School of the Dead by Avi

Author:Avi
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2016-04-26T04:00:00+00:00

School was over. As kids emptied homeroom, I looked up. Jessica was standing by the doorway, her black backpack slung over her shoulder. She gave me her pretty smile and a thumbs-up sign. I faked a smile back. As she went, I wondered, Where does she live?

I gathered the books I was supposed to read that night, stuffed them into my backpack, and headed out.

“Tony.”

It was Batalie. Though the classroom was mostly empty, he beckoned me closer, as if needing to talk to me in private.

“I gather,” he said in a low voice, his pink-rimmed eyes full of anxiety, “you heard about Austin at Lilly’s birthday party.”

“I suppose,” I muttered, assuming one of the party kids had told him.

“May I ask you to keep it to yourself?”

“Sure,” I said. He stepped closer to me, making me even more aware how old he was. He smelled of too much aftershave.

“The Penda School,” he fairly hissed, “is a long-standing institution. Remember, ‘Respect the past and protect the future.’”

“Protect who from what?” I blurted out. I never had gotten an answer to that question.

“So it may continue,” he said with unexpected fierceness. “Have a good night, Tony. See you tomorrow.”

“’Night,” I said, wondering why he was so angry.

Bokor, sitting behind his desk, surrounded by papers and a few books, was waiting for me. In his baggy brown suit, he seemed enormous. He too was wearing a black tie.

“Tony, hello,” he called in his big voice. “Glad you could come. Pull up a seat. Let me show you some wonderful stuff.”

I sat down.

He started right off. “As I told you, for this term paper I’m interested in students developing an understanding of historical sources. Primary sources are original documents. Secondary sources are writings about the subject from a distance, so to speak. For example”—he slid a pile of paper toward me—“here’s the History of the Penda School, which I wrote. Only a hundred pages. Go through it.

“I worked with letters, newspaper accounts, deeds, old school yearbooks, plus those old Penda student files in Ms. Foxton’s office. Used Mrs. Penda’s will too. All primary sources, listed in my bibliography. If you quote them directly, those are primary materials. Quote my interpretation, that’s a secondary source. Make sense?”

“Think so.”

He slid his book toward me. “Here’s a copy for you.”

“Thanks.”

“Now this,” he went on, lifting a roll of large papers, “is amazing.”

He spread out the sheets, which were covered with what looked like webs of faint lines. “These are the original plans for the mansion that Mrs. Penda built back in 1884. As you might guess, with such an enormous building, and being so rich, Mrs. Penda had many servants. The servants lived in small bedrooms in the towers. In those days, servants were not to be seen. So—special stairways and rooms for servants. Most old mansions had back stairs, but here, they’re inside the walls. For example”—he pointed to the plans—“here are steps that go from the old kitchen to the dining room. Over here, from Mrs.

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