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Authors: David Lubar

BOOK: B005N8ZFUO EBOK
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I
was awakened by the sound of tires crunching gravel against frozen ground. I watched from the window as they spilled out of their car near the front door. Six of them. From my high, sharp angle, I couldn’t tell much about the inspectors.
They were in the cafeteria at breakfast—a half dozen men and women wearing business clothes and carrying clipboards. It was like a third life-form had invaded our strange little planet of teachers and students. They stood near one wall, watching us and whispering among themselves.
“Any idea what they’re thinking?” I asked Cheater.
“Not from this far away. But look at them. I get the feeling a couple of them are scared of us,” he said.
“Scared of us?” That idea surprised me. I knew the Edgies were frightened by our reputation, but those Edgies were just kids. These were adults. It never occurred to me that adults would be afraid of kids. I wondered how they’d feel if they knew some of the kids had amazing powers.
“Bloodbath is being pretty quiet,” Lucky said.
I glanced over toward Bloodbath’s table. Lucky was right. A gang of them was just sitting there eating breakfast. Nobody was wrestling or shouting. “I bet they’re saving their energy for something big,” I said.
Grunge came in late and joined Bloodbath. Then two more of the gang came strutting into the cafeteria and nodded at Bloodbath as they
took their seats. He grinned and nodded back. A moment later, the bell rang for class.
“They’re planning something,” I said. “See if you can pick up anything,” I told Cheater.
I expected him to protest that it was too dangerous. But he surprised me. “I’ll try,” he said. He wove through the crowd and managed to slip behind Bloodbath for a moment. Then he had to back off as they got closer to the door. I guess Cheater didn’t want to get trapped next to him in a crush of kids.
“Well?” I asked Cheater when he’d worked his way back to me.
“Twenty candles,” he said. “I just got that thought in my mind.
Twenty candles, all set to go.”
“Candles, again. Any idea what it means?” I asked.
Cheater shook his head. “Not a clue.”
“Hey, check this out,” Lucky called. He opened a closet door in the hallway just outside the cafeteria and pointed at something. “Look what I found.”
“What the heck … ?” Torchie asked.
I looked inside at the lit candle. It was stuck on a small square of wood—probably jammed onto a nail. A fuse was wrapped around the base of the candle. The other end of the fuse led to a shorter fuse coming out of a large cardboard tube.
“That’s an M-80,” Cheater said. “Big-time firecracker.”
I unwrapped the fuse from the candle. “They must have used the candle so it would go off later, when everyone was in class. That way there’d be no chance of getting caught.”
Torchie bent over and blew out the flame. “Don’t they know it’s dangerous to leave a fire going like that?”
Lucky grabbed the M-80 and put it in his pocket, then dashed down the hall to the next closet. He opened the door and waved for us.
“Oh man, that’s bad news,” I said. This one had two M-80s attached to a candle. But that wasn’t the worst part. The explosives were taped against the side of a water pipe. If they blew, the place would get
flooded. Even for Bloodbath, that was an incredibly stupid and dangerous stunt.
“Bloodbath must have done this,” Lucky said. “At least we found it before it went off. Think there are any others?”
“Twenty candles!” Cheater shouted. “That’s what they were thinking. They must be spread all around the school. If even one goes off, it could do a lot of damage.”
“Can you find the rest of them?” Torchie asked Lucky.
“I don’t know,” Lucky said. “I don’t think I can search for something specific. I just find stuff. I can’t control what I find.”
“There’s no time, anyhow,” I said. I grabbed Torchie by the shoulder. “You’re our best bet. You’ve been learning how you start fires. Do you think you can put them out, too?”
“Uh … I don’t know.”
“You have to try,” I said. “That’s the only way. Do your best.”
Torchie nodded. Then he got this blank look on his face. I had a sudden horrible fear that he’d get it backwards and turn the whole school into a blazing bonfire instead of putting out all of the candles. I was struck by images of the walls around me bursting into flames. Talk about making a bad impression on the inspectors.
Welcome to Edgeview. Watch us burn.
Torchie stared off into the distance. A drop of sweat ran down his forehead. I waited for something more dramatic. I expected him to at least grunt or groan or pass out. But finally, he grinned and said, “I think I did it.”
“How can we tell?” Lucky asked.
“If you don’t hear the place blowing up all around us, you’ll know it worked,” I said.
We hurried along the hall. As I sat in math, I kept bracing for an explosion. It never came. By the end of the period, I was pretty sure Torchie had succeeded.
We’d won the first battle. But I had no idea what else Bloodbath might do.
On the way to our next class, Lucky found two more of the M-80s. Both candles had gone out. “You did it,” I told Torchie, patting him on the back. “That’s great.”
“Yeah, guess I did. I think putting all those fires out helped me, too,” he said. “The more I understand what I can do, the better I can learn to control it.”
I noticed wisps of smoke coming from his notebook. “Uh, Torchie,” I said, pointing to a smoldering spot next to his index finger, “this might be a good time to work on that control.”
“Oops,” he said, dropping the notebook. But instead of stomping on it, he just got that blank look for a moment and the fire went out.
As we reached our next class, I saw that Bloodbath didn’t deal well with frustration. He knocked a couple of the runts out of his way as he came into the room. The rest of them scattered like mice scooting from the path of a lawn mower.
Up near the front of the classroom, a woman in a gray suit wrote a note on a small pad. I wondered whether Bloodbath might be able to do enough damage even without the explosions.
Next to me, Cheater snapped the tip of his pencil. He got up and walked to the back of the room toward the sharpener, taking the route nobody ever took—going right past Bloodbath. I thought it was pretty brave of him, especially since he caught a quick punch on the arm as he went by. When he returned to his seat he glanced toward Bloodbath, then whispered, “Lunch. He’s planning something for lunchtime.”
There was nothing I could do right now. In the meantime, I tried to pay attention in class. The funny thing was, I didn’t get a chance to give the inspectors a good impression. None of my teachers called on me.
The rest of the morning, things were pretty quiet. As I walked toward the lunchroom, I wondered how long our good luck would hold.
DINNER CONVERSATION AT THE ANDERSONS’
Dorothy Anderson
: Maybe we should drive out to Edgeview this Saturday and visit Martin. Or maybe even bring him home for the weekend.
 
