Chapter 14: An Unexpected Anthem

While Vivianne was searching Gerallt's room, the children were at school, where Tina was putting her brother's plan into action. Excusing herself from class, Matt's sister headed for the cafeteria instead of the girl's restroom. It took only seconds to duct-tape the modified microcassette recorder to the bottom of the table where the three bullies always ate. On her way back, she paused briefly outside the detention room's open door and gave Matt and Gerallt the thumbs up before heading back to class. Now they could only wait and hope that their plan would work.

The lunch bell rang, the alarm clock reached its set time, and the hidden tape recorder silently started recording. Seven minutes later, Colin, Clayton, and Dylan arrived, carrying their trays and their bad attitudes.

"You know what?" Colin asked, as he looked around the crowded cafeteria with a pleased expression on his face.

"No. What?" Dylan asked, as Clayton sat down and immediately began shoveling a fork full of mashed potatoes into his mouth.

"I think the cafeteria's been looking better the last couple of days, don't you?" Colin continued, as he took a bite of pizza.

"I don't know," Clayton replied, looking up from his plate to glance around the room. "Looks the same to me."

"Yeah. So, what's different?" Dylan asked.

"It sure looks a lot better to me now that witch boy and his friend are eating their lunches in the detention room." Colin chuckled and took a second bite of pizza. "Even the pizza tastes better. Ah, revenge is sweet."

"Yeah, it sure is," Clayton agreed between mouthfuls of meatloaf and more mashed potatoes. He formed his right hand into a fist and smiled at it, feeling great now his splint had finally been removed the previous afternoon. "It would almost be worth getting in trouble, just to be able to sit in there with them and watch 'em stew."

"I know what," Dylan interrupted. "Let's go by after lunch. We can taunt them from the hallway. With any luck, maybe one of them will lose it and be suspended for another week."

"Nah, I don't think so," Colin replied, though he smiled at the thought of seeing the helpless rage on their faces. "We'd better not risk it. If one of the teachers catches us, we could end up in front of the principal instead of them."

"Not if we're halfway careful, we won't," Clayton argued. He looked around to ensure that the lunch monitors were across the room and out of earshot. "Heck, the teachers are dumb as dirt. They never even suspected what we did to Gerallt and Matt. And Mr. Tanner's the dumbest of all, buying that ridiculous story about us giving them our money. Besides, Colin, your last plan worked just the way you said it would. I bet if you came up with another one, we could get the two of them expelled this time."

"Maybe you're right, Clayton," Colin agreed, pleased at having his ego stroked as well as at the prospect of having Gerallt out of the school forever. "But no matter how stupid our teachers are, they can still get lucky if we get careless. I think we'd better wait a while before we try to frame the two of them again."

"Okay," Clayton reluctantly agreed. "But now that my hand's okay again, I'm itching for something fun to do with it."

"It must have been frustrating, only being able to hit Matt with your left hand," Colin said in mock sympathy, as he looked around the room again. "Okay, guys, do you see the nerds over there on the other side of pig girl?"

"Jeez, Colin," Dylan said. "It's hard to see anything on the other side of her."

"Good one, Dylan," Clayton said. "Okay, Colin, I see them. What about 'em?"

"Well, Science Club is meeting today after school. How 'bout we see if any of them are walking home afterward? Maybe some of them will pay us to ensure no 'unfortunate accidents' happen to their precious science fair projects."

The rest of the lunch period went much the same with the three young delinquents dividing their time between evil plans, putdowns, and petty acts of meanness. In the noisy cafeteria, they never noticed the quiet click as the microcassette recorder stopped when its tape ran out. They were long gone when Tina once again left class, this time to retrieve Matt's hidden tape recorder.

After returning home from school, Tina quietly carried her backpack up to Matt's room and returned to him the little box containing his tape recorder and alarm clock. Matt thanked his sister, who went back downstairs to keep an eye on their father while Matt went straight to work.

