。她害怕如果她迟到一分钟，她就进不了哈佛。 但已经快到中午了。 老师们开始叫我们放下食物，离开