Wild Rescue (10 page)

Chapter 37

I couldn’t eat
—my stomach was doing so many flips and flops.

Hayley said, “Don’t worry. Mr. Forster will get those girls for what they did.”

I felt as if I were dragging myself all the way to his office. His secretary must have been at lunch, because the outer office was empty. I tapped lightly on his door.

“Come in,” he said.

I pushed the door open, and there were Liz and Denise in chairs by his desk. A third chair sat empty. It was all I could do to keep from running.

“Have a seat, Ashley,” Principal Forster said.

I pulled the chair a few inches away from the girls. They attempted a couple of pretty weak smiles, which I couldn’t make myself return. I felt like a coward, but I wasn’t about to be phony. I wished Mr. Forster had told me they were going to be here, but then I realized I would have worried about it the whole day.

“Well,” Mr. Forster said in an upbeat tone, “let’s get down to business. Liz, Denise, what do you have to say for yourselves?”

“About what?” Liz said.

Denise nodded. “We didn’t do anything.”

“About the unkind posters on the lockers and the walls?”

“What makes you think we did that?” Liz said.

Mr. Foster put his fingertips together. “Well, I was at the concert the other night and noticed the shabby start. Mr. Scarberry told me what happened and then described what went on Friday at Happy Canyons. It’s obvious you two and Ashley have had your troubles.”

“I wouldn’t say that,” Denise said, her voice dripping with sweetness. “Kids have disagreements all the time, and you know how competitive band can be.” She leaned forward. “Surely you don’t get involved in every little dispute.”

Mr. Forster stared at her, resting his chin in his hand. “No, but I wouldn’t characterize this as a little dispute. What happened at Happy Canyons was dangerous. And those posters represent a threat to one of my students.”

“She started it,” Liz said.

Denise gave Liz a look and she fell silent.

We all glanced at each other, then at anything
but
each other. It made me want to laugh, which wouldn’t have been a good idea.

“Mr. Forster,” I said finally, “can the three of us have a minute?”

He raised his eyebrows and stood. “Maybe that’s a good idea.”

As he closed the door, Liz and Denise looked like they’d been slapped in the face with wet eels.

Honestly, I didn’t know what I was going to say. I wanted Mr. Forster to throw them out of school forever. I wanted them to go to some home for wayward girls and spend the rest of their lives making socks or license plates. I breathed a quick prayer.

“This has gone far enough,” I said. “Everybody knows you hate my guts. But my guts and I can handle that. If it keeps up, though, Mr. Forster’s going to call your parents, and you’ll be in bigger trouble. I don’t know how they punish you, but mine start taking away stuff until it hurts.”

They both just stared, Liz with her mouth open.

“Why don’t we try to get along,” I said. “I’ll forget the stuff you pulled Friday and today, Hayley won’t bother you, and we’ll move on.”

Denise looked at Liz, then back at me. “We didn’t do the signs, but okay. We’ll leave you alone, and you get Forster off our backs.”

I stood and held out a hand. “Deal.”

That was as close to turning the other cheek as I could come. I peeked into the outer office and told Mr. Forster we’d patched up our differences.

He looked at Denise and Liz. “No problems with that?”

“Yeah, we’re okay,” Denise said.

“All right,” Mr. Forster said. “Good work. I’m proud of you all. But any more trouble and I’m calling your parents.”

Chapter 38

I watched the Cubs
play the second game of a doubleheader on TV while I did some homework. I’d rooted for the Cubs all my life and gone to a few games with my real dad, so watching them brought back good memories. He had always said any team could have a bad century.

I couldn’t wait till the end of the season when they were coming to play the Colorado Rockies. Sam said he’d get us tickets.

Ashley rushed outside so fast that I followed without thinking. She had been so tied up with Liz and Denise that she wasn’t helping with my investigation, but I was okay with that.

Hayley was getting out of the car, and her mother was already talking with Mom. “. . . and the stuff was just gone,” Mrs. Henderson was saying. “It was a terrible feeling to walk in there and find all those things missing.”

As Hayley and Ashley went into the house, Mrs. Henderson said, “You’re getting so tall, Bryce.”

I never know what to say when someone says that. Thank you doesn’t seem right, but what does? I grunted and smiled and shrugged. I mean, I wasn’t growing on purpose.

“Could I ask you a couple of questions about the robbery?” I said.

“Sure,” she said, giving Mom a wink and a smile, the universal adult sign for “isn’t this cute?”

“Can you get in your house without turning off the alarm?”

“Only by opening the door with a key.”

“And who has a key?”

“Everyone in the family—both girls, my husband and I, of course, and we gave one to the neighbors in case we ever get locked out.”

She told me their names, and I didn’t recognize them. “They’re a young couple, no kids. He lost his job a few months ago.”

“Really?”

“It’s put a little strain on their marriage,” Mrs. Henderson said, looking at my mother and seeming to wonder if she should have told me that much. She added quickly, “The police don’t seem to think they’re suspects. We trust them, but you never know, I guess.”

“One more thing. Have you had any car trouble lately?”

Mrs. Henderson shook her head. “Nothing out of the ordinary. We just had new tires put on and an oil change. That kind of thing.”

I tried to cover my surprise. “At the Instant Oil place?”

“No, we take our cars to Carhardt’s. My husband wanted to make sure it was in good shape for the trip, and they suggested new tires.”

Chapter 39

When I told Hayley
what had happened in Mr. Forster’s office, her eyes got as round as French horns. “We made a truce, but I can’t say I actually forgave them.”

Hayley rolled her eyes. “You’re always so hung up on the forgiveness thing. Why don’t you just let God take care of that?”

“Believe me, I want to. But Jesus teaches we should forgive others just like God has forgiven us.”

And there came the glazed-eyes look again. There’s just no smooth way to work Jesus into a conversation. I figured she’d change the subject, but she surprised me.

“Where’s it say that?” she said.

I pulled out my Bible and felt a wave of panic. It was the first time Hayley had shown any interest after I had said the
Jesus
word. I didn’t want to muff this one, but I couldn’t remember where the verse was. I knew it was in the Gospels somewhere—you know, Matthew, Mark, Luke, or John—but where?

I turned to the concordance and looked up
forgive
. There were about a hundred verses listed.

“Whatever,” Hayley said. “I believe you that it’s in there.”

“No, wait a minute. . . . Okay, here it is.” I turned to the sixth chapter of Matthew. “This comes right after the Lord’s Prayer. You know, ‘Our Father in heaven . . .’”

“I know.”

“Jesus says, ‘If you forgive those who sin against you, your heavenly Father will forgive you. But if you refuse to forgive others, your Father will not forgive your sins.’”

She raised her eyebrows. “But what if the other person isn’t sorry?”

I frowned. “Believe me, I’ve been asking the same thing. But it doesn’t say anything about that. It doesn’t seem to matter whether the person sees that what they’ve done is wrong or not. I still have to show love and forgive them or at least let go of wanting to hurt them back.”

She shook her head. “I don’t think I’d ever be able to do that.”

“Let’s just hope Liz and Denise don’t try anything else.” As soon as I said that, I knew it was the wrong answer. I should have said something about not having to do it on our own but letting God do it through us, but that would have sounded like a sermon. I’d done a bad job of explaining things to Hayley.