Pickle (20 page)

“Somebody better explain to me what you all think you are doing,” Principal Lebonsky said. Nobody said anything. Kids who didn't have any clubs were forming groups to sit and protest with. Our row was some of the last kids in the stands. Bean nudged me again and we moved down the stairs to join the others on the gym floor.

“Who is responsible for this foolishness? I DEMAND AN ANSWER!” Principal Lebonsky's voice boomed through the microphone. I locked eyes with Hector, and stopped. He still sat in his seat and I could see his expression now. He looked petrified.

Principal Lebonsky noticed Hector's face, too. “Hector Lebonsky! Do you have anything to do with this, this,
anarchy
?” Hector's head whipped around to look at his grandma. I think he wanted to say something, but he couldn't. “This will
not
be tolerated!” she said. I knew what I had to do. My feet moved toward the stage while my heart tried to keep going to the center of the gym floor. My brain just screamed. The rest of the pickle makers seemed confused, but they kept going toward the free-throw line like we'd planned. Principal Lebonsky took a couple of steps toward Hector, and I saw my chance. I darted behind her and grabbed the microphone. Hector looked even more horrified. Principal Lebonsky tried to grab the microphone back, but I jumped out of the way and faced the students on the gym floor. The bleachers were deserted, except for Hector and a few kids. Some of them looked confused, and some looked like they might be protesting the protest.

I'd never talked into a microphone in my entire life, which would explain why the first noise I made totally sounded like a squeegee. I would have rather touched the dry ice again than stand at the podium with a microphone, but my feet didn't move.

“I'm Ben Diaz. I am the president of the P.T.A.” I made eye contact with Principal Lebonsky to make sure she understood. I swear her eyes flashed red. Her face got red, too. She reached out to grab the microphone back, but I moved away. I looked at Ms. Ruiz , but she looked almost as mad as Principal Lebonsky so I looked at the pickle makers. The clapping and stomping stopped and the gym grew so quiet I could hear myself breathing over the P.A. “We, the students of Fountain Point, are exercising our constitutional right to assemble. We want our extracurricular activities back!” I don't think I said it very loud, but people clapped. Really. The crowd went wild, just like they say at baseball games. It dawned on people what I'd said and what it meant, and
everybody
cheered. Bean
woot
ed and Oliver put his fingers in his mouth and did one of those loud whistles. Sienna yelled, “Yay, Ben!” Frank looked horrified. I looked back at Hector, who still sat in the bleachers with his head in his hands. Everybody else looked happy. It was probably one of the coolest moments I will ever have. The whole school smiled at me.

I looked back at Ms. Ruiz and she was shaking her head, but even she was smiling a little bit. I think she might've liked the bit about the constitution.

Principal Lebonsky, however, wasn't smiling. Her eyes weren't red anymore, but her face looked like a stop sign.

“Ben, did you do this alone?” she hissed.

“No! No, he didn't!” Hector yelled and stood up. My heart started thumping against my ribs again. If she didn't know it was the League of Pickle Makers, there was no reason to tell her.

“Hector, don't—” I said. Hector wrestled me for the microphone. I tried to hold on to it but my hands were sweaty and it slipped out like I handed it to him. I thought about punching him in the mouth before he could rat out the rest of the league, but I knew I never could.

“Hi. I'm Hector. Hector Lebonsky. Yes, that's my grandma.” He gestured impatiently to Principal Lebonsky. He talked fast. “But, I helped him. I totally helped him. Ben and me. We did it all together.” Hector swallowed, and I could hear the gulp. “If you think about it, he couldn't have done all that alone. So we did it together.” Hector said. All I could do was stare.

“Hector,” Principal Lebonsky sputtered. “
Why?
”

“We're friends. And sometimes you just have to do stuff for the fun of it,” Hector said, and smiled. Principal Lebonsky rubbed her eyes. The League of Pickle Makers seemed to be arguing. Everybody else stood up and clapped.

Principal Lebonsky grabbed my arm, and then she grabbed Hector's arm. She marched us off of the stage. It just made the crowd whoop louder.

“To my office.
Right. Now
,” she growled, and pushed us forward. The gym doors slammed behind us, but I could still hear the cheering.

 

49

The Jig Is Up

Principal Lebonsky put us in her office and told us to “wait right there” while she straightened up the “hijinks in the gym.” I heard her say something that sounded like “water bell” on the way out. She was gone for a really, really long time.

Hector didn't say a word to me. He ignored me and stared at an apple mug full of pens on Principal Lebonsky's desk. She also has an apple paper clip holder, an apple notepad, and the apple tape dispenser my family had bought her for Christmas, back when I still called her Betty.

We almost got away with everything. If I'd just kept walking and sat with the rest of the P.T.A., Principal Lebonsky would've never known what caused her students to revolt. And then Hector had to get involved. That just made it worse, and by worse I mean that Principal Lebonsky might actually explode.

“Why did you do that?” I asked him, but he wouldn't even look at me. He just looked mad. And scared.

Principal Lebonsky came back to her office, shut the door, and walked over to her desk. She set a different apple mug full of coffee on top of a pad of detention slips and stared us down for over a minute before she sat down.

“You arranged this? This
protest
?” I nodded. “The soap in the fountain, the dry ice in the gym, and that disgusting business at the Pioneer Fair? You are responsible for
all
of it? Am I clear on this?”

“No, not the fair, that was—never mind. Yes,” I said.

“You created such a horrific spectacle with the insects, you caused your own self to become sick.” Principal Lebonsky shook her head. I was almost still mad enough at Sienna to sell her out, but I didn't.

“Yes,” I said. “I did it. I am disgusting.”

