The New Guy (and Other Senior Year Distractions) by Amy Spalding

Author:Amy Spalding [Amy Spalding]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Published: 2016-04-05T07:00:00+00:00

“I don’t want anyone to panic,” Mr. Wheeler greets us in fourth period on Monday, which is a pretty guaranteed way to panic a roomful of people. “But we did have a minor act of vandalism over the weekend.”

Immediately, there are shouted questions: “Spray painting?” “Did your house get TPed?” “Who got keyed?”

Mr. Wheeler waves his arms around in what I can only assume he thinks is a calming gesture. “It’s only the computer keyboards,” he says.

Carlos gets up to look. “They’re all missing letters. T, O, A, L—”

“Let me guess,” Thatcher says. “N?”

“Toaln?” a freshman asks.

“TALON,” says everyone else.

“It’s not the smartest vandalism,” Mr. Wheeler says, and chuckles. “Obviously I’ve talked to their advisor, and they’ll be replacing the missing keyboards.”

“Can’t they just put the letters back?” Thatcher asks.

“Not now that they’ve been disgraced, they can’t,” I say. “We demand new keyboards.”

“Jules, I literally just said that they’re replacing the keyboards,” Mr. Wheeler says. “For now just figure out how to work around it. Or type your pieces at home.”

A folded piece of paper hits my desktop. I haven’t been passed a note in ages, not since we all got iPhones, plus there’s the long-standing tradition of whispering. So I unfold it slowly and carefully.

WHAT ARE WE STEALING??

I don’t like to stereotype, but it does look like girl handwriting. I make eye contact with Marisa, who grins.

Well, obviously nothing that spells “T-H-E C-R-E-S-T”!! I write. We’ll definitely be smarter at vandalism and/or theft!

Thatcher grabs the note from me. He reads it, grins, and then passes it on to Marisa.

“Marisa, what is that?” Mr. Wheeler asks her. “You guys can talk freely in here, you know—you don’t have to pass notes.”

“It’s nothing.” Marisa tucks the note down the front of her shirt. “You can’t make me show it to you now.”

“I… I wasn’t going to make you show me.” Mr. Wheeler sighs. “Can we all maybe take a step back? I know you all feel like you have some kind of rivalry with TALON, but can’t you see how you guys are all on the same side?”

“We most definitely are not on the same side, Mr. Wheeler,” I say. “It’s insulting to even say that.”

“Guys, there’s no need for retaliation,” he says. “I want to make it very clear that you’re not going to steal anything from TALON, deface any of their property, or anything along those lines. If anything happened right now, it would be pretty obvious who’d done it. Okay?”

We all murmur our agreement, though I’m actually working harder brainstorming vandalizing possibilities than story pitches for this week. All of this delinquent behavior is new to me, and there’s no part of it that seems to come naturally.

“Don’t worry about it, Jules,” Carlos tells me after the bell rings and we’re headed out to the hallway. “I’ve got it handled.”

“Do you need my help? What are you doing? It doesn’t spell The Crest, does it? Is it illegal?”

“I’ve got it,” he says. “Trust me?”

“Just promise me it won’t spell The Crest, okay?”

“Jules, I’m not an idiot.

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