The Rise of Rachel Stark (9 page)

"Okay. Listen. Rachel, you are new
to this school and new to this town. You have a southern accent, a
Tennessee accent, and I'm not saying there is anything wrong with
that, not at all, but it makes you different from everybody else
here.

"So you are new and different.
What is not different is what you say you are going through. It's a
rite of passage, is what it is. And it happens in every school in
the nation, probably in the whole world, every time there's a new
kid on the block.

"It may not be comfortable for you
at the time, but it will pass, and you will survive. Trust me. What
you have to do is work things out with these kids. I can't do that
for you. In fact, these things are pretty much completely out of my
control. It's up to you. I wish I could help you, but I can't. If I
could, I would.

"I'm sorry you're having a bad
time. But it will get better soon. It's just a rite of passage,
that's all."

Rachel and Tabby looked at each
other. Rachel got up to leave.

"Thanks for your time, Mr.
Peterson," she said.

"You're welcome," he said. "Now
have a great day."

The girls started to walk out of
the office. Then Tabby turned around and said:

"Mr. Peterson, not to beat a dead
horse, but I should give you fair warning. You might be the boss in
this school, but my father is the mayor of this town. And he has
friends, good friends, on the school board. Keep that in mind,
sir."

"Are you threatening me, young
lady?"

"My name is Tabby. It is not
'young lady.' Threatening you? No. I'm just telling you that if you
won't deal with the bullies in your school, we are going to take
your advice and handle this situation ourselves.

"Now you have a great day,
sir."

The girls walked out of Mr.
Peterson's office and closed the door behind them.

●●●

"Oh my god," Rachel said after she
and Tabby were out in the hallway. "I guess maybe I am different
from the kids around here. I could never have talked that way to a
… to an authority figure like Mr. Peterson."

"Are you angry with me?" Tabby
asked.

"No, I don't think so. I really
don't know what I am. Except in shock."

"Well, I'm kind of used to talking
to adults that way," Tabby said, "because there are so many of them
who are just plain stupid. I couldn't believe my ears when he asked
you what you wanted him to do about it. I mean, is he the
principal, or is he not the principal?"

"Yeah. I'm just afraid of what
he'll do now," Rachel said. "And I don't even know what that might
be. But I can see him calling your dad and telling him you
threatened him. Do you think he might even kick us out of
school?"

"On what grounds? Because we
called him out for not doing his job? And don't worry about my dad.
He's used to me shooting my mouth off. Nothing will come of
that."

"Are you sure?"

"Listen, Jimmy called me last
night. He came up with this idea. I think it's a terrific idea, a
brilliant idea, but I didn't mention it to you because Jimmy asked
me to hold off until he had a chance to talk with Bull and Rodney
and Sheldon. Maybe he called them last night or is talking to them
today. Anyway, he will tell us the deal when we give you and Rodney
a ride up to the cemetery after football practice
today."

"Can't you even give me a hint?"
Rachel asked.

"Well, all I can say is that we
got the power on this one, Rache. We kids do. Not Mr. Peterson, not
even the school board. We do. We got the leverage. And if we have
to use it, we will."

"What if I don't like the plan?"
Rachel said. "It's my butt that's on the line. Do I have veto
power?"

Tabby was silent for a
moment.

"Actually, no," she said finally.
"Because this problem is bigger than just you. Jimmy made me
realize that. You're not the only kid who's getting pushed around
in this school. You might be getting pushed harder than most, but
you're not the only one. Not by a long shot.

"What Peterson said about you
being new and different and that's why kids are picking on you is
BS. Total BS. There are kids in this school getting picked on who
have lived here their whole lives. Good kids. Good kids who are so
beat down now that you hardly notice them anymore. Because they're
hiding most of the time.

"So along comes you, this girl
with an incredible, angelic voice. With a voice and a talent like
you have, you can't go unnoticed, you can't hide. So you are the
perfect poster child for what needs to be done. Jimmy says this is
an actionable moment, because the business about kids treating
other kids like shit has got to stop. And he's right."

The class bell rang, and the girls
went their separate ways.

●●●

Later the same day, after Mr.
Peterson called Phil Moore, Tabby's father, and told him of his
conversation with Tabby and Rachel; after Phil Moore called Tabby
at school; after Mr. Peterson also alerted Ed Reynolds, the
president of the Chante School Board, as to what the two girls
said; and after football practice, the six kids climbed into
Sheldon's old Ford for the ride up to the cemetery.

"OK, you got the floor, Jimmy,"
Tabby said as Sheldon pulled out of the school parking
lot.

"Well, first of all, you should
know that Sheldon, Bull, Rodney and I unanimously agreed that we
should put this plan into action. In fact, each one of them
separately said yes without me even asking them whether they would
go along with the idea.

"Second, it is our thinking, that
is, the thinking of the four guys in this car, that you should be
left out of this thing altogether, Rache. We don't want this to
become known as a plan to rescue Rachel Stark. We want to focus on
how to stop the bullies at Chante High, whether they be boys or
girls, from picking on kids that they, for whatever reason, don't
like. There is no need, Rache, for your name to ever even be
mentioned.

"OK, here's the plan. We four
guys, and just us four guys, nobody else, are going to go to the
principal's office first thing tomorrow morning and ask to see Mr.
Peterson and – and – Coach O'Connor.

"If Mrs. Wright says Peterson is
not in, or he's too busy, or for whatever reason he's not able to
meet with us, we will wait. We will skip classes and wait there all
day if we have to. Sooner or later he has to come out of his hole.
And when he does, well, we'll grab him. So to speak.

