Ex-Rating

  “—and Ramona,” Mads said. “She has the access code. Duh. That’s where we got it from in the first place.”

  “And she was with me when we heard Flynn talking about Walker,” Lina said. “She knows how hurt I was. And she hates Flynn on principal. She’d have no problem doing something mean to her.”

  “And if it screws up your life and hurts Walker, too, what does she care?” Mads said. “She likes causing trouble.”

  “And eavesdropping,” Lina added with an eye on Sebastiano. “Are you listening to us?” she asked him.

  “No,” he said. “I’m incapable of cutting out pictures of celebrities and listening to you talk at the same time. It takes too much coordination.” He snapped his scissors at her. “Of course, I’m eavesdropping! You want my advice?”

  “No,” Lina and Mads said at once.

  “Don’t jump to conclusions,” Sebastiano said.

  “That’s terrible advice,” Mads said.

  “We didn’t jump to conclusions. We figured it out logically,” Lina said. “It had to be Ramona.”

  After lunch, Lina realized she’d left her father’s birthday card in the art studio. She went upstairs to the third floor to get it. As she approached the room, she heard voices—mainly a shrill girl’s voice, yelling.

  “Just tell me if it’s true!” the girl shouted. That’s Flynn, Lina realized. “Are you really a player? Are you cheating on me right now?”

  “No, Flynn, I swear!” Walker said. “That whole thing is a giant pack of lies.”

  Lina hid in the hallway and listened.

  “Who is Elvira, anyway?” Flynn cried. “Such a stupid name. How could you ever go out with a girl named Elvira?”

  “I’ve never heard of her, Flynn,” Walker said. “I have no idea who she is.”

  “You’re lying!” Flynn said. “Just like Elvira said. You’re lying to protect your old girlfriend. Maybe you still like her! You probably like her even more because she insulted me!”

  “Insulted you? What are you talking about?”

  “Didn’t you notice how she dissed me?” Flynn said. “It wasn’t very subtle, She’s jealous because I have an aunt in the film business.”

  “Oh, that.”

  “Yes, that! Don’t you care? You don’t care that some ex-girlfriend of yours humiliated me in front of the whole school? Don’t you have any loyalty to me at all?”

  “Of course I do, Flynn.” Walker’s voice was pleading. Lina felt sorry for him. “I’m telling you, I don’t know any Elvira. She’s no ex of mine. She made all that stuff up. Why won’t you believe me?”

  “I want to believe you,” Flynn said. “It’s just so shocking. … Lift up your shirt.”

  “What?”

  “I want to see if you have backne.”

  “Flynn, trust me, I don’t have backne.”

  “Lift up your shirt!”

  “No.”

  “You do have backne, don’t you!”

  There was a struggle, and Lina peeked and saw Flynn trying to lift up Walker’s shirt and Walker struggling to hold it down.

  “Flynn, I’m telling you, I don’t—”

  “Just show me! What’s your problem?”

  “Stop it! Please believe me,” Walker said. He held Flynn’s hands. She let go of his shirt.

  “If you show me your back and you don’t have backne, it will prove that she’s lying,” Flynn said.

  “And if you take my word for it and don’t strip me naked at school, it will prove that you trust me,” Walker said.

  “Are you going to show me your back or not?”

  “This is ridiculous,” Walker said. “No.”

  Lina pressed herself against the wall as Flynn ran out of the art room and down the stairs. Walker ran after her, calling her name. Luckily, the door to the art room hid Lina pretty well.

  She heard their footsteps rattling down the stairs. Lina went into the art room and found her card. She sat down and rested her head on her arms. Ramona, what have you done?

  “There you are.” Walker’s voice had a sharpness to it that Lina had never heard before. He marched up to her at a lacrosse game that afternoon, all business. “I’ve been looking for you all day. Have you been avoiding me? I don’t blame you. I wouldn’t want to get blasted the way I’m about to blast you, either.”

  Lina shrank down in her seat. “Walker, I understand—”

  “You don’t understand anything!” Walker shouted. “How could you do this to me, Lina? Why would you?”

