Pierce ambles back to his desk and proceeds to finish his latest figure. He’s constructed paper fingers, which he’s slipped onto his hand. When one hand is fitted, they look exactly like razor claws. Pierce takes the stapler and lowers his finger into it. Once I realize what he’s doing, I start to wave him off.

“Ow!” he yells.

Mr. Blackmon strolls into the room escorting Twon and Rodrigo. He directs the two to their seats and attends to Pierce without breaking his slow strut. “What happened?”

“I cut myself,” Pierce says in a weak voice. He runs his hand through his hair, leaving a streak through it and a red smear on his face. “I tried to get my claws on tight.”

“Let’s go to the nurse’s office.” Mr. Blackmon grabs a couple of blue forms. Medical reports. “I’ll be back, Mrs. Horner.”

Mrs. Horner nods from her desk without glancing up.

See? One down.

I pass the note back to Nehemiah.

This was your plan?

More or less. Pierce is always good for a distraction.

What about Mrs. Horner?

I motion back to Twon.

Do you think you can convince those two to cause a ruckus? They already have at least one infraction, though. I don’t know if they can afford any more without it leading to detention.

No worries. If I can get on Mr. Blackmon’s laptop, I can unflag them without any problem. The system won’t issue a detention.

How?

Please. I’ve had his password from the first week. Mrs. Horner’s, too. Memorized they keystrokes. Even if I didn’t, Mrs. Horner keeps hers in her middle drawer.

Remind me not to unlock my phone around you.

Too late.

Can you get word to them?

I got this.

Nehemiah is like a coach when it comes to ruckus. The squad looks to him to call a play, and with a hand signal or two, they line up in formation. I barely catch his gestures, much less a non-paying-attention Mrs. Horner.

“Why you got to always talk about my momma?” Twon jumps up.

“What? I didn’t say anything,” Rodrigo protests.

“You got to keep running your mouth.”

Rodrigo backs up. “I swear, Mrs. Horner, I didn’t do anything.”

Twon pounces on Rodrigo. Grabbing him in a headlock, he wrestles him to the middle of the floor. He holds Rodrigo for a minute, then whispers into his ear. With only a hint of a smile, Rodrigo begins to fight back, but none of the blows land with any real feeling. Like brothers, Twon and Rodrigo fight often, since no one can push Twon’s buttons like Rodrigo. Also like brothers, the two of them have each other’s back more times than not. Mrs. Horner resigns herself to leaving her seat to intervene.

“What is going on today? You two are going to Mrs. Fitzgerald’s office. Nehemiah and Thelonius, before you get it in your heads to act up, report to Ms. Erickson’s room.”

“But we didn’t do anything.” I almost sound like I mean it. I definitely deserve an award for this performance. Though Twon’s act might give me a run for it.