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. She arched a brow at him. Stupid how? Like the way you and your friends spend all your timeplaying video games and feeding into a useless consumer-driven society? Or stupid like those of youwho think you can doze off and text in my class and still pass? Stupid like you were when you believed the saleswoman who told you that dress looked good onyou? It was hard to bite that comment back, but he knew better than to let it spew out.Only she wasallowed to be venomous in the classroom.Anyone else would be suspended. Clearing his throat, Nick scratched his neck, uncomfortable at the fact that everyone was nowstaring at him.A handful were snickering.Two more sneering and one girl rolled her eyes as if hewere mentally defective.He hated being the center of attention.Why did teachers have to do this? Itwas like they purposefully singled out the kids who least wanted to participate or they waited untilthey knew it was the wrong time to send a guy to the board.Couldn t they let him fly under the radar?At least for a day or two?No, let s humiliate Nick even more. Cause face it, life just didn t suck enough.Nick braced himself for her ridicule before he defended his position. Well & he lets it ruin hislife.He gets so obsessed with going after the one thing that hurt him that he loses sight of everythingelse.He becomes isolated from everyone and everything.Paranoid.He feels like he can t trustanyone around him ever.In the end, he loses everything, even his life.And for what? Total stupidity,if you ask me. So you re saying that if you were Ahab, you d let it go and move on with your life? Even if it wasthe person you loved most on this earth who was killed and you were left with a lingering deformityfrom it? Absolutely.Crap happens to everyone.Put on your big-boy pants and deal.You got to let it go andmove on. She tapped her cheek with her pencil as if considering his take on the book. Interesting idea.Naïve and immature, but interesting. She looked to Caleb. What about you, Mr.Malphas? Do youhave anything to add to Mr.Gautier s ill-conceived opinion? What did you take out of the book,provided you actually read it instead of watching the movie like Ms.Harris did? Tina slinked down low in her desk.Richardson was never going to let the poor girl live that onedown.Caleb leaned back and folded his arms over his chest, cocky in a way only someone who dprobably read every book ever written could be. I see it as a parallel for Oedipus Rex. Intriguing.Do continue. Caleb yawned before he answered. Even though someone can see the course they re on and knowtheir fate, they can t change or stop it.Prophecy is prophecy.Things happen that we can t control.It swhen you try to prevent it that life really gets screwed up. Explain. Well, Ahab is told repeatedly by a variety of people that if he doesn t stop his obsessive quest,he ll die.Like Starbuck says, Tis an ill voyage! ill begun, ill continued; let me square the yards,while we may, old man, and make a fair wind of it homewards, to go on a better voyage than this. Caleb looked at Nick. Ahab doesn t listen and dies because he s stupid. Nick laughed.Until his teacher glared at him.Cringing, he sobered instantly. Nice summation, Mr.Malphas. She headed for the board. It s essay time, class.Hope all of youare up to date on your reading.If not, I will soon know and you will regret it, and don t even trysiccing your parents on me.If I get one phone call about unfair treatment, I ll automatically deductthirty-five points off your final grade.And ten points off everyone else s, just for good measure. Ignoring her, Nick wanted to know why Caleb had so obviously directed those last words to him.He might be a lot of things in life, but he d never been an idiot.Especially not where his life wasconcerned.Obsession was not his thing.He believed in rolling with the punches.&Oh, wait.Did Caleb know about his wanting to go after Alan for shooting him? Yeah, okay, so that wasn t so easy to let go.But the turd had shot him.Shot him.Would have killedhim, too, without a second thought, had Kyrian not stopped him, and Alan would have beaten up twoinnocent older people.Someone needed to stop that animal.Going after Alan wasn t obsession.Thatwas a public service.Suddenly, the intercom turned on, making several kids, including Nick, jump in their seats. Mrs.Richardson? Could you send Nick Gautier to the office? Nick s stomach hit the floor.Such a summons was never good, at least not where he wasconcerned.What did I do now?Actually that wasn t the question.What are they blaming me for now? He was the one person whocould never get away with anything without getting caught.And he was always the one they held up asan example to everyone else.Or worse, he was totally innocent in the matter and blamed anyway andstill held up as an example.She curled her lip at him as she spoke to the intercom. He s on his way. Nick packed his bag up, just in case a suspension was looming, then stood.Someone threw awadded-up piece of paper at him while Richardson wrote the assignment on the board with her backto them.Of course she missed that.Had Nick done it, she d have turned and caught him the moment it left his hand.Ignoring the insult, which he was pretty sure had come from one of Stone s minions, and the factthat it completely ticked him off, he slung the backpack over his shoulder and made the Bataan DeathMarch toward the office.Gah, could it be any farther? Could he dread it any worse?Can I have one day at school where I m not forced to the office? Just one? Really, is that askingtoo much?His gut completely knotted, he pushed open the door and walked to the long light wood counter.The secretary, who was around his mother s age, but nowhere near as attractive, gave him a smug lipcurl. Mr.Head wants to see you. Of course.Why else would he be here? Not like he was making a delivery.Nick went for the door behind the counter that was slightly ajar and knocked on the fogged glassthat gleamed with the new principal s name on it.RICHARD HEAD.PRINCIPAL Come in. Nick pushed the door open wider so that he could enter the Chamber of Doom.It was even darkand gloomy inside.For some reason, the fluorescent lights in this room cast a grayish wash that hungover everything like a ghoulish pall. Close it behind you. Yeah, that tone said his butt was in for it.Nick obeyed, then went to take a seat in front of the darkwood desk.Strange, all traces of Peters had been removed, and Head s personal items were all in place as ifhe d been principal here for years.It was kind of creepy when you thought about it.You got eaten bya coworker one day at work, and the next the world went on as if you d never existed.No one eventalked about Peters anymore.He was completely erased.A shiver went down Nick s spine.Even though Peters had been a jerk, it was sobering to realize how little the world cared once you were gone.Meanwhile, here they were.&A middle-aged man with a bald head, the new principal looked even more stern than Peters had.Did they send them to a special training camp to give them all that pompous, condescending twist totheir mouths?He glared at Nick over the rim of his brown glasses. Do you know why you re here? You needed somebody to kick, and I drew the lucky straw? He kept that belief to himself. No,sir. Think, Gautier.Think
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