United Seventh Grade

7

  The next morning, a group of girls went down to the kitchen and made scrambled eggs and buttered toast for breakfast – for everyone. They spread the food out into the warm serving plates behind the cafeteria line, and invited everyone to come over and eat.

  It was really nice of them. Most of us went, even Elliot, which is no surprise because he loves to eat.

  I sat at a round table with Sam, Julian and Elliot. It was there that I realized Sam and Elliot were keeping a secret. At first, I assumed they liked each other; but that didn’t make sense right now. No, their eyes were playing a game, and I was determined to find out what was going on.

  “So, are you moving into the church today?” I asked Samantha.

  “It’s not a church, Nines, it’s a sanctuary. But yeah…at some point,” she said, then looked at Elliot, and they both laughed out loud.

  “What’s so funny?” Julian asked.

  We both looked at Sam and Elliot fiercely, wanting to know what they were scheming up in their little rebellious minds.

  “Nothing,” Sam said. Of course nothing was funny. That’s why they still could not stop laughing.

  “So, you’re moving out there all alone? Won’t you be scared at night?” I asked Sam.

  “No,” she answered confidently. “The doors lock. Besides, you guys can move out there, too. Just bring down some beds. We can set them up in that big room. I get the small room in back, though. It’ll be fun,” she suggested, sounding hopeful that at least one of us would agree.

  “Is there a bathroom there?” I asked.

  “Yup. And it’s nicer than the other ones!” Sam said.

  “Julian,” Elliot said. “Let’s go check it out later this afternoon. If you want to, we can carry some furniture down. I’d rather be there than in that loud mess at the Lodge. It’s starting to smell there.”

  Julian started bouncing up and down in his chair with excitement. “Let’s go now! I’m done eating. You ready?”

  “I can’t go now. I have something to do first. I’ll find you when I get back,” Elliot said.

  Julian asked, “Where are you going?”

  And immediately, at the very same time, Samantha and Elliot both shouted, “Nowhere!” and started laughing together again.

  We let them go when we were finished eating. Julian and I watched them walk down the dirt road into the woods.

  “Should we follow them?” I asked Julian

  “Do you want to?” He asked me.

  “No. There’s poison ivy and ticks and bears in there,” I said.

  Julian turned away from the forest view and said, “Okay then. I don’t want to either. V.J. said there’s a soccer game at 10:30 at the field. You can come with me if you want. You don’t have to play, just watch.”

  Everyone knew that I didn’t play sports. I had most of my panic attacks in gym class.

  “Okay, I’ll go. I want to get out of this dining hall before someone asks me to do the dishes!”

  We jumped off the wooden stoop, and ran across the grassy yard to the field. Julian joined in the game, and I sat and watched on the sidelines. There was a small group of spectators, and as the sun shone down on us over the tall oak trees, everyone, in that moment, seemed to be happy.

  Around 4 o’clock, we heard a rumbling in the distance, and a cold wind carried some grey clouds into camp. Rain. We ran for shelter. Julian and I headed for the dining hall again because we were getting hungry and it was almost dinner time.

  When we got inside, Mark and Brian had already set up shop in the kitchen. Brian was carrying the kitchen duty sign-up sheet, trying to figure out who was scheduled to make dinner tonight.

  Julian and I sat at a table near the door.

  “It’s not me,” he said. “I’m cooking Thursday.”

  “I cook tomorrow,” I said, breathing heavy from the running.

  The rain was pouring down so heavy that we could hear it dropping like pebbles onto the roof. It was relaxing. I felt relieved to be out of the rain. My survival hormones were starting to kick in. The need to be warm and dry left no room for fear or anxiety to creep in on me. But we still had not heard from Sam and Elliot.

  “I guess those two are getting wet,” Julian spoke up, reading my thoughts.

  “They really should have told us where they were going. Should we worry?” I asked him.

  “No, because there they are.” Sam and Elliot walked into the room, sopping wet and smiling. Elliot came to us and shook his crazy yellow hair out like a dog, spraying cold raindrops on us and our table.

  “Stop!” I screeched. It was totally annoying.

  “Where’d you guys g…oh wait, I know where you were. Nowhere, right?” Julian asked.

  “Exactly,” Elliot stated, wrapping his arms around his chest. “Geez, it’s cold in here!”

  “I’m going back to the lodge to change,” Sam said. “Anyone want to come?”

  “I have to get something to eat first,” I told Sam. “Aren’t you guys hungry?”