Richard Anderson
: What’s the point? We’ll just have a miserable time. If I want abuse, I can get as much as I want at work. I don’t need to spend two or three hours in a car for that.
 
Dorothy Anderson
: But I’m sure he misses us.
 
Richard Anderson
: Him? I doubt it.
 
Dorothy Anderson
: Really, Richard, you shouldn’t be so—
 
Richard Anderson
: Don’t you start. I have enough people telling me what to do.
 
Dorothy Anderson
: But—
 
Richard Anderson:
Just drop it.
“
A
ny idea what they’re planning?” I asked Cheater when we reached our table. We’d gotten sandwiches today. Apparently, there’d been some problems with the ovens. They’d all gone out right before first period. I guess Torchie really had doused every fire in the place. At least the workers had noticed the problem before the place filled with gas.
“Rumble,” Cheater said.
I glanced over to Bloodbath’s table. He was talking to a whole bunch of thugs who clustered around him. “He’s not that stupid,” I said. “If he starts a riot in front of the inspectors, he’ll just get tossed out of here. No reason for us to stop him. Life at Edgeview would be almost bearable without Bloodbath.”
As I spoke, a couple of the thugs left their group. They each sat down at a different table. More of them did the same thing, spreading around the cafeteria.
“I think they’re going to start a bunch of fights,” Flinch said.
“Oh no,” Torchie said. “Look who’s headed here.”
Bloodbath, the last to get up, had left his table. He was heading right toward us. I looked around. His gang was spread out among the tables. Even Lip had picked a spot—with the smallest of the runts, of course.
Maybe it was stupid of him to split up his group. But even with the
six of us against him, I didn’t want to tangle with Bloodbath.
“Any ideas?” I asked the guys at the table.
That’s when I noticed Trash. He was staring at Grunge, who was at the table to our left. Trash’s teeth were clenched. He had a look on his face like—well, there’s no polite way to put it—he looked like someone who hadn’t been able to go to the bathroom in three or four days and was trying to get it over with real hard. After a moment, he switched his attention to another of the thugs.
“Hey,” Torchie said, “watcha doing, Trash?”
“Sshhhhh,” I said. “Let him concentrate.”
“Hello, friends,” Bloodbath said. “Mind if I join you?” He dropped into a seat between Cheater and Torchie, grinned at us, then glanced at the clock on the wall. Cheater raised his hands up in fists and flashed his fingers opened and closed. He did it twice. Twenty. That’s what he was telling me.
I checked the clock. It was seventeen minutes after twelve. I figured Bloodbath had picked a time when they’d all leap into action. Twenty after.
I tensed, getting ready for the fight. Maybe I could jump on him before he really hurt Cheater. If I grabbed his arms, I might be able to slow him down until he shook me off.
Tick. The clock moved to twelve-eighteen.
Trash lowered his head. He seemed to be staring under the table.
“Hey,” Bloodbath said, looking across the table at Trash. “What’s wrong with you?”
“Leave him alone,” I said. I had no idea what Trash was doing, but this was no time to let him be disturbed.
Tick.
Twelve-nineteen.
“Guess what? You’re about to get hurt,” Bloodbath said. “All of you. And it’s going to be a pleasure.”
I stared back, ready to dive at him when the clock ticked. He didn’t know that I knew. Maybe that would make a difference. I just hoped
Cheater figured out that he needed to run for the door.
Time crawled. I could almost feel the seconds trudging past. I thought of those dying flies that drag themselves across the ceiling at the start of winter.
Tick.
Bloodbath leaped from his seat and lunged toward Cheater to his right. He tried to lunge, that is. As his body snapped to a halt, he got the weirdest look on his face. So did the rest of his gang. They all fell down at once.
I’d already jumped out of my chair. Now, as I stood there, braced to leap to Cheater’s defense, I realized there wasn’t going to be a fight. The table jerked as Bloodbath yanked his leg. I peeked around, already suspecting what had happened. Bloodbath’s sneaker lace was tied around one of the legs that jutted from the base of the table.
Bloodbath was swearing in frustration now. Principal Davis and the teachers had run over to the flailing thugs. They got the kids back on their feet and tried to lead them from the room. The whole group was stuck until someone suggested they remove their sneakers.
