Slob - Ellen Potter [55]
“Very nice,” I said, picking it up by the corner and holding it out for him. I was sorry I’d asked about it.
“Don’t you want to open it?” he said, not taking it.
“No. Nope. Here you go.” I glanced up at the principal’s door, expecting her to appear at any minute.
“Look,” Mason said, leaning across to me. “There’s a button on the side. Press it.” Now I could hear some scraping inside Ms. DeRosa’s office, like they were getting up from their chairs.
“Could you just—” My voice was rising with panic. They were going to open the door any second. “Put this thing away, will you!” I dropped it in Mason’s lap. He picked it up calmly and held it in his palm. With his index finger he pressed a button on the side of the box.
Snick!
I flinched backward. Then I looked down. A tiny metal drawer had shot out of the side of the box, and inside it were three keys on a ring.
“My house keys,” he said.
“Oh.” There was a thin sheen of sweat on my face.
“I keep them in my sock because they tend to fall out of my pockets.”
“Gotcha,” I said.
He smiled. It was the evil genius smile. I hadn’t imagined it. It was straight out of the comics, it really was.
The principal’s door opened and Mr. Wooly stepped out. He glared at us. I don’t think things had gone very well for him in Ms. DeRosa’s office. She didn’t look too happy either when she called me in.
“So,” Ms. DeRosa said after I sat down in a chair on the opposite side of her desk. “Let’s hear your version.” She sipped at a metal thermos of coffee as she listened to my side of the story. I tried to be as truthful as possible. I was slightly less than truthful about Jeremy and GWAB. Actually I didn’t mention them at all.
She listened really well. Not many people know how to do that. When I was finished, she gave me a short lecture about endangering a classmate with a serious medical condition and said she would be speaking to my sister as well (of course, Wooly would have told her about The Blue and White Rebellion). Then she said she hoped she’d never have to see me in her office again.
I said, “I hope not too,” and then wondered if that sounded rude, so I said, “Nice chatting with you.” But that sounded like I didn’t take this thing very seriously, so I bowed. Just like she was the Queen of England.
I told you I do idiotic things when I’m nervous.
Do you know what Ms. DeRosa did? She bowed back. Not just a dip-your-head bow either. She put down her thermos, stood up, and bowed deeply to me. I thought that was really classy of her. I like to think that each of us felt the other one deserved a bow.
But maybe she was just being polite.
16
After school, Jeremy wasn’t waiting for me by the corner. I stood around for a while, hoping she’d show, but she didn’t. I thought things between us might have improved because of what happened today. Obviously, I was wrong.
It wasn’t until I was almost home that I remembered I had Penny Marshall’s birthday in my pocket. I stuck my hand in my pocket and touched the paper, although I didn’t really have to look at it again. The date was fixed in my brain: October 15, 1943. Now all I had to do was go through the October 2006 issue of Retro TV Magazine to see what time that Brady Bunch episode had been aired and I could pinpoint the exact timing for the surveillance camera. I might have to do a little more scavenging for a bigger dish so that I could bring in the signal more consistently, but all in all, things were looking good.
A calmness came over me. All the puzzle pieces