The Wave

by Todd Strasser

When the class was over, we started to leave. But this senior stopped us in the hall. I didn’t know him, but he said he was in Mr. Ross’s class and asked did we want to join The Wave. Two of my friends said yes and two said they didn’t know and I said I wasn’t interested.

  This senior started telling us how great The Wave was. He said that the more kids who joined, the better it would get. He said almost all the seniors at school had joined and most of the juniors too.

  Pretty soon my two friends who said first they didn’t know changed their minds and said they wanted to join. Then the senior turned to me. “Aren’t you going to stick with your friends?” he asked.

  I told him they were still my friends even if I didn’t join. He kept asking me why I didn’t want to join. I just told him I didn’t feel like it.

  Then he got mad. He said pretty soon people in The Wave wouldn’t want to be friends with people who weren’t in it. He even said I’d lose all my friends if I didn’t join. I think he was trying to scare me.

  But it backfired on him. One of my friends said he didn’t see why anyone had to join who didn’t want to. My other friends agreed and we left.

  Today I found out that three of my friends joined after some other seniors talked to them. I saw that senior from Mr. Ross’s class in the hall and he asked if I had joined yet. I told him I didn’t intend to. He said if I didn’t join soon it would be too late.

  All I want to know is: Too late for what?

  Laurie refolded the story and put it back in the envelope. Her thoughts about The Wave were beginning to come into focus.

  As Ben left Principal Owens’s office he saw several students putting up a large Wave banner in the hall. It was the day of the pep rally—the Wave rally Ross had to remind himself. There were more students in the halls now, and he seemed to be making The Wave salute nonstop. If this kept up for much longer he was going to have one sore arm, he thought.

  Further down the hall, Brad and Eric were standing at a table handing out mimeographed pamphlets and shouting, “Strength Through Discipline, Strength Through Community, Strength Through Action.”

  “Learn all about The Wave,” Brad was telling passing students. “Here’s a pamphlet.”

  “And don’t forget the Wave rally this afternoon,” Eric reminded them. “Work together and achieve your goals.”

  Ben smiled wearily. The untethered energy of these kids was tiring him out. There were Wave posters all over school now. Every single Wave member seemed to be involved in some activity—recruiting new members, disseminating information, preparing the gym for the rally that afternoon. Ben found it almost overwhelming.

  A little further down the hall Ben had a funny sensation and stopped. He felt as if he was being followed. A few feet behind him stood Robert, smiling. Ben smiled back and kept going, but a few seconds later he stopped again. Robert was still behind him.

  “Robert, what are you doing?” Mr. Ross asked.

  “Mr. Ross, I’m your bodyguard,” Robert announced.

  “My what?”

  Robert hesitated slightly. “I want to be your bodyguard,” he said. “I mean, you’re the leader, Mr. Ross; I can’t let anything happen to you.”

  “What could happen to me?” Ben asked, startled by the notion.

  But Robert seemed to ignore that question. “I know you need a bodyguard,” he insisted. “I could do it, Mr. Ross. For the first time in my life I feel … well, nobody makes jokes about me anymore. I feel like I’m part of something special.”

  Ben nodded.

  “So can’t I do it?” Robert asked. “I know you need a bodyguard. I could do it, Mr. Ross.”

  Ben looked into Robert’s face. Where there had once been a withdrawn and unconfident boy, there now stood a serious Wave member, concerned for his leader. But a bodyguard? Ben hesitated a moment. Wasn’t that going a little too far? More and more he’d begun to recognize the position of importance his students were unconsciously forcing upon him—the ultimate leader of The Wave. Several times over the last few days he had heard Wave members discussing “orders” he had given: orders to put posters up in the halls, orders to organize The Wave movement in the lower grades, even the order to change the pep rally into a Wave rally.

  Except the crazy thing was, he’d never given those orders. Somehow they’d simply evolved in the students’ imaginations, and once there, they automatically assumed he’d given them. It was as if The Wave had taken on a life of its own and now he and his students were literally riding it. Ben Ross looked at Robert Billings. Somewhere in his mind he knew that by agreeing to let Robert be his bodyguard, he was also agreeing to become a person who required a bodyguard. But wasn’t that what the experiment required as well? “All right, Robert,” he said. “You can be my bodyguard.”