  “Walker, I didn’t do anything, I swear,” Lina said. “I read Elvira online just like you did. I think I know who posted it, but it wasn’t me or Mads or Holly—”

  “Whoever wrote that was trying to break up me and Flynn,” Walker said. “Who else could it be?” He threw her an accusing stare.

  “It wasn’t me!” Lina was shaking. How could he think she’d do something so awful? Did he dislike her that much? “I’m not trying to break up anybody. I promise, I had nothing to do with it!”

  “I don’t believe you,” Walker said. “You’re responsible for the Dating Game. For the content that goes online. If you didn’t like it, if you thought it would hurt someone, you could have stopped it. But you didn’t. I think you wanted to hurt someone, Lina. Me.”

  Lina could hardly speak. Her heart was cracking like glass.

  “If this is the sort of thing you run on your blog, I’m not sure I want to support it,” Walker said. “Maybe Rod is right; the Dating Game should be shut down. It’s destructive—a mean thing run by a mean girl who’s using it for her own ends—to hurt people.”

  He turned around and walked away, leaving Lina pressing her fists to her chest, wishing the pain would stop.

  12

  Strike!

  To: mad4u

  From: your daily horoscope

  HERE IS TODAY’S HOROSCOPE: VIRGO: You’re in a very disruptive mood these days, which is fine if you’re willing to take the consequences. However, you are not.

  Mads fidgeted more than usual in geometry Friday afternoon. She stared at the minute hand of the clock on the wall. Two minutes to two. Soon the bell would ring. Everyone would get up—and then what? Would they all go to their next class like a bunch of sheep? Or would they follow her to the front of the building in a moving display of solidarity? Would she and Lina and Holly find themselves standing alone on the lawn, shrieking slogans through a megaphone, their words falling on deaf ears? Or would they be buoyed on a tide of goodwill and peaceful protest?

  The minute hand ticked. Sixty seconds to go.

  This will really show how popular the Dating Game is, Mads thought. And how muck power we can have. If it means anything to this school, the kids will show up. If not …

  Click. Two o’clock. The bell rang. Class over.

  Mads got up out of her seat. Autumn Nelson smiled and nodded at her. So did Derek Scotto.

  Mads left Ms. Weymouth’s room and walked down the hall. A stream of people trailed her. More kids walked out of their classrooms and joined the march. Mads spotted Dan Shulman—the IHD teacher whose assignment had started this whole thing—leave his classroom and walk outside with the students. He nodded at Mads and gave her a little fist-pump in solidarity.

  Mads met Lina and Holly at the door to the school. They went outside and positioned themselves on the front steps. Mads reached behind a bush where she had stashed a megaphone borrowed from the gym equipment room.

  “Wow, Mads,” Lina said. “Look at this!”

  Students were pouring out of the school building. Some teachers followed and hovered around the edges of the crowd. Some of them looked confused, while others frantically tried to herd their students back inside the building. No one paid attention to them. Dan was encouraging the students to protest as they walked past him.

  “It worked,” Mads said in amazement. “The whole school is going along with this!”

  When the building was empty, Mads lifted her megaphone and shouted, “All
right, Rosewood! Thank you for coming! You’re my heroes!”

  The crowd cheered. It was a warm, sunny afternoon and very pleasant to be outside instead of in class. A few kids were already lounging on the grass. Mads took a breath to calm her edgy nerves. She’d never spoken in front of so many people before. She passed the megaphone to Lina.

  “Mr. Alvarado and a few parents are trying to control what we can write about ourselves!” Lina shouted. “Are we going to let them?”

  “NO!” the crowd yelled.

  “Down with censorship!” Holly cried. Mads, Lina, and the crowd picked up the chant. “Down with censorship! Down with censorship!”

  A white Channel 7 News van pulled up in front of the school, and a cameraman and a reporter jumped out.

  “Channel 7 is here!” Mads said, and the crowd cheered louder than ever. “Let’s show them we mean business!”

  The chant went up again. “Down with censorship!” The camera filmed the huge mob of students and then aimed at the reporter, who stood in front of the crowd.

