Zero Tolerance (20 page)

Then Mr. Besser came over to Sierra and her mother.

“I'm glad that you'll be back,” he said warmly. “I couldn't be more pleased with the superintendent's decision.”

Did Mr. Besser know that she had saved him?

But if she had saved him, he had also saved her.

“Sierra!” The blond reporter from 9NEWS was calling over to her.

“Go to your adoring fans,” Mr. Besser told her, gesturing toward the cameras at the rear of the room. Then he leaned over and whispered in her ear, “Speaking of adoring fans, you can do better than Luke Bishop, you know.”

Sierra didn't reply. She was going to text Luke as soon as she was in the car—Luke and Em and Lexi, and maybe even Celeste and Colin, too. And then she was going to go home and cuddle Cornflake and print out her Mayan culture report and spend a few hours just lying on top of the quilt on her bed, staring up at the canopy over her head. She couldn't face returning to school until Monday.

“Oh, and Sierra,” Mr. Besser called after her as she was heading over to the waiting reporters. “If you can get a ride from one of your parents to the Springs, I believe you can get there in time to take part in the choir concert. They're taking the stage this afternoon at four.”

“I can drive her,” Sierra's mother said. Sierra gave her mother a grateful hug.

She thought of the banner hanging in the front office with its appliquéd inscription.

RULES

RESPECT

RESPONSIBILITY

RELIABILITY

Now she could add REGRET.

And RETHINKING A WHOLE BUNCH OF THINGS.

And most of all RELIEF.

For the first time, she was glad that the
R
in RELIABILITY was a little bit crooked.

Everything in her life was a little bit more crooked than it used to be.

And right now, as far as Sierra was concerned, that was completely and totally and wonderfully okay.

 

Also by Claudia Mills

Losers, Inc.

Standing Up to Mr. O.

You're a Brave Man, Julius Zimmerman

Lizzie at Last

Alex Ryan, Stop That!

Perfectly Chelsea

Makeovers by Marcia

Trading Places

The Totally Made-up Civil War Diary of Amanda MacLeish

One Square Inch

 

Farrar Straus Giroux Books for Young Readers

175 Fifth Avenue, New York 10010

Copyright © 2013 by Claudia Mills

All rights reserved

First hardcover edition, 2013

eBook edition, June 2013

macteenbooks.com

Mills, Claudia.

   Zero tolerance / Claudia Mills. — 1st ed.

        p.    cm.

   “Margaret Ferguson books.”

   Summary: Seventh-grade honor student Sierra Shepard faces expulsion after accidentally bringing a paring knife to school, violating the school's zero-tolerance policy.

   ISBN 978-0-374-33312-6 (hardcover)

   ISBN 978-0-374-38832-4 (e-book)

   [1.  Middle schools—Fiction.   2.  Schools—Fiction.]   I.  Title.

PZ7.M63963Ze 2013

[Fic]—dc23

2012017851

eISBN 9780374388324