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Chapters (52)
  1. Cover
  2. Dedication
  3. Chapter One
  4. Chapter Two
  5. Chapter Three
  6. Chapter Four
  7. Chapter Five
  8. Chapter Six
  9. Chapter Seven
  10. Chapter Eight
  11. Chapter Nine
  12. Chapter Ten
  13. Chapter Eleven
  14. Chapter Twelve
  15. Chapter Thirteen
  16. Chapter Fourteen
  17. Chapter Fifteen
  18. Chapter Sixteen
  19. Chapter Seventeen
  20. Chapter Eighteen
  21. Chapter Nineteen
  22. Chapter Twenty
  23. Chapter Twenty-One
  24. Chapter Twenty-Two
  25. Chapter Twenty-Three
  26. Chapter Twenty-Four
  27. Chapter Twenty-Five
  28. Chapter Twenty-Six
  29. Chapter Twenty-Seven
  30. Chapter Twenty-Eight
  31. Chapter Twenty-Nine
  32. Chapter Thirty
  33. Chapter Thirty-One
  34. Chapter Thirty-Two
  35. Chapter Thirty-Three
  36. Chapter Thirty-Four
  37. Chapter Thirty-Five
  38. Chapter Thirty-Six
  39. Chapter Thirty-Seven
  40. Chapter Thirty-Eight
  41. Chapter Thirty-Nine
  42. Chapter Forty
  43. Chapter Forty-One
  44. Chapter Forty-Two
  45. Chapter Forty-Three
  46. Chapter Forty-Four
  47. Chapter Forty-Five
  48. Chapter Forty-Six
  49. Epilogue
  50. Acknowledgments
  51. About the Author
  52. About the Publisher

He got his answer when he opened his eyes. The door was directly across from the library.

JANITOR.

This was it.

This could be exactly what he needed.

He tore the door open.

There was the couch.

The fridge.

The television.

The video games.

There were Sal and Juliana, a couple glasses of horchata between them.

They turned to look at him.

“Héctor?” Sal said, worried. “Everything okay?”

“I know that I told you that I wasn’t going to do anything about what’s been happening to me,” he said, coming into the Room and letting the door slam behind him.

“Yeah, of course,” said Juliana, standing up. “It’s unfair of us to try to force you to do anything about Mike.”

“Well, you don’t need to. Because I’m ready.”

Sal got up too. “Ready for what?”

Héctor started laughing. He couldn’t control it. The idea was so dramatic, so over the top, so very . . .

Him.

It was the most Héctor plan of all time.

“Y’all want to help me get a little revenge?”

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Chapter Forty-Four

When Héctor told them the plan, Sal laughed so hard at it that they started crying, and Juliana simply stared at Héctor, slack-jawed.

“Oh, you really thought about this one,” she finally said. “This is . . . this is almost evil.”

“But it’s not,” said Sal. “And it’s exactly what Mike and Frank deserve.”

“The others are about to be here any second, so you need to go take your places,” said Héctor. “And that’s why I need you, Juliana. I don’t know anything about this auditorium and how it works. I only know the theater at my last school.”

“That’s fine,” she said. “Most sound systems are the same, and Sal can help me set up.”

“And you know what you have to do?” Héctor asked Sal.

They nodded. “I am ready for this.”

“I can’t thank you enough,” he said.

Then Juliana and Sal rushed in for a hug. And at that moment, Héctor felt like he was going to conquer the world.

After homeroom, Héctor was out of breath from taking a risk and running back to the Room, but thankfully, Ms. Heath hadn’t spotted him. His timing was impeccable, too, because maybe ten seconds later, there was a knock at the door.

As many times as he’d been in the Room, it had always changed when he wasn’t looking. But there was no time for that now, and he gasped as the transformation began.