Answers in the Pages Read online

  Mr. Howe then asked us who we liked to go on adventures with. When people started shouting out friends’ names, Mr. Howe said, “Okay, who else besides your friends?”

  Hesitantly, Amelia Song said, “My parents?”

  A few people giggled at that, and Curtis King yelled out, “No way!”

  Then Bryan Cart said, “Grandparents!” and a lot of kids agreed with him.

  I was glad Mr. Howe didn’t call on me, because when I thought about the definition, I wasn’t sure I really had gone on any adventures. But I wasn’t about to admit that.

  Mr. Howe started reading chapter two out loud. Rick and Oliver were riding their motorcycle to safety…but then a helicopter appeared on the horizon and they were in a chase again. After he’d read a few pages, Mr. Howe started calling on kids to take over reading. I always liked reading out loud in class…but this time I wasn’t one of the kids chosen. We got to a point in the chapter when Rick and Oliver were racing toward a tunnel, because the helicopter couldn’t follow them there. But there were also headlights in the tunnel coming toward them—a train! In a split second, they had to make a choice—

  And that’s where Mr. Howe stopped us for the day. A few kids groaned loudly and others protested. But Mr. Howe said it was time to go to gym. Then he said something that didn’t strike me as odd at the time, but of course now strikes me as very odd. He told everyone to be sure to take their books home tonight, and to keep them there tomorrow, since we would be doing something different in language arts tomorrow afternoon. We should finish reading chapters two and three over the weekend, and we’d resume our discussion on Monday.

  I debated whether or not to leave my library copy in my desk. The idea of bringing it home made my heart start to beat a little faster than usual. But then I thought it would be weird if everyone else had their copies and I didn’t have one, so I put it deep in my book bag. When I got home, I felt I was carrying something radioactive into the house. I ran up to my room and shut the door dramatically, even though both of my parents were at work. Then I started reading, as much as I could before they got home.

  When I heard the garage door, I quickly marked my place in chapter four and put the book under my bed, in a box full of cars and action figures. It was a good thing I did, too, because as soon as she was home, Mom stopped by my bedroom to see what I was doing.

  I gestured to my book bag and told her I was about to start my homework.

  “Do it at your desk, not on the floor,” she admonished. Then, taking a softer tone, she said, “I spoke to your principal today about the book your teacher assigned, and its inappropriate content. She said she needed to read the book before passing judgment, and I told her I understood that. But she better be a quick reader, because I know I’m not the only parent she’s going to be hearing from. Many of us are upset by this.”

  Upset by what? I wanted to ask. But really, I didn’t want to have anything to do with whatever they were doing.

  I’d read the book and find out for myself.

  In secret.

  Strangely enough, it was Ms. June who brought Gideon and Roberto together.

  It was time for the class to read a new book for language arts. (*Most of the other kids made fun of the name language arts, but Gideon liked the idea that you could use words to paint or sculpt or compose.) Ms. June announced that the class would be doing a group project, so the students would need to divide into pairs. (*Gideon didn’t think a pair counted as a group, but it was useless to argue with Ms. June on points like this.)

  Ms. June held up a copy of Harriet the Spy. Some kids in the class cheered, because they’d already read it. Other kids in the class groaned, because they’d already read it.

  “This was my favorite book when I was your age,” Ms. June confided. “I know some of you might be familiar with it…but I have to tell you, there’s something important about going back to books you’ve already read. You will always find new things inside, or have new reactions to characters you thought you already knew well. You learn more about the story and you also learn more about yourself as a reader, and where you are in life. I still find new things every time I read this book, and I’m hoping you will, too.”

  Gideon hadn’t read the book before. He vaguely recalled that kids in Ms. Kerr’s third-grade class had read it. But he’d had Mr. Bravehorse, and they’d read Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH instead. (*This hadn’t bothered Gideon, because Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH was also a really good book. For the first time, he realized teachers had a hard job, deciding which really good books to teach, since there were definitely more really good books than there were days in the school year.)

  Ms. June continued. “The first year I taught this book, I assigned kids to be like Harriet. I asked them to spy on the people around them, keeping notes in a notebook they’d then share with the class. This turned out to be a huge mistake, so I want to make clear to you now—our project will not be to spy on people.”

  A few kids groaned at this news. Gideon couldn’t tell whether it was the same kids who’d groaned earlier or whether it was the kids who’d cheered before who were now groaning.

  “I promise, there will still be an element of spy-like observation to the assignment,” Ms. June said in response. “But to start, I need you each to pick a partner.”

  Pick a partner. At first, Gideon didn’t totally comprehend what this meant. But then there was a sudden burst of noise in the classroom as kids started leaning over to their friends, or calling out across the room to their friends, and Gideon knew he had maybe five seconds to do what he wanted, and before he could think about it too much, he was reaching out his hand, and that hand was tapping Roberto on the shoulder and then moving back slightly as Roberto turned around, looking more relieved than confused, and again before he could think about it too much, Gideon was asking Roberto if he wanted to be partners and Roberto was saying yes, and then they were both dangling there because now that the decision had been made, they weren’t sure exactly what they needed to do next. Then Ms. June asked if anyone hadn’t found a partner, and Gideon was amazed because he wasn’t one of the few kids raising a hand.