“Wow, good work,” I said, looking over at Trash. “It was you, wasn’t it?”
“Yeah.” He nodded. His voice was barely above a whisper. He looked pretty wiped out.
For a moment, his eyes flickered. I reached toward him, afraid he was going to pass out. But he shook his head hard once, then opened his eyes all the way. I thought about the old Trash, beaten down by the world. He was nothing but a memory. “That was really cool,” I said. I reached out and clasped his shoulder.
Trash smiled. “Thanks.”
Across the room, the inspectors were all sitting at a table, talking to each other. Several of them kept glancing at their watches, even though there was a clock on the wall. “Looks like a good spot for you, Cheater,” I said.
Cheater got up and sighed. “It’ll be a lot less terrifying than getting close to Bloodbath.”
He walked over to the inspectors’ table. “Excuse me,” he said, “do you have any salt?” Then he leaned between two of them, reaching for the salt. He grabbed the shaker and walked back toward us, staggering like someone who had just run face-first into a lamppost.
“Wow,” he said, shaking his head hard.
“What?” I asked. “Did you get anything?”
He dropped back into his chair. “I’ll tell you, adults sure have a lot of junk rushing through their heads. Give me a minute.”
I waited while Cheater sat with his eyes closed. Finally, he took a deep breath and opened his eyes. “Okay. According to what I picked up, two of them want to recommend that the state should close Edgeview, two want it to stay open, and the other two haven’t made up their minds yet. They’re almost done with everything on their list. The final thing they want to do is to talk to a typical student. After that, they’ll make their final decision.”
“Just one student?” Flinch asked. “What’s the point?”
Cheater shrugged. “They have to get back to the capital for a meeting. They don’t have time to talk to a lot of kids. They figured one would be better than none. Actually, you can learn a lot more than you’d expect from a small sample properly chosen from a large group.”
“So, it could all depend on who they pick and what he says.” I looked around the cafeteria at the mass of trouble that passed for students at Edgeview. “We’re dead.”
“Any idea who they’re planning to talk to?” Lucky asked.
Cheater shook his head. “I don’t know.”
That’s when Principal Davis returned to the cafeteria. He went over to the inspectors and handed them a stack of paper. One of the inspectors pulled out a sheet from the stack. He passed it to the woman next to him. She closed her eyes and stabbed at it with her finger, then said something to Principal Davis. As he leaned over her shoulder and looked down at the paper, his expression changed. He frowned and shook his head. His face reminded me of someone who’d just lost a big bet. He scanned the cafeteria, then he headed toward our table.
What did I do this time
? I
wondered. Principal Davis came right up to me. “Martin …”
“Yes?”
“I really wish it was someone else—just about anyone else—but our guests would like to speak with you after lunch.”
“Me?” I really couldn’t believe this.
“Unfortunately. I would have suggested someone more pleasant, but they picked you. Come to the office when the bell rings.”
I was too stunned to say anything. I just sat there and watched him walk away.
Anyone but me
, I thought. All I had to do was spend ten minutes in a room with the inspectors and they’d probably decide to call in an air strike to wipe Edgeview off the map. At the very least, they’d probably boot me out immediately, no matter what the regulations might be.
“Do you really care what happens to Edgeview?” Lucky asked me.
I thought about Principal Davis and his punishments. I thought about Mr. Parsons and his anger. But I also thought about Mr. Briggs and his passion for teaching. And Miss Nomad, who cared too much. And Ms. Crenshaw, who tried to make classes interesting. And I thought about all the kids who needed some place in the system. I nodded.
A strange smile flitted across Lucky’s lips. “Personally, I wouldn’t bother. But if that’s what you want, then it’s time to use your power, Martin.”
FROM A DRAFT OF A REPORT BY
DR. LENORE HARPER ON THE STATUS OF
THE STATE’S ALTERNATIVE SCHOOLS

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