The Wave by Todd Strasser Read Free Book Online Page A

knows exactly what he’s doing. I don’t see why you should make this into a big deal.”
    “You don’t think it’s dangerous to allow a teacher to manipulate students like that?” Mrs. Saunders asked her husband.
    “Mr. Ross isn’t manipulating us,” Laurie said. “He’s one of my best teachers. He knows what he’s doing, and as far as I’m concerned what he’s doing is for the class’s good. I wish some of my other teachers were as interesting.”
    Laurie’s mother seemed ready to keep arguing, but her husband changed the subject. “Where’s David tonight?” he asked. “Isn’t he coming over?” David often came over in the evening, usually on the pretense of studying with Laurie. But inevitably he’d wind up in the den with Mr. Saunders talking about sports or engineering. Since David hoped to study engineering just as Mr. Saundershad, they had lots to talk about. Mr. Saunders had also played high school football. Mrs. Saunders had once told Laurie that it was surely a match made in heaven.
    Laurie shook her head. “He’s home studying tomorrow’s history assignment.”
    Mr. Saunders looked surprised. “David studying? Now there’s something to be concerned about.”
    Because Ben and Christy Ross both taught full-time at the high school, they had grown accustomed to sharing many of the after-school chores around their house—cooking, cleaning, and running errands. That afternoon Christy had to take her car into the shop to get the muffler replaced, so Ben had agreed that he’d cook. But after that history class he felt too preoccupied to bother cooking. Instead he stopped at the Chinese take-out place on the way home and picked up some eggrolls and egg foo yung.
    When Christy got home around dinnertime, she found the table not covered with plates for dinner, but with books, again. Looking over the brown paper take-out bags on the kitchen counter, she asked, “You call this dinner?”
    Ben looked up from the table. “I’m sorry, Chris. I’m just so preoccupied with this class. And I’ve got so much to do to prepare for it, I didn’t want to take time to cook.”
    Christy nodded. It wasn’t as if he did this every time it was his turn to cook. She could forgive him this time. She started unpacking the food. “So howis your experiment going, Dr. Frankenstein? Have your monsters turned on you yet?”
    “On the contrary,” her husband replied. “Most of them are actually turning into human beings!”
    “You don’t say,” said Christy.
    “I happen to know that they’re all keeping up on their reading,” Ben said. “Some of them are even reading ahead. It’s as if they suddenly love being prepared for class.”
    “Or they’re suddenly afraid of being unprepared,” his wife observed.
    But Ben ignored her comment. “No, I really think they’ve improved. At least, they’re behaving better.”
    Christy shook her head. “These can’t be the same kids I have for music.”
    “I’m telling you,” her husband said, “it’s amazing how much more they like you when you make decisions for them.”
    “Sure, it means less work for them . They don’t have to think for themselves,” Christy said. “But now stop reading and clear some of those books away so we can eat.”
    As Ben made room on the kitchen table, Christy set the food out. When Ben stood up Christy thought he was going to help her, but instead he started pacing around the kitchen, deep in thought. Christy went on getting the meal ready, but she too was thinking about The Wave. There was something about it that bothered her, something about the tone of her husband’s voice when he spoke about his class—as if they were now better students than the rest of the school. As she satdown at the table she said, “How far do you plan to push this, Ben?”
    “I don’t know,” Ross answered. “But I think it could be fascinating to see.”
    Christy watched her husband pace around the kitchen, lost in thought. “Why don’t