As the crowd swarmed around me, Rishi came running up and shook me by the shoulders. “You did it, Rodney! I knew you would!” Mr. Feebletop was clapping. Jessica was smiling. The noise was deafening. I was being turned, grabbed, and patted. Lost in the crazed excitement, I spun around with a dumb smile on my face.
“Oh boy,” I mumbled, smile fading. I had turned right into Josh.
Then he smiled. An actual big grin. Wow, could this really be? It seemed that even he was excited about my great run. Before I knew it he stuck out his hand to shake mine. This was super. I reached out and shook it—and a bear trap snapped shut on my fingers. I looked down and saw it was actually Josh’s hand . . . crushing mine.
He pulled me in close. “I’ll get you alone sooner or later,” he whispered, “and when I do . . . you’re dead.” He leaned back, clicked his smile back on, and letting go of my poor, throbbing hand disappeared into the crowd. I didn’t know how much longer I could keep up the fake Superman thing, but I really didn’t have a choice at this point.
“That was nice of him to congratulate you,” Greg said from behind me.
“Yeah, real nice,” I choked, walking off.
Before I got too far Jessica met me. “That was the most incredible run I’ve ever seen. I really can’t believe some of the things you do.” She smiled at me.
That makes two of us, I thought.
“You know,” she added more shyly, “next Friday is the big end-of-year dance.”
I decided to make use of my hero status while it lasted. “Jessica, I know I’ll see you there, but can I take you to the dance, like officially?”
“Officially?” she smiled. “Do you mean like a date?”
Luckily my face was still red from the hundred-yard dash. She couldn’t see me blush as I answered, “Yes, a date.”
“Okay. You can pick me up around seven. Rodney, are you listening?”
Mrs. Lutzkraut was staring at me and shaking her fist in the air. Suddenly Mr. Feebletop called out to her. “Ah, the raised fist of triumph!” She jumped like a little kid caught doing something wrong. I turned back in time to see Kayla dragging Jessica off somewhere, but it didn’t matter. I had asked Jessica to the dance and she had actually said yes.
I was consumed by mixed emotions. Things were awesome with Jessica, and my usual group of friends loved me all the more. On the other hand, my worst enemies were more fired up than ever. There were two weeks left till the end of the year, and they’d be dangerous weeks. I’d have to be extra-careful and keep my eyes wide open.
I took my first precautions on Monday morning, standing in front of the class. Making sure I had plenty of witnesses, I announced, “I am now handing in my book report. It is on Stormbreaker, by Anthony Horowitz.” I laid it down on Mrs. Lutzkraut’s desk.
“Do you think you could hand in your assignment without comment?” Despite her little zinger, I couldn’t risk any more missing assignments and walked straight back to my desk. I noticed her eyeing the report in a strange way. Then she looked up at me, smiled, and stated, “This is going to be a glorious week. Can’t you just feel it?” I felt something, all right. Shivers down my spine! My mind raced, trying to figure out what she had in store for me.
Concern about Mrs. Lutzkraut’s next move swept through my brain the rest of the morning. Even later when we walked down to lunch I kept my eye on her, ready for anything. Arriving at the cafeteria, I sat down with the boys and got ready to eat, until I realized I had forgotten my lunch. It was in the last place I wanted to return alone.
“Where’s your lunch?” Slim asked. He usually finished anything left by the rest of us and was probably wondering about my dessert.
“I forgot it in the classroom.”
“Well, go get it!”
“I’m not really hungry,” I lied, my stomach growling.
“Hey, Mrs. Canasta! Can Rodney get his lunch from class?” Slim called to the aide who had replaced Long Nose. She was very nice and rushed over.
“Absolutely. Rodney, go get it.” I didn’t want to go. Long Nose would have told me no. For once I missed her nastiness.
“Go on, go on,” Slim prodded.
Reluctantly, I walked out and continued down the hall. Maybe Mrs. Lutzkraut wouldn’t be there. I walked extra-quietly and when I got to the room, I peered in through the open door. The classroom was empty. Quickly, I darted to the closet, rifled through my backpack, and grabbed the lunch.
“This has been an excellent little talk, Joshua,” a voice sounded by the classroom door. Frightened, I moved farther into the closet. “You understand what to do?”
“Yeah,” Josh answered.
“Excellent. Now get back to the cafeteria.”
Josh walked away, but Mrs. Lutzkraut walked in and sat down behind her desk. I shuddered to think what the two of them had been talking about. It also occurred to me I was stuck in the closet. Maybe if I just hid for a minute she’d . . .
“Who’s back there? I can see your arm!” Her voice boomed out across the classroom. I had no choice but to stick my head out. She stood up from her desk, and I noticed that weird twitch return to her face. “I should have known it was you. How much did you hear?”
“Hear? I, uh, just got, uh . . .”
“Being that you are a perpetual liar, one would imagine you would be better at it.” She was now walking toward me. Instinctively, I inched toward the door. “It’s really no matter, though. It will be an evening to remember, don’t you agree?”
What was she talking about? She definitely thought I had heard more than I did. “Uh, yeah, an evening to remember,” I repeated, still inching away.
“Well?” she asked.
“Umm, well what?”
“Ummm, aren’t you going to go eat your lunch?”
“Yes, right away.” And with that I bolted out of class, more confused and worried than ever.
That afternoon I tried desperately to figure out what she had in store for me. My friends were no help whatsoever. When I tried to explain that Mrs. Lutzkraut was plotting something evil, they laughed and told me I read too many scary books. I didn’t say anything, but the truth is that I don’t ever read scary books. I have enough fears in the real world to keep me busy. Like having a crazy lady plotting against me. Or was she? Maybe this whole thing with Mrs. Lutzkraut was in my mind.
Wanting to be alone to sort things out, I left my carefree, happy friends at the bus stop and took the “long cut” back home. After a few blocks I felt the now-familiar presence of a car creeping along a few paces behind me. My mouth ran dry and I couldn’t breathe. Maybe I was imagining it. I gave a quick glance over my shoulder—and saw a red car. Not daring to wait and see who or what was driving, I took off. The car picked up speed behind me. This was it. I was alone this time—and running for my life.
I cut left across a front yard and around the side of a house. I didn’t slow down in the backyard but just kept running right past a lady gardening who barely managed a hey! before I flipped myself over her chain-link fence. I took off across the green grass of someone else’s backyard and slipped on a pile of dog doo, but didn’t even have time to say yuck. I blitzed out into the front yard and angled out into the road, where I stood panting, looking all around me.
Down the block, at the cross street, I thought I saw the hood of the red car sticking out slightly from behind a hedge. I was still catching my breath when the car suddenly lurched forward and turned in my direction.
It was enough to get me moving again. As I ran through some woods that eventually led to the back of my house, I realized that everything had gone too far. Someone was going to get hurt—and that someone was me. My friends didn’t believe it when I told them what Mrs. Lutzkraut was doing. They assumed I was making up a story and being silly, but this couldn’t continue. I had to tell my parents. At least they would believe me.
Close to my house, I sat down on an old stump to catch my breath. Knowing I was about to get help from my mom and dad, I felt the first sense of relief in weeks. After a minute or two I got up and finished the walk through the woods. I was almost smiling as I strode in through the back door. “Hey Mom! Where are you? I need to talk to you!”
“I’m right in here, honey. Come see who just popped over.” Was it Rishi? Aunt Evelyn? I rushed in.
“Hello, Rodney,” said a familiar voice. My blood ran cold. Sitting there in my father’s chair was Mrs. Lutzkraut.