to try to solve the problem peacefully first.”
“That can be Article 2.” She spoke as she typed. “In order to prevent escalation, the USSC may call upon the parties to reach agreement through mutual discussion and cooperation.”
“I’ll call Kyle now so we can start mutually cooperating.”
“It sounds stupid, but violence can’t be the first option, otherwise this is just any other gang, and I’m not into gangs. Also, we might be able to crowdsource a solution.”
“Crowdsource? Like crowd surfing?”
She smiled and shook her head. “It’s a way of getting the best ideas from a group of people.”
“What if talking about it doesn’t work?”
“That’s why we need Article 3. Every member must stand against a threat when called upon by the Security Council. This isn’t a club for wusses.”
I stacked her empty coffee cups. “So everyone has to fight?”
“I doubt it’ll come to that. Even Kyle’s not going to take on several dozen people at once. And if he tried, the chance of a member getting hurt is teeny tiny ‘cause he’d be so outnumbered.”
“Maybe we should have at least a dozen members vote for action before anything happens.”
“That can be Article 4.”
“So is that it?” I leaned back in my chair.
She gazed at the ceiling. “No, one more. Article 5 should be that only minimal force is used – nothing more.”
“Members should only use minimal force required to cause death.”
She smiled. “Members may only use the minimum force required to neutralize the threat.” She lifted her hands from the keyboard. “That should be enough to get started.”
“What’s next?”
“We build our army.” She looked at me. “I’ve setup Call-Em-All to send an invite to every student’s cell phone. I’ll include the link to the site so they can sign in. We’ll see who registers from here.”
“You can text everyone at once?”
“Watch this.” Allie read aloud as she typed, “TIRED OF VIOLENCE? THE UNITED STUDENTS SECURITY COUNCIL WANTS TO HELP. STUDENTSECURITYCOUNCIL.ORG”
She reached for the mouse, and I grabbed her hand. “Wait,” I said. “Is Kyle on the list?”
She pressed her hand to her mouth. “Oops! We don’t need to give him a heads up.” She scrolled through the list of names and unchecked the boxes next to Kyle, Bundy, Fink, Brittany, and Aisha. She switched back to the invitation and hovered the cursor over the send button. I nodded, and she clicked it. She grinned over her shoulder. “If this doesn’t work, maybe those dragon warriors can take care of Kyle for you.”
“They’ll probably be our first members,” I said. “I doubt they’ve had a smooth ride at Cannondale.” The three freshmen continued their hacking and slashing, oblivious to the outside world.
The door swung open, and Allie’s face lit up. Raj strode in, and Gordie shuffled in behind him on his crutches.
Raj leaned over the keyboard and studied the screen. “So why are we still in Detroit?”
Gordie placed his crutches under the desk and pulled up a chair. He held the arm of his glasses as he leaned to look at the screen. “How does it work?”
“Allie drank too much coffee and built a website,” I said. “It’s like Facebook, except it’s Ning. We’re waiting for people to join.”
Gordie raised an eyebrow at Raj.
The computer dinged, and Allie leapt off her chair and squealed. “Yes!”
All four of us huddled around the screen. Raj squinted at the name on a new email in Allie’s inbox. “George Costaris. He’s that emo freshman who the metalheads pick on, right?”
Allie raised her hands up high and rolled her hips in a dance. “It’s working!” She squeezed my shoulders, and her coconut-smelling hair swept against my face.
Raj sat on the desk. “Lucky you had our help, Allie. I don’t know how you’d have done it without us.”
Next to me, Gordie folded his arms across his chest. “George Costaris isn’t exactly going to fill Kyle with terror. How’s this supposed to work exactly?”
The computer dinged again and a second email dropped into Allie’s inbox. Raj leaned closer. “Benny Krumbert! Don’t let him join.”
“He can join as long as he follows the Charter,” Allie said. “We need everyone we can get – this is safety in numbers.”
The computer dinged again, and Allie shook the back of my chair. “I’ve never heard of you, Rashan Ronald, but we’re glad to have you as our third member.”
For the next hour, we huddled around the screen, cheering and shouting the name as each email trickled in. Allie tinkered with the website and made changes to the source code. Gordie, Raj, and I watched in awe as she worked her magic.
Lifting her hands from the keyboard, she swung her chair around. “Twenty-three members. Now tell me this isn’t going to put the fear into Kyle and Bundy.”
