Truth about Truman School (7 page)

Since the people at the Truth about Truman said they liked my story about Nero, I decided to go ahead and post the first segment of my comic (six frames) on the site. A lot happens in those first six frames. Nero goes from math nerd to superhero, and then he's warned to use his powers for good and not evil. That seemed like a good place to break because if people thought it was stupid, I wouldn't ever have to post anything else. But I could post more if people liked it.

So I uploaded the comic to the Truth about Truman that weekend. I tried not to check the site too often for comments, but it was hard not to. I really wanted to know what people thought.

I was actually thinking about entering the full comic book in the Galaxy Publishers' teen comic-book writers contest. If I could get it done on time. And
if
people who saw it on the Truth about Truman liked it. If nobody liked it, well, then maybe I wouldn't bother.

So far, no one was saying anything.
Why weren't they saying anything?

There sure were a lot of comments about that old picture of Lilly Clarke, though. Every time I checked the site that weekend, there were at least two new comments about how fat Lilly used to be, or what an improvement the horns and mustache were, or how shocked someone was to find out that was
Lilly!

I knew Lilly when she used to look like that. We weren't friends, but we went to the same elementary school. I remember when we were in fourth grade, Justin Sawyer was making fun of my sponge painting in art. Lilly told him to stop, but he wouldn't, so she “accidentally” spilled the black paint in his lap.

She was a whole different person now. Always trying to impress the popular kids. The worst thing was last year when she told me I was so ugly that my mom would probably keel over and die of embarrassment for giving birth to me. Which wouldn't have been such a big deal if my mom didn't
really
“keel over and die” two days after that. I know it was just a coincidence. Lilly didn't make it happen or anything. My mom had a blood clot in her brain and she died. Just like that.

Lilly went out of her way to avoid me the whole rest of the year. We had two classes together, science and language arts. But somehow she managed to get her schedule changed in the middle of the trimester so we weren't in those classes together anymore. And now, anytime she sees me in the hall, she says to her friends, “Oh, there's Trevor. Ew, he stinks. Let's go this way.” And then they all turn around and walk the other way.

The thing is, people like Lilly and Reece and the other popular kids could choose to use their powers for good. Like Nero. Everyone listens to them. So they could just say hey, we're not going to pick on people anymore. And the whole school would follow their lead. But they don't do that. Instead they use their powers for evil.

I don't know if I was just paranoid or what. But I sort of got the impression my friends were avoiding me after that picture went up. First, Hayley's mom called my mom and asked if I could get to school on my own on Monday because Hayley had to go in early to work on a science project. Maybe she really did have to work on a science project, but why didn't she mention it earlier?

And what about Brianna? She and I were in the same science class, so I knew she didn't have any special science project. She and I could have made carpool arrangements. But I didn't call her, and she didn't call me. And I ended up getting a ride to school from my mom instead of Hayley's mom.

Then when I got to school, there wasn't anybody waiting at the rock. I knew Hayley wouldn't be there, but I expected Brianna, Cassie, Kylie, and Morgan to be there. Our group always met at the rock before school, and then we walked in together when the bell rang.

But that Monday I had to walk in all by myself.

The whole way to my locker it felt like everyone was staring at me. I even saw a couple of girls from my history class whispering behind their hands when I walked past.

“You know, that Truth about Truman website is Zebby Bower's and Amr Nasir's,” I said to the whisperers.

They stopped whispering and just stared blankly at me.

“The girl with the blue hair and her dork friend?” I said.

Still no reaction. Which only proved what big losers Zebby and Amr were. No one even knew who they were!

“You shouldn't believe everything you see on the Internet,” I said. Then I walked away.

When I got to my locker, I hung up my jacket and gathered all my stuff for my morning classes. Then I hurried to our bathroom (the one that Hayley claimed as ours at the beginning of the year).

No one was there, either!

Well, the door to the middle stall was closed, so obviously
someone
was in there. But just one person? Where was everyone else?

Normally, this bathroom was hopping in the morning. Girls whose parents didn't let them wear makeup crowded in close to the mirror so they could quick get their makeup on, while the rest of us complimented each other on our outfits and put the finishing touches on our hair. Other people traded homework or talked about who was going out with who or whatever.

“Hey,” I said to whoever was in the bathroom, but they didn't answer. So I went over to the mirror to check my makeup and fix my hair.

The toilet flushed and I watched in the mirror to see who came out of that stall. I gasped. It was that weird girl who never talks!

Despite what everyone was saying, we did not dump Lilly when we found out she used to be fat. We are not that shallow! We thought it was really amazing that she lost a ton of weight and was popular now.

But I have to admit, I was a little bit traumatized by the fact that people thought it was
me
in that picture. (Can you blame me?) So … maybe we didn't exactly defend Lilly when people started saying bad stuff about her. And maybe we kind of avoided her a little bit at first while we waited to see how people acted around her at school.

But we didn't
dump
her. Not right away.

What can I say? People at our school suck.

Mrs. Holbrook was late to social studies, so while everyone else was goofing around, I worked on my comic book (just in case I decided to enter it in that teen comic book-writing contest). I already had the whole thing sketched out in pencil (twenty-four pages!), so I was inking over the pencil marks. I wasn't paying any attention to what everyone else was doing.

