Jack Strong Takes a Stand (9 page)

“It's not like I'm trying to make a big point or anything,” Strong explains. “And I don't expect anybody else to do what I'm doing. It's probably pretty stupid, not going to school and everything. But it's just something I wanted to do, because I felt strongly about it.”

Jack now spends his days on the couch exercising and watching TV with his grandmother, reading and doing homework, playing video games and hanging out with his dog, Maddie. The only times he gets up from the couch are to get something to eat and to go to the bathroom.

“I'm not going to lie, sometimes it gets a little boring,” said Jack. “But it's a lot more fun than learning how to say the names of various household appliances in Chinese.”

Jack Strong's mother and father were unavailable for comment.

I finished the article, and read it again. Then I read it again.

“Leo, are you still there?” I whispered, after the third time.

“Yup.”

I let out a long breath. “Holy moly.”

“I know. Are your parents going to kill you?”

I shook my head, even though Leo couldn't see me. “My dad is too mad to even talk to me. He's just ignoring me now and waiting for me to get bored and give up. And my mom is making up for my dad being a jerk by being extra nice.”

That was true. I'd realized that some part of her was tired of my dad making me do all these activities. And besides, she always reacted to Dad being mad at me by being even nicer than usual. The last couple of days she'd even made all my favorite meals and picked up my homework from school. When I asked her if Dad would be mad at her for doing that, she patted my arm and said, “You just leave that to me.”

So I left it to her.

“Well, I gotta go to school,” said Leo. “I guess I'll talk to you later?”

“I guess so. Hey did my parents really refuse to comment?”

“Nah. I think he just wrote that because he says that's what reporters write when they're too lazy to actually interview somebody.”

“Got it.”

We hung up, and I sat back on the couch and closed my eyes. It was dead silent. Dad was at work, my mom had taken Nana to get her heart medicine, and Maddie was outside trying to catch squirrels—she was 0 for 4,647 so far. I was alone in the house. I was getting used to being alone. I'd been on that couch for five days, and even though Mom and Nana were usually around, I'd never been alone so much in my life. But I had a feeling that was about to change.

I was right.

 

24

 

At exactly 3:02,
the doorbell rang.

“It's open!” I yelled.

Maddie started barking like crazy, and I knew that it wasn't just Leo or somebody else who came over all the time.

“Who's there?” I shouted, but no one answered. Maddie kept barking, and suddenly I had to come up with a way to scare away a burglar while not getting up from the couch.

I was thinking over my strategy when I heard Leo yell, “It's just us!”

Us?

I looked up and saw Leo come into the room. Behind him were Cathy Billows, Baxter Billows, Sam French, Kevin Kessler, Vanessa Cummings, and Jenny Zeilinksy.

“JACK!” Cathy shouted, shoving the high school newspaper into my hand. “You're famous!”

I'd forgotten that the paper was distributed at the middle school, too. The headline was even bigger in print.

“Take a stand by taking a seat,” said Sam French, who up until that very moment had been way too cool to ever even look in my direction. “Pretty awesome, dude.”

“Completely,” agreed Jenny, whose long auburny-red hair had basically declared her off-limits to all but the lucky few. “I totally wish I thought of that.”

Leo sat down next to me. “These guys just wanted to come over and tell you in person how what you're doing is so awesome,” he said. “That's okay, right?”

I looked around at all the kids. This was the A-list. The cream of the crop. The future football captains and cheerleaders. The kings and queens of the jungle.

“Yeah, it's great,” I said. “Help yourself to anything in the kitchen. I'd get it for you myself, but well, you know.”

When they all laughed at that lame joke like I was the funniest guy on the planet, I knew my life had changed forever.

Cathy came up to me. “You don't look so hot, Jack,” she said, suddenly concerned about my well-being. “You look like you haven't been outside in a week.”

“I haven't,” I reminded her.

“Hey, I've got an idea!” announced Kevin Kessler, smacking his forehead just like animals do in cartoons when they have ideas. “We should, like, carry your couch outside!”

“Dude, that's an awesome idea!” cried Sam, smacking his forehead, too, for no apparent reason.

What a couple of goofballs. But here's the thing. It
was
an awesome idea.

In fact, it was such a good idea, I was mad that I hadn't thought of it. Move the couch outside! It was brilliant! That way, I could still be on strike but be in the front yard, get some fresh air, and hang out with people in the neighborhood.

Then again, maybe I hadn't thought of it because the couch was a little too heavy for my grandmother to lift.

I nodded. “Okay, but it's going to be pretty heavy, because I have to stay on it while you move it. We can go through the screen porch because the door is super wide.”

“Take all the cushions and pillows off,” Leo instructed. Everyone did as they were told, because Leo got really good grades.

