Branded - Eric Walters [16]
We left the gym and hurried down the hall.
“What exactly do you need the Internet for?” Oswald asked.
“You’ll see soon enough.”
There was no class in the computer lab, and more than half of the machines were available. I sat down and quickly logged in. The machine whirred and purred but didn’t seem to want to move very quickly. Finally a search engine came on and I typed in the address. It popped up, the heading on the page simple but clear—The Ten Worst Offenders. And right below that, in third place, was that awful symbol!
I printed the page as Oswald read over my shoulder. I didn’t have to read it because I knew exactly what it said.
“You know, just because it’s on the Internet doesn’t mean it’s true,” Oswald said.
“Look at the source.”
He scrolled down the page. “Okay, so this is a good source, but maybe it’s an old report and they’ve changed.”
“Look at the date at the top,” I said.
He went back up to the top. It had been published earlier this year.
“That still doesn’t mean they haven’t changed,” he suggested.
“Maybe they have. Probably they haven’t.”
I logged out of the computer and went over to the printer and grabbed the sheet.
“We need to find Julia and tell her about this,” Oswald said.
“Are you insane?” I asked.
“The jury is still out on that one,” he joked. “But she is student president, and she does hate these uniforms and—”
“This would send her over the edge!” I said.
“Wouldn’t that be fun to watch?” Oswald asked.
I grabbed him by his jacket. “You have to promise me you won’t talk to Julia about this. That you won’t talk to anybody about this…well, except for Mr. Roberts.”
“What? I can only talk to the one person I don’t want to talk to?”
“We have to,” I said. “He has to know about this.”
“Then you tell him. You don’t need me there.”
“I need to show him the label on your jacket.”
Oswald pulled off his jacket and tried to hand it to me.
“What are you doing?” I asked. “Just come with me.”
“Nope. I’m not going near him.”
“It sounds like you’re afraid to go.”
“I am afraid and so should you be,” Oswald said.
“Afraid of what?” I demanded.
“Haven’t you ever heard the saying they kill the messenger?”
“He’s not going to kill us.”
“It’s not us, it’s me I’m worried about. You he likes.”
“He likes you too.”
“He likes me, but he really likes you,” Oswald said.
“Look, he’s not going to kill us,” I said. “He’s never killed anybody before.”
“Are you sure? He was in the Marines.”
“Regardless, he’s never killed a student. You know him. He’s tough, but he is fair. He’ll want to hear this.”
Oswald took a deep breath. “I’ll go with you, but I still think this is a mistake.”
chapter eleven
Mr. Roberts sat at his desk reading the report I’d brought him. I could feel sweat pouring down from my armpits. Oswald was so silent and still that I almost forgot he was there. I think he wanted to blend into the background so he wouldn’t be noticed by Mr. Roberts.
Mr. Roberts looked up from the report. “This company has a very poor record.”
“Not just poor. It’s one of the worst in the world,” I said.
“I’m very glad you brought this to my attention,” Mr. Roberts said.
I felt like giving Oswald a nudge. He was so worried that we’d be in trouble that—
“We thought you’d want to know,” Oswald said.
Now I felt like making that nudge into a punch.
“I do appreciate it,” Mr. Roberts said. “But to be honest with you, I found out about this myself just a few days ago.”
“You did?”
“It was very distressing,” Mr. Roberts said. “I was very upset.”
“It is upsetting. It’s terrible!” I exclaimed.
“I agree completely. Now if you’ll excuse me I have a lot of work to do.”
He got to his feet and so did we. We shook hands. I was glad we told him. It was the right thing to do.
“There’s so much I have to do to take care of these uniforms,” said Mr. Roberts.
I could just imagine the phone calls he’d have to make to cancel them and how upset people might be.
“I hope we can get all the uniforms distributed so that everybody will be wearing them by Monday,” he said.
“What?” I gasped. “We’re still going