  A wide smile appeared on Robert’s face. Ben winked at him and continued down the hall. Perhaps having a bodyguard would be helpful. It was essential to the experiment that he maintain the image of leader of The Wave. Having a bodyguard could only enhance that image.

  CHAPTER 12

  The Wave rally would be in the gym, but Laurie Saunders stood by her locker, uncertain that she wanted to go. She still couldn’t put into words exactly what bothered her about The Wave, but she could feel it growing inside her. Something was wrong. The anonymous letter that morning was a symptom. It wasn’t only that a senior had tried to bully a junior into joining The Wave. It was more—the fact that the junior hadn’t put his name on the letter, the fact that he’d been afraid to. It was something Laurie herself had been trying to deny for days, but it just wouldn’t go away. The Wave was scary. Oh, it was just great if you were an unquestioning member. But if you weren’t …

  Laurie’s thoughts were interrupted by a sudden flurry of shouts out in the quadrangle. She quickly went to a window and saw that two boys were fighting while a crowd of kids stood watching and yelling at them. Laurie gasped. One of the fighters was Brian Ammon! She watched as they threw punches at each other and then awkwardly wrestled to the ground. What in the world?

  Now a teacher ran out and separated the two fighters. Grabbing each tightly by the arm, he started tugging them inside, no doubt to Principal Owens’s office. As he went, Brian shouted, “Strength Through Discipline! Strength Through Community! Strength Through Action!”

  The other boy shouted back, “Aw, shove it.”

  “You see that?”

  The sudden sound of a voice so close to her startled Laurie, and she jumped around to find David beside her.

  “I hope Principal Owens lets Brian attend The Wave rally after this,” David said.

  “Were they fighting about The Wave?” Laurie asked.

  David shrugged. “It’s more than that. That kid Brian was fighting, he’s this junior named Deutsch who’s been after Brian’s position all year. This thing’s been brewing for weeks. I just hope he got what he deserved.”

  “But Brian was shouting The Wave motto,” Laurie said.

  “Well, sure. He’s really into it. We all are.”

  “Even the kid he was fighting?”

  David shook his head. “Naw, Deutsch is a jerk, Laurie. If he was in The Wave he wouldn’t be trying to steal Brian’s position. That guy’s a real detriment to the team. I wish Schiller would throw him off.”

  “Because he isn’t in The Wave?” Laurie asked.

  “Yeah,” David replied. “If he really wanted the best for the team he’d join The Wave instead of giving Brian such a hard time. He’s a one-man team, Laurie. He’s just on a big ego trip and he’s not helping anyone.” David looked down the hall at a clock. “Come on, we’ve got to get to that rally. It’s gonna start in a second.”

  Suddenly Laurie made a decision. “I’m not going,” she said.

  “What?” David looked shocked. “Why not?”

  “Because I don’t want to.”

  “Laurie, this is an incredibly important rally,” David said. “All the new members of The Wave are going to be there.”

 
; “David, I think you and everyone else are taking this whole Wave thing a little bit too seriously.”

  David shook his head. “No, I’m not. You’re not taking this seriously enough. Look, Laurie, you’ve always been a leader. The other kids, they’ve always looked up to you. You’ve got to be at that rally.”

  “But that’s exactly why I’m not going,” Laurie tried to explain. “Let them make up their own minds about The Wave. They’re individuals. They don’t need me to help them.”

  “I don’t understand you,” David said.

  “David, I can’t believe how crazy everybody’s gotten. The Wave is taking over everything.”

  “Sure,” David said. “Because The Wave makes sense, Laurie. It works. Everybody’s on the same team. Everybody’s equal for once.”

  “Oh, that’s terrific,” Laurie said sarcastically. “Do we all score a touchdown?”

  David stepped back and studied his girlfriend. He hadn’t expected anything like this. Not from Laurie.

