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Karine.

4

lies and terror

L eonard Baynes was taunting Snyder, cursing him, .slapping him. “Where’s my ten dollars, freak? C’mon! Where’s my ten dollars?”
    Snyder said nothing and sat there taking it, angry but apparently helpless.
    â€œNice earring,” said Baynes, reaching for it.
    Elijah got right in the way. “Hi!” He stuck out his hand. “Elijah Springfield. This is my first day.”
    Baynes was twice as big as Elijah and he wasn’t at all pleased with Elijah’s timing. “Butt out.”
    Baynes grabbed Elijah by the shoulder—“I said, butt out!”—and flung him into a row of students at the next table, spilling their food and knocking two of them over.
    Elijah extended his hand toward Ian Snyder. “Elijah Springfield. And you are . . . ?”
    Snyder was too startled to answer, much less shake hands.
    Baynes grabbed Elijah by the shoulder— “I said, butt out!”— and flung him into a row of students at the next table, spilling their food and knocking two of them over.
    Some cheers went up from the crowd. Some in the crowd whispered, looking scared. No one got up.
    â€œOh, brother,” said Carrillo. “Sounds like trouble in the lunchroom.”
    Nate only said, “Mmm” and continued examining the soda straw under a strong desk lamp. He held a magnifying glass in front of his eye and slowly moved along the length of the straw. He looked down one end and then down the other.
    â€œWhat have you got?” Carrillo asked again.
    The soda straw was common, typical, the same kind of straw one would find in any fast-food restaurant, in any grocery store.
    And yet Nate was fascinated.
    â€œOh, maybe something,” he said.
    â€œWhere’s a teacher?” Elisha cried, looking all around. “Where’s Officer Carrillo?”
    â€œYou mean Barney Fife?” Karine giggled.
    Elisha moaned, shook her head, and rose to her feet.
    â€œWhat are you doing?” Karine squealed.
    â€œI’m doing something about it,” she answered, and started down the row . This is not a convenient time to be wearing a skirt! she thought.
    Well, Elijah thought as he picked himself up, at least he isn’t picking on Snyder. “Hey, come on now, I just want to be friends—”
    Baynes tried to plant his big hand in Elijah’s chest to shove him again—and immediately found himself slammed facedown on the table—right in front of Ian Snyder—his arm twisted in a hold that threatened to snap his elbow backward. It hurt.
    â€œPlease don’t move,” Elijah spoke into his ear. “If you move, your arm will break.”
    Baynes didn’t move.
    Now there were loud cheers and hoots from the crowd, enough to bring in a whole army of teachers, maybe even the vice principal.
    Carrillo heard the commotion and had to tear himself away. “Gotta check this out.”
    â€œMmm,” said Nate.
    Carrillo bolted from the room.
    Nate shone a light up one end of the straw and looked down the other. What was this inside the straw? It looked like sugar crystals. It couldn’t be cocaine or methamphetamine, or Max would have smelled it. The straw did have a strange, musty smell. Sarah would have to see this.
    Elisha got there in time to hear Elijah’s final words to Baynes: “We could start being friends right now or we can both get suspended. What’ll it be?”
    â€œFriends!” Elisha urged in a whisper, her body poised for the worst. “Just say it.”
    Baynes thought for only a moment. “Friends.”
    Elijah let him go, and he bolted from the scene red-faced and humiliated, brushing by Elisha and escaping through an outside exit door.
    Elisha’s whole body relaxed as a sigh of relief escaped her lungs.
    Officer Carrillo burst into the room looking for the trouble, whatever it was. All he saw were the two Springfield kids kneeling and bending,