Ex-Rating (20 page)

“Thank you,” Julia said. “But I made another decision totally by myself. Since you’re the maid of honor, you need to stand
out from the other bridesmaids. So I had your dress made a little bit differently.”

She reached into the closet and pulled out a gown—the most hideous dress Holly had ever seen. White silk with big blue and
red polka dots. “Ta-da! It’s the fabric you loved so much! Could you die?”

Holly’s heart sank to her belly.
Yes, actually, I could
.

“I just knew you’d be excited. You loved the polka dots best, I could tell. I know you told me to go with the black in the
end, but your first instinct was polka dots. Wait until Rob sees you in this dress! Wait till
everybody
sees you! Just like you said, it’s so unusual!”

“Yes, it is,” Holly said. “It’s unusual.”

Julia made her look at the dress in the mirror. “What do you think?”

Holly held the dress up.
A little makeup, maybe a rainbow wig, and a red rubber nose, and it will be perfect
, she thought.

HERE IS TODAY’S HOROSCOPE: VIRGO: Today will be one of your rare days of triumph. Enjoy it; then prepare to return to your
usual state of mediocrity.

F
ree speech for all!”

“Hell no, we won’t shut up!”

“Hear us, don’t smear us!”

“You ready, Mads?” Holly asked.

“Ready.” Mads sat with Lina and Holly in the backseat of her parents’ car, facing the huge crowd that had gathered outside
Rosewood Thursday night. Lina and Holly had designated Mads chief speaker. Her big moment had come. Lina and Holly had done
a lot to help the cause, interviewing students, gathering testimonials, and researching free-speech issues. But Mads was the
one who was suspended. She had a lot to gain or lose from whatever happened that night.

Mads’ mother kissed her. “Good luck, honey. We’ll see you in there.”

“Go get ’em, killer,” Russell said.

Mads, Holly, and Lina hustled through the crowd to get inside the school. They were amazed at how many students—and kids from
other schools, too—had shown up to protest and support them.

Mads’ suspension had given her a lot of free time, and she’d used it. She read about the history of the First Amendment and
thought hard about what she was going to say at this meeting. She wrote and rewrote her speech. She practiced it in front
of Holly and Lina until it was as good as she could make it. And she was so nervous, she couldn’t sleep the night before.
She wanted the Dating Game reinstated, she wanted to make an important point about censorship, and she wanted her record cleared.
But mostly, she wanted Rod and the parents’ board to see that the students had the right to express themselves. It was a lot
to ask for in one night.

The auditorium was packed with parents, teachers, and students. Mads, Holly, and Lina joined Rod and Belinda Crocker, head
of the parents’ board, on the stage. Lina squeezed Mads’ hand. “You nervous?”

“My stomach feels like it’s full of cement.”

Mads was given a special dispensation and allowed back on campus for this meeting. There were a few routine matters the board
had to vote on first, and then it was on to the main event: what to do about the school’s sex blog.

Belinda Crocker took the microphone. “There’s too much talk about sex in our society,” she said. “It’s everywhere. The last
thing our children need is more exposure to sex at school. That’s why I fought to close this dating site down. Enough is enough!
It’s time the parents took charge of their children’s lives. Kids, I’m sorry, but you don’t know what’s good for you. When
I was in school, nothing like this ever happened. The adults shielded us from it. And that’s the way I want it to be for my
children.”

She left the podium and sat down to a chorus of boos from the students and applause from some adults. Rod stood and took the
mike.

“I’d like to clarify a few points,” Rod said. “We are not trying to stifle student creativity or expression. We recently held
a school art fair where all kinds of experimental work was displayed. But it is our opinion that this blog has gotten out
of hand. Some students may be mature enough to handle the content of it, but some may not. I—”

“It’s the parents who can’t handle it!” a student yelled from the audience. This was met with wild cheers. Rod frowned.