  “Have you read it before?” Roberto asked as Ms. June did the remaining pairing.

  Gideon shook his head.

  “It’s really good,” Roberto said. “I’m excited to read it again.”

  Because of the title, Gideon asked, “Is it about a girl who works for the government? Like James Bond?”

  Roberto laughed, but not in a way that made Gideon feel stupid. “No. It’s more about the neighborhood and all the stories you find by paying attention to what’s going on around you. Well, find or make up. But I don’t want to give too much away if you haven’t read it!”

  Roberto was excited talking about the book, and that made Gideon excited, both about the book and about being friends with Roberto.

  Ms. June called for everyone’s attention, and the class became quiet as she passed out the books and told everyone to read the first chapter by Thursday. She didn’t explain any more about what the “group project” was going to be. Usually, this would have bothered Gideon—he liked assignments to be specific. But right now he was content to know he had a good partner and that it was a good book.

  The rest would follow.

  “Well,” Rick said, “this is certainly not a great way to spend a Tuesday.”

  He and Oliver were dangling in separate cages over the most powerful thermal geyser in Yellowstone—one so destructive that tourists weren’t allowed anywhere near it. Only someone as rich as McAllister could get access. (“I told them it was for a private wedding,” he’d cackled as the cages were brought in.) According to a placard that Rick and Oliver had been marched past, there was a scalding eruption due in exactly ten minutes.

  “We should have gone to Yosemite,” Oliver mumbled.

  “I shouldn’t have sent those postcards,” Rick mumbled back. How else could they have been tracked?

  McAllister put on his monocle to look at his pocket watch.

  “You’re running out of time and I’m running out of patience,” he said. “I assure you, if you don’t hand over the Code in the next few minutes, it won’t be my blood that’s boiling.”

  Rick and Oliver exchanged looks.

  Rick’s said: Don’t you dare tell him.

  Oliver’s said: Don’t you dare think I’d even consider telling him.

  Rick leaned back on the bars of his cage, satisfied.

  He remembered the first time he and Oliver had met. They’d both been sent to Mrs. Lindstrom’s Finishing School for Youth of Particularly Good Manners, and for their first three months there, they’d had no idea it was really a front for Mrs. Lindstrom’s Adventurers Academy. So their first encounter hadn’t been at fencing practice or on the camouflage course. No, their friendship began with a dodgeball incident.

  Both Rick and Oliver had thought it a little strange that a Finishing School for Youth of Particularly Good Manners would spend so much time on dodgeball. (Later, they’d see it was part of the testing mechanism that separated future Adventurers from future non-Adventurers.)

  A student named Agnes Grue had taken a particularly unholy shot at a student named Dieter Diatrix. Later, Agnes would swear she hadn’t been aiming at Dieter’s head, but the results were incontestable: Not only had the dodgeball slammed into Dieter’s face, but it had somehow become completely ensnarled by his braces. He cried out for help, and received a mouthful of red rubber in response.

  It was a mess.

  A brawl broke out between Agnes’s allies and Dieter’s defenders—Rick and Oliver were the only stu
dents in the gymnasium who remained neutral. As gym clothes were yanked and more than one head of hair was pulled, Rick and Oliver quietly made their way to Dieter, who was in quite a state. Without needing to say a word, Rick and Oliver decided on a course of action: As Rick kept Dieter from asphyxiating, Oliver determinedly disentangled the rubber from the wire, without even needing to deflate the ball. Within a minute, Dieter was freed. The teacher, busy disentangling the brawl, didn’t even notice until Oliver passed the ball back to her.

  After the ball had been returned, Oliver walked over to where Rick was leaning against a gymnasium wall.

  “Excellent work,” he told Rick. “I’m Oliver.”

  “Your work was likewise excellent,” Rick replied. “I’m Rick.”

  Rick’s parents had perished only four months before. Oliver’s own origins were shrouded in mystery. Neither Rick nor Oliver had realized how badly they’d needed a friend until their connection had been made.

  It was impossible for Rick to imagine a life without Oliver. They had become Adventurers together, and had learned the world together.

  Now, alas, they would be boiled together.

  But not without a fight. Rick might not have been able to remember facts and figures, but he was very good at calculations. And Oliver? Well, Oliver was good at understanding what Rick was calculating.

  They sent each other another round of looks.

  Rick’s said: Do you understand what we’re about to do?

  Oliver’s said: I can’t wait.

  On a silent count of two, both boys lunged from one side of their respective cages to the other. In response, Rick’s cage went swinging toward Oliver’s, and Oliver’s went swinging toward Rick’s. The second time they did this, the cages clanged together. The third time, Rick and Oliver reached out and Oliver’s left hand caught Rick’s right hand. Then, with their free hands, they began to pick each other’s locks.