Starting the recorder, Matt waited impatiently for Colin, Clayton, and Dylan to arrive with their lunches. He couldn't believe his luck as he listened to their inadvertent confessions. After transferring the entire recording to his computer, Matt opened a sound-editing program so he could cut it down to just the good parts. They had been such blabbermouths there was little for him to delete. Once he had the final version of the recording, it didn't take long for him to burn a CD with only the incriminating evidence on it. He popped out the CD, labeled it "Homework" in case his father should wonder what it was, and placed it in its crystal case. Then he hid it in plain sight on his desk next to his schoolbooks and went downstairs to do his chores. He could hardly wait until after dinner for Gerallt to signal him so that he could play it for his friend and they could discuss what to do next.

After dinner, Matt returned to his room and sat by his window to wait for his friend's signal. Time passed, and the lamplight eventually appeared in the window on the back corner of the third story of Hawthorne House.

"Hello, Matt," Gerallt called over the walkie-talkie. "Did it work? Did you get anythin'?"

"You won't believe it," Matt replied. "We got everything. They talked about setting us up and how stupid they think the principal and teachers are. They made nasty comments about other students and even planned to force some kids in Science Club to give them money in exchange for not destroying their science fair projects. Just listen." Then Matt quietly played the new CD on his stereo, holding the walkie-talkie up to the speakers so Gerallt could hear what Colin and his gang said.

"That's honkin' savage! Have you played it foah youah fathah yet?"

"No, I thought you should hear it first. Besides, I'm kind of worried."

"About what?" Gerallt asked with surprise. "You've done it. All we need tah do now is tah play it for Principal Tanner, and everything will be okay. What could possibly be a problem?"

"I'm not sure we should do that. I think I remember something from some TV show where someone said it was illegal to record other people without their consent. And Colin, Clayton, and Dylan sure didn't give us permission to record this. We might get in even worse trouble if the principal finds out what we did. And I don't want to risk getting Tina in trouble, too."

"But this is crazy! We can't just ignore it. That recording proves we're innocent."

"I know. We have to use it; we just need to be smart and careful about how we use it. Somehow, we have to play it so that no one knows we had anything to do with it."

"Well, we cahn't be the only ones Colin and his gang have picked on. They made fun of lots of people on the tape. And they were plannin' tah get the Science Club kids. Anyone could have recorded them."

"That's it!" Matt said, having a stroke of inspiration. "I think I know who we can get to help us."

"Who?"

"You know the big girl that always sits by herself in the back of the bus?"

"You mean the honkin' robust one? Sure. What about her?"

"Well, she runs the audiovisual equipment at assemblies and games."

"So?"

"Well, Colin, Clayton, and Dylan are constantly teasing her, and they even teased her on the recording. I'd bet she'd be happy to get back at them by 'accidentally' playing it instead of the National Anthem at the basketball game tomorrow night. That way, we'll be home because we're grounded, and no one could ever blame it on us or even know we had anything to do with it."

"That's perfect! But how are we goin' tah talk tah her without anyone noticin'? We'll still be stuck in the detention room, and the bus is too crowded; someone could overhear us."

"I'll ask Tina to do it. She'll be so pissed off after she hears what they said, she'll be glad to help us."

Matt said goodnight and put his walkie-talkie back in his desk. Then he took his CD player with the new CD to his sister's room and played it for her.

"What do you think?" he asked after the recording was finished.

"That those three idiots are disgusting pigs!" Tina exclaimed. "Let's go down and play it for Dad."

"No, not yet," Matt countered, smiling slyly. "I've got a better idea."

"Like what?"

"You know the big girl that rides on our bus?"

"Sure. Sarah Duffy. She's in a couple of my classes. Why?"

"Well, Colin, Clayton, and Dylan are constantly teasing her, and she usually runs the audiovisual equipment at assemblies and games. She'll probably be playing the National Anthem right before the basketball game tomorrow night."

