The Detention Club (17 page)

I went upstairs, stood outside my room, and slammed the door shut, then waited a few seconds for her flute to start playing again. Then I pushed her bedroom door open really quietly and snuck inside.

The yellow duffel bag was by the closet in the corner. I crept over to it. I took extra-soft steps because her bedroom was directly over the living room, so it ended up taking me almost five minutes to get to the corner. I bent over and slowly unzipped the duffel bag, and what I saw inside it made me gasp.

It was Sunny's invention, and it was incredible, way cooler than my Safe Soles! It was all chrome, with plastic buttons on it and some sort of round thing on it and a tray that came out and a big red power button. It even had a plug in the back. I touched the side of the machine and it was smooth, perfect. I sighed. Of course Sunny would end up making something so advanced that it looked futuristic, but why would she hide this from the inventors' competition, then? Surely this would have easily won, whatever it was.

“What are you doing here?”

Sunny was standing in the doorway. I scrambled to my feet.

“I just wanted to see your invention,” I replied. “What is it?”

Her cheeks turned bright red for a second time that day.

“Get out of my room,” she barked.

“What is that thing?” I asked her.

“Duh—it's Ms. Schoonmaker's espresso machine,” she said.

“You made her a new espresso machine?”

She rolled her eyes.

“No, you moron, I stole it,” she said. “I grabbed it during the Inventors' Fair.”

I turned it over and saw that engraved on the bottom it read
made in china
.

“But you don't drink espresso,” I said. “Why would you steal it?”

She sighed, then went over to the closet and slid the door open—and I couldn't believe what I was seeing. On the shelves were several cell phones, Trent's basketball, Carson's scientific calculator, a clump of barrettes, diaries, Sally's horseshoe key chain, a stack of books, a pair of ballet shoes, a Nalgene water bottle, a handful of cotton scarves . . .

“Because I'm the thief of Fenwick Middle,” she said.

I
SAT DOWN ON THE BED.
Actually I kinda fell back onto it.

“But you can't be the thief,” I said. “That's impossible. The thief is . . . why would you steal from everyone?”

She went over to the door and locked it even though our parents weren't home from work, and wouldn't be for at least another hour. She stared at the doorknob and said, “It's a long story.”

I sat there on the bed, waiting for her to continue. She walked back over to the closet and picked up Carson's calculator. She pressed some buttons, but she was gazing out the window.

“I hate going to Fenwick Middle,” she finally said. “Everyone's mean. In sixth grade I suddenly stopped getting invited to birthday parties or even just to hang out at a friend's house after school, so I started studying extra hard and got all A's, and I became president of all the clubs. My goal was to beat everyone in school at everything. I thought it would make me feel better, but it only made everyone hate me even more.”

“But why would you steal things?”

“And then you started going to the school,” she said, ignoring me. “And I didn't want you to see that nobody likes me. You and Mom and Dad think I'm the queen of the school, and I saw that you were making friends, and it made me mad. One day I saw Hank Sweet's hat sitting on his chair—he forgot it after lunch—and I don't know why, but I took it. I had my duffel bag with me, and I stuck it in there when nobody was looking.

“And the thing is, it made me feel happy in school for the first time ever. The next day Hank made fun of me before class, and for once it didn't make me mad, because I knew I had his favorite Notre Dame hat. And so I started stealing things from people and hiding them in the duffel bag, and it made going to school feel easier.

“So when kids are talking about an amazing birthday party they went to over the weekend, I don't feel as bad, because I have their barrettes and their diaries. It kind of gave me a sort of revenge for not being invited to the parties, I guess. But it felt gross, too, and I tried to stop, but I guess I got a little addicted to it.”

“It's crazy you'd just carry that duffel bag around in school, didn't you care if you got caught?” I asked.

“Nobody suspected me because I'm Sunny Lee, the model student. I'm the straight arrow, the last person anyone would think was the thief.”

I nodded. “It's like Dad always says—sometimes the hardest answer to find is the one staring right at you. He used to hide a bike reflector from me and Drew in plain sight, and we could never find it.”

“Exactly.”

“But wait, so why did you steal from Ms. Schoonmaker?”

“Because she got mad at me for not having my invention ready, and I was frustrated that I hadn't made one all semester. I couldn't think of a good idea for one. But now I'm in serious trouble. It's just a matter of time before I get caught, and then I'll get expelled.”

