THE BIG REVEAL

By the time Mrs. Stricker got on the intercom and started telling everyone to go to the gym for the pep rally, I was sweating like crazy. All that last-minute running around had me worn out. But I was ready for Phase Three.

So here’s how the pep rally was supposed to go.

While everyone else came into the gym and sat on the bleachers, the football team would wait in the locker room.

Then Coach Shumsky would say something to the crowd. Then some kids from the student council would bring out this big rolled-up sign from the equipment room. The cheerleaders would start cheering, the student council kids would unroll the sign in front of everyone, and the sign would say GO, FALCONS, GO! After that, the team would come running out and bust through it while the whole school watched.

Got it? That’s how it was supposed to go. And most of it did happen that way, right up to the part about the sign saying GO, FALCONS, GO!

Because that’s not all it said.

Not anymore.

So there I was in the locker room, lined up with the team and waiting to go. Coach was giving his pep talk to the crowd, and I was starting to wonder if I’d made any mistakes. What if something went wrong?

“You okay?” Flip said. “You’re sweating like a pig. Actually, I don’t even know if pigs sweat, but you sure are.”

“I’m good,” I said. I kind of wished I’d told him about this, but the less Flip knew, the better. For his own sake, anyway.

Besides, it was too late now.

“So without further delay…” Coach Shumsky said. I could hear the sound of that big paper sign starting to unroll (crinkle, crinkle, crinkle, crinkle).

“I present to you—”

(Crinkle, crinkle, crinkle…)

“The HVMS FALCONS!” Coach said, just before the cheerleaders and everyone else started screaming—

“LET’S GO, FALCONS, LET’S GO!”

Then we all went running out of the locker room. I couldn’t see the front of the sign, but I could see everyone on the bleachers, looking back at us. Which is about when the cheering changed from—

to something more like—

Because this is what everyone was seeing:

Meanwhile, all the Falcons at the front of the line went tearing through that sign like it was made out of Belleville Raiders. The rest of us came running behind. By the time we were all standing in front of the school, the whole thing was in a million little shreds on the gym floor.

Mrs. Stricker was looking at Mrs. Stonecase. Mrs. Stonecase was starting to tap on her phone. The cheerleaders were still cheering, and the pep rally was still going on—mostly. But I could see a bunch of kids looking at each other like they were thinking, What’s on that website?

And I know what you’re probably thinking too. What good was that huge sign if it was only in front of everyone for about ten seconds?

But Phase Three wasn’t over yet.

And I’m just saying, if everyone started finding little slips of paper after the pep rally—like in their lockers, and the bathrooms, and the library, and the music room—and if those little slips of paper just happened to say the same thing as that sign?

Well, that might have had something to do with me too.