  “No!” McAllister cried, motioning to his henchmen, who started to lower the cages into the boiling geyser.

  “Yes!” Melody cried out, revving the motor of the cycle she’d kept in the shadows. Using McAllister’s platform as a ramp, she launched herself into the air. The cage doors sprang open and Rick and Oliver pushed the cages apart to give Melody an opening just as the geyser began to erupt….

  Mom let me take the bus to school the next day.

  “I have an appointment with Principal Woodson and a few of the other mothers at eleven,” she told me.

  I tried to keep eating my cereal as if everything were normal, as if she were telling me about a work meeting or a trip to the nail salon.

  When I got on the bus, Allison waved me over. She’d saved me a seat next to her.

  “Hey,” I said.

  She waited until I’d sat down, and then she said, “Please don’t take this the wrong way…but I think your mom has finally lost her mind.”

  In response, I could only manage to gulp out a simple “What?”

  Allison studied me. “Do you really not know? Your mom has been calling all the other moms, telling them that Mr. Howe is trying to turn us all gay.”

  This time, my “WHAT?!” was genuine.

  Allison continued. “Well, not all the moms. She didn’t dare call my mom. But my mom found out anyway, because moms talk. And your mom is telling everyone the book we’re reading is about two boys who fall in love and run off with each other in the end. And she says the school should not be ‘promoting such ideas.’ I think that’s a direct quote. According to Tarah’s mom, who told my mom.”

  I looked over to the seat next to us and saw Tarah James, Olivia Parker, and Anna Cho all leaning over a book, feverishly reading and flipping pages.

  “That’s my copy,” Allison said. “I know we were supposed to leave them at home, but I couldn’t resist.”

  I also had my library copy in my bag—there was no way I was going to leave it alone in the house when my mom was there. I was so worried I’d fall asleep reading it last night that I only made it to chapter five before putting it safely away.

  Allison didn’t have the same worries in her house.

  “I finished it last night,” she told me. “It’s not, like, a masterpiece. But it’s fun. And it doesn’t really matter whether Rick and Oliver end up as a couple or not. That’s definitely not the point of the story. If Mr. Howe was straight, your mom probably wouldn’t have said a thing.”

  I didn’t know what to say to that. I knew Mr. Howe had a husband but wasn’t sure how my mom would know that. It wasn’t like I’d told her.

  I could remember the one time I’d been watching TV and had this show about high school on. I hadn’t even noticed my mom was in the room until the two gay boyfriends on the show were flirting with each other in the halls, and Mom asked me, “What show is this?” I told her, and she shook her head and said, “I’d like you to watch something else.” She didn’t tell me that what I’d seen was wrong, and she didn’t yell at me or anything for watching it, but the line was drawn, the message clear: You are not ready for this. There was no point in arguing.

  Allison must have seen my distress, thinking about my mom saying something about Mr. Howe, because she told me, “Don’t worry. My mom is sure Principal Woodson will show some spine. My parents and some of their friends have an appointment with her today.”

  “What time?” I asked.

  “Noon, I think.”

  I hoped Principal Woodson knew to get my mom and her squad out of the way before Allison’s mom and her squad arrived.

  Next to me, Tarah closed Allison’s copy of The Adventurers and passed it to the boys in the seat in front of her. The boys immediately turned to the back of the book and started reading.

  Our friend Sean wasn’t on our bus, but he was eager to talk as soon as we got into class. The door was open, but Mr. Howe was nowhere in sight. I tried not to be worried about that.

  The first words out of Sean’s mouth were “Did you read the end?”

  Allison and I both said we had.

  “I don’t get it,” Sean said, genuinely confused. “It doesn’t say they’re gay at all. They’re just two guys going on adventures. Like Batman and Robin.”

  Allison gave him a look.

  “What?” Sean asked.

  “Batman and Robin. Didn’t you ever think that maybe…”

  “Okay, okay,” Sean said. “Then like…Iron Man and Hulk.”

  Allison gave him the same look, telling him she definitely thought it was possible Iron Man and the Hulk were more than friends.

  “Stop it!” Sean laughed. “The Hulk is not Tony Stark’s type.”

  “Fair,” Allison conceded.

  I found the whole conversation very strange, if only because my mom had caused it.

  There was some turning of heads when someone walked into the room. I followed that turn of heads to see Kira coming in. I’d honestly forgotten that she had two moms. There were a few kids in our school with two moms or two dads or parents who just wanted to be called parents, so it wasn’t a big deal. But the current conversation made it a little more of a big deal.

  She walked right over to us. Partly, I’m sure, because her desk was near mine. But partly so she could say to me, “Well, I guess now I know why you didn’t have your book yesterday.”

  “Sorry,” I told her.

  “You don’t need to apologize,” Allison said. When Kira didn’t look convinced, Allison continued. “He doesn’t! It’s not his fault his mom is doing this. I’m assuming, Donovan, you didn’t read the book and go running to her, telling her it was doing bad things to you?”

  “Um, no,” I said. “She picked it up and started reading it while I was watching TV.”