The back wall of the Room rushed toward the door, and the furniture sank into the floor as if it were made of quicksand. As the sides of the Room shrank, one of them swallowed up the refrigerator. Héctor quickly moved back until he bumped into the door, and then the shelving units grew out of the wall. They sprouted forth, and all the supplies were on them, too: the bottle of hand soap. The bleach. The floor polish. The broom popped out of another wall, then came to rest upon it.

Héctor looked up into the corner.

King Ferdinand crawled out of the darkness, and in a matter of seconds, he wove an intricate web, one that looked like it had been there for years.

He smiled. “Good morning, King Ferdinand,” he said.

And then he turned and opened the door.

Carlos, Aishah, Taylor, and Jackson quickly stuffed themselves into the closet, lit only by a single bulb above them. “Wow, it’s pretty snug in here,” said Jackson. “You hide here sometimes?”

“Yeah,” said Héctor. “And before you say it: yes, I’m aware of the irony.”

They all looked at him with blank faces.

Héctor pointed at his own chest. “Get it? Me? Hiding in the closet?”

Jackson was the first to laugh, then the others followed. “Yo, that’s a good one,” said Aishah. “You’re funny, you know that?”

He beamed.

Since the assembly was starting soon, he told them everything as quickly as he could. When he finished, Carlos looked like he was going to explode. “Yo, I got you,” he said. “It’s perfect. Mike will be so easy to rile up.”

“All you have to do is make sure they get backstage, okay?” said Héctor. “In case they don’t take the bait.”

“And we’re the bait, right?” said Aishah, smiling. “We can say anything to him?”

“The worse you can come up with, the better,” replied Héctor. “As long as you get them to where they need to be.”

“This feels too good to be true,” said Taylor. “You think this is gonna work?”

“I do,” said Héctor.

“We won’t let you down,” said Carlos. He put his hand on Héctor’s shoulder. “And I won’t let you down again either.”

The first bell rang, which meant they had only a few minutes left to pull this off. The Misfits gathered in the hallway, and Héctor stood just inside the Room, which was still disguised as the janitor’s closet.

The only problem . . . they had to find Mike, and soon.

“Hey, buttface! Out of my way!”

Héctor could recognize that voice from a mile away. How nice of Mike to walk right into our trap, he thought.

“Now’s your chance,” Héctor whispered. “Let Mike get a little ahead, and then—”