Part 4 (2/2)

It looked intentional to me so I blew my whistle.

”Now what?” Gary cried angrily. ”My team, disregard that stupid whistle!” I grabbed his arm. ”He kicked our goalie!” I yelled into his face.

I suddenly realized that something was happening off to my side. I jumped away from Gary and saw Anson punch the kid who had kicked him.

Other kids joined the fight. Girls began wrestling. Guys were hitting one another. There was some karate action going on.

I blasted and blasted my whistle.

Then a much deeper, louder whistle blared over mine. ”Hold it!” a male voice boomed. Mr. De Young had appeared on the playing field.

His voice did the trick. Everyone stopped. 'All of you! Back into the gym!” he bellowed.

Breathless and sweaty, the kids obeyed.

Mr. De Young whirled around to Gary and me. ”What started this free-for-all?” he demanded.

”His team was made of karate kids,” I announced.

”She's crazy!” Gary countered. ”Her kids were all giants and they started pounding on my kids.” ”That's a lie!” I shouted.

”Enough!” Mr. De Young cut us short. ”You two are in major trouble.”

Chapter 12.

Mrs. Downey, the school secretary, gazed at me with disbelief. ”Kristy, you're here to see Mr. Kingbridge?” Everyone knew that there was only one reason a kid was sent to see the a.s.sistant princ.i.p.al.

I felt like shouting, ”You're right, Mrs. Downey. I'm a good kid and this is all a horrible mistake.” Of course, I couldn't do that. For one thing, Mr. De Young was standing right there between Gary and me.

For another, I wasn't in a shouting mood. I was caught between two moods, in fact.

One was a killing mood. I wanted to kill Gary.

The other was a disappearing mood. I was so mortified, so humiliated, that I wished I could simply vanish.

Mr. Kingbridge stepped out of his office and, for a moment, studied us. ”I can see you now,” he said, beckoning us to come inside.

I felt cold all over. Physically cold.

Gary and I took the two wooden seats in front of Mr. Kingbridge's large desk. Mr. De Young sat in a green leather side chair. ”I saw what happened,” Mr. Kingbridge began. ”I was coming in from lunch at the time. It was quite a display.” Gary and I exchanged a darting, guilty glance.

”What do you two have to say for yourselves?” he asked.

Somehow, this didn't seem like the time nor the place to start accusing Gary. This was the a.s.sistant princ.i.p.al, after all.

Gary didn't accuse me of anything either.

Not that he would have had much to say. But the way his twisted mind worked, he probably could have come up with something if he tried.

”Things just got out of hand,” I said quietly, feeling that Mr. Kingbridge expected one of us to say something.

”And why was that?” he demanded.

Again, Gary and I looked at each other. It was as if we were searching each other for silent clues as to how to answer. Now that we were in deep trouble, we were finally working together.

”I suppose we got the kids a little too worked up,” Gary admitted. ”And we got mad at each other, so they took their cue from us.” I was shocked. And, in a way, impressed. He was more honest than I'd been able to be. I knew he was right. We'd both been so compet.i.tive that we'd whipped the kids into a kind of war mode.

Mr. Kingbridge slapped his desk with angry impatience. My heart was pounding as he went on. ”Did the two of you think stirring these kids into a frenzy was a good idea? We currently have a seventh-grade girl in the nurse's office with a black eye. A boy is being rushed to his dentist with his missing tooth in a jar filled with milk. We've sent another girl to the hospital with a possible broken arm. Was this what you wanted to accomplish?” ”No, sir,” I mumbled.

”No,” Gary agreed.

”Then, what did you think was going to happen?” ”I guess we each just wanted to win,” I said in a voice so low that Mr. Kingbridge made me repeat myself. ”We each wanted to win.” 'Are you two the kind of future teachers we can expect? I certainly hope not,” Mr. King-bridge continued. ”You have obviously not learned anything from the TOT program so far. If this is the behavior of our TOT volunteers, you can bet we won't repeat the program next year. I will give you one more chance. Your next cla.s.s had better be taught perfectly.” I felt so guilty. They might cancel the TOT program because of something I'd done. I was used to hearing about other kids messing up like this - but not me.

I was waiting for some kind of punishment to follow. Mr. Kingbridge just cast a disgusted look at us, waved his hand, and said, ”You can go.” He asked Mr. De Young to stay behind. ”I think you can kiss that extra credit good-bye,” Gary commented as we walked out of the office.

I nodded. He was probably right.

Then, to my amazement, he began to laugh.

”What's so funny?” I demanded.

”You thought you were giving me the geeks and they turned out to be karate commandos.” He laughed, falling against the tiled wall.

I was too shaken to find any humor in the situation. I left him there, laughing like an idiot.

We'd spent so much time waiting for Mr. Kingbridge to see us, that I'd missed my entire lunch period and the beginning of English.

Cla.s.s was in full session as I slipped through the back door and into my seat. I had forgotten that Mallory would be teaching.

She stood in front of the cla.s.s, looking as pale and miserable as she had on Monday. ”I'd like to recite one of my favorite poems by Emily d.i.c.kinson, one of my favorite poets,” she said in a voice so small I could hardly hear her.

”Talk louder!” Lane Reynolds shouted.

Mallory cleared her throat and raised her voice a little, but not enough to make a strong improvement. ” I'm n.o.body! Who Are You?' by Emily d.i.c.kinson,” she said shakily. ” Tm n.o.body! Who are you?/ Are you n.o.body, too? / Then there's a pair of us - don't tell! / They'd banish us, you know.' ” ”That's pretty stupid,” c.o.kie said.

”c.o.kie!” Mrs. Simon scolded sharply from her seat in the back of the cla.s.s.

”It might seem silly when you first read it,” Mallory said, ”but Emily d.i.c.kinson wasn't stupid or silly.” ”No, she was a n.o.body - like Spaz Girl,” Shane said in a too-loud whisper.

Mrs. Simon stood up abruptly. ”If I hear one more rude comment from this cla.s.s, you will all have an extra report to do.” I caught Mary Anne's eye. She shook her head sadly and rolled her eyes.

”Does anyone have any thoughts on this poem?” Mallory asked. I didn't have a single thought. I could barely think at all after what I'd just been through. But no one else was responding and Mallory looked as though she might cry, so I shot up my hand.

”Yes, Kristy,” she said with a grateful half smile.

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