Raj climbed onto his chair, wobbling as he stood, and clasped his hands over his head. “I can’t believe it. It’s working.”
Even if this didn’t stop Kyle, it was one of the kindest things anyone had ever done for me. I wanted to thank her a thousand times, but nothing I could say would be enough. I stared at her, not knowing what to do. “I can’t believe you did this.”
With a satisfied smile, she scrolled the profile photos and clicked my name, and then clicked the red button at the top of the page. “I’m going to raise a threat for you.”
I grinned at Gordie and Raj. “Having a girl stand up for you is so underrated.”
She spoke as she typed. “Kyle Swindon has repeatedly attacked me and says he plans to kill me. Require urgent assistance from the Security Council.” She turned to me, and I nodded. She clicked the mouse. “Now all we need is twelve votes and Kyle will learn why messing with Chris Maddox is bad for his health.”
Pushing back his chair, Gordie rubbed his brow. “Even if this solves our Kyle problem, what do we do about Drac?”
Allie’s smile faded. “Let’s just get through this.”
I put a hand on Gordie’s shoulder. “Kyle has no idea what’s coming. He’s gonna wish he was on a bus to Chicago, once he gets his ass kicked by the USSC.”
23. Courage is Knowing What Not to Fear
Gordie propped his crutches against a locker and balanced on one foot. “What’s the latest headcount?” He pulled a book from his bag and placed it in his locker, lining up the edges with his other books.
“Allie said we’re at thirty-eight.” I lifted his crutches and leaned my underarms on them.
He nodded thoughtfully, sorting his pens by color. “Have you told her how you feel about her yet?”
Even with the threat of imminent death, he still couldn’t help himself. I slumped against the locker next to his. “I wanted to, but instead I told her it’s cold outside. I have the dating skills of a talking thermometer.”
“Why don’t you just kiss her?” He blew on his glasses and wiped them. “At least you’d know.” He pushed his locker door shut, still balancing on one foot.
“Good idea. And if she reports me for sexual harassment that means she’s not into me, right?” I handed him the crutches and lifted my bag. “Let’s go see if anyone shows up to this thing.”
“Pretty sure Kyle and Bundy will.” Gordie shifted his weight to his crutches and hobbled alongside me. “It says a lot that everyone voted to take action against Kyle. He might be a tough guy, but he doesn’t have many friends.”
“I can’t wait to see his face when he walks into the art room and realizes the world of trouble he’s in.”
The clock on the wall was at 10:14 a.m. Gordie gazed at the floor tiles as we made our way down the hall. “He must be wondering what’s up with the text message telling him to go to the art room.”
“Maybe he won’t show.”
“What if he does?”
I shrugged. “We tell him to back off, I guess. We’ll figure it out with
Allie when we get there.”
Gordie paused on his crutches. “I’m not feeling good about this.”
He wasn’t the only one. I gave his shoulder a gentle jab. “You’re a worrier. It’ll be fine.” The sweat on his brow told me he didn’t think so.
Thirty feet ahead at the end of the hall, the stairwell door crashed open, and Allie stumbled through, her eyes red with tears. Raj staggered out behind her, gasping for breath and glancing back up the stairs. Whatever was going on, I was pretty sure I was about to regret not getting on the bus to Chicago. I let my bag slip down my shoulder into my hand and ran to them. “What’s wrong? What happened?”
Allie pointed at the stairwell. “Kyle and Bundy found out. They’re in the art room.”
Raj rubbed the back of his neck, his eyes wide. “There’s blood everywhere. Benny’s injured bad and Sean Longmire’s out cold on the floor. The others tried to get out, but Bundy blocked the…” He choked on his words. “There’s so much blood.”
Allie wiped tears from her cheeks. “They’re trapped inside.”
Beside me, Gordie tightened his bag straps. “We still have time to get to the bus station. Let’s go.” He turned and crutch-hopped toward the door. Raj followed with a look of determination that showed he meant business.
They were right. It was stupid not leaving Detroit yesterday. People were getting hurt again because I couldn't get my act together.
Raj waved for me to hurry up, and Gordie continued down the hall without looking back. The longer we stayed, the worse it’d get. I hooked my bag over my shoulder and followed. We'd have a new life in Chicago, a clean slate, and the thought it could
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