The Election-Day Disaster Read Online Free PDF

Halloween party until your mom asked me to bring the washtubs outside yesterday,” he said to KC. “Then I saw Marshall’s costume, and I got an idea. I went to my apartment and made a costume out of some of my old Marine Corps socks and a plastic garbage bag.”
    “An octopus, right?” Marshall asked.
    Arnold blushed even deeper. “I know it was kind of lame,” he said. “But it’s the best I could come up with. I figured my motorcycle helmet would do for a mask.”
    Arnold stole a glance at Sergeant Royce. “The sarge assigned Ditz, Henry, and me to watch the gate,” he went on. “After all the guests were inside, I asked Ditz and Henry to cover for me so I could come in here and get into the costume. Sergeant Royce was here, and he was nice enough to go along with it. See, I had my digital camera and I just wanted to get a few pictures of everyone dressed up.”
    KC nodded. “That’s why my mom told us there were three guards at the gate, but Lauren Tool only saw two,” she said.
    Arnold looked at KC. “I planned to e-mail the pictures to my kid brother, Dez,” he said. “After I took the pictures, I came back in here, got out of the costume, and went back to the gate. I was only gone about fifteen minutes.”
    “I’ll take over, Corporal West,” said Sergeant Royce. “I went along with West’s idea to slip into the party, snap a few pictures, and slip out again. I saw no harm in it. But when I saw the pictures on TV, I knew something had gone wrong. And by the time you kids showed up earlier today, I knew the president was in trouble.”
    Sergeant Royce went on, “Corporal West was out of town fishing, and didn’t see a TV or newspaper,” he said. “He had no idea what was going on until I called.”
    “But the pictures showed the president dunking a kid and pinning a wart on Dr. Jury’s face,” Marshall said. “He’d never do those things!”
    Arnold wiped his face with a dark green handkerchief he pulled from his pocket. “When I sent the pictures to mybrother, he had an idea,” Arnold said, shaking his head. “A really stupid idea.”
    “He changed the pictures, right?” KC said.
    Arnold nodded. “Just for a laugh. He has this editing software that our father gave him for Christmas. It lets you change pictures and make new ones. Dez and I e-mail each other goofy pictures of the family all the time. He thought I’d get a kick out of seeing the president dunking a kid.”
    Arnold had a sick look on his face. “I never thought Dez would e-mail the pictures to his friends,” he said. “I guess that’s how they got all over the Internet.”
    Arnold wiped his forehead with the handkerchief again. Letters on the green cloth caught KC’s eye.

    “Could I see your handkerchief?” she asked.
    Arnold handed it over.
    “Look, Marsh,” KC said. She put her finger on the initials
USMC
, for
United States Marine Corps
. Then she turned the handkerchief upside down. Now the initials were a backward
C
, then
W
and
S
, then an upside-down
U
that looked like an
n
.
    “We saw the initials on one of the socks you used on your costume,” KC said.
    Sergeant Royce stood up. “Corporal West, you need to talk to the president as soon as he’ll see you,” he said. “For your sake, I hope he believes your story.”
    Arnold hung his head. “Yes, sir,” he muttered. Arnold stood up and looked at KC. “I’d do anything for the president.” Then he walked out of the guard hut.

8
Who Will Be President?
    KC had a hard time getting to sleep that night. Every time she closed her eyes, she saw those fake pictures that showed the president doing awful things.
    When KC finally slept, she had a nightmare. In the bad dream, the green octopus had been elected president.
    KC woke up tangled in her blankets. She bolted up, thinking one of the octopus’s tentacles had grabbed her.
    But there was no tentacle wrapped around her foot. KC glanced at her bedside clock. It was almost eight o’clock. “Rats,