The Fourth Stall Part II (16 page)

A
fter school that day we found Mr. Kjelson at his desk working on something.

“Oh, come on in, guys,” he said to us. “What's up?”

Vince and I looked at each other and we both made a silent agreement in that one quick look. It was time to come clean; more lies in this situation wouldn't lead us anywhere. The only way to get anywhere with Kjelson was going to be to tell him everything.

So we did.

We confessed it all. That we'd found out about a lot of weird things happening at the school and that we were convinced someone was trying to get it closed down. How we'd thought it might be him and about what we'd found in Dr. George's office backing up those beliefs. I didn't leave out the part about how I'd cheated on the SMARTs for the whole school that evening he saw us in the halls. I had to trust him all the way or nothing. Besides, that was what we still didn't get: if I'd cheated for everyone, then how had we all failed?

Mr. Kjelson looked pretty disappointed in us, and I didn't blame him. Here he'd thought we were good kids and now he was finding out that we'd cheated on a state test—not just for ourselves, but for every kid in the school.

“Boys, I'm glad you're coming clean, but this is unacceptable. I can't believe you guys would risk your futures like this.”

All I could do was look at my shoes. I couldn't even stand to look at him. I felt so bad.

“But,” he continued, “I have to admit I can see why you did it. And that your hearts were in the right place. Because I agree, I've been suspecting the same thing you have. And it's just as bad as you feared, too. The meeting that's happening on Tuesday is going to be over whether to close this school down immediately. And I have to admit, it seems like it's going to happen at this point.”

“I'm so sorry. I just thought I was the one guy who could save the school,” I said.

Mr. Kjelson actually laughed, but it was pretty humorless. He killed it off with a sigh. “The part I still don't get is who is behind all of this? Who would go to such lengths to shut this place down and why?”

“
Maybe
,” Vince said, “the person actually responsible for the recent events is the drama teacher, Louie-Booey, and he is actually the leader of an alien race of peoples who worship chocolate pudding, broken tennis rackets, and hairless dogs. And the changes in the school are merely intended to help make the place more habitable for their eventual invasion and takeover because their home planet was filled with failure and small animal poop, and they needed deep-fried, fatty foods to survive. Really, with the way things have been going lately, this one almost seems like the most reasonable option to me at this point.”

Kjelson and I laughed out loud at that one in spite of the overall gloomy mood. That was why I loved Vince: he could always bring out the laughter in even the worst situations.

“But seriously, why are you the only teacher who seems to care?” Vince asked. “And I still don't get how one test can have this kind of impact.”

“Well, most of the other teachers either thought I was a crazy conspiracy theorist or were scared for their careers,” Mr. Kjelson said. “It seems someone has been threatening them. And well, sadly there are a few who just don't seem to care at all.”

Mr. Kjelson then explained to us about this new legislation that required a certain percentage of the school's students to meet minimum standards. If a school did not meet those bare minimum test scores, then there was an emergency provision that could call for immediate closure of that school. But the test scores would have to be universally, ridiculously low for that to happen. A school full of chimpanzees could probably meet those minimum standards. Yet unfortunately our students had not. Whoever had altered the tests after us saw to that.

“Isn't there anything we can do?” I asked.

“I'm afraid it may be too late. That meeting is Tuesday. They think it's imperative that this place be shut down pretty quickly.”

“But they can't just, I mean . . .”

“I'm sorry, but I'm afraid they can. It's been done successfully before in other states and school districts and it'll happen again. Usually it's for other reasons, but I don't think this will be unheard of. Whoever staged all this did a good job. I mean, there are health code violations, the lunch menu was blatantly negligent for a time, gym fitness standards aren't being met, there are bully problems, and as far as government officials, local school district officials, and state education administrators can tell, our students failed the SMARTs in record numbers. From the outside this school looks like a disaster right now, even with all the good work Dr. George has done to try and clean it up.

