Monstrato

  Chapter 15

  Hope didn't come to school on Thursday or Friday, and neither did Tammy or Corena. The kids weren't freaking out as much over the idea that they might be adopted—they must have all gone home and checked with their parents. But now, the story was being told of how Corena had found out Hope was adopted from reading Hope's IEP, and this is what the kids were all talking about. Nobody knew whether Tammy let Corena see Hope's IEP, or if Corena just went into the office and read it. Either way, everyone seemed to hold Tammy responsible. You'd hear kids whispering about it in the back of class and discussing it at lunchtime. And a feeling started going around that, this time, Tammy had really fucked up.

  You see, we were used to Tammy going totally over the top and doing things other school administrators would never dream of. No matter what it was, she always got away with it, even when parents went and complained to the school board over at Terrence West. This time, though, it seemed different because it had to do with private information about Hope. People were wondering whether Tammy had broken the law and what kind of trouble she'd get in. We were all secretly hoping she'd get in some kind of trouble. That's what people wanted to see; they wanted to see Tammy held responsible for her deeds.

  By now, the story had made its way around that Corena had told Keenan and his friends to jump Bobby. The kids didn't talk as much about this—at least, not out loud where Latisha, or Sidney, or any of Corena's other spies could hear. Corena wasn't at school, but kids were still scared of talking behind her back. They were afraid she'd come after them like she did with Hope. I was talking about it, though.

  I brought it up in computer class because Calvin was in there, and I wanted to hear what he'd say. I said Corena did the same thing Charles Manson had done. We found out about him when we were looking up Marilyn Manson on the internet. That's how the band got it's name, you see, from Marilyn Monroe and Charles Manson. So anyway, Charles Manson was this guy who got a bunch of people fucked up on LSD and had them go out and kill some people because he wanted to start a revolution. They even cut a baby out of some lady's stomach after they killed her and wrote stuff on the walls with the blood, which was pretty sick. Now Charles Manson didn't kill anybody himself, but he's still in prison because he was the leader—he told everyone else to do it. I said that's the same thing Corena did, that she was just like Charles Manson. And boy, when I said that, you could see people getting scared.

  Calvin said, "You don't know she did that."

  I said, "Hope heard her say it, and she doesn't lie." Calvin didn't look at me or say anything back. He just stared at the computer, and I could tell he knew I was right. Then Trent yelled at me from across the room.

  He said, "Why don't you just stay out of things that aren't none of your business?"

  I said, "I'm making it my business, chump."

  In a flash, Trent jumped out of his chair and turned towards me, his face glowing with wild hate. He pointed a finger at me and sneered, "Well, you need to stay out of it. We had a problem with that dude, and we took care of it, and if you keep it up, you'll get the same…"

  "Hey!!" yelled Ms. Strauss, and she yelled it loud. She said, "Sit down, Trent. And Macy, I don't want to hear another word about it…out of either of you." Trent sat down, and I turned back around towards my computer. I was glad Ms. Strauss told us to shut up because I didn't need to get suspended anymore. I was also glad that I said what I did because I wanted people to know where I stood, especially Calvin.