I didn't say anything for a minute.

“I get why you did it,” I said finally.

“You do?” Now Sunny was the one who looked surprised.

I should've felt happy that she wasn't the queen bee I thought she was; after all, this was Sunny, the one who got me in detention in the first place . . . but instead I just felt bad for her. “I'm not the popular kid you think I am,” I said.

“Yeah, right—everyone's friends with you. You're even friends with the Sweet brothers!”

“I experienced the exact same thing as you. Out of the blue this fall, everyone stopped worshipping me and Drew. The only reason kids in my grade were sorta friends with me was because I was friends with the Sweet brothers, and the only reason the twins liked me was because they thought I was a screw-up because I got detention, not like you. And they don't even like me anymore,” I said.

“What about all those other kids you're friends with?” she asked.

I explained my side of the story, and afterward we sat there in a circle for a few minutes, not saying anything. It felt good to admit the truth to her, since she was the only person on the planet besides Drew who could possibly understand.

“You're kinda nuts, huh?” she said.

“Let's not forget that you have a closet full of other people's stuff,” I pointed out.

Sunny frowned.

“So we're both fakes,” she said, and I nodded. “I'm in big trouble, Peter. I need your help. Will you help me?”

It was the first time she'd ever needed my help for anything, and I felt shocked. “Of course,” I said, and I was surprised at how fast I'd come to that conclusion. Sunny was surprised, too.

“Really?” she asked, eyeing me suspiciously.

“Don't you remember what Dad always says?” I asked. She shook her head, and I grinned. “Blood is thicker than water.”

W
E'RE GOING TO HAVE TO RETURN
the items,” I said.

“But then I'll get busted,” Sunny replied.

“Not if we do it anonymously, and make it so students think they just misplaced the stuff in their lockers. You know, like Dad's bike reflector.”

“How do we do that?”

“We're going to need Drew's help. I don't think as well without him.”

I went into my bedroom and called him up, and five minutes later he was in Sunny's bedroom. “Where's the monkey you found?” he asked.

“There is no monkey. I just needed you to come over,” I admitted.

“I can't believe you'd say that.”

“I can't believe you'd believe I'd found a monkey.”

“Why'd you say there was a monkey?” Drew asked. “You know I would have come over, anyway.”

I sighed. “I kinda lie a lot, if you haven't noticed.”

“I've been meaning to talk to you about that, actually. It's really not a good—”

“You guys are idiots,” Sunny said, and she whipped open the closet. Drew's eyes widened.

“You're the thief?” he asked, and she nodded. “But why would you steal from everybody?”

Sunny told Drew her story, and when she was done, he sat there on the ground for a minute, taking it all in. Finally he asked, “So how do we return everything?”

“One item at a time,” I said, turning to my sister. “We use our strengths to our advantage to solve this mess. The way I see it, Drew and I are experts at scoping out danger, and another advantage we have is that nobody suspects you to be the thief, so you'll be the one to actually return the items while me and Drew look out for you. If we work together, we can return all the items without getting caught. Then it'll be as if the thief never existed. People will have no choice but to think they simply misplaced their stuff.”

We spent an hour identifying where everyone's lockers were and their class schedules, and then sorted through the stolen items, putting the owner's names on Post-it notes so we'd know who each item belonged to.

“Let's make a promise,” Sunny said at one point. “If we can somehow get out of this mess, then from now on we stop framing people into detention, stop stealing stuff, and start over from scratch.”

The three of us shook on it.

“I didn't realize so many students had scarves,” Drew said, going through the stolen items in the closet.

“That's because I stole them all,” Sunny explained.

“That's funny!” Drew said. “I can see where Peter gets his humor.”

“I'm not his mother, you moron,” she snapped.

“I can see where he gets his temper, too,” Drew added.

The next day we started returning the stolen items. Drew and I stood guard on opposite ends of the lockers, keeping an eye out for the student whose item Sunny was secretly returning. If they showed up, Drew and I would distract them. The first item we returned was Sally's horseshoe key chain. She was with her equestrian buddies next to her open locker after first period, so I looked out the window and shouted, “Hey, there's a wild horse in the parking lot!”

Sally and her friends rushed over to see. In the reflection of the window I saw Sunny slip the horseshoe key chain into Sally's locker. Drew coughed behind me, to let me know the mission was completed.