Cathy, Leo, and Kevin got on one side of the couch, with Baxter, Jenny, Sam, and Vanessa on the other.

Maddie started barking at them, like she thought it was a bad idea.

“And … up!” commanded Baxter.

Together everyone hoisted the couch (and me), and somehow they managed to stagger to the screen porch, just missing about three fancy vases on the way.

“Careful,” I said, nervously enjoying the ride.

“Yes, your highness,” muttered Leo.

We (okay, they) pushed ahead heroically. I couldn't believe they were going to pull it off! I hadn't been outside in five days.

Then Nana wandered in. “Jack, I'm going to take a quick nap—”

She saw us and almost dropped her juice. “What in the world—?”

“Oh, hi, Mrs. Kellerman!” Leo said, giving her a friendly wave.

He shouldn't have done that.

See, the thing is, you need a hand to wave. Which means, he only had one hand on the couch. Which means, his side suddenly started tilting downward. Which means, the whole delicate balance was thrown off.

Which means, the couch came crashing down on Kevin Kessler's foot.

Kevin yelled “OW!” so loud that Maddie got scared and bolted through the screen door, which unfortunately wasn't open at the time. The screen popped out of the door, went flying backward, and crushed half of my mom's prized rose bushes.

Then Maddie ran over the screen and trampled the other half.

We waited there for a minute to let Kevin work out his pain.

“Are you okay?” Vanessa finally said.

Kevin squinted and said, “Let's get this frickin' thing outside.”

Man, football players are tough. Even middle school football players.

Thirty seconds later, I was sitting on the couch in the bright mid-afternoon sun. It was glorious!

Nana followed us outside.

“Are you planning on sleeping out here?” she asked.

I answered with a shrug.

She sat down next to me. “Listen, kiddo, I'm your biggest fan, but I'm not sure about this maneuver.”

“I'm on strike, Nana!”

“I know you are, dear,” she said. “And I think that's wonderful, as long as you don't break the house.”

 

25

 

I forgot
how awesome outside was.

The sun was shining, the birds were chirping, the trees were rustling, and the coolest kids in the grade were in my yard playing coed touch football, with me as automatic quarterback.

It turns out that coed touch football is really fun, especially when you never have to get up from the couch.

“Hike!” I hollered, standing on the top of the cushions. My receivers, Baxter and Cathy, went out. I saw Baxter streak by Kevin Kessler, who was obviously still a little hampered by the fact that a three-hundred-pound couch had been dropped on his toe.

I threw a somewhat pathetic spiral to Baxter's shoes, but he was so athletic that he grabbed it easily.

“Touchdown!” he screamed, accepting a hug from an auburn-hair-swirling Jenny Zeilinsky. He headed over to me for a high-five, just as my phone rang.

“Dude, you are seriously popular all of a sudden,” Baxter said, pointing at my phone.

He had a point. I'd gotten a bunch of phone calls from people who had either read the article, heard about it from other kids, or seen it online.

The weirdest call was from Dr. Steckler, who was my mom's podiatrist. “I wish I'd been brave enough to take a stand against my parents, like you did,” Dr. Steckler told me. “I never would have gone to medical school.”

That made me think that maybe Mom should get a new podiatrist.

I checked the caller ID. UNKNOWN, it said. Great. More small talk with a stranger.

“Hello?” I said.

“Is this Jack Strong?” said a voice that was immediately familiar.

“Yes?”

“
The
Jack Strong?”

“Do I know you?”

The voice chuckled. “I sure hope so. If not, I'm not doing my job right.”

Wait a second. Could it be? It sounded exactly like—no way—

“This is Brody Newhouse.”

It was.

Brody Newhouse was a pretty big deal. He was the host of
Kidz in the Newz
, a local TV show that was on every Wednesday night, where he interviewed kids from the area who had done something interesting that got people talking. A lot of people watched it.

“Um, really?” I managed to stammer. “Brody Newhouse?”

He chuckled. “That's right, kid. The one and only. Hey, listen, part of our job is to keep an eye on all the local school newspapers. When we saw your article, we thought you'd be great for our show.”

I couldn't believe what I was hearing. Me, Jack Strong, on TV?

“I don't get it, Mr. Newhouse. Don't you usually have kids on who, like, pull a dog from a burning house or save a drowning lady or something?”

“Call me Brody. And, yes, that's true. Many of our guests have done something brave. But what you're doing is equally courageous. You're standing up for kids everywhere. By sitting down!” Then he laughed that Brody Newhouse laugh that I've heard in my living room about sixty-two thousand times.

“Wow. Um … I don't know what to say, Mr. Newhouse.”

“It's Brody!”

By now the other kids had realized this was a different kind of phone call than the others, and they all gathered around to try and listen in.