Earthman Jack vs. The Ghost Planet by Matthew Kadish Read Free Book Online Page B

she’s here, she had nothing to do with what happened.”
    At that, J.C. muttered something under his breath that sounded
an awful lot like “Yeah, right.”  Principal Montgomery instantly picked up on
it.
    “Do you have something to add, Mr. Rowdey?”
    “She attacked me,” said J.C.  “Scratched my neck up
something good, see?”
    J.C. pulled down his collar to show three bright red
scratches on his neck.  Jack assumed it must have happened when Anna tried to
pull J.C. off of him.
    “Are you saying Ms. Shepherd started this fight?” asked the
principal.
    “I certainly did not!” Anna responded indignantly
    “She’s right, she had nothing to do with it,” said
Jack.
    “Shut your face, Finnegan,” said J.C.  “You both attacked
me.  Everyone saw.”
    “That’s bull!” growled Jack.  “You started the fight by
being a jerk-wad, like you always are!”
    “Hey, you punched me in the nose!” sneered J.C.
    “You threw a shoe at my head!” snapped Jack.
    Principal Montgomery pounded his fist on his desk.  “Enough!”
he bellowed, the flabby jowls of his face jiggling.  Jack and J.C. quieted
down, and soon the only sound in the room was the faint whistling of the
principal breathing through his nose.
    “Unfortunately, none of the staff saw what happened until after
the fists started flying,” Montgomery said.  “And since none of you wants to
come clean and tell me what really happened, I’m afraid I have no choice but to
punish all of you.”
    Jack could feel Anna tense up beside him.
    “But wait —” said Jack.  “That’s not fair. Anna didn’t do
anything!”
    “Not according to Mr. Rowdey,” said Principal Montgomery. 
“And Mr. Harwood informed me he saw Ms. Shepherd on top of him.  That and the
scratch marks…”
    “She was trying to keep him from beating on me!” said Jack. 
“I was being attacked!”
    “No, I was being attacked!” piped up J.C.  “I wasn’t
doing anything and you and your girlfriend here jumped me.”
    “I am not his girlfriend,” corrected Anna, “and you are
hardly innocent in all this, J.C.”
    “Quiet.  All of you,” said Montgomery in a tone that
brokered no argument.  “You can point fingers as much as you want.  It doesn’t
matter now.  Unless you can all come to some type of agreement over who’s
responsible for today’s incident, you are all getting punished.  That means detention,
for a month, and no access to after-school clubs or events.  That includes Homecoming.”
    “Principal Montgomery,” cried J.C.  “That’s not fair!  I
didn’t do anything!  And I already rented a limo and a tux!”
    Jack suppressed a smile.  As much as he would like to have
seen J.C. suffer along with him, Anna would also be included in the
punishment.  Despite what J.C. had said, she was innocent of everything except
trying to help Jack when he was in danger of being beaten to a mushy pulp.  And
for the life of him, Jack couldn’t repay that by letting her take the rap.
    “It was my fault,” said Jack, piping up.
    All eyes in the room turned to him.
    “It was my fault,” repeated Jack.  “I threw the first punch,
J.C. defended himself, and Anna got involved because she tried to break up the
fight.  If anyone should be punished, it’s me.”
    J.C.’s eyes brightened.  “See!” he said.  “That’s what I’ve
been saying!  Finnegan just clocked me for no good reason!”
    “I’m aware of your account of the events, Mr. Rowdey,” said
Principal Montgomery before turning his attention to Anna.  “Is this true, Ms.
Shepherd?  Did Mr. Finnegan start the fight?”
    Anna turned and looked at Jack with her beautiful blue eyes,
and Jack instantly knew there was trouble.  She understood what he was doing,
and she wasn’t going to let him take all the blame in this matter.  After all,
he’d done what he had for her.
    “Actually, Principal Montgomery…” Anna began to say.
    Jack knew if Anna muttered another word, she