“But that still leads us back to who and why,” Kjelson said again. I could tell that he hated mysteries as much as I did, especially ones that involved him losing his job. “What could anyone possibly have to gain from this school being shut down? It makes no sense.”

“Actually, it makes perfect sense,” said a voice from the doorway. “There's plenty to gain from it.”

The office was silent for a long time as we all stared at the newcomer. I think we were all in shock.

Dr. George entered the room and closed the door behind him.

“And you haven't even heard the best part yet,” he said with a gut-wrenching and utterly sick, crooked smile on his cracked face.

“I
t was you?” Mr. Kjelson said. Practically shouted, actually.

Dr. George just smiled at first as he approached us. I was so confused now that I thought I might pass out. Which probably would have been pretty funny in any other situation. This made even less sense than ever now. I'd known the Suits were bad, but I'd never imagined just how evil they actually were.

“It was me,” he said with that horrible, horrible smile still on his face.

“But why?” I said.

“Because this school is corrupted!” he nearly shouted. “It's you, and kids like you. You're vermin. All you do is run around and cause trouble. You don't show any respect for the teachers or your elders; you don't pay attention in class; you interfere with the real students getting the education they deserve. You're like a virus, a drain on the system.

“So I'm fixing it. After this place's miserable failure, the city school board and district officials will be ripe for a solution. They'll be willing to try anything, you see? I'll give them my presentation, my proposal for a new charter school, publicly funded, privately run, where I can make sure rules are enforced like they're meant to be. You think this is my first trip to the rodeo? I've been doing this for years.

“Our institution will be one of real higher education. It will be
American
. With the right teachers who demand respect. We're bringing the all-American educational system back to the all-American boys and girls. So they can succeed, like they were born to. You probably don't get that, do you? You don't understand any of this. You were born to fail. But now you won't get to spread your rule-breaking disease to the good kids. Not anymore. I don't know how that old fool Dickerson let your crap go on for so long,” he sneered. “You are the sort of filth that has ruined our school system!”

“How did you do all this stuff before you even worked here?” Kjelson asked.

“I have my connections. School board members, cafeteria workers, other teachers. Everybody has their price, especially in the education system, where salaries are laughably low. Do you know what it's like for these teachers to work so much harder than the teacher down the hall but yet get paid exactly the same? Well, it ruins them. Besides, getting menus altered, coaching changes, leaving poop all over the school, all that stuff is easy. It's doctoring standardized tests like the SMARTs that's the hard part. But that's the only part that really matters. All the other things were just window dressing to make me look good while I was tearing this place down. So I made sure I was brought in before the SMARTs were administered. Then I made sure everyone failed them.

“And this is where I get to the best part,” he said, his smile growing. “You'll especially love this,
Mac
. I didn't even do anything to the SMARTs. You did. You were the one who rigged the test and caused everyone to fail.”

He looked right at me as I stood there and shook my head, refusing to believe what he was saying to me. There was no way. No, I'd corrected the tests, not the other way around. It wasn't possible.

It was like he could read my mind. “No? You don't believe me?” he asked. “Well, you should. Because I planted fake answer sheets in my office. You see, I knew you'd try to cheat. You're a troublemaker through and through. You don't do what I've been doing as long as I have without getting to know your type, Christian. As soon as I met you, I knew I was on to something. I knew about your business, and I used it to my advantage, to make it so the school would fail the test and my hands would be perfectly clean. You see, you think I didn't have a way to get into your silly little office before I had the locks changed? That the vice principal couldn't get a key to a bathroom in his own school? That's just you being a fool, Mac.

“I've always had access to your office, to your little notebooks. So I knew about your plan to cheat on the tests. All I had to do was count on you to be you, trying to be a big shot and solve everyone's problems. I planted those fake answer keys, trusting you to cheat. And guess what? It worked! It was all you—you are the reason that all of these teachers will lose their jobs, that all of these kids will lose their school. I'm much obliged, Mac. Now all the kids will benefit from a proper education at my new charter school. All the ones we decide to let in, anyways.”