  The front doors of the school burst open, and Rod appeared with a megaphone of his own. “All right, you’ve had your fun,” he yelled. “Enough is enough. Get back inside the building and return to your classes immediately!”

  “Boo! Boo!” the kids jeered.

  “Anyone who isn’t back in school within five minutes is facing suspension!” Rod cried. “Inside! Inside!”

  “Boo!”

  Mads started a counter-chant. “Free speech for all!” The crowd took it up, clapping.

  “Listen to me!” Rod shouted. “I agree with you! I am against censorship! I am for free speech!”

  Mads was shocked. “Did he change his mind already? These protests really work fast.”

  The crowd jeered. They didn’t believe him.

  “So if you will all return to class, we can discuss it calmly,” Rod said. “Everyone back inside!”

  Rod waved his arms toward the school building. He was booed and shouted down so loudly, he dropped his megaphone and gave up. He went back inside the school to wait it out.

  Dan and his girlfriend, French teacher Camille Barker, chanted along with the students. “We’re not the only ones who believe in free expression!” Lina called into her microphone. “Some of the teachers are behind us, tool”

  The rally went on for forty-five minutes with everyone, peacefully but forcefully chanting, singing, and shouting, until the bell for the next class rang. “That’s it!” Mads shouted. “Thank you for coming! Our message has been heard loud and clear, thanks to you!”

  She propped open the doors to the school, and the students began to file back inside. “That rocked!” kids told Mads, Lina, and Holly as they filed past. “Excellent!” “Can we do it again tomorrow?”

  “I think once is enough for now,” Mads said. “We sent Rod back inside with his tail between his legs. He saw that the whole school is on our side. Maybe by now he’s ready to back down—at least a little.”

  “I hope so,” Lina said.

  “Everyone over to my house tonight after school,” Holly said. “We’ve got to watch the six o’clock news!”

  The mood in the halls was buoyant and happy as the students headed back to class. Mads was happiest of all.

  “You just did something really big,” Lina said. “Do you realize that?”

  “Yeah,” Mads said. “I do.”

  • • •

  “Maybe we’re not in trouble this time,” Mads said. She was still high from the strike. She and Lina and Holly were sitting outside Rod’s office at the end of the day, waiting to be called inside. “He said he was for free speech, remember? Maybe Rod just wants to tell us he surrenders.”

  “Are you crazy?” Holly said. “A principal doesn’t call you into his office to tell you he surrenders.”

  “Sylvia is going to go ballistic,” Lina said. Mads could see the panic on her face and felt terrible for her. “She does this Freeze-Queen thing where she doesn’t talk to you or look at you but you know she’s pissed, and you’re just waiting for her to blow. … The suspense is the worst part. …”

  The door to Rod’s office opened, and he beckoned them inside. The girls went in and sat down. He leaned back in his chair, frowning at each girl in turn.

  “I understand that you have disobeyed me and hidden your blog in a secret place on the school Web site,” Rod said. “Is this true?”

  “Yes.” Mads shifted in her seat.

  The girls nodded. There was no point in denying it.

  “I know about it because I’ve received another complaint,” Rod said. “Again about this X-Rating feature. Apparently a girl named Elvira wrote some very nasty things about some of our students.”

  Ramona! Mads thought. Her stupid joke!

  “And then there is the strike you organized today,” Rod said. “You completely disrupted school. That cannot be allowed.”

  He rubbed his large, shiny forehead. He looked pained. Mads felt sorry for him, she could tell that though he didn’t like to be disobeyed, he disliked punishing people even more.

  “Ladies, your brazenness astounds me,” Rod said. “I have no choice but to suspend all three of you. Starting now. Go to your lockers, get your things, and leave the building immediately. I’ll call your parents and inform them. I’m sure they will all be quite unhappy.”

  Heads hanging, Holly and Lina stood up and prepared to leave. But Mads said, “Mr. Alvarado, please don’t suspend Holly and Lina. This isn’t their fault. I’m responsible. Me and only me.”

