The Wave Read Free Page A

don’t start participating in this class I will have to fail you. You’ll never graduate at this rate.”
    Robert glanced at his teacher and then looked away again.
    “Don’t you have anything to say?” Ben asked.
    Robert shrugged. “I don’t care,” he said.
    “What do you mean you don’t care?” Ben asked.
    Robert took a few steps toward the door. Ben could see that he was uncomfortable about being questioned. “Robert?”
    The boy stopped, but he still could not look at his teacher. “I wouldn’t do any good anyway,” he mumbled.
    Ben wondered what he could say. Robert’s case was a tough one: the younger brother wallowing in the shadow of an older brother who had been the quintessential model student and big man on campus. Jeff Billings had been an all-conference pitcher in high school and was now in the Baltimore Orioles farm system while he studied medicine in the off-season. In school he’d been a straight- A student who excelled at everything hedid. The kind of guy even Ben had despised in high school.
    Seeing that he could never compete with his brother’s achievements, Robert had apparently decided it was better not even to try.
    “Listen, Robert,” Ben said, “no one expects you to be another Jeff Billings.”
    Robert glanced quickly at Ben and then started chewing nervously on his thumbnail.
    “All we’re asking is that you try,” Ben said.
    “I have to go,” Robert said, looking down at the floor.
    “I don’t even care about sports, Robert,” Ben said. But the boy had already begun to move slowly toward the door.

CHAPTER 3
    D avid Collins was sitting in the outdoor courtyard next to the cafeteria. He had already wolfed down half his lunch by the time Laurie arrived, and he was beginning to feel like a normal human being again. He watched Laurie put her tray down next to his and then noticed that Robert Billings was also headed for the courtyard.
    “Hey, look,” David whispered as Laurie sat down. They watched as Robert stepped out of the cafeteria carrying a tray, looking for a place to eat. True to form, he had already started eating and stood in the doorway with half a hot dog sticking out of his mouth.
    There were two girls from Mr. Ross’s history class sitting at the table Robert chose. As Robert set his tray down, they both stood up and took their trays to another table. Robert pretended he hadn’t noticed.
    David shook his head. “Gordon High’s very own Untouchable,” he mumbled.
    “Do you think there’s something really wrong with him?” Laurie asked.
    David shrugged. “I don’t know. He’s been pretty strange for as long as I can remember. Then again, if people treated me like that, I’d probably be pretty strange too. It’s just weird that he and his brother could come from the same family.”
    “Did I ever tell you that my mother knows his mother?” Laurie asked.
    “His mother ever talk about him?” David asked.
    “No. Except I think she told me once that they had him tested and he really does have a normal I.Q. He’s not really dumb or anything.”
    “Just weird,” David said and went back to eating his lunch. But Laurie only picked at hers. She seemed preoccupied.
    “What is it?” David asked.
    “That film, David,” Laurie answered. “It really bothers me. Doesn’t it bother you?”
    David thought for a moment. Then he said, “Yeah, sure, as something horrible that happened once, it bothers me. But that was a long time ago, Laurie. To me it’s like a piece of history. You can’t change what happened then.”
    “But you can’t forget it,” Laurie said. She tried a bite of her hamburger, then made a face and put it down.
    “Well, you can’t go around being bummed out about it for the rest of your life either,” David said. He eyed Laurie’s uneaten hamburger. “By the way, you gonna eat that?”
    Laurie shook her head. The movie had left her without much of an appetite. “Help yourself.”
    Not only did David help himself to her