In a Flash by Eric Walters Read Free Book Online

controlling. Do you even know how many people he’ssuspended in the three weeks since he took over?”
    â€œHow many?”
    â€œOver forty.”
    â€œSome of the people who were suspended should have been suspended. Did you like kids hassling other students in the halls? Do you think there should be fights in the cafeteria? Did you like the gang down by the bridge? Do you really think there
should
be drinking and fighting at school dances?”
    â€œI guess that answers the question about whose side you’re on.”
    â€œI’m just saying that some of the things he’s done have made the school better... safer...calmer.”
    â€œYou don’t understand.”
    There was that tone again.
    â€œSome things are worth fighting for,” she said.
    â€œAnd school dances are one of those things?”
    â€œNot being told what we can and cannot do is one of them,” she argued.
    â€œIt’s a school. Most of what happens here is about being told what to do. This isn’t a democracy.”
    She let out a little scream, and I startled as people walking by all turned and stared.
    â€œNow you’re quoting him. That’s just sick. Is he your hero?”
    â€œNow you’re just being stupid.”
    Although he
had
been like a hero out there on the bridge that first day. All he needed was a cape to go along with the baseball bat. What was wrong with him taking care of business?
    â€œI’m not going to stand for it,” Julia said.
    â€œAnd what exactly does that mean?”
    â€œI’m going to...going to...I don’t really know.”
    I almost laughed but thought better of it.
    â€œDo you have any ideas?” she asked.
    Now I did laugh. “Me? What makes you think I want to get involved in any of this?”
    â€œBecause you’re my friend. Besides, wasn’t I right there when you organized the boycott of Frankie’s Fast—”
    She stopped mid-sentence, and a smile started to form on her face, getting bigger and more smug-looking.
    â€œThat’s it,” she said. “I’m going to do what you did with Frankie’s.”
    â€œYou’re going to organize a boycott of a dance that isn’t happening?”
    â€œDon’t be stupid. I’m going to organize a boycott of school.”

chapter nine
    I double-clicked on the MSN icon, and the screen opened up. I started to enter my password, typing in the first three letters of my dog Shadow’s name, before I remembered that that wasn’t my password anymore.
    I’d read that pet names were the first thing people tried when they wanted to get into your e-mail, so I figured I should change it. Yeah, like my Hotmail account was important enough for somebody totry to hack into. Whole groups of spies, terrorists and international criminals were trying to find out who I was talking to.
    Regardless I had changed it to something nobody would ever guess. I typed it in:
J–u–l–i–a
. I figured nobody would ever figure that one out. I certainly hoped that Julia or Oswald would never know.
    I hit Enter and scrolled down to my contact list. Julia wasn’t online, but Oswald was.
    hey Oz
, I typed.
    what u doing?
he replied.
    homework. u?
    nm
    That was code for nothing much.
    has j been on line?
I asked.
    nope...you seen her Facebook event?
    she created an event?
I asked.
    she’s doing a school boycott event,
he replied.
    I’d hoped that she’d just forget about that whole idea. Although, knowing Julia the way I did, I didn’t think that was too likely.
    she also wrote about Roberts in the event description
, Oz wrote.
    what did she publish?
I asked.
    she let him have it...she hates him!
    I felt a tingle go up my spine. What exactly had she written? I had to look.
    gtg...see u
l8r
, I typed, and then I clicked off the page.
    I minimized my MSN and logged onto Facebook. There was an invite to Julia’s boycott. I clicked on her