“I will cancel this meeting if we cannot conduct it in a civilized manner,” he warned. “To continue, the students may do as
they please, or as their parents allow, off school property. But the school Web site is no place for frank discussions of
the students’ sexual lives. The members of the parents’ board voted on this, and a majority agreed that they do not support
this blog. Madison Markowitz, Lina Ozu, and Holly Anderson, the founders of the Dating Game, are here tonight to defend it
and try to convince the board to reinstate it. I have warned them that it is futile, but to show the school’s willingness
to listen to its students, we have agreed to let them state their case. Girls?”

Mads stood and went to the podium, followed by Lina and Holly. Mads’ knees wobbled. The cement in her stomach turned to ice.

The microphone squealed as Mads approached it. “Thank you, Mr. Alvarado,” she said in a shaky voice. A giant screen hung behind
her, and she held the clicker for a slide projector in her hand. If there was one thing she’d learned at RSAGE, it was that
multimedia was the best way to get a point across. The first slide showed the Constitution and the Bill of Rights.

“From the beginning of American history, people have tried to challenge free speech,” Mads said. “There will always be people
who don’t like what their fellow citizens say and do. Some people like to dye their hair that super-saturated, Raggedy Ann
shade of red. Other people think it looks stupid. They have the right to express that disagreement. No one can tell you not
to dye your hair Raggedy Ann red. No one can stop you from saying it looks dumb. And no one has the right to shut down a forum
for free expression, whether it is a newspaper, an art show, or a Web site.”

The students in the audience clapped.

“In the Constitution, students are guaranteed the same rights as their parents and teachers,” Mads said. “But parents and
school officials often try to squelch our voices. Maybe if they listened to us instead of tried to keep us quiet, we would
understand each other better.”

More applause. Mads was gaining confidence.

“The Dating Game was a place where students exchanged ideas. Some adults didn’t approve of what we were saying, so they shut
us down. Was that right?”

“No!” the audience shouted.

“I have come here tonight to ask you, the parents’ board, and you, Mr. Alvarado, for two things. Bring back the Dating Game.
And stop censoring us!”

The crowd cheered.

“We need a place to air our anxieties and insecurities and grievances. Sure, weird issues come up. Some kids are just weird.
So are some adults. That’s life. All that weird stuff exists whether we write about it or not. If you don’t let us express
our feelings freely, they will find other ways to come out—less healthy ways.”

The students in the crowd cheered again. Mads glanced at Rod, who shifted in his seat. Belinda sat with her lips pursed tightly.
Was she getting through to them? “You’re doing great,” Holly whispered.

“The Dating Game has helped make lots of students happier,” Mads said. “And to prove it, first, we present our Parade of Happy
Couples and Other Supporters.”

Holly and Lina had gathered as many happily matched couples as they could find to march across the stage and testify on the
Dating Game’s behalf. Each couple, holding hands, stopped at the microphone, and made a brief speech.

“I’m Kris, and this is Jorge,” a girl said. “Before I met Jorge, I had no friends. I spent all my free time writing fan letters
to obscure actors and hoping they’d write back. Then I filled out a Dating Game questionnaire, and they matched me with Jorge.
He taught me how to skateboard, and I taught him how to hunt down famous people’s addresses. Jorge is my soul mate, but I
never would have found him without the Dating Game.”

“She’s a wicked good skater,” Jorge added.

Everyone clapped for them. Kris and Jorge beamed and walked off the stage.

“We’re Autumn and Vince. Until the Dating Game matched us, no one would listen to me,” Autumn said.

“And no one really talked to me,” Vince said.

“Now we’re really happy!” Autumn finished.

“I thought nobody would like me unless I was perfect,” a pretty girl said. “But on the Dating Game, I found out that even
the perfect girls don’t think they’re perfect. And that I have two secret admirers!”

After several more testimonials, Mads returned to the mike.

“This school is supposed to be a center of liberal education. It has a long and rich history of dissent. Some of the parents
and teachers in this room were once like us, fighting for their right to express themselves.”

She pressed the clicker, and a slide appeared on the screen. It showed a crowd of neatly dressed high school kids jammed into
the Rosewood lunchroom. “In 1967, Rosewood students protested the dress code. Girls weren’t allowed to wear pants to school.
Can you believe that? And boys weren’t allowed to have hair that reached below their collars. The students took over the cafeteria
and refused to leave until the administration gave in. The students totally won. Of course! What a ridiculous dress code.”

