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Show 116 seat at 7:45. Parker was already at his desk. Jan was there, too, badgering him for the short story finals. Parker wasn't making any excuses, just sat there listening. Most of the other kids were engrossed in last-minute homework. Dyna took a deep breath and concentrated on staring a hole through her notebook. About then Mrs. Simpson walked in, gloating like an energy czar with a permanent solution. Dyna's own tumult receded in the face of good news. "ON CAMERA came through!" their teacher announced, waving an envelope in the air. "Look at this!" She handed the check to Jeff Glotz who was immediately surrounded by everyone else in the room. Money. Cripes! Why couldn't it have come a_ week ago? Dyna thought ruefully. _0r even three lousy days sooner? After the check had been fingered by the whole class, Mrs. Simpson asked the question they were waiting for. "How do you want to split it? That's for you to decide." The room was silent at first. "Fifteen ways?" John proposed, looking around for support. "How about her?" Heidi pointed to their teacher, but Mrs. Simpson was already shaking her head. "No way! You wrote the script." Then Lisa spoke up. "I have an idea," she began, her soft voice quieting everyone the way it usually did. "We could pay Oscar's back taxes . . . if everyone wants to . . ." Dyna caught her breath. Of course! Why hadn't she thought of that? She wanted to jump up and down, to shout "Yes, yes, we'll do it!" but she just sat there and turned warm, her hands tightening on the sides of her desk. Mrs. Simpson grew sort of misty-eyed, but she, too, just stood there, No one said anything right away. Finally, to Dyna's absolute and utter amazement, Amy threw her considerable influence on the side of Lisa's proposal. "I could go along with that," she said, as if she were voting on some minor procedural point of student government. |
