ever seen at once. Their eyes were glazed over with scrolling. Over in the corner, three teachers were starting to play a poker game. He kind of wished he could join them, but didn’t know how to ask, or if it’d be weird. The chains were really starting to dig into his ribs and armpits, and he shifted this way and that for temporary comfort. Several heads turned his way. He couldn’t tell if they were reproachful, accusatory or what. Most of them looked kind of bored. Malik could relate.
He’d volunteered himself to be one of Marisa’s chainees, and part of him had really been looking forward to the night itself, to killing time for a cause. Yes, he’d attended the meeting advertised on the little slip of paper Marisa had tacked onto the message board outside of the ecology club because he wanted to save the world. But he’d felt uniquely qualified to sit in one spot for an indeterminate amount of time.
Malik loved airport layovers, waits for trains and the morning bus ride to school for the opportunity they provided to consume media guilt-free. Books, podcasts, music, movies. He loved to sit still and not be expected to do anything other than wait. Right now, though, he couldn’t focus on anything.
After Peejay had yelled at Malik and the assembly had been called, he’d listened to ten minutes or so of a podcast before the teachers showed up and stole his attention. He’d even been tempted to answer his phone when his parents called, even though Marisa had predicted that was one of the first things the board would attempt to do: get their parents to talk them out of it. Malik wished he were in the gym, or on the roof with no one around. He wished the teachers would interact with him in some way. He wished enough people had volunteered so two of them could be at each door.
* * *
Joy wished she could pee. She knew she could pee, but she just couldn’t bring herself to use the bucket, even though it was the one good thing about the empty gym. Joy was creeped out by the silence, creeped out being here on her own. It made her feel disloyal to the cause, disloyal to Marisa, but she was regretting signing up. She was regretting not peeing when she had the chance.
Meanwhile, Omar’s texts stared out at her from her phone’s lock screen, adding shame to the regret pressing in on her bladder. When she picked up her phone, it was to text Lolo.
Have you peed yet?
Ha. Yes.
How? I’m nervous.
Why? Are people around?
They could be.
Girl. Don’t give yourself a UTI. Pee in the bucket.
Remind me why we’re doing this again?
Because Marisa is going to save the world.
Joy looked at the text, considering whether she agreed. After a few seconds, she thought: Why with buckets, though?
* * *
The students at CIS kept expecting something to happen that would change things. Surely this situation could still be salvaged. It wasn’t supposed to happen like this, so it wouldn’t. Lock-in activities, at the board’s insistence, were still suspended, since the teacher chaperones were all busy researching how to meet Marisa’s demands.
The clock gave way from nine to ten and the doors remained chained shut.
7
10:01PM
Jordi Marcos had had it.
He wasn’t going to wait for something to happen. Peejay, scammer in chief, was clearly okay sitting back and not doing anything. Jordi was not. He leaned over to his friend Dov, and to a handful of others sitting in the vicinity. “Follow me,” he said, trying to make it sound the way Peejay would.
There wasn’t very much space between rows, so the seven of them made quite a racket as they made their way to the center aisle. Jordi stumbled a few times over people’s legs but refused to say, “Excuse me,” though some of his cronies didn’t have it in them to ignore social niceties. Ms. Florgen, sitting at center stage, about to nod off, snapped to attention at the apologetic exodus.
“Hey,” she shouted.
But Jordi had cleared the row of classmates’ legs, and anger had made him move quicker than he ever had before. He was nearly at the exit, and the teacher stationed there, Mr. Jankowski, was not one to stand in front of an exit. It was, in fact, one of his pet peeves. So he stepped aside, sentry duties be damned, and Jordi and his followers were out.
Once they were gone, there was nothing holding anyone