I opened and closed my mouth, but I couldn't speak. I didn't think I was even breathing anymore.

“That's just sick, Dr. George,” Mr. Kjelson said softly.

Dr. George laughed in response.

“Why? Because all I did was count on this little rule-breaker to break the rules like he has been doing his whole life? I'm not the sick one here; he is. Also, I know you broke in and got all your stuff back. You won't be expelled. Your permanent record will be fine. But it doesn't matter anymore. The scores are in. The school's going to get shut down, and there's nothing the three of you can do about it. Have a nice life, guys.”

Dr. George turned and left, laughing. And he was right. It was all over, and it was entirely my fault.

After he left, the room was silent for a long time. I was left with my thoughts, which I didn't want to think about.

All I had been trying to do was solve kids' problems, and I hadn't thought about the consequences, about the damage that could be done by school-wide cheating. But that wasn't true either. . . . I had been thinking more about the money than helping everybody. I hated to admit it to myself, but it was the truth. The thought of making over a thousand dollars on one job had blinded me from the possible disaster of trying to cheat on a test on such a massive scale.

Sure, George had shut down an entire school all to get back at a few kids who caused problems. Basically for money and so he could do things his own way. And now it seemed obvious to me: I'd done some pretty extreme things for money myself. Were we really all that different? The biggest reason I had been upset was because I'd lose my business. I may have helped kids as I was making money off them. And I would have never accepted a job that hurt innocent people. But that was a lie, because I'd done just that. Maybe not on purpose, exactly, but the end result was the same either way.

And the worst part of all was that George was right: there was nothing we could do. We had no proof that he was behind all of this. It was our word against his. All we could do now was sit and watch the school close down. I was going to get a front-row seat to watch my actions destroy the lives of all of these awesome teachers and kids.

And that was when I realized what my selfishness had been blinding me from this whole time. Since I'd heard about the SMART scores and George had stolen everything from my office, I'd really only been worried about myself, about what would happen to
me
if the school closed down, instead of thinking about the school itself. This school was one of a kind. It deserved better than me. But maybe if, for once, I finally put the school and all of the kids here ahead of myself, we still had a chance. It was time I started doing this like a real old-school baseball player would. I needed to play for the team and not for the stats.

“So that's it, then?” Vince finally said.

Kjelson didn't say anything; he just looked at the floor.

But I did. I said, “No.”

They both looked at me, startled.

“I'm finished here; that much is clear. My business can be no more. But this doesn't have to be the end for everyone else. Dr. George was counting on me to keep acting like the selfish kid that I am. He assumed I'd only still be thinking about saving myself, about what's best for me. But that's where his plan has a weakness.”

I had Vince's and Kjelson's full attention now.

“I'm turning myself in to the higher-up Suits. I have the evidence that proves it was me who fixed the tests so that we all failed. If I turn that in, then maybe they'll agree to readminister the tests. If they know that one kid caused our school to fail, then maybe they'll give everyone else another chance. George said it himself: all that other stuff like the rodent poop and school lunches, that stuff is just extra; the tests are what really matter. And we have evidence in my Books and on my DVR discs that I was responsible for the failure. I'll probably get expelled, but that's okay; I deserve it. At least the school would get to stay open. Besides, if my business can cause this kind of damage, then the school is probably better off without it anyway.”

“Mac, you can't do this. You're not the only one at fault here,” Vince said.

“Yes I am. Without me there'd be no business. There's no point in anybody taking the fall but me.”

“No, there's no way I'm letting you take the fall alone. I don't care if it means I won't make the baseball team or get expelled myself. I'm in this, too. You always say this is our business not just yours, and you can't take that back now.”

I nodded. Vince really was my best friend, and if I was going to ruin my life to save the school and he wanted to be there with me, then I wasn't going to argue. Because there's no one else I'd rather have with me at a moment like that.

“I'm proud of what you're willing to do here, Christian,” Mr. Kjelson said. “I'll help as much as I can to make sure you're heard.”