“But why me?” he’s yelling. “Tell me the truth! Why’d you call here?” Tell him what I’m telling everyone: We’re boycotting school tomorrow. Showing the administration that we think their treatment of Sarah is wrong.

Hangs up on me—he isn’t the only one. Slew of kids whine about midterms, parents.

Ma musta heard. Comes in the den with her hands clutched. Says, “Haven’t you gotten in enough trouble, Robby?”

No time to reassure her. So many calls to make, don’t want to miss anyone. By 11:30, talk to—or leave messages for—130 seventh graders, 209 eighth graders. With six wrong numbers and eleven “no English”es, that’s the whole middle school.

Lot of kids already know. Say the phone’s been ringing all night with the same message. Good! Word’s out. Ear burns red from the phone, but feel better than I’ve felt in days, weeks, months. Willing to bet at least 35, maybe 50 kids boycott tomorrow.

That Katie, she’s somethin’ else. Always has been.

Ruby

First, I hear about it from Brenda, and I’m all, like, she’s making it up or it’s, like, a rumor or something. But then the e-mails start in from practically everyone that there’s going to be, like, a school protest. And I’m all, like, “Oh. My. God. It’s all so ’60s, hippie-peace-love-flowers! Like, wear your beads and be groovy!”

What a scream! Everybody’s going to boycott until, like, our school principal—I can never remember his name—lets Sarah Collier come back to school!

My brother-in-law-to-be raises his fist in the air when I tell him, and he’s all, like, “Power to the people!” And yelling, “The revolution has come!”

I, like, giggle. But my sister rolls her eyes and she’s all, “Gimme a break, Mack.” Like he’s beyond stupid. She acts annoyed with him all the time now. Mom says it’s totally normal to hate the groom right before the wedding. But I think it’s gross.

Anyway, my sister says she’s, like, “telling” if I skip school, and that Mom’ll kill me. But I go, like, “Get a life, twit. It’s got nothing to do with you!”

And right then and there, I decide to, like, for sure boycott. Either I’ll just cut class and go to the mall with my girls, which would be fun! Or, if no one else is into it, I can always just stay home with, like, cramps or something, and work on my tan. I think this is so cool! I’m, like, loving this!

Then I get to, like, thinking about it, and I figure Danny of all people should definitely, like, totally boycott tomorrow. Not that I care, but still. It’s, like, practically the least he can do for Sarah, considering he got totally away with everything and she, like, didn’t.