  “No, we ate.” Sam said, as she turned and walked out the door.

  “Where’d you eat?” Julian asked Elliot.

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about, but I’m going with her,” Elliot said, and walked right out the door into the rain.

  Julian and I just looked at each other.

  “I’ll figure out where they were.” I promised him. It gave me something to do.

  Later that night, the four of us gathered at Sam’s place. We found firewood stored indoors near the old stone fireplace, and we lit a fire to keep out the chill that the wind and rain had brought to the camp.

  Sam had collected pine cones, acorns and smooth, white stones, and arranged them around the room for decoration. Elliot had shown her some of the plants in the forest that were edible, and she organized the branches and leaves into piles that didn’t look much like food to me.

  It was still raining, so we couldn’t bring our beds down from the lodge, but we set up a campground on the floor with pillows and blankets. Samantha had her own room in the back – a cool one with a bed, desk and bookshelves. But me, Julian and Elliot were happy on the floor near the fireplace.

  Sam said to me, “I’m so glad you talk now, Nines.”

  The others agreed.

  “I guess I’m not afraid anymore. I don’t know why. It just went away. Isn’t it weird that we weren’t really friends before, but now we are?” I asked them.

  “We weren’t allowed to be friends the way that school was run, Nines. That place is a mess.” Elliot replied.

  “I know!” Sam added. “Now that we are free, I can see so many things I couldn’t see before. Look at how well everyone gets along here. Why is that?”

  Julian sat up from under his blanket and leaned his elbows on his pillow.

  “Because no one is forcing us to do anything we don’t want to do. Like read stupid articles and answer stupid questions.”

  I added, “And do stupid math problems.”

  And Sam added, “Over and over and over again even if we got them all right.”

  “And tell us we’re wrong, instead of listening to what we say,” Elliot said.

  We must have thought of a hundred things that were messed up with our school.

  “It’s not our fault that they think we’re stupid,” Elliot prophesized. “They just don’t understand us. We don’t want to live their stupid lives. Here we are, trying to be happy, and we get yelled at.”

  “I think I’ve learned more things about life in the past few days then I learned in my entire seven years at Shadyside School,” I decided.

  “Me too,” Sam said.

  “Me three,” added Julian.

  “Me four,” said Elliot.

  We talked about the little sanctuary, and wondered who it belonged to. We decided that it didn’t matter what religion it was made for, anyone could use it for what they needed. Sam said she wanted to have Yoga classes th
ere, and Julian said maybe he could teach a karate class. I liked the church because it was quiet. Green trees surrounded the entrance, and from the inside, all of the big glass windows had a view of the treetops. The books in the back room where Sam slept were interesting – books on plants, cooking, history, and all kinds of interesting new things to learn. I decided that I loved this little place, and I could feel safe here if my friends were here with me.

  We were getting sleepy, so we put out the fire and got in our beds. A soft glow of light came through the front window from the outside porch lights. We heard an owl whoo outside.

  “How long do you think we’re going to be here?” Julian asked, talking to the darkness.

  “Not much longer,” Elliot said, and then someone started to laugh.

  “That’s it!” Julian shouted, and jumped up from the floor into a superhero karate pose that he had definitely made up himself. “WHAT are you two HIDING from us?”

  By now, Sam was laughing so hard from the other room, that we all picked it up like a contagious disease and broke into a four-person giggle fit.

  “Nothing,” Elliot managed to say, through laughing breaths, and that just made all of us laugh even harder.

  Eventually, most of the students made their way to the computer lab to take the reading test, so they would be able to email their parents and place an order for more food. Those who had already taken the test and sent mail were still waiting for a reply. It had been a few days, and no response.

  One morning, it was raining out, and since we couldn’t play outside, a bunch of us went to the computer lab to see what we could figure out. Even Elliot came with us.

  “Nines, you said you sent your parents an email, and your inbox is still empty?” Elliot asked me that day.

  “They didn’t get it,” he decided. “No one is getting our mail.”

  There was a slight buzzing noise in the computer lab as everyone logged in and put on their headphones. We couldn’t hear much outside noise, just the voice of our computer teacher Jason, and the music that was played when we got a question right. That’s why we didn’t know that after Mark finished his reading test, a door opened behind us and Jason told him to go in there and play a video game as his reward.

  We were all facing the other wall when he left, so we had no idea.

  This is what happened when he got inside, according to Mark.