“I am ashamed of you, Ben Diaz. Your parents didn't raise you to be so disorderly. You should know better,” she said. I wanted to tell her that my parents didn't raise me to be pushed around, either, but I didn't. “What exactly does P.T.A. stand for? Pickles, Tomfoolery, and, and ANARCHY?!”

“No, it's—”

“And, YOU, Hector Lebonsky! You knew about this. You took part,” Principal Lebonsky said. Hector didn't say anything. He looked green.

“Principal Lebonsky, Hector didn't—”

“Silence, Ben. That is enough!” She glared at Hector for a long time. He seemed to be shivering. “Hector, I'm not sure what part you took in all of this, but we will deal with it later at home,” she said. I wondered how many new character cards she would make. Maybe she'd pin them to his clothes. She gave Hector a whole lot of stink eye before turning back to me. “Hector, go to class,” she said. “We'll discuss this tonight.” Hector spun out of his chair and left before I could say anything. Principal Lebonsky sat forward and sighed.

“Out with it, Benjamin. Let's get everything straight before I call your parents.”

I told her the only thing I could.

 

50

Repercussions

The phone rang a lot after school let out until my dad turned the ringer off. I wasn't allowed to answer it. I wasn't allowed to check my email, either. Or be online at all, so I couldn't go to the Pickles Forever website. I couldn't play video games, or watch TV. When my mom and dad went to the restaurant, I went with them every time. The dishwasher quit and moved to Texas, so the timing was pretty bad that way. I got to do all the honors.

“We're proud of you for standing up for what you believe in, but there need to be
consecuencias por los problemas en la escuela
,” my dad said. Consequences for the trouble at school. And the money they were saving by not paying a dishwasher could go in my college fund.

I smelled like dish detergent all the time. I dreamed that the halls at school were full of half-eaten food. Horrible.

I thought about what I would tell the P.T.A. when my parents let me hang out with them again, but I didn't have to wait that long. They were all waiting down on the sidewalk outside my building before school on Monday.

“So, what happened?” Sienna grabbed my sleeve. “What's happening with the club?” I shook her off and walked toward school.

“Tell us what she said, rat butt.” Bean would have shot lasers out of her eyes, if she was a laser-shooting robot. A robot with rage. A lot of the time she had a look on her face like she thought about smacking me, but she looked a little more wound up now. Her control knob was turned all the way up to Clobber. “Are we going to get in trouble when we get to school?”

“Nope,” I said. “Not at all. She doesn't know you were involved.”

“You took all the credit?” Frank looked disgusted.

“He didn't take the credit, he took the heat. You didn't have to do that,” Sienna said. She hugged me. “I don't know how we can make it up to you.”

“I don't know
why
we should make it up to you,” Bean mumbled. “If it wasn't for Ben, we'd still have secret identities.”

Sienna ignored her.

“What's she going to do to you?”

“Detention. I have to help Rick clean after school for a month. Then I have to go help at the restaurant,” I said. “I have to get up extra early for homework. Not a drop of free time.” Frank winced.

“Sorry, man,” he said. I shrugged. It could have been a lot worse.

“What about Hector?” Bean said. “What did she do to that lying, credit-taking worm?”

I could remind them that Hector had saved them from getting busted, but I didn't think they were ready to hear it. And that might just remind them that it was me that almost got them busted. “She thought Hector was involved, but I told her he wasn't. He just wanted to help.” I looked at Bean. “And he's not a worm.”

It wasn't hard to convince Principal Lebonsky that I had done it all by myself. I think she wanted to believe that Hector behaved. Otherwise, she'd have to admit that her character cards were a bust.

“She said all the clubs and teams could start meeting again next week.” Oliver clapped and Frank pumped his fist in the air.

“The show must go on!” Oliver yelled. “I can't wait to tell the cast and crew.”

“All right, time for school, you monkey butts,” Bean said. She turned down the sidewalk, and Frank and Oliver followed.

“You guys go ahead,” I said. “I'm going to wait for Hector.” Bean rolled her eyes, and Oliver shook his head, but Frank nodded and Sienna smiled at me.

“See you at school,” she said.

I watched Hector come out of our building. He looked behind him to make sure his grandma wasn't coming, and then he tossed his protein bar in a trash can. He saw me and smiled. Then he scowled.

“I wanted to say thanks for what you did at the assembly. It was nice of you to protect the club,” I said. Hector scoffed.

“I didn't do it for those meatballs,” he said. “I did it for you.”

“What?”

“It's true,” he said. “I think I get why you've been doing what you've been doing,” he said. “Except the bugs. That was gross.”

“That wasn't me. That was Sienna,” I said. He looked up.

“Really? The new girl?”

I nodded. Hector shook his head.

“Nasty. But, she's kind of cute.”

“Yeah?” I said. Hector just shrugged, but he was blushing. I smiled. “I think you're right. You know, you can throw away the eggs. We don't need them anymore.” Hector waved me off.

“I threw them away two days ago,” he said. “I was this close to hiding them in your room so they would get all foul before you found them.”

“That would have been awful,” I said. “But kind of funny, too.”

*   *   *

When I got home from helping at the restaurant that night I snuck onto the computer before bed. I went straight to my email, where I found new messages from Agent Fix-it, Agent 008, Agent Super, and Agent Snow. They all said the same thing.

Pickle.

But then my mom busted me before I could go to the website.

When Oliver, Frank, Bean, and Sienna met me at the janitorial supply closet after school, I figured they had just stopped by to thank me for sacrificing myself. But, that wasn't it. They had turned themselves in. They told Principal Lebonsky that it had been the League of Pickle Makers all along, so now we were all extra janitors for the month. They didn't have to do that, but it was pretty awesome that they did. Like,
really
awesome.