All of a sudden Brianna Brinkman reached across the aisle and snatched the booklet right out from under me. “Look everyone,” she teased, holding the booklet out of my reach. “Trevor's drawing a comic book!” She flipped the pages and laughed out loud. “Hey, it looks like
Trevor's
the one who drew that comic on the Truth about Truman! You know, the one about the superhero? I've got the whole thing right here.”

I could feel my face growing warm. “Give it back!” I cried.

I tried to grab my book back, but then Reece called out, “Let me see it!” So Brianna tossed it over to him. Then several other kids grabbed it.

“Oops,” Taylor Bryson said as the cover tore off in his hand.

NO! I didn't have another copy yet. I hopped over the chair in the next aisle and lunged for the book, not sure whether to go for the book or the cover. But it didn't matter since I couldn't get either one. Kids just kept laughing and passing the pages around.

I did manage to grab page seven, which had landed on the floor. The top corner was crumpled and it had a big dusty footprint across it.

“Hey, Trevor! Is this supposed to be
you
?” Reece sneered, holding up a page of my book. “Do you think you're a big superhero?”

“Just give it back,” I said, my voice cracking.

This went on until Mrs. Holbrook finally came in to start class. “What's going on here?” she demanded, hands on her hips.

Everyone scrambled for their seats, leaving what was left of my comic book spread out on the floor. Sara Murphy got up and helped me gather up the torn and crumpled pages. Most people think she's even weirder than I am, but they only think that because she has eczema and she doesn't talk. Still, she was only one who bothered to help me gather up my book.

“Thanks,” I mumbled as she handed me a stack of pages. But the pages were all out of order, and I was missing the cover and half of page three. So much for entering it in the Galaxy Publisher's contest.

I paced back and forth outside the noisy cafeteria. Dishes clattered and people were talking and laughing. I could see my friends crowded around our usual table over by the windows. Hayley, Brianna, Cassie, Kylie, and Morgan. The popular girls. There was an open seat between Hayley and Brianna. I could just walk over there and sit down like it was any other day, but … what if they all got up and left the minute I did?

They wouldn't do that, I told myself.
Those girls are your friends. Don't be afraid to go over there. You
belong
there.

Or I could go sit with Reece and his friends. This wasn't boyfriend day, though. We didn't normally eat with the boys unless we'd all decided it ahead of time. The boys would probably think it was weird if I showed up at their table by myself. Plus, they could have seen that picture of me, too. And they might make a bigger deal of it than the girls. Boys weren't always the most mature people in the world.

In the end, I decided it was better to take a chance with the girls. So I forced myself to walk over there. “Hi,” I said, forcing a smile. I plopped my books and my lunch bag down on the table.

Cassie and Kylie looked up at me, but neither one said a word. Morgan kept her head bent over her sandwich. Hayley was the only one who spoke to me.

“Hey, Lilly.” She smiled back, pulled out my chair and patted the seat. “We were wondering where you were.”

“You were?” Why was Hayley acting all friendly to me when no one else was even looking at me?

“Sorry I didn't wait for you by the rock this morning, Lilly,” Brianna said as she stirred her yogurt. “I had to put lunch money in my account.”

“And I had to return a library book,” Cassie said.

“Me, too,” Kylie piped in.

I just kept trying to act normal. “That's okay,” I said like I hadn't even noticed they weren't at the rock. I unzipped my lunch bag and took out my turkey sandwich.

“We did wait for you in the bathroom, though,” Hayley said.

What?

“N-no, you didn't,” I said. “I was in the bathroom. I was there until the bell rang. You guys never came in.”

You left me in there alone with Sara Freakazoid Murphy!

They all looked confused. “Yes, we did,” Cassie insisted.

“We were there until the bell rang, too,” Kylie said.

I didn't know what to say. They
weren't
there. I knew they weren't. Why would they lie about it to my face?

“Uh-oh,” Brianna said, slapping the side of her head. “Didn't you get the email?”

I looked at her. “What email?”

“I don't really like having our bathroom so far away from everything,” Hayley said with a shrug. “So I decided we should claim the one by the front stairs instead. I emailed everybody last night.”

Hayley moved our bathroom? Just like that?

“That creepy Sara Murphy was in there putting gunk on her arms,” Cassie said, wrinkling her nose. “At first I didn't think she was going to leave.”

“Yeah, we all walked in and Hayley goes, ‘This is
our
bathroom now. From now on, your bathroom is the one on the second floor at the end of the hall,' ” Morgan said, imitating Hayley's voice perfectly. “But she just ignored Hayley and kept putting that stuff on her arms.”

“So we all sort of moved in closer to her,” Brianna said. “After all, there were five of us and one of her—”

“Yeah, and then she all of a sudden spun around and raised her arms like she was going to touch us!” Hayley said. “So we all jumped back because she had that
stuff
all over her hands.”

“Then, you know what she did?” Brianna asked me. “She started laughing!”

“She has the most bizarre laugh you've ever heardin your life,” Kylie said.

And everyone else nodded and laughed.

“I didn't get any email,” I said.

“Really?” Hayley said. She shrugged. “I wonder why not?”