Read Online The Fourth Stall Part II by Chris Rylander - Free Book Online

empty threat.
    Vince got detention, too, for the cafeteria stunt. But he hadn’t gotten any cryptic threats from Dr. George, just the standard lecture and detention. He didn’t like what I told him at the start of afternoon recess that day.
    â€œWhat are we going to do? We’ve never had the Administration on our tails before,” Vince said. “This is, like, almost worse than that one time I tried to prove that gravity was a myth using nothing but a box of toothpicks, the big oak tree in my backyard, four packages of grape Kool-Aid, and a lawn gnome with a missing hand.”
    â€œI remember that,” Joe said.
    I did, too, and it had been pretty funny, aside from Vince’s crooked ankle and two months of him in a cast ordering me around and whining about being one limb down. But I really wasn’t in a laughing mood just then.
    â€œI guess the only thing we can do is keep focusing on our current customers. And also be more careful,” I said. “Hey, Fred?”
    â€œYeah?”
    â€œHow about for a while you can be our official lookout instead of keeping records? You can sit in the first stall and watch the hall camera through a small portable TV hooked up to the DVR. You can watch the end of the west hall and tell us if a Suit or teacher is coming. Then maybe we can get Brady to watch the west entrance near my office.”
    â€œSure, Mac,” Fred said.
    â€œThat sounds like a plan,” Vince said.
    â€œThen maybe today after detention, Vince and I will take a look around Mr. Kjelson’s office. See what we can find.”
    â€œWhat about baseball tryouts today, Mac?” Vince asked. “We’re going to miss due to detention. The last thing we need as sixth graders trying to make the team is to give the coach any reason at all to cut us.”
    I thought about that. “We’ll just have to talk to Kjelson and make up for it on the field . . . or in the gym or—you know what I mean.”
    Vince nodded but still looked concerned.
    â€œAll right. There’s a line forming outside, so let’s open up for business for the rest of recess,” I said.
    Our first customer that day was a dual customer—and an odd pair to be showing up together, at that. A lanky, pale kid and a small kid with neat hair, a collared shirt, and a sweater vest with a goose on it stepped into my office. They were Great White and Kitten, two of the more notorious bullies in the school.
    Great White was British and had blond hair and pale skin. He also had a real mean streak and was one of the best fighters and toughest kids in the school. Kitten was meek and mild with a soft voice and neat clothes. But his appearance was deceiving. He was quite possibly the most insane person in the entire state. He probably belonged in a psych ward. Seriously, if he and I didn’t get along so well and he hadn’t helped my business so much in the past, I’d have turned him in to state officials a long time ago. If you crossed him, he was more dangerous than anyone in the city, probably. He’d eat your dog right in front of you with a knife and fork and a napkin tucked under his collar if you made him mad enough. But he and Great White weren’t friends, so it was weird to see them together like this.
    â€œHave a seat,” I told them.
    They sat down in the two chairs across from me. For the first time I noticed that Great White had a black eye and a large bandage on his neck. I remembered that some kids had complained about him picking a lot of fights lately due to the lack of punishment from the school. I wondered if this could be related.
    â€œWhat seems to be the problem?” I asked.
    â€œWell, besides the fact that this little git over here bit me in me neck like some sort of vampire?” Great White said.
    â€œYou bit him in the neck?” I said to Kitten.
    Kitten looked calm, collected, and small as usual. “He started the fight. I just