Jessica Against Bruce by Pascal Francine

Author:Pascal, Francine
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2016-01-26T16:00:00+00:00

Eight

Elizabeth took her seat in homeroom and glanced at Jessica, who sat behind her. "Why did you come to school early today?" she asked.

"I had a few things to do," Jessica said distantly. She seemed to be making a point of checking over her French homework, and wouldn't look up to meet Elizabeth's eyes.

"But you got a ride from Bruce, right?" Elizabeth pressed.

Jessica shrugged, still studiously avoiding eye contact. "Yeah. So?"

"So did you come early for something to do with Club X?" Elizabeth hissed.

With her head still bent over her books, Jessica looked from one side to the other. Then she glanced up. "Not so loud, OK?"

"OK," Elizabeth whispered. "But was that why?"

Before Jessica could answer, a burst of feedback whined through the loudspeaker up on the wall. "Attention," came Mr. Cooper's voice. "A few announcements. Mr. Rizzo's first period class will have study hall, but all his other classes will meet as usual."

There was a brief silence and then Mr. Cooper continued.

"And the person who smoked a cigarette in my office this morning no doubt thinks he was being quite funny," Mr. Cooper said sharply. "If that person is also responsible for the problems we had yesterday, he is asking for serious trouble. Let me assure you, whoever you are, that you won't think you're so clever when I find you."

A few scattered laughs traveled around the room. Elizabeth felt her neck grow hot. She turned slowly and looked at Jessica, her eyebrows raised in an unspoken question.

Jessica had her chin in her hands and an untroubled smile on her lips. She arched her own eyebrows, as though surprised at Elizabeth's suspicions.

Frowning, Elizabeth turned back around in her seat and faced forward. She didn't believe in coincidences. Jessica and Bruce had come to school early, and somebody had smoked a cigarette in Mr. Cooper's office. There had to be a connection. And Elizabeth would bet money that the other recent pranks were all the work of Club X. Neither the fraternity nor the sorority pulled stunts of this nature. Pi Beta Alpha and Phi Epsilon's pranks were performed in a spirit of fun, but these had a distinct flavor of reckless arrogance and disregard for other people.

"Let me also remind you," Mr. Cooper continued, "that this Thursday our foreign guests will be returning. I would like to ask you again for your cooperation during their visit, and to warn you that if there's any funny business, the perpetrators will be punished. This school has a reputation to uphold."

"And so do I," Jessica whispered.

Elizabeth turned quickly in her seat. "What?" she asked.

"Nothing," Jessica answered. She smiled and looked back to her homework.

Elizabeth sighed in frustration. She had heard Jessica perfectly well. Jessica and the rest of Club X were not going to respect Mr. Cooper's request. Come Thursday, they would probably do something outrageous. Elizabeth hoped that somehow she could stop them.

Tuesday night found Club X gathered in the Patmans' basement again. Jessica was still glowing with her morning's success.

"Are you going to start smoking, now?" Michael teased her.

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