Chapter 64
In Mrs. Wetherly's class, I take the Texas History final through the IntegriTruth testing portal on my laptop. I steal a glance at Felix, who is hunched over his computer. I wouldn't be surprised if he's developed a supernatural ability to sense when I'm looking at him so he can avoid it.
“Keep your eyes on your own laptop,” Rosferatu hisses.
The lights flicker once, twice, and everything goes black. The laptops stay on, battery-powered little rectangles of light in the darkness, but the internet is out. Once again, the heat knocks the power out in our fragile little school.
“Oh dear. Not good…” Mrs. Wetherly says.
We hear the screeching of teachers and staff running back and forth on the hall floors.
“Another power outage. I'm so shocked!” Daisha mumbles.
One of the assistant principals tells us to gather our things and move to the cafeteria, where there's at least natural light.
When I get to the door, Felix is right next to me. He stops without looking at me, but stays where he is so I can move ahead of him.
“The cameras are out!” someone yells behind me. “THE CAMERAS ARE OUT!”
Mrs. Wetherly rushes to the door, but by then, it's too late. The revolution has begun.
In the cafeteria, the students are going wild.
They're tearing down the posters of IntegriTruth maxims and rules. Somebody is running off with the portrait of Brandon that hung at the front of the school.
A group of students pick up the statue of Scout the Eagle and take him away.
In its place, somebody paints a large simian creature, and when they draw rainbow swirls around its body I immediately know it's the Sasquatch.
“They're using my gay Sasquatch as a resistance symbol,” I murmur, half horrified, half proud.
“You started something, Wade,” Daisha says. “Your stupid film became, like, an accidental piece of protest art.”
As teachers nervously peek out from their rooms, visibly calculating if this is worth fighting on the last day of school during a record heat wave, I slip out the side exit.
Walking home through the heat, I can't stop thinking about what I witnessed. My stupid prank film, which created so much chaos in my community, has now become something bigger.
I know I'm in debt and my life is a mess, but I'm feeling a little inspired.