The Wave by Todd Strasser Read Free Book Online Page B

you sit down?” she said. “Your egg foo yung’s going to get cold.”
    “You know,” her husband said as he came to the table and sat down, “the funny thing is, I feel myself getting caught up in it too. It’s contagious.”
    Christy nodded. That was obvious. “Maybe you’re becoming a guinea pig in your own experiment,” she said. Although she made it sound like a joke, she was hoping he’d take it as a warning.

CHAPTER 8
    B oth David and Laurie lived within walking distance of Gordon High. David’s route didn’t necessarily lead past Laurie’s house, but ever since tenth grade he’d always gone out of his way. When he first noticed her, as a sophomore, he used to walk down her street on the way to school every morning, hoping that he would pass her house just as she was leaving for school. At first he managed to run into her only about once a week. But as the weeks passed and they got to know each other, he began to catch her more frequently until, by the spring, they walked together almost every day. For a long time David thought this was just a matter of luck and good timing. It never occurred to him that from the beginning Laurie had waited at her window, watching for him. At first she had only pretended to “run into” him once a week. Later she “ran into” him more often.
    When David picked Laurie up to walk with her to school the next morning, he was bursting withbrainstorms. “I’m telling you, Laurie,” he said as they walked along a sidewalk toward school. “This is just what the football team needs.”
    “What the football team needs,” Laurie told him, “is a quarterback who can pass, a running back who doesn’t fumble, a couple of linebackers who aren’t afraid to tackle, an end who—”
    “Stop it,” David said irritably. “I’m serious. I got the team into it yesterday. Brian and Eric helped me. The guys really responded to it. I mean, it’s not like we improved in only one practice, but I could feel it. I could really feel the team spirit. Even Coach Schiller was impressed. He said we were like a new team.”
    “My mother says it sounds like brainwashing to her,” Laurie said.
    “What?”
    “She says Mr. Ross is manipulating us.”
    “She’s crazy,” David said. “How could she know? And besides, what do you care what your mother says? You know she worries about everything.”
    “I didn’t say I agreed with her,” Laurie said.
    “Well, you didn’t say you disagreed with her either,” David said.
    “I was just telling you what she said,” Laurie replied.
    David wouldn’t let it drop. “How does she know, anyway? She can’t possibly understand what The Wave is about unless she’s been in class to see it work. Parents always think they know everything!”
    Laurie suddenly felt an urge to disagree withhim, but she restrained herself. She didn’t want to start a fight with David over something so petty. She hated it when they quarreled. Besides, for all she knew, The Wave might be just what the football team needed. They certainly needed something . She decided to change the subject. “Did you find help for calculus?”
    David shrugged. “Naw, the only kids who know anything are in my class.”
    “So why not ask one of them?”
    “No way,” David said. “I don’t want any of them to know I’m having trouble.”
    “Why not?” Laurie asked. “I’m sure someone would help you.”
    “Of course they would,” David said. “But I don’t want their help.”
    Laurie sighed. It was true that lots of kids at school were competitive about grades and class standing. But few took it as far as David did. “Well,” she said, “I know Amy didn’t say anything at lunch, but if you can’t find anyone else she could probably help you.”
    “Amy?”
    “She’s incredibly smart in math,” Laurie explained. “I bet you could give her your problem and she’d have it figured out in ten minutes.”
    “But I asked her at lunch,” David said.
    “She was