"Oh, Matt, that's evil," Tina said with a wicked smile. "I love it! And you're right. I bet she'll love to accidentally play your CD instead of the National Anthem. You want me to ask her, don't you?"

"Would you?"

"Oh, I wouldn't miss it for the world! Too bad you and Gerallt will be stuck home during the game. You'll miss all the fun."

"Not really," Matt said. "That'll give Gerallt and me perfect alibis. Besides, since they never go to the games, the best part will be on Monday when the three of them show up at school. I can't wait to see their faces when they learn that they confessed in front of most of the school and even publicly insulted the principal and teachers."

The following day, Tina took the CD and stayed after school to talk with Sarah Duffy. Then she left to hang out and have dinner with a friend before going to the game. Thus, Tina didn't have a chance to speak with her brother until she arrived home later that night. When she finally returned home, she rushed up to Matt's bedroom where he was waiting anxiously to hear how things went.

"Well, Tina, what happened?" Matt asked excitedly, as his sister entered the room. "Did she play the CD? Were Colin, Clayton, and Dylan there? What did everyone do when they heard what the three of them said?"

"Hold on a second, Baby Brother!" Tina interrupted. "One question at a time."

"Okay, so what happened?"

"Well, I stayed after school to talk to her while she was getting the sound equipment ready for the game. I let her know what we did and gave her the CD. Once she listened to it, there was no way she wasn't going to play it. It seems that Colin and his gang have been teasing her for years."

"Great! I was worried she'd be too afraid to do it. So then, what happened?"

"Well, when it came time for the National Anthem, your recording of Colin and his cronies started playing over the loudspeakers. It took several seconds for anyone to react. Then, Principal Tanner and some of the teachers began walking as fast as they could for the sound booth. The recording abruptly stopped, but everyone at the game had heard enough to know who was talking and how the three of them had set you and Gerallt up. Everyone began talking and whispering and laughing about what they'd heard. It was amazing!"

"Excellent! What about Colin, Clayton, and Dylan? They weren't there, were they?"

"Matt, you know how much they hate the jocks. They'd have been bored stiff at the game. And seeing how none of them has any other friends, I doubt it if anyone will call them up to warn them. I bet everyone's just waiting 'til Monday to see the look on their faces when they learn what happened."

"You're probably right. But what about the teachers and Principal Tanner? How'd they react to hearing themselves being called stupid in front of the whole school?"

"They tried to act as if nothing happened, but you could tell they were really pissed off - especially the principal, the English teacher, and the gym coach. I sure wouldn't want them mad at me like that."

"So, do you think we're going to get away with it? Did they give Sarah a hard time?"

"Not really. I talked to her later, and she did great. Sarah said someone must have switched the CDs on her, and anyone could have done it because they aren't locked up or anything. Between being pissed at Colin and his gang and feeling guilty for what he did to you and Gerallt, I doubt the principal cares who switched the CDs. And as Sarah said, they don't have any real evidence to go on, and anyone could have done it. Besides, everyone knows the two of you couldn't have been involved because you've either been in the detention room at school or grounded here at home. I bet the whole school's going to be talking about this mystery for months. You did good, Baby Brother. Real good."

"And you too, Sis. I couldn't have done it without you."

"You're very welcome. It's been fun taking that trio of bullies down a few notches. But now there's one thing I want you to do."

"What's that?"

"The next time you see Sarah, I want you to go up and thank her in person. We couldn't have done it without her help.

"You're right. I will. I owe her big time." Matt paused to look at his phone. "It's getting late, and I bet Gerallt's going crazy waiting for me to call him on my walkie-talkies. See you in the morning."

"Tell him hi for me. Goodnight," Tina said, closing the door behind her.

Matt rushed over and signaled Gerallt, who'd been sitting anxiously by his window. Once Matt had told him the great news, both went to sleep content in the knowledge that their suspension and grounding would soon be over.