"And here's what we'll say. We'll
ask him first of all to call Coach O'Connor into the office. Then,
when the coach is there, we'll tell them we think there is a
serious problem with bullies at Chante High. And we, all of us,
have some examples of that we can talk about.

"Then we'll ask, in a very
non-threatening manner, if he will take action to correct that
situation. If he says there is nothing he can do, we'll say yes
there is.

"We'll say Mr. Peterson, first of
all, you have a bully pulpit. Perfect name for it, huh? What we
suggest you do, Mr. Peterson, is call a special assembly to talk
about the bullying problem. Give examples that have been brought to
your attention, without using names, of course. And tell the kids
that such behavior will no longer be tolerated.

"Then second, announce that a
special committee will be formed to deal with the problem. This
committee will consist exclusively of students – 8, 10, 12 –
however many. And they will be anonymous – no one will know who
these committee members are. And their job will be to report
directly to Mr. Peterson whenever they witness incidents of
bullying.

"The trick is that this committee
will not only be anonymous, it also will be a phantom committee. In
other words, it won't really exist. The idea is that if bullies
just think there are spies in their midst, and they don't know who
those spies are, they might be less inclined to do their stupid
stuff.

"And third, Mr. Peterson, you can
bring the parents into this. You can ask them to talk with their
kids about the problem, tell them how wrong it is, etcetera
etcetera.

"OK now, here's the kicker. Are
you ready for this? If Peterson won't go along with the plan, or
even if he just dances around the question and says he'll have to
think about it, or talk to the school board, or whatever stalling
tactic he might come up with, we tell him this:

"If you don't, at the very least,
call a special assembly within the next two days – that's tomorrow
and Thursday – and talk about the bullying problem and tell the
kids that you plan to take action to eliminate that kind of
behavior at Chante High, we – Sheldon Beasley, Bull Evenshot, Jimmy
Blaze and Rodney Stark – will quit the football team immediately
and not return until you do."

Rachel gasped.

"That's how serious we are about
this," Jimmy said. "But let me tell you something. You could
threaten to eliminate the music program at Chante High, and nothing
would happen. You could threaten to cut out the drama department,
and nothing would happen. You could drop math, history, science,
art, you name it, and no one would say a word.

"But don't you dare fuck with the
football program, or there will be riots in the streets. Don't you
fucking dare."

"And if they call our bluff,"
Sheldon said, "they will find out just how serious we are. Every
one of is absolutely committed to quitting the football team if we
have to. And everybody knows that without the four of us Chante
would not win another game this year. That's not braggadocio,
that's a fact. But if we have to hold the football program hostage
to get what we want, that's what we will do."

"Because what we want," Rodney
said, "is for the school, for the adults, to do the right thing,
and for the kids to do the right thing."

Tears welled up in his
eyes.

"Football is a game," Rodney said.
"It's just a game. Rachel is my sister. Somebody has to stand for
up for her, and for kids like her. If I don't, if we don't, who
will?"

Rachel gave him a hug. They cried
on each other's shoulder.

●●●

The next morning the four football
players met with Mr. Peterson and Coach O'Connor.

"You're kidding," the coach said
when the players laid out their ultimatum. "That's crazy. Sheldon,
Jimmy … are you … are you guys nuts? You can't be
serious."

"Does it sound like we're kidding,
coach?" Bull said. "Do you really think we would be having this
meeting if we were kidding? C'mon, coach."

"Well, it's crazy," the coach
said, growing angrier by the second. "It's crazy. Do you know what
you're doing? Do you know how upset and angry people in this town
would be if you guys quit the team? They'd probably string you guys
up. This is unreal. I can't believe this is real."

"It doesn't have to happen,
coach," Sheldon said.

"No, it doesn't. Not if you guys
pull your heads out of your ass," the coach said.

"What's important to you, coach?"
Jimmy asked.

"What do you mean? What the hell
are you talking about?"

"No, really," Jimmy said. "What's
important in your life? If someone were to ask you what's important
to you in life, what would you say?"

"What's important to me is that
you stick to your word. What's important is that you don't let
people down. You don't betray their trust. You don't walk out on
your teammates, who are counting on you. That's what's important to
me. Now you tell me what's important to you."

"The exact same thing, coach,"
Jimmy said. "The exact same thing. I look at all the kids in this
school who are bullied every day, made to feel awful about
themselves, to feel alone and unloved, abused and tossed aside … I
know how they feel, coach, because I used to walk in their shoes.
And I made a commitment a long time ago that I would stand with
these people against the bullies. And I'm going to stick to my
word. I'm on their team. I will not betray them. I will not let
them down, because I know they are counting on me. They're
important to me. Football is not. As Rodney said yesterday,
football is just a game."

The coach jumped up from his
chair.

"Football is not just a game!" he
shouted.

"OK, coach, sit down, please sit
down," Mr. Peterson said, "before things get out of
hand."

The coach sat down. He loosened
his tie.

"Well," Mr. Peterson said, "we
have listened to you boys this morning, Coach O'Connor and I, and I
think we heard your message loud and clear. You stated your case
very eloquently.

"Unfortunately, I think your case
also was badly overstated. I don't think what you call bullying is
nearly as bad as you make it out to be, and I certainly don't think
it is nearly as widespread as you would have us
believe."

"Sir, that's just not true,"
Sheldon said. "We can cite you many incidents of bullying if you
want to hear them."

"Actually, I have heard quite
enough, Sheldon. I have seen a clique form at Chante High that
involves you boys, maybe a few others and a couple of girls. I
think you trying to protect that clique, and nothing
more.