She pressed the clicker again and a page from an old copy of
The Seer
flashed on the screen. “Here’s an article from our school newspaper dated May 14, 1972. ‘Yearbooks Destroyed! Students Outraged
at School Censorship.’ The students had used their yearbook to protest the draft and the war in Vietnam. The school administration
actually banned the yearbook! They wouldn’t let the seniors have this important memento of their time at Rosewood. All because
they didn’t like the way the students had chosen to express their feelings. To this day, the 1972 yearbook is not available
to the public. An outraged student wrote this in
The Seer
: ‘As students, it is not only our right but our
duty
to upset the status quo. The status quo is unjust! We must do whatever we can make our world a better place. But we cannot
do it unless we’re allowed to express our truest thoughts and feelings right here at school, which is, for now, the center
of our lives.’”

The students roared with cheers. Rod and Belinda seemed stunned.

“And now,” Mads said, “I would like to show you why the 1972 yearbook was censored.” She clicked again. Up it came, blown
up huge: the 1972 class picture. The moon shot, larger than life.

The crowd screamed and shrieked with laughter and shock. Belinda Crocker turned red.

“I admire the class of 1972 what they did in this photo,” Mads said. “They made an important point. Maybe you parents have
forgotten what it was like to be our age. But you were once like us—passionate about important issues. Remember your own high
school years. Sometimes we need to do things that look foolish to you—but we can’t grow up without these experiences. Reinstate
the Dating Game and let us be our whole, weird, goofy, free, crazy selves!”

The students in the crowd roared. Mads, Lina, and Holly left the stage. The students started chanting, “Mad-i-son! Mad-i-son!”

Lina, Holly, and Mads jumped up and down in a group hug. “You were great! You were so great!” Lina and Holly shouted over
the noise.

Mads’ parents pushed through the crowd to hug and kiss her too. “Good going, Mads,” Russell said. “You ought to be a lawyer
someday!”

“Please, Dad, anything but that,” Mads said, but she grinned. From him, it was a high compliment.

Rod took the mike.

“Settle down, please! Let’s settle down. The parents’ board will meet in Classroom 104 across the hallway for an emergency
meeting—immediately. Everyone else, I urge to you please leave the campus peacefully. You will be apprised of our decision.
Thank you!”

He and Belinda hurried off the stage to jeers and boos. Nobody left the room. Everybody wanted to wait and see what would
happen in that meeting.

While the board disappeared into the classroom, the students kept chanting. “Dating Game! Dating Game! Bring back the Dating
Game! Bring back the Dating Game!”

“The whole school must be here!” Lina said.

“This is amazing!” Holly said. “I think we did it!”

Mads looked at her father. “What do you think will happen?”

“Who knows?” Russell said. “It takes a lot to get people like Rod and Belinda Crocker to change their mind. But whatever happens,
you did your best.”

Rod reappeared on the stage fifteen minutes later. The rowdy audience cheered. “That was quick,” Holly said.

“I have an announcement to make,” Rod said. “In light of the recent arguments made by Madison Markowitz, Holly Anderson, and
Lina Ozu, the parents’ board has voted to reinstate the Dating Game on the school blog.”

The auditorium erupted in happy shouts. “We did it! We did it!” Mads, Lina, and Holly jumped up and down, hugging and holding
hands and screaming happily. “Mads, it’s all because of you,” Holly said.

“I’m so proud of you!” Mads’ mother said.

Rod left the stage and approached Mads. “May I see you privately for a moment, Madison?”

Mads followed him out of the auditorium. Rod led her to the relative quiet of an empty classroom.

“Congratulations,” he said. “I admire your conviction, your willingness to stand up for what you believe in, and your thorough
research skills.”

“Thank you.”

“I—” He started laughing, then choked out, “I have to admit, that picture is funny.”

“And it makes the Dating Game look like kindergarten stuff,” Mads said.

“In a way, it does,” Rod said. “But remember—the parents’ board will be watching you. You have to keep your blog clean. Okay?
Don’t make me look at that old picture again—I can’t take it.”