  There was one of those arcade racing games where you sit inside the machine and drive the pedals with your feet and the screen is in front of you, like virtual reality. There was a steering wheel, too, and a huge dashboard all lit up. I sat down and a weird computer voice said, “Close your door and fasten your seatbelt.” So I did. “Now, helmet on.” And I did that too. Then the car started up and I was playing the game, and then it stopped, and there was Jason, standing in the middle of my racetrack. He actually got out of the blue Porsche. I was the red Ferrari.

  He said, “Well, Mark, you’ve made it this far. Now it’s time for a little reading race. Use your strategies and do your best. For each question you get right, you get more time on the track. Good luck. I’ll see you at the finish line!” And he got back into his car and drove away. My gas pedal and steering wheel were frozen, so I took the test because I wanted to play again.

  I read the first paragraph and answered the question. I guess I got it wrong because it shocked me. The machine shocked me, and the voice said, “You’re not reading. Use your strategies and answer the questions.” So I kept reading, and it shocked me again. It said “You can’t fool a machine, Mark. READ!” and sent this shockwave out of the steering wheel. It went up though my arm and out my foot. I felt like I had been struck by lightning. I tried to take my helmet off and get out of there, but I was locked in. I couldn’t get out. That’s when I started screaming.

  I was banging on the door of the machine, trying to get out, and it kept shocking me. I tried to smash it, break it, but it was indestructible.

  “And that’s when Elliot found you,” I said to Mark.

  Elliot told us the rest of the story. “I finished my dumb test and got a D, and figured out that the whole email and food order thing was crap, so I took off my headphones and heard this banging noise in the room next door. There was a sign on the door that said, “Employees Only.” I thought, Good thing I can’t read, and tried to pull open the door. It was locked. I could see Mark in there though the glass and his arms were flying all over the place banging on the arcade game. I tried to find something to smash the glass with, and that’s when I yelled to Sam and she started to get everyone else’s attention. Julian found the fire extinguisher and I yelled “Get back!” and smashed in the glass. It set off an alarm, but I got my hand through, and unlocked the door. We got inside, and Mark yelled ‘Unplug it! It’s killing me!’ We found the plug and unplugged the monster machine, and got Mark out of there. It was crazy, man.”

  Mark added, “I couldn’t move. I was lying on the ground and I couldn’t move my body.”

  We all bent down around Mark’s body and tried to decide what to do.

  “What do you do when someone is electrocuted?” Sam asked.

  “It’s like a burn, on the inside,” I said.

  Elliot made a decision. “Get on each side of him. We have to carry him to his bed. Nicky, you go get Brian and the rest of the gang and meet us at the Lodge. Nines and Sam, stay here and help us. Be careful. Let’s go.”

  Julian asked, “Can we get electrocuted by carrying him in the rain?”

  No one said anything. We thought about it for a minute, and finally Mark yelled up at us from the floor, “No!”

  We all found a part of Mark’s giant overgrown body to support, and carefully carried him out of the building. At one point I dropped his leg and it was dragging on the ground in the mud. I swiftly got my strength back, though. We carried him across the grassy courtyard, over the sidewalks and bushes, through Lookout Lodge, up the stairs and into room 202. We didn’t know if he was okay, or not. He was just sort of lying there helpless, like a giant beached whale.

  Everyone pitched in to help. We brought him water and food, searched the camp for medical supplies, found nothing but band-aids, and sat in the living room together, everyone concerned, and a little scared.

  “We need the adults,” Nicky said. Everyone was thinking it, but no one wanted to say it yet. We had given up trying to contact the adults.

  “They tried to kill him,” Brian said. “Who’s the next one on their list?”

  “Anyone who fails the reading test,” Elliot revealed. No-one else had thought of that.

  “Oh my God,” Sam gasped. “He’s right! Mark got in trouble for failing the reading test!”

  Julian’s face went pale. He never set foot in that computer lab again after that day.

  V.J. came up with a new idea. “The principal can see us. There has to be some kind of monitor somewhere. We can find it.” He walked over to the television screens and started looking behind them, hoping to decipher the code and find the missing link.

  Elliot and Sam locked eyes, nodded their heads, and stood up at the same time.

  “We’ll be right back,” Elliot said as they walked away.

  There was mass protest.

  “Where are you going?”

  “You can’t leave now!”

  “It’s raining outside!”

  They kept walking. Elliot waved his hand as they closed the door behind them and walked out into the misty forest.

  Those of us inside were silent.

  “Just let them go,” Julian spoke up.