  “Mads, no—” Holly said.

  “Don’t lie, you guys,” Mads said. “I organized the strike. It was one hundred percent my idea.”

  “Is it true?” Rod asked.

  “Technically, but—” Lina began.

  “Just answer yes or no,” Rod snapped. “Is what Madison says true?”

  Mads gave them her pleading stare, hoping they would save themselves. Why should they suffer for her actions? And why should they all three be punished when one could take the fall for all?

  After a long pause, Lina answered, “Yes.”

  “Yes,” Holly said.

  “I believe you,” Rod said. “All right. Lina and Holly, you may return to class. Madison, I’m afraid you are suspended from school for two weeks. You are not allowed at school or on school property during that time. If you violate this, you will be expelled. Understand?”

  Mads swallowed. Now that it was happening—suspension!—it sounded so serious and scary. Oh god, she thought, my parents. The Dark Overlord might actually live up to his name for once.

  She blinked back tears. No way was she going to cry in front of Rod. But it hurt to be punished when you were used to being good. You asked for it, you got it, she said to herself. “I understand,” she said to Rod.

  “And if that blog appears anywhere on the school site again, you will be expelled,” Rod added. “See you in two weeks.”

  Holly and Lina had tears in their eyes, too, as they all left the office. They walked Mads to her locker.

  “Mads, what are you going to do?” Lina asked.

  “I’m going to use my free time to make things right,” Mads said. “I’m going to find a way to show Rod and the parents’ board that they can’t stop us from expressing ourselves. I will make them put the Dating Game back on our school site.”

  “We’ll help you, Mads,” Holly said. “Let’s all think of ways to do it.”

  “It won’t be easy,” Lina said.

  “I know,” Mads said. “But I’ll have two weeks with nothing else to do but figure it out,”

  13

  In like Flynn

  To: linaonme

  From: your daily horoscope

  HERE IS TODAY’S HOROSCOPE: CANCER: If life was fair, you’d be better-looking.

  Hi, Flynn,” Lina said. “Can I talk to you for a minute?”

  “What about?” Flynn asked.

  Flynn was in the school musical, so Lina knew she
could find her at rehearsal after school. She was hoping to straighten out this whole Elvira thing. Maybe then at least Walker wouldn’t hate her. And not-hating could lead to liking, which could lead to like-liking … that was the theory, anyway.

  Lina looked at Flynn’s friends, who seemed eager to hear her answer. “It’s private.”

  Lina had already gone to Ramona and accused her of being Elvira, but Ramona had denied it. Nothing Lina said could make Ramona admit her guilt. She was so stubborn! And she seemed to be going out of her way to cause problems. But that was Ramona. Causing problems was her lifestyle.

  Flynn got out of her seat and followed Lina to the back of the auditorium, where they could have some privacy.

  “It’s about that X-Rating,” Lina said. “From Elvira. I just wanted to tell you that I had nothing to do with it. I have an idea who might be behind it, but no proof. Yet—”

  “Why are you telling me this?” Flynn demanded.

  “Because I know you and Walker had a fight about it, and I think it’s silly to let something like this come between you—”

  “You think it’s silly? Silly to be upset because I just found out my boyfriend is a player? Because I was insulted in front of the whole school?”

  “I’m trying to tell you that the Elvira thing was fake,” Lina said. “Think about it. When has Walker ever acted like a player?”

  “How would I know? We just started going out. But you’ve known him longer. He used to talk about you a lot. Not so much lately.” Flynn paused and stared Lina right in the face. “I still don’t get it. Why would you bother telling me this … ? Wait! There’s only one reason. You must be Elvira!”

  “What? I am not,” Lina said. “I just wanted to help—”

  “Because you feel guilty?” Flynn said. “Or because your plan backfired and now Walker’s mad at you instead of running into your arms?”

  “Flynn, that’s ridiculous.”

  “I always thought there was something weird between you two,” Flynn said. “He always said you were ‘friends.’ But everybody knows guys and girls can’t be friends—not really. You like Walker and you’re trying to steal him from me! It’s the only explanation!”