  “Don’t you see,” Laurie said, mistaking his hesitation for a glimmer of doubt. “You’re so idealistic, David. You’re so intent on creating some kind of Utopian Wave society full of equal people and great football teams that you don’t see it at all. It can’t happen, David. There will always be a few people who won’t want to join. They have a right not to join.”

  David squinted at his girlfriend. “You know,” he said, “you’re just against this thing because you’re not special anymore. Because you’re not the best and most popular student in the class now.”

  “That’s not true and you know it!” Laurie gasped.

  “I think it is true!” David insisted. “Now you know how the rest of us felt listening to you always giving the right answers. Always being the best. How does it feel not to be the best anymore?”

  “David, you’re being stupid!” Laurie yelled at him.

  David nodded. “All right, if I’m so stupid, why don’t you go find yourself a smart boyfriend.” He turned and walked away toward the gym.

  Laurie stood behind and watched him. It’s crazy, she thought. Everything is going out of control.

  From what Laurie could hear, The Wave rally was a giant success. She was spending the period in the publications office down the hall. It was the only place she could think of going where she would be safe from the questioning looks of kids wondering why she wasn’t at the rally. Laurie did not want to admit that she was hiding, but it was true. That was how crazy this whole thing had become. You had to hide if you weren’t part of it.

  Laurie took out a pen and chewed on it nervously. She had to do something. The Grapevine had to do something.

  A few minutes later the turning of the doorknob shook her from her thoughts. Laurie caught her breath. Had someone come to get her?

  The door opened and Alex bopped in to the beat of the music coming through his earphones.

  Laurie sank back in her chair and let out a big sigh.

  When Alex saw Laurie he smiled and pulled the earphones off his head. “Hey, how come you’re not in with the troops?”

  Laurie shook her head. “Alex, it’s not that bad.”

  But Alex just grinned. “Oh yeah? Pretty soon they’re gonna have to change the name of this school to Fort Gordon High.”

  “I’m not amused, Alex,” Laurie said.

  Alex scrunched up his shoulders and made a face. “Laurie, you must learn that nothing is above ridicule.”

  “Well, if you think they’re troopers, aren’t you frightened of being drafted too?” Laurie asked.

  Alex grinned. “Who, me?” Then he swiped through the air with several fierce-looking karate chops. “Anyone hassles me and I’ll kung fu them into chopped suey.”

  The door of the publications office opened again and now Carl slipped in. Seeing Laurie and Alex there, he smiled. “Looks like I’ve stumbled into Anne Frank’s attic,” he said.

  “The last of the rugged individual,” Alex said.

  Carl nodded. “I believe it. I just came from the rally.”

  “They let you out?” Alex asked.

  “I had to go to the bathroom,” Carl answered.

  “Hey, man,” Alex said. “You got the wrong place.”

  Carl grinned. “This is where I went after the bathroom. Anyplace but that rally.”

  “Join the club,” Laurie said.

  “Maybe we should give ourselves a name,” Alex said. “If they’re The Wave, we could be The Ripple.”

  “What do you think?” Carl asked.

  “About calling ourselves The Ripple?” Laurie said.

  “No, about The Wave.”

  “I think it’s time we put out that issue of The Grapevine,” Laurie said.

  “Excuse me for injecting my own not always serious opinion,” Alex said, “but I think we ought to put it out fast before the rest of the staff gets carried away by The Mighty Wave.”

  “Pass the word around to the other staff members,” Laurie said. “On Sunday at two o’clock we’ll have an emergency meeting at my house. And try to make sure only non-Wave members are there.”

  That night Laurie stayed alone in her room. All afternoon she’d been too preoccupied with The Wave to allow herself to feel anything about David. Besides, they’d had fights before. But earlier in the week David had made a date to take her out that night, and here it was ten-thirty. It was obvious he wasn’t coming, but Laurie couldn’t quite believe it. They’d been going together since sophomore year and suddenly something as trivial as The Wave had broken them up—only The Wave wasn’t trivial. Not anymore.

  Several times during the evening Mrs. Saunders had come up to her room to ask if she wanted to talk about it, but Laurie said she didn’t. Her mother was such a worry-wart, and the problem was that this time there really was something worth worrying about. Laurie had been sitting at her desk trying to write something about The Wave for The Grapevine, but so far the page of paper before her was empty, except for a few water marks where a tear or two had fallen.

  There were knocks on her door, and Laurie quickly wiped her eyes with the palm of her hands. It was no use; if her mother came in she’d see that she was crying. “I don’t want to talk, Mom,” she said.

  But the door had started to open anyway. “It’s not your mom, babe.”

  “Dad?” Laurie was surprised to see her father. It wasn’t that she didn’t feel close to him, but unlike her mother, he usually didn’t get involved in her problems. Unless they somehow concerned golf.

  “Can I come in?” her father asked.

  “Well, Dad”—Laurie smiled slightly—“considering the fact that you’re already in …”

  Mr. Saunders nodded. “I’m sorry to barge in, babe, but your mother and I are both worried.”

  “She told you David broke up with me?” Laurie asked.

  “Uh, yes, she did,” Mr. Saunders said. “And I’m sorry about that, babe, I really am. I thought he was a nice boy.”

  “He was,” Laurie said. Until The Wave, she thought.

  “But, uh, I’m concerned about something else, Laurie. About something I heard on the golf course this evening.” Mr. Saunders always left work early on Fridays to play nine holes of golf in a twilight league before the sun went down.

  “What, Dad?”

  “Today after school a boy was beaten up,” her father said. “Now I got this story secondhand, so I don’t know if it’s all accurate. But apparently there was some kind of rally at school today, and he had resisted joining this Wave game or said something critical about it.”

  Laurie was speechless.

  “The boy’s parents are neighbors of one of the men I play golf with. They just moved in this year. So the boy must have been new at school.”

  “It sounds like he would have been a perfect candidate for joining The Wave,” Laurie said.

  “Maybe,” said Mr. Saunders. “But Laurie, the boy is Jewish. Could that have had anything to do with it?”

  Laurie’s jaw dropped. “Y
ou don’t think … Dad, you can’t believe there’s anything like that going on. I mean, I don’t like The Wave, but it’s not like that, Dad, I swear it isn’t.”

  “Are you sure?” Mr. Saunders asked.

  “Well, I, uh, I know everyone who was originally in The Wave. I was there when it began. The whole idea was to show how something like Nazi Germany could have happened. It wasn’t for us to become little Nazis. It’s … it’s—”

  “It sounds like it’s gotten out of hand, Laurie,” her father said. “Has it?”

  Laurie just nodded. She was too shocked to be able to say anything.

  “Some of the men were talking about going to the school on Monday to talk to the principal,” Mr. Saunders said, “just, you know, to be on the safe side.”

  Laurie nodded. “We’re going to put out a special issue of The Grapevine. We’re going to expose this whole thing.”

  Her father was quiet for a few moments. “That sounds like a good idea, babe. But be careful, okay?”

  “I will, Dad,” Laurie said. “I promise.”

  CHAPTER 13

  For the last three years during football season, sitting with Amy at Saturday afternoon games had become a habit for Laurie. David, of course, was on the team, and while Amy didn’t have a steady boyfriend, the guys she dated were almost always football players. By Saturday afternoon, Laurie couldn’t wait to see Amy; she had to tell her what she’d learned. It had surprised Laurie that Amy had gone along with The Wave so far, but now Laurie was certain that as soon as Amy learned about the boy who was beaten up, she would quickly come to her senses. Besides, Laurie sorely needed to talk to her about David. She still couldn’t understand how something as dumb as The Wave could have made David break up with her. Maybe Amy knew something she didn’t know. Perhaps she could even talk to David for her.

  Laurie got to the game just as it was starting. It was by far the best turnout of the year, and it took Laurie a moment to spot Amy’s head of curly blond hair in the crowded bleachers. She was way up, almost at the top row. Laurie hurried to an aisle and was about to start up when someone yelled, “Stop!”