  I backed him up with a “Yeah.”

  Then I said, “Maybe there’s a book that can help us. I’m going to the church to look.”

  I got up to go, and Julian came with me. I thought that was heroic, since just the week before he was afraid of bears, and didn’t want to be without his friends.

  We had umbrellas and raincoats from the coatroom, and w
e donned them and walked the slippery wooden boardwalk path to the church. Inside, it was super quiet. We heard raindrops on the roof. Before I looked for books, I had to get my heart glasses, red plastic sunglasses with heart-shaped frames. The lenses were popped out, so I could see indoors. I rifled through my backpack and found them in their special pink case. I wore them for serious reading projects because they made me feel smart.

  I found some books on healing, but nothing on what to do if someone is electrocuted. I was afraid for Mark.

  While I was reading, Julian practiced his karate poses in the big room. He found his karate belt in his backpack, and tied it around his head like a ninja. I told him it looked good.

  “You know something?” I asked Julian.

  He turned his head slowly to face me from a karate pose and with one eye open said, “Hmm?”

  “I am so mad right now! What kind of parents leave their kids in the wild to die? And what kind of teachers give up on children? School is supposed to be a place where we are nurtured and supported, not abandoned and abused. I…” And then I stopped. I swear, I don’t know how I got this, but I finally got it. My glasses started to slide off my nose, but I pushed them back up.

  “They don’t know, Julian. Our parents don’t know! Does anyone have the letter? The envelope they mailed home before the first day of school?”

  “Sam does. Her mom gave it to her.”

  “I’m going through her things, she won’t care.”

  I found the manila envelope that Sam’s mother handed to her that night in the kitchen. Inside were all of the papers that the families had received. Some of them were ripped in half, below the dotted line, where the parents had to sign and return, like a permission slip. I read the documents out loud to Julian. We were shocked. The words had been manipulated in a way that made it seem like this really was a school, and that adults were here for us.

  “We need to call a town meeting,” I said. “We need all minds on deck.”

  We ran back to Lookout Lodge in the rain, carrying the papers under our raincoats. My left hand held the envelope, while my right hand kept my glasses on my nose as I ran. Julian still had his karate belt tied around his head. He looked like a warrior.

  Meanwhile, Sam and Elliot were running as fast as they could to get to Miss Robles for help, jumping over rocks and dodging puddles in the rainy woods. There was no time to talk; they were both lost in thought. Their plan had changed now that Mark had been hurt.

  When they arrived at the RV, Sam banged on the door.

  “Miss Robles!” Sam screamed. She banged harder. “Miss Robles!”

  Miss Robles opened the door and let them in. They stood inside, dripping wet.

  “What happened?” Miss Robles asked. She sounded unusually calm.

  “Mark got electrocuted by the reading machine. He’s going to die if we don’t help him.”

  Miss Robles just looked away, thinking.

  “We have to go,” Sam insisted. “You have to drive us back. In this.”

  Miss Robles laughed. “It’s too big, Sam! It won’t fit down the old trail.”

  “Yes it will. You could just take the back road,” Elliot said sharply. “Or call someone for help.”

  Sam and Elliot had figured out that there had to be a secret entrance to the camp. Elliot thought it was probably underground.

  Miss Robles sat down. She stared out the window. Sam and Elliot were not sure what she was going to do. Finally she spoke.

  “You’re right. There is more to this than your parents are aware of. Your parents think there are adults here to take care of things. It was Principal McThorn who did this.” She looked up at us and said, “I think he made a deal with the government to use you as an experiment. That reading machine is actually a prototype for a new computer that can read minds, which also means it knows when a student is reading, or not reading. McThorn agreed to test it out on your group in exchange for government grant money.”

  Elliot and Sam felt their rage building up. Adrenaline rushed into their bodies as their anger turned to courage.

  Just then, Miss Robles stood up and started looking for her keys.

  “Let’s go,” she said. “Elliot, go outside and close up anything that’s loose. Sam, clean up anything inside that can fly around. I think we can squeeze up the trail. It’s the only road to the camp.”

  They got to work. Miss Robles started the engine and the R.V. started to move.

  “We’ll drive as far as we can,” she said, maneuvering the van around boulders and logs. The rain came down harder, and thunder boomed outside. Every now and then Sam and Elliot had to jump outside and move a log or branches out of the road, but eventually they reached the camp with only a few dents in the van. The windshield was covered with wet leaves, with only a tiny space left clear. Sam and Elliot directed Miss Robles to Lookout Lodge. She tore across the lawn and pulled up to the front door, leaving deep skid marks in the grass.

