“Do you think this will work?” he asked Carter.
“Of course not!”
“So what do we do?”
“Start looking for new schools.”
“That wasn’t what I meant.” But it was too late. Carter banged through the cafeteria’s double doors and joined his friends. Over at their usual table, the Spencers waved.
“How’d it go with your dad?” Eliot asked as Mattie sat down.
“Not good.” Mattie stared at Caroline. She was scrubbing at her face so hard Beezus squeaked inside her sweater. “Are you okay?”
Caroline dropped her hands, revealing squiggly black marks under her nose. “What do you think?”
Mattie leaned in for a closer look. “That someone tried to draw a mustache on you and you woke up.”
“Exactly.” Caroline dipped her napkin in her water cup and went back to scrubbing. “So what’s up with your dad? I saw Professor Shelley pulling down security cameras. She looked even more annoyed than usual.”
Mattie nodded. “She said they’re vulnerable to hackers or something. My dad’s having her take them down.”
“Is that what he wanted to talk to you about?” Eliot asked.
“Not really,” Mattie said. “He’s using Munchem for good publicity, and if he doesn’t get enough good publicity, he’s going to close the school.”
“I don’t understand,” Caroline said as Beezus clawed her collar. Mattie tried to pay attention, but the mustache and rat kept distracting him. “How are we supposed to get him good publicity?”
Mattie quickly explained Ambassador Wade and the photo shoot and how Munchem was supposed to give his dad something money couldn’t buy. With every word, Caroline’s eyes grew wider and rounder.
“Getting out of class to do some stupid photo?” Eliot asked. “I’m game! This is the best idea your dad has ever had.”
“He thinks so too,” Mattie said.
Caroline shook her head. “It’s a terrible idea!”
Her brother rolled his eyes. “Well, you’re the only one who thinks so.”
“No, I’m not!”
“Yes, you are!” Eliot pointed to Mattie. “Mattie thinks it’s a great idea.”
Mattie wasn’t sure he would go that far, but he also wasn’t so sure it mattered because the Spencers were already arguing. Or they were until Delia strolled by. She had three girls from seventh grade following her and even though she didn’t even glance at Eliot, he snapped up straight and ran one hand over his hair.
“I can’t believe you like her!” Caroline whispered furiously. “Look what she did to me!”
Frankly, it was hard not to look at what Delia did to Caroline. Mattie’s eyes kept straying to the black marks.
Eliot rounded on his sister. “Well, maybe if you tried a little harder!”
Caroline gaped. “Why do I have to try harder?”
“Because you don’t have any friends other than us! You don’t always have to hang out with me!”
Caroline gaped. “Forget it!” She jumped up and stomped off.
Eliot glared at his sister’s back. “Whatever,” he said, turning to Mattie. “It’s not like I need her anyway.”
Mattie picked at the tabletop, and watched Eliot watch Delia. It made Mattie lose his appetite. Mr. Larimore’s favorite part of Munchem might be the business opportunities, but Mattie’s favorite part was his friends, and if they weren’t friends anymore, well, what was left?
A WEEK LATER, CAROLINE STILL wasn’t speaking to Mattie or Eliot. She didn’t sit with them during class and she didn’t sit with them during meals. Eliot said he didn’t care and maybe it was true, but Mattie did care. A lot.
Especially at the moment, because he (along with the rest of the Munchem sixth grade) was standing in the hot sun while a photographer tried to make the students look very happy about meeting Ambassador Wade. It was strangely warm for April, and Mattie was sweaty, tired, and pretty sure Caroline would’ve had something funny to say about the whole thing.
“Again!” Mr. Larimore yelled at the photographer. Even though they’d been taking pictures for an hour, Mr. Larimore still wasn’t happy. Mattie’s dad stood behind the weedy photographer and glared at everyone. His big blue vein began to pulse.
“Smile!” Ambassador Wade said, wrapping one arm around Doyle’s shoulders.
Doyle screamed and fell to the ground “It hurts! It hurts!”
Mattie sighed. There was no way the ambassador’s grip had hurt Doyle, but it didn’t matter. Everyone began to mill around, trying to see Doyle thrashing on the grass.
“We’re never getting out of here,” Mattie told Eliot. A few feet away from them, an oblivious Headmaster Rooney practiced different smiles. All of them looked pretty vacant.
Mr. Larimore hauled Doyle to his feet and shoved him back into place. “Try it again!” he shouted. “Smile like you mean it!”
“My arm!” Doyle shrieked and fell down again.
“Arm?” Headmaster Rooney sprang to attention. “Whose arm?” He tried to push through the students to see better, but the students pushed back.
“What kind of school is this?” Delia’s voice rose above the crowd, and even though Mattie couldn’t see her, he could somehow hear how she was pointing an imperious finger at Doyle. “Someone needs to get him a doctor! This is cruel!”
“Now I’m just getting bored.” Mattie squinted up at the sun and tugged at his sweat-dampened shirt. It really was oddly hot. “I wish Caroline would come stand with us.”
“I don’t. I—” Eliot paused. “Do you hear that?”
“Hear what?” Mattie asked. “My will to live leaving me? Why, yes I do.”
“No, like…” Eliot trailed off, looking toward the school gym. “Like rumbling.”
“Do you have sunstroke or something?” Mattie turned to Eliot, and as he did, a cool wind snaked past, dragging thunder with it.
BOOM! The thunder rolled overhead as the wind began to gust. Deep purple clouds appeared above the gym’s crumbling chimneys, moving quickly across the water-stained rooftop.
Moving straight for us, Mattie thought, just before the rumbling turned into rain, and the clouds swallowed the sun.
“Blast!” Mr. Larimore bellowed. “Run for the school!”
And for once, the students listened. Everyone took off as rain pelted down, stinging their faces and heads. Now, at other schools, the lawns would not be very big and the students would not have very far to run and the grass wouldn’t turn to mud because bulldozers had been improving the school. But it wasn’t any other school, it was Munchem, and it was bad.
And as Mattie dashed toward Munchem’s sweeping granite steps, it got worse. The rain came down harder and the mud grew thicker and the ground began to crack and slide. A deep, deep jagged ravine snaked across the lawn.
“Aiiieee!” everyone screamed. The ground heaved again, and everyone ran faster. Eliot and Mattie raced toward the school. Caroline raced toward the parking lot. Delia tripped and fell down. And the rest of Mattie’s roommates? Well, Doyle made it out, but Kent and Bell were swallowed right up.
Munchem’s lawn was no longer a lawn. It was a wide patch of raw dirt-and-rock-filled holes and a huge, raging ravine.
Actually, put like that, the no-longer-lawn was rather appropriate for Munchem, but Mattie didn’t see it that way. The teachers had herded most of the students onto the front steps to wait for the school nurse.
“How many Munchem teachers does it take to get Kent and Bell out of a hole?” Delia asked as EMTs and Munchem scientists tried to pull Kent and Bell to safety. “Because it seems like this is math we could actually use around here.”
Mattie slumped lower. He couldn’t bring himself to argue. Kent and Bell had almost been killed.
So much for good publicity, Mattie thought. Ambassador Wade had peeled off in his sleek limousine, leaving Mr. Larimore standing in the now squishy driveway. Mattie had expected his dad to start yelling, but he hadn’t. He had, however
, gone stalking into the school like he was going to start yelling.
“How did this even happen?” Mattie whispered.
“I don’t know.” Eliot flicked a bit of grass in Caroline’s direction. “Erosion? I mean, they have been pushing a lot of dirt around. The ground’s weak.”
“And that thunderstorm was freaky strong.”
Eliot frowned. “Yeah,” he said at last.
“The storm came over the top of the gym—like it was coming from the gym.” Standing on the steps, Mattie couldn’t see the newly repaired ballroom turned gym, but he could glimpse the crouching gargoyles. The students weren’t allowed inside, and frankly, Mattie wasn’t feeling the loss. Maybe it was the spidery-armed candelabras that still glowed in the cloudy windows. Or maybe it was the near-constant smell of burned plastic. Probably it was the occasional scream coming from inside. But there was something disturbing about the once-upon-a-time ballroom.
“Are you worried?” Mattie asked at last.
Eliot thought for a moment. “Not at all.”
Mattie could tell he was lying.
IT WAS ALMOST AS BAD as when Mattie nearly died in a diaper. For the next two weeks, all the students could talk about was mud and holes and how Kent and Bell could have died.
“I heard they’re still in the hospital,” one kid said as he passed Mattie during lunch.
“My parents are going to freak out,” another kid added. “I bet they pull me out. This school is a disaster!”
Mattie pushed food around on his plate and watched Caroline push food around on her plate. She sat at the end of a bench, the girls from her dorm sitting next to her. But they weren’t with her. In fact, as far as Mattie could tell, everyone was ignoring Caroline and Caroline was ignoring everyone.
“Should we go ask her to sit with us?” he asked Eliot.
“No.”
“But she’s alone.”
“Her fault.”
Mattie chewed his thumbnail, and as he watched, Caroline turned. Her ponytail swung to the side, exposing a fist-size bald spot at the back of her head. Mattie spit out a bit of thumbnail. “Eliot, I think Delia pulled out some of Caroline’s hair.”
Eliot stared straight ahead, chewing hard. “Her. Fault.”
“But—”
“Hey!” A meaty hand caught Mattie between the shoulder blades and shoved him forward. He barely avoided face-planting in vitamin-enhanced Tater Tots. “Little Larimore!”
“Uh, hey, Doyle.” Mattie eased around. “Did you need something?”
“Professor Shelley wants to see you.”
“Oh.” Mattie couldn’t think why she would. He wasn’t behind in homework and he wasn’t that good with computers.
“Maybe she meant to ask for me,” Eliot said to him.
Doyle’s eyes narrowed. “Uh, no.”
Mattie still couldn’t think why Professor Shelley would want to see him, and it made him uneasy. He glanced toward Caroline, but Caroline wouldn’t look at him, and it made all his insides feel a little heavier.
“Like now, Little Larimore!”
“Oh! Right!” Mattie scrambled off the bench. “I’ll see you later, Eliot.”
Eliot waved a forkful of something brown before stuffing it into his mouth. “I want to hear everything when you’re done.”
The hallway outside Professor Shelley’s classroom was cool and quiet. Since classes were over for the afternoon, someone had turned off some of the overhead lights and it pooled shadows in all the corners, making the shiny new Munchem look a little like the scary, old Munchem.
The computer lab’s door stood open and Mattie ducked inside. The room was empty except for the computers…and desks…and Delia Dane, who stood in the middle of it all, stroking her silver briefcase like it was a cat. Her blond hair was smooth and tight as ever, but Delia’s eyes were too bright and her smile promised mayhem. “Oh, hello, Mattie!” she said loudly.
Mattie stared at her. “Uh, hello to you too. Is Professor Shelley around?” He took another step into the classroom and Delia heaved an enormous gasp.
“What are you doing?” she cried.
Mattie stopped. His teeth began to itch. Something was wrong here. Very wrong. Delia’s tone was stuffed full of horror, but she was smiling her nasty smile.
“Is your hair pulled too tight?” Mattie asked. “Where’s Professor Shelley? She wanted to see me.”
“Mattie?” Professor Shelley’s voice drifted over the huge server cabinet. He could hear her opening and closing doors. “What are you doing here?”
The teeth itching was now joined by a roaring in Mattie’s head. What was he doing here? Professor Shelley sent for him! “I was told you—”
“Mattie!” Delia cried, sounding as if she had just been confronted with especially hungry zombies. “Don’t! Please don’t!”
“I’m not doing anything to you!” Mattie yelled, and it was true. Mattie was at least four feet away. He couldn’t reach Delia if he stretched his arms as far as they could go.
“Mattie?” Professor Shelley sounded furious. Another cabinet door slammed. “I’ll be out in a minute. What are you doing?”
“Nothing!”
Delia’s mean little smile turned even meaner. “Stop, Mattie! You’ll ruin the computers!”
“WHAT!” Something in the supply room slammed and footsteps slapped the floor. “Mr. Larimore, don’t! You! DARE!”
“I’m not doing anything!” To make his point, Mattie took a step back. He was even closer to the door now, nowhere near the computers—and that was when Delia grinned. She pointed one finger to the ceiling fan above her head, and as Mattie watched, it began to turn.
And purple glitter rained down.
It sparkled. It shimmered. It filled the air and coated the computers. It billowed across the carpet. It drifted into the air vent. In short, it went everywhere (as anyone who has ever used glitter knows glitter will do).
Professor Shelley raced out of the server room, black cardigan swirling around her hips. She skidded to a stop, opened her mouth to shriek, and promptly choked on glitter. She coughed and coughed and slammed her fist against her chest. “What happened? What is this?”
Delia’s eyes were huge. She pointed toward Mattie, her finger now a sparkling purple. “I tried to stop him! I tried!”
Mattie’s blood went cold. Delia’s expression was spot-on and her tone was perfect, which in this case meant Delia looked small and vulnerable and her voice had the ideal amount of wobble in it. She was only twelve, but Delia had already perfected the Innocent Look that would serve her well in the coming years.
Professor Shelley gasped. “Mr. Larimore! I expect better from you!”
“I didn’t do it!” Mattie protested. “I swear! I was all the way over here!”
“Right next to the power switch!” Delia said and Mattie froze. She was right. By standing in the doorway, he could have easily flipped the lights and fan on, but he hadn’t.
She must have some sort of remote, Mattie thought. But how could he get Professor Shelley to check her pockets? Mattie started to speak—and inhaled a bunch of glitter. Now he was coughing too.
Professor Shelley stuck a sparkling purple finger in Mattie’s face. “Don’t move.”
Mattie couldn’t if he tried. He thought he was going to cough up a lung, and as Mattie hacked out puffs of purple glitter, Delia stared at her shoes and laughed.
“Wow!”
Everyone turned. Eliot stood at the door, blue eyes filled with horror. “What happened? Those poor computers!”
“You!” Professor Shelley launched herself across the room. She ground her words through clenched teeth, and in that moment, she sounded more like a monster than a teacher. “You’re behind this, aren’t you?”
Eliot pointed at his chest. “Me? Why would I be behind this?”
Professor Shelley coughed tiny gusts of glitter into the air. “Who else would come up with something so horrible?”
Eliot gaped and Mattie kne
w he didn’t have a response to that. Eliot had spent the past several weeks trying to show Professor Shelley what he could do and now—Mattie sneezed—now she thought he was behind this.
“We didn’t do it!” Mattie shouted. “Eliot would never mess up a computer!”
“He’s been messing up computers all term!” Professor Shelley glared at Eliot. “Admit it, you helped him do this!”
“They couldn’t have done it!” Caroline stomped into the classroom, fists clenched. Mattie’s knees went wobbly with relief. Caroline might be mad at her brother, but she wasn’t going to let him go down for this. “They were with me the whole time,” she added.
Mattie peeked at their teacher. The thing was, Caroline was lying, but she was lying so convincingly Professor Shelley had to believe her. After all, it was three denials against Delia’s accusation, and when Mattie looked at his teacher’s face, he could see she was thinking the same thing.
Then Delia cleared her throat and Professor Shelley flinched. She crossed her arms, staring down at Caroline. “So you’re in on it too?”
Eliot stepped in front of his sister. “She would never! And Mattie isn’t even supposed to be here! You sent for him!”
“I didn’t send for him.”
“Yes, you did. Doyle…” Eliot trailed off, all the color draining from his already pale face. He was putting together what happened. So was Mattie.
First, Delia put the glitter on top of the fan blades. Then she sent Doyle to bring Mattie to the computer lab. Once he was here, she flipped on the fan, and now she looked innocent.
Mattie glared at Delia. Delia began to cry. “Why are you looking at me like that?” she wailed.
Pop! Pop! One of the computers shot glitter and smoke through its fan and Professor Shelley screamed.
“Detention!” She cradled the smoldering computer tower in her arms. “All of you!”
Eliot perked up. “With you?”
Mattie had to resist the urge to kick him.
“Oh, no,” Professor Shelley said. She crossed both arms and glared down at them, looking a bit like a bedazzled, furious monster. “That would be too easy. Since you three are so interested in making a mess, you can do some cleanup—in the cemetery.”
The Girl Who Knew Even More Page 6