Mr. Ross had concluded his talk on The Wave. He intended to spend the rest of the period reviewing the a.s.signment he'd given the cla.s.s the night before. But suddenly a student named George Snyder was raising his hand.

"Yes, George."

George sprang from his seat to attention by his desk. "Mr. Ross, for the first time I feel like I'm part of something," he announced. "Something great."

Around the room, startled students stared at George. Feeling the eyes of the cla.s.s upon him, George began to sink back into his chair. But then Robert suddenly stood.

"Mr. Ross," he said proudly, "I know just how George feels. It's like being born again."

No sooner had he returned to his seat than Amy stood. "George's right, Mr. Ross. I feel the same way."

David was pleased. He knew that what George had done was corny, but then Robert and Amy had done it too, just so George wouldn't feel foolish and alone. That's what was good about The Wave. They supported each other. Now he stood up and said, "Mr. Ross, I'm proud of The Wave."

This sudden outburst of testimonials surprised Ben. He was determined to get on to the day's cla.s.swork, but suddenly he knew he had to go along with the cla.s.s a little longer. Almost subconsciously he sensed how much they wanted him to lead them, and it was something he felt he could not deny.

"Our salute!" he ordered. Around the room students jumped to attention beside their desks and gave The Wave salute. The mottos followed: "Strength Through Discipline, Strength Through Community, Strength Through Action!"

Mr. Ross was picking up his cla.s.s notes when the students burst forth again, this time giving the salute and chanting their motto without prompting. Then silence fell over the room. Mr. Ross gazed at the students in wonderment. The Wave was no longer just an idea or a game. It was a living movement in his students. They were The Wave now, and Ben realized that they could act on their own without him if they wanted. That thought could have been frightening, but Ben was confident that he had control as their leader. The experiment was simply becoming much more interesting.

At lunch that day all The Wave members who were in the cafeteria sat at a single long table. Brian, Brad, Amy, Laurie, and David were there. At first Robert Billings seemed tentative about joining them, but when David saw him he insisted he sit at the table, telling him they were all part of The Wave now.

Most of the kids were raving about what was going on in Mr. Ross's cla.s.s, and Laurie really had no reason to argue with them. But still she felt odd-all that saluting and chanting. Finally, during a pause in the conversation, she said, "Does anyone feel kind of strange about this?"

David turned to her. "What do you mean?"

"I don't know," Laurie said. "But doesn't it feel a little weird?"

"It's just so different," Amy told her. "That's why it feels weird."

"Yeah," Brad said. "It's like there's no in-crowd anymore. Man, the thing that bugs me the most about school sometimes is all these little cliques. I'm tired of feeling like every day's a big popularity contest. That's what's so great about The Wave. You don't have to worry about how popular you are. We're all equal. We're all part of the same community."

"Do you think everyone likes that?" Laurie asked.

"Do you know anyone who doesn't?" David asked.

Laurie felt her face grow flushed. "Well, I'm not sure I do."

Suddenly Brian pulled something out of his pocket and held it up to Laurie. "Hey, don't forget," he said. He was holding up his Wave membership card with the red X on the back.

"Forget what?" Laurie asked.

"You know," Brian said. "What Mr. Ross said about reporting anyone who breaks the rules."

Laurie was shocked. Brian really couldn't be serious, could he? Now Brian started to grin, and she relaxed.

"Besides," David said. "Laurie isn't breaking any rule."

"If she was really against The Wave she would be," Robert said.

The rest of the table became silent, surprised that Robert had said anything. Some of them weren't even used to hearing his voice, he usually said so little.

"What I mean is," Robert said nervously, "the whole idea of The Wave is that the people in it have to support it. If we're really a community, we all have to agree."

Laurie was about to say something, but she stopped herself. It was The Wave that had given Robert the courage to sit at the table with them and to join in the conversation. If she argued against The Wave now, she would really be implying that Robert should go sit by himself again and not be part of their "community."

Brad patted Robert on his back. "Hey, I'm glad you joined us," he said.

Robert blushed and then turned to David. "Did he stick anything on my back?" he asked. Everyone at the table laughed.

CHAPTER 9.

Ben Ross wasn't quite sure what to make of The Wave. What had begun as a simple history experiment had become a fad that was spreading outside his cla.s.sroom. As a result, some unexpected things had started to occur. For one, the size of his daily history cla.s.s was beginning to expand as students from free periods, study halls, and lunch came to be part of The Wave. The recruiting of more students for The Wave had apparently been far more successful than he had ever expected. So successful, