by David Lubar
“That’s great,” I said, interrupting her. I didn’t want to hear praise about myself when she didn’t know that I was me. It wouldn’t be right.
“If there’s one thing Miss Clevis taught us, it’s to make careful observations. And to look for connections.” Dawn stopped talking and stared at me.
I glanced down at the steps. “So what have you observed?” I asked.
“Miss Clevis, who’s never been sick as far as I can remember, is suddenly gone. At the same time, two new people show up.” She paused again as if she suddenly realized another connection. Then she gasped. “And I’ve never seen those two together.”
“You never will,” I told her.
“Jackie,” she asked, “what’s really going on? Who are you?”
Twenty-one
TELLING THE TALE
“This might be a little hard to believe,” I said. It was still hard for me to believe, and I’d been living through it.
“I’ll believe you,” she said. “Just tell me.”
So I told her what I knew. I explained about the changes. And about the evil side of me. “Anything bad could make me change back,” I said. “Please, be real careful not to get angry around me.”
“Don’t worry,” Dawn told me. “I’ll be careful. I don’t get angry much, anyhow. I wouldn’t even be angry today if it wasn’t for that whole stupid thing in the principal’s office. I couldn’t believe he gave me that lecture. I didn’t do anything to deserve it. It’s not—” She stopped and clamped a hand over her own mouth.
“I’m okay,” I assured her. But even that small burst of anger had hurt me.
She lowered her hand. “Sorry.”
“Don’t worry about it.”
“Hey—if you’re aware of Ms. Hyde, do you think she’s aware of you?”
That was a good question. “As far as I can remember, she thinks differently. I can accept that I have a bad side. But I don’t think she can truly accept that she has a good side. She’s too proud to see herself as she really is.”
Dawn sat for a while. So did I. It was nice being on the porch with her and her dog. It didn’t solve anything, but it was a good place to be. Finally, she spoke three words that went right to the center of the problem: “So now what?”
“I have to figure out how to become myself again. There has to be a way. If I can be forced to become Ms. Hyde or Jackie, maybe I can be forced back to being Miss Clevis. I just don’t know how.”
“But you’re a science teacher,” Dawn said. “You have to figure something out. Look at all the stuff you taught me. Think about the science fair. All those kids learned what they know from you. My project’s not great—but it wouldn’t be even half as good if you weren’t my teacher.”
“But I’m not me right now,” I said. “I mean, I’m not the science teacher.” I guess there was still a science teacher deep inside of me, because I had an idea. I thought about the fair. And about Dawn’s project. “Let’s go up to your room,” I said. Maybe there was an answer.…
Before we could move, Newton picked his head up from Dawn’s lap and looked down the street. I looked, too. Sebastian and Norman were heading our way, walking down the sidewalk in their bare feet. Their pants legs were all wet and muddy, and their shirts were drenched with sweat.
Newton barked. Sebastian and Norman looked over.
“Wow,” Dawn said, calling to them. “You sure look like a mess. What happened?”
“What happened?” Sebastian yelled. “I’ll tell you what happened!” His anger washed over me.
Twenty-two
HOW TO DRIVE SOMEONE ANGRY
“That stupid, ugly, idiotic substitute. That’s what’s the matter.” Sebastian kicked the bottom step of the porch. “I hate her!”
“Sebastian, stop!” Dawn shouted. “You’re angry.”
“Of course I’m angry, you twit!” he yelled. “You’d be angry too if you’d just spent the day walking barefoot through a dump, a swamp, and a road where every single person in town must have taken their dogs for a walk. Horses, too, from what I could tell. You think a dump is bad? At least most of the stuff is in bags. Do you have any idea what kind of trash people throw out on the road?” He kicked the step again.
“This was unconscionable behavior,” Norman said. “I’m virtually inarticulate with rage!”
I stood up and staggered down the steps, searching around for a way to escape.
“Just shut up, okay?” Dawn said, her own voice tinged with anger. “You’re making trouble.”
“I’m making trouble?” Sebastian said. “Me? Who are you to talk? You got to run some errand to the principal’s office and miss out on the whole wonderful field trip. Teacher’s pet. You had it easy.”
“Easy?” Dawn said. “You jerk.”
The rest was just an angry buzz. I pushed between Norman and Sebastian and raced toward the sidewalk, trying to get away from them before the change took hold of me.
“Wait!” Dawn called. “I’m sorry. We didn’t mean to be angry.”
At the corner, I spun back to face them. The world turned dark in an instant. Then everything got clear. Little monsters. That’s what they were. I’d take care of them. All of them. And the little brother, too. I’d show them fear and anger. But not yet. Right now, I needed time to plan. I needed time to gather my strength. But that wouldn’t be hard. Lewington lay ahead of me, ripe with opportunities, filled with chances to drive people to the depths of misery.
I ran back to the school and got my car. What better way to cause chaos? I roared out of the parking lot entrance, right in front of a delivery truck, forcing the driver to jam on his brakes. The shriek of tires was like a song to me. At the next corner, I got right up behind a woman at the light and honked my horn. She turned and glared at me. I laughed and waved at her. Then I slowed down to a crawl, so the traffic piled up behind me.
For the next hour, I made as many people as I could furious. The thought of all that anger thrilled me. Better yet, I knew each angry person would take that anger and spread it to everyone he met. The truck driver I’d cut off would cut someone else off. The woman I’d honked at would honk at someone else. I’d thrown a rock in a pool, spreading a ripple of rage that went on and on.
As wonderful as the car was for making the world a miserable place, I started to grow tired of it. I needed a change. I needed to do something splendidly awful. Instead of ruining one person’s day at a time, I wanted to make the whole town miserable.
I drove home. All night, I thought about the best way to make Lewington suffer. Even in my sleep, I dreamed of schemes. When I woke, it all fell together. What a perfect plan.
I knew just where to go.
Twenty-three
A DANGEROUS REACTION
As soon as I got dressed, I hurried out of the house. There wasn’t much time.
The lock on the side door to the school had been broken years ago. Nobody ever worried about it, because Lewington is such a nice, safe place. Fools. I slipped inside the building and headed to the gym. Everything was set up for the science fair. I guess other teachers had stepped in to help during Miss Clevis’s absence. I looked around, searching for the best way to turn the event into a total disaster.
At first, I didn’t see anything promising. There’s little chance for disaster in the typical science fair project. Most of them are just made up of wood or wire or papier-mâché. Nothing dangerous. But thanks to one student, this wasn’t a typical science fair. And there it was, the answer to my hopes, sprawling across the top of four card tables—Norman’s scale-model nuclear reactor. Thank goodness he had so much brilliance and so little common sense. What a marvelous combination.
I went over and examined it. As far as I could tell, it was just like a full-sized reactor. He’d even made up a set of miniature instruction books and a thin book with a bright red cover labeled DISASTER EVACUATION PLAN. How charming.
And how appropriate for my plans.
If the cooling cycle fail
ed, the reactor would overheat. Then it would melt down and turn the gym into a radioactive mess. Nobody would be able to go near the school for a couple hundred thousand years. That would certainly ruin a lot of things for a lot of people. Of course, that would happen only if the cooling system failed. And of course, I was going to make sure that it would do just that.
It took me less than ten minutes to find the thermostat and move the probe outside the reactor core. Perfect. Now, no matter how hot it got, the reactor would act like it wasn’t overheating.
I slipped back in my car and sat in the driver’s seat so when people started to arrive in the parking lot, it would look like I’d just gotten there myself. Pretty soon, they opened up the school. Students and teachers started to show up, along with lots of parents. The more, the better.
Norman was one of the first ones there. He ran inside. I knew where he was headed. He wanted to start up his reactor, so it would be running at full power by the time the fair got under way. It would be at full power, all right. I checked my watch. It was nine thirty. The fair started at ten. In a couple minutes, I’d go inside so I could watch the panic when the reactor started to melt. Then I’d get out before the radiation escaped.
Sebastian showed up, along with Rory. They went in the front with the rest of the crowd. Rory was holding his big brother’s hand. It was so sweet, it made me sick.
But there was no sign yet of the one person I really wanted to destroy. Finally, I saw her. Dawn. She was walking toward the school. But she didn’t go inside. She went around toward the back of the building. She was carrying something in one hand, but I couldn’t tell what it was. Not that it mattered.
This was too perfect. I headed after her. I didn’t know what I was going to do, but I knew I was going to make sure she lost her smile. I was feeling powerful. The very thought of the evil I planned gave me enough strength to face her, no matter how happy and cheerful she might be. An old expression came to mind: I’ll wipe that smile off your face. How true.
Twenty-four
CAUGHT LIKE A RAT
Dawn was standing with her back to me, near the Dumpster. I knew the best approach was a straight-out attack. If I started shouting at her, she’d get angry enough to shout back, especially if I caught her by surprise. It would be lovely.
I took a deep breath, then let her have it. “You! I’ve had enough trouble with you. Go to the office immediately.” That should do it.
She flinched at the sound of my voice, then spun to face me. I couldn’t wait to see the look of terror on her face. I knew the memory of it alone would be enough to satisfy me for hours.
“Oh, hello,” she said. She held out her hand, offering me a bouquet of flowers. “These are for you.”
“No!” I shouted, taking a step away from her. Dizziness flicked at the edges of my mind, but I fought it off. “It won’t work,” I told her. I was stronger than ever and able to fight off her pathetic attack.
“I love you,” Dawn said.
Her words struck like a slap to my face. I staggered, but I didn’t give up. “I hate you,” I snarled back. She flinched. I could feel her losing her control. Time to unleash a stream of words that would crush her completely.
As I opened my mouth, there was a sudden motion behind her. Three faces popped up from inside the Dumpster—Norman, Sebastian, and Rory. “We love you, too,” they said.
Too much. The dizziness hit me with the force of a falling tree.
Goodness.
I looked up from the ground. “Did I faint?” I asked.
“Sort of,” Dawn said. “You kind of crumpled. But you’re okay now.”
“Thanks.” I still felt weak. I looked at the three kids climbing out of the Dumpster. “And thank you,” I said.
“You’re welcome,” Norman said. “It was Dawn’s idea. But she figured she might need some help. We went in the front so you wouldn’t get suspicious, then went right out the rear door.”
“Yeah,” Dawn said. “I was pretty sure you’d follow me back here. But I didn’t know if I could be good enough to make you change all by myself. So I asked them to come along.” She paused and shook her head. “The funny thing is, when I told them about you, they believed me right away.”
“We’ve seen a lot of strange things in this town,” Sebastian said.
“Tons,” Rory added.
Wow. They’d really come through for me. They’d kept me from hurting Dawn and they’d changed me back to Jackie. But they hadn’t solved my problem. I was still in danger of becoming Hyde at any instant. “We have to try something,” I said.
“The bird in the cage?” Dawn asked.
“Yeah.” I guess she’d figured out what I’d started to tell her at the porch.
“What bird?” Sebastian asked. “What cage?”
I explained to him about Dawn’s illusion with the picture on the stick. “When you see both sides fast enough, they blend into one image. So, maybe if I can change back and forth fast enough, I might end up being both at once. And if I’m lucky, that will make me Miss Clevis again.”
“Fascinating hypothesis,” Norman said. “And subject to immediate verification.”
“What?” Sebastian asked.
“We can try it right now,” Dawn said. “We just have to be mean to her until she changes to Ms. Hyde. And then, the second she changes, be nice again.”
“What if it doesn’t work?” Sebastian asked.
“Then we’d better hope we end up with Jackie,” Dawn said, “because if we end up with Ms. Hyde, we’re going to be real sorry.”
“Ready?” I asked.
Twenty-five
REACTORS
They stood around me in a half circle. “You’re all going to have to be as mean as you can,” Dawn said. “And then as nice as you can.”
“I’m not sure I can be mean,” Sebastian said.
“Trust me,” Dawn told him. “You can be mean.”
“Thanks a lot. I’m not sure I can be nice, either,” he said.
“Look. We’ve all got both inside us,” Norman said. “Just do your best.”
“Yes,” I said. “Just try your best. And whatever happens, thanks for helping me.”
The four of them, who’d just rescued me, opened their mouths and let me have it. They called me names and made fun of me. It was shocking hearing such bitter, angry words from such nice people. In an instant, the dizziness came.
Curses.
Where was I? Why were these little monsters talking to me? Those awful smiles. I wanted to smash them all. All that sickening talk about love. What awful beasts they were. I wanted to …
Goodness.
I must have fallen again. Why were they shouting? They’re so mean. Such angry faces. I could cry. How could they say such terrible things about me?
Drat!
Disgusting animals. That’s what they were. Those smiles.
Wonderful smiles.
I hated them.
I …
Silence. They stood staring at me. I wanted to hug them. And I wanted to kick myself for getting into this mess. I was happy. And I was angry. Both at once! That meant I couldn’t be Jackie. And I couldn’t be Ms. Hyde.
“It worked,” I said.
“Yes, it did, Miss Clevis,” Dawn said. She smiled. It was a lovely smile.
Before I could thank them, an alarm sound shrieked from the gym. All heads turned.
Norman and I shouted the same words at the same time. “The reactor!”
We raced into the building and hurried to the gym. Everyone stood staring at Norman’s reactor. He ran up to it and said, “Nothing to be alarmed about, folks. It’s just overheating.”
“What about radiation?” Sebastian asked.
“It’s just a simulation,” Norman said. “You don’t think a kid could get his hands on uranium, do you? And you don’t think I’d be stupid enough to build a real reactor, do you? I’d never put everyone in danger. Only a complete fool would think that.”
O
r a person with no good inside her, I realized. Ms. Hyde was capable of believing Norman would do something extremely dangerous, but I wasn’t. Not me—Miss Clevis.
“A simulation?” Sebastian asked.
Norman nodded.
“So it’s just like my virtual reality exhibit,” Sebastian said. “It’s a simulation, too. Just like yours. Just as good.”
“Just as good?” Norman screamed. “It’s a glove. It’s a glove and sunglasses. That’s not a simulation—that’s the remains of a garage sale.”
“I added some more wires,” Sebastian said.
I smiled at them. They were so cute. I knelt down and thanked Rory.
“Does this mean I get an A in science?” he asked.
“For the rest of your life,” I said. “Or at least through the sixth grade. As long as you earn it.”
Whack!
I looked across the room. Mr. Brickner was yelling at a student and whacking his cane on a table. I walked over and put my arm around his shoulder.
“Have you tried kindness?” I asked.
He glared at me for an instant, like a goat that wanted to do damage with his horns, but I just smiled. And I kept smiling until he had no choice but to smile back. No choice at all.
Mr. Rubinitski came up to me. “You’re here. I’d heard you got married.”
“No, I was just out sick. You could say I wasn’t myself for a couple days. But I’m fine now.”
I walked back over to Dawn. “I really don’t know how to thank you,” I told her.
“I’m just glad I could help,” she said. “And I even got a chance to be bad for a little bit.”
“I guess you did. But don’t start liking it, okay?”
“Don’t worry,” she said. “That’s not the way I’m made. I don’t have it in me to be bad.”
“I hope I don’t either.” But I knew Ms. Hyde was gone. Well, not gone, but shoved back inside me with Jackie to balance her. It was scary. And it was something I was sure I’d think about a lot from now on. But not right now.
