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    â€œIt’s toasty in here.” He taps the digital thermostat on the wall next to the doorway, which is set to seventy degrees. “But by the windows? And her Royal Ice Queen? You’ll never be warm, no matter how fast your heart beats.” He places one palm to his chest. Shivers. Smiles.
    â€œMaybe I should’ve worn slippers instead of shoes.”
    Houdini’s eyebrows lift above the tops of his sunglasses. He glances down at his feet, which are enclosed by fluffy gray squares beneath the hems of flannel pajama pants, then up at me.
    â€œHinkle the quick-comeback kid. Who’d have thunk it?” He holds out a fist. “I’d give you ten demerits, but your current lead doesn’t need them.”
    I bump his fist with mine. He yawns, stretches, and goes inside. More classmates arrive. I say hi, wave. Most return the greeting without hesitating. This is different from the end of last semester, when they were still wary of their killer classmate. It makes me hopeful that a new start really is possible.
    Thirty seconds before class begins, I scan the empty hallway. Listen for footsteps. And finally enter the room.
    I find a seat near the windows. As I remove a notebook and pen from my backpack, I try not to stare at the chair next to mine. Because for the first time since I started taking this class a few months ago, it’s empty. And I know it’s silly, but I’m afraid if I look too closely or give it too much attention, it might stay that way.
    â€œBehold!” Houdini lifts one leg, lets his heel drop onto the desk at the front of the room, and sweeps one hand toward his foot. “Your challenge this semester.”
    â€œUgly shoes?” Abe guesses. He’s sitting a few chairs away in the middle of the room.
    â€œBad personal hygiene?” a girl named Jill adds, eyeing Houdini’s stained sock.
    â€œCement blocks,” he says. “Granted, these are filled with cotton, but you get the idea.”
    It takes some stretching of the imagination, but soon I see that his slippers are shaped like gray concrete cubes.
    â€œTo pass last semester,” he continues, “you had to ‘get’ each one of your teachers with the skills they taught. To get me, youhad to steal something of mine without my knowing. At the time, that probably seemed impossible.”
    A few kids nod. No one disagrees.
    â€œIt was actually a walk in the park.” He lifts his other leg, crosses his ankles on top of the desk. “And get ready to run. Because now we’re coming after you.”
    â€œWhat does that mean?” Gabby asks.
    â€œIn order to pass this semester, you must avoid attacks by all of your teachers. Just like you stole my stuff, I’m going to steal yours.”
    â€œYou did that last semester,” Lemon says. “When you took my favorite lighter.”
    â€œAnd my stuffed unicorn,” Gabby says.
    And my robot cuff links.
    â€œI did that to teach you how to do it yourselves. And I gave everything back. This semester, no such luck. If I steal it, I keep it.”
    â€œAnd we fail?” Abe asks. “Like, automatically?”
    â€œYou get three shots. If you avoid the first attempt, you’re done. You earn a hundred demerits and are free to focus on normal class assignments. If you fail the first attempt, you earn a hundred gold stars and have to earn a second chance.”
    â€œHow?” a kid named Austin asks.
    â€œBy getting one of your classmates.”
    â€œSo in order to get another chance with you,” Abe says slowly, “I’d have to steal something of, say, Hinkle’s?”
    â€œWithout him knowing,” Houdini says. “Exactly.”
    â€œThat sounds complicated,” Jill says.
    â€œIt is. Successful Troublemakers don’t just make trouble. They thwart it. That’s how they stay sharp and keep their edge. It’s hard to be bad when you’re constantly