Lenny froze. He turned to me. I met his eyes.
He took a shuddering breath and glanced down at his fists. His hands shook.
Then he let out a short angry cry, turned—and stomped out of the classroom.
Mr. Crowell stared at me. I lowered my eyes. I wondered if I should run after Lenny.
Jordan picked up Lenny’s desk. I gathered up his papers and books.
As we cleaned, Mr. Crowell returned to the chalkboard and his algebra equation.
As though nothing had happened.
I shook my head unhappily. It wasn’t fair that Mr. Crowell hated Lenny so much. He never gave Lenny a chance.
Lenny needed to be more careful. The teacher could make things really bad for him. Last year, he got Lenny suspended from school twice.
One more suspension and Lenny would have to change schools.
I warned Lenny that he should keep quiet and do his assignments. But Lenny doesn’t listen. Not even to his good, sensible girlfriend! He doesn’t exactly look for trouble. But it always seems to find him.
Especially in Mr. Crowell’s class.
I didn’t even try to pay attention to the rest of the class. All I could think of was Lenny.
When the bell finally rang, I ran from the room. I knew that Lenny would be waiting by my locker. I hurried through the crowded hallway and ran upstairs.
No Lenny.
I dialed the combination and opened my locker. No note from Lenny. Where was he?
I turned to find Cassie leaning on the locker beside mine.
“Lenny needs to be careful, Diane,” she said softly.
“Tell me something I don’t know,” I muttered, rolling my eyes.
“Mr. Crowell has a heart condition,” Cassie continued. “I’m just afraid that one of these days, Lenny is going to give him a heart attack!”
“Good,” I replied. We both laughed.
“He practically gives me a heart attack every day!” I joked.
Cassie frowned. “Are you still planning to sneak out after midnight tonight?” she asked. “Jordan thinks it’s a really cool idea. I don’t really want to. But if everyone else is doing it …”
I knelt down to search the bottom of my locker. “I don’t know what to do, either,” I confessed. “If my parents caught me sneaking out after midnight, they’d kill me!”
Cassie nodded, biting her bottom lip thoughtfully.
I slammed the locker shut and turned to her. “I think I will sneak out tonight,” I decided. “At least I’ll have a chance to talk to Lenny.”
Cassie nodded. “Okay. I’ll go too. It’s nice seeing Spencer again. Even though he’s gotten a little weird.”
“Yeah. Let’s go,” I repeated, convincing myself. “I mean, we’re all just goofing, right? Having a little innocent fun. What could happen?”