  They walked right into the emergency town meeting that we had called.

  When the seventh grade saw Miss Robles, we were shocked. Tanya and Nicky both screamed, and then ran up to hug her. Some of the boys were freaked out, so they just sat there. Brian looked at Julian, and then at Elliot, and then at the ceiling. I looked at Julian, and we both finally understood that this is what Sam and Elliot had been hiding from us.

  “Mark’s up here,” Sam said, and led her to his room.

  Mark was okay. After the shock wore off, he was just tired. Miss Robles told him he was going to be fine, and somehow, that made him all better. He came downstairs with us, and the meeting continued.

  V.J. was still on the floor. He took apart a television, determined to find any sign of communication device, whether ingoing, or outgoing. He was lying on the floor behind the appliances, bending over like a plumber trying to fit under the kitchen sink. He sat up finally, and scratched his head. He looked over at us, then back to the TV, then over at us again, and then this strange look came over his face. He spoke, in a deep, sinister voice. He seemed to be speaking to the stuffed moose head on the wall. He said, “Ladder. I need a ladder.” Everyone scattered to try to find a ladder, or anything similar. We came back with chairs, crates and some plastic purple storage containers, but no ladder.

  We stacked the chair and a crate beneath the moose head, and V.J. climbed up. He stared deeply into the fake glass eyes, and saw a light.

  He climbed down.

  “It’s in there. Cameras are in the eyes, and microphones in the ears,” he said, and sat down, pleased with his work.

  The seventh grade crowded beneath the brown furry animal’s face.

  “Hello?” We yelled at the moose.

  “Is anybody listening?”

  We waited. The moose said nothing.

  At this point, things had changed. The seventh graders wanted answers. The town meeting soon turned into chaos, with everyone trying to monopolize Miss Robles, or throwing footballs at all of the animal heads lining the hallways, seeing if they could knock them down to get inside and look for cameras.

  Elliot pulled Sam aside and whispered in her ear, “I’m taking the RV. If you want to come, it’s now or never.”

  Julian and I saw them heading for the door. I said to him, “Don’t let them get away.”

  We followed them outside. No one noticed. Now that Mark was all right, Miss Robles was there, and the cameras had been found, the seventh grade thought they were safe, but we knew something was still not right.

  Julian and I caught up with Sam and Elliot just as they were approaching the RV.

  “Where are you guys going?” Julian called out to them.

  “Grab them!” Elliot yelled to Sam. He picked Julian up over his shoulder and jumped into the RV. Samantha did the same to me, which wasn’t hard to do considering her size.

  Elliot sat in the driver’s seat and said, “Hold on.” Sam locked the door and sat in the passenger seat beside h
im.

  “You’re abandoning them?” I was shocked. After all this time, I thought Elliot had changed. I thought he wanted to help us, instead of only worrying about himself.

  “No talking!” He yelled at me like a mean teacher. “I need to concentrate.” He started the engine and got away from Lookout Lodge without making too much noise.

  “I turned up the music in there, so they wouldn’t hear me start up the RV,” he told us, proud of himself as if he was the next 007. “You didn’t notice, did you?”

  Sam was smiling now. She wasn’t worried.

  “Don’t worry!” She said to me and Julian. “We know what we’re doing.”

  Julian was staring out the window, wondering how Elliot could see through all of the leaves that were plastered to the front windshield after their race through the woods. So this is what they had planned all along.

  Samantha began to explain, while Elliot turned back onto the winding dirt paths that led back to Miss Robles’ campsite.

  “We’re rescuing them, not abandoning them,” she explained.

  “But Miss Robles is here now. Doesn’t that mean we’re okay? Isn’t she going to call home for us?” I asked.

  “That’s what everyone thinks. That’s what we thought,” Elliot answered, nodding his head toward Sam. “But there’s nothing she can do. This is bigger than her.” He said, staring carefully through the mini windshield as he steered around a gnarly branch.

  He was an excellent driver.

  “She can get into trouble for spying on us,” Sam added.

  Julian was sitting at the mini kitchenette, holding on for his life as we bumped up and down through the forest, trying to put all of the pieces together.

  “So, where are we going?” He asked.

  “Back to school, of course!” Elliot smiled a huge smile. I had never seen him this happy.

  “Can we stop at my house first?” Julian asked, and we all started laughing at our crazy situation.