“Where is it?” Sally asked me.

I squinted out the window.

“Oh, woops, I guess it's just a motorcycle,” I said.

She groaned.

“You need glasses, Peter,” she said.

I held my arms out as if I was blind.

“Whoever said that, thank you, thank you for that tip, that helps,” I shouted, then intentionally bumped my nose into the window, trying to leave. It hurt.

Drew wasn't as good at improvising when the student was around. Sunny waited near Carson's locker as he took out his science textbook, and Drew just copied my move and looked out the window and shouted, “Hey, there's a gigantic scientific calculator out in the parking lot!”

But Carson bought it, and he rushed over to the window. When Sunny was done returning his calculator, I coughed.

“Oh, false alarm,” Drew said, frowning. “It's just a fire hydrant.”

“You're insane,” Carson said.

And that's how we did it. The first day we returned a dozen items and didn't once come close to getting busted. The next day we returned ten more. It took three days to return most of the items. There were a bunch of scarves and sweaters whose owners Sunny couldn't remember, but more importantly, there was only one major item left to return.

Ms. Schoonmaker's espresso machine.

I
N DETENTION ON
F
RIDAY NOBODY
talked to me. I sat by myself in the front row while Donnie did homework, the Sweet brothers worked on their mazes by themselves, and Sally and Trent passed notes to each other even though Mr. Tinsley couldn't hear anyone talking with his headphones on. Finally they realized that they didn't have to pass notes and talked loudly about what they were going to be for the Halloween pageant on Monday. The pageant is this annual tradition where the students wear costumes all day. Every year for no good reason they schedule it to take place a few days
after
Halloween's already passed, which kinda bums everyone out. Schools always schedule fun events after the holidays they're attached to on purpose, because they don't want students to be too spazzy or else riots could break out at assemblies and stuff. Sally was going to dress up as a unicorn, which I could've predicted. Trent was going to be one of the Boston Celtics just so he could have an excuse to dribble his basketball in the halls between periods for once. Halloween's usually my favorite holiday, but all I could think about was figuring out a way to sneak the espresso machine back into the teachers' lounge.

I closed my eyes and pictured the teachers' lounge. For the first time I pictured the one time I'd been inside it, when I'd asked Ms. Schoonmaker to get me out of detention. You could see the soccer field out the windows. There was an emergency exit right in the teachers' lounge, and I figured if we could cause some sort of distraction outside, surely all the teachers would rush out to try to catch us, and then Drew and I could use our land-skiing skills to sneak inside without anyone noticing, while Sunny returned the espresso machine!

“What are you smiling about?” Sally asked me.

“I don't know. Hey, is that your key chain? I thought it got stolen,” I said, and Sally blushed. “And to think you accused me of being the thief.”

She didn't say anything.

After detention I met up with Sunny and Drew in Corbett Canyon and pitched my idea. “It's not bad,” Sunny said carefully. “But it's risky.”

“Everyone's going to be wearing costumes all day, so we could wear Halloween masks so teachers won't be able to identify us,” Drew suggested.

“I didn't even think of that,” I admitted.

He drew an imaginary box with his fingers, and I nodded.

“This feels crazy, but it just might work,” Sunny said.

“But will the teachers really rush out if we're outside?” I asked, starting to doubt my plan.

“We need something bigger, a reason for them to come out,” Sunny said.

Drew raised his hand.

“You don't have to raise your hand,” I explained. “It's just the three of us.”

“I know what we can use to get them to come out,” he said, bursting with pride. He went over to the safe and opened it up, pulling out his recorder/modified rocket launcher. “Me and Pete can have a bottle-rockets war!”

“Okay, so once all the teachers come out to get you two, I'll rush in and drop off the espresso machine,” Sunny said, and we nodded. “The back door to the gym is always open, so you guys can sneak back in that way.”

“This is going to work,” Drew said.

“It has to,” I said, looking at Sunny.

We went to the pawnshop to buy Halloween masks. We got six of them, and the pawnshop owner was real friendly to us, because we were by far his best customers at this point.

“We're going to have to train for this mission,” Drew said as we all biked back home. “I haven't land-skied in over a month.”

“What's land-skiing?” Sunny asked.

We took her over to the top of the big hill behind the soccer field at school. We stashed Sunny's duffel bag (which contained the remaining stolen items and the fireworks) under a tree at the edge of the soccer field for Monday.

“For this first run, just stay up here and watch what we do,” Drew warned her. “Just to get a feel for how to do it.”

She nodded.

“It's this way of moving faster than running down a hill,” I explained. “You run, but with all the pine needles it's impossible not to slip and fall, so with land-skiing you launch yourself in the direction you want to turn, as if you're skiing moguls.”

“I want to try,” she said.

“It's too dangerous, and we're trained professionals,” Drew said. “It's better if you just watch us first.”

She rolled her eyes.

“Okay, on the count of three, first one down wins,” I said to Drew, and he nodded. “One, two—hey, what's that behind you, Drew?—THREE!”

I took off a second before him. I nearly lost it in a patch of pine needles and did this cool move by accident where I half slid around a thick oak tree and kinda pulled myself back to the left by grabbing a branch and swinging myself back over. Drew caught up to me and we were side by side, barreling down the hill, when suddenly a shape passed between us. It was Sunny! She expertly weaved her way between branches and cut between trees, ducking under a big branch and sliding the last twenty feet at the bottom. Drew skidded to a stop next to her, and I ended up third.

“You're a natural,” I said, feeling both impressed and deeply disappointed.

“I thought you were going to be terrible at first,” Drew added. “How are you so good at this?”

Sunny looked cocky, but for once, it didn't infuriate me.

“This plan's definitely going to work,” Drew said. “Right, Peter?”

“We can circle back from here, undetected, through the woods to the back entrance, and by sixth period Monday, Sunny will be in the clear,” I said.

“Thanks, guys,” Sunny said, and she looked like she meant it.

We climbed back up to the top to have an official race, because Sunny wanted to do it again. At the count of three we took off, and Sunny took the early lead. I managed to catch up to her, while Drew fell behind. Right before we reached the bottom, I took the lead and won the race! I looked over at Sunny. “Thanks,” I said.

“You beat me fair and square, so there's nothing to thank me for,” she said, but she was still smiling. Then her face changed. “Where's Drew?”

We looked behind us up the hill but couldn't see him at all. From the bottom of the hill the trees blocked the view—that's how steep it was. A couple of seconds later we heard him shouting, “Help me!”

My gut reaction was to run in the opposite direction, because it clearly sounded like Drew was either being attacked by a mountain lion or being held hostage by an escaped criminal, but since Drew was my best and only friend, I couldn't just ditch him, even though my life might be in danger. I cautiously edged forward a few feet and called out to him.

“What exactly do you mean by ‘Help me?'” I shouted up the hill. “Are you with anyone or anything at the moment that could harm us as well?”

“Please, Peter, I'm hurt real bad!” Drew was crying loudly, but my mind was now picturing all kinds of terrible things in the woods (I'd added ghosts to my list of possible reasons why Drew was in pain). His cries echoed throughout the forest and it sounded to me like creepy laughter.

“Listen, I totally want to help you, Drew,” I shouted. “But first I need to know if you're alone right now. Please work with me on this!”

There was no response at first. I craned my neck out from behind the safe cover of a big tree and for a second I swore I could make out the sound of chewing.

“I'm so cold,” he finally cried out again, his voice noticeably weaker.

“You're not answering my question!” I shouted.

Sunny rolled her eyes at me.

“We have to help him,” Sunny said, and started racing up the hill, while I frantically searched for a strong stick for protection. She turned back and glared at me. “Come on, Peter!”

We found Drew laid out on the ground near the top.

“What happened?” I asked.

“I twisted my ankle,” he said, moaning. “Am I going to lose my leg?”

“Here, let me see,” Sunny said. “Tell me if this hurts.”

She barely touched his ankle with her pinky and he yowled in pain.

“Looks like you sprained your ankle. Do you think you can walk with our help?”

We helped him up, and then we had to ditch our bikes in the woods in order to hold him up on both sides all the way back home. It took nearly thirty minutes, and by then it was dinnertime.

“Ice it all weekend, okay?” Sunny said.

He nodded.

“What if his ankle's not better by Monday?” I asked her. “How will he be able to land-ski if he's on crutches or in a wheelchair?”

“I thought you guys said I wasn't going to lose my leg!” Drew whimpered.

“The plans have changed. Drew's going to have to return the espresso machine himself,” Sunny said, staring at me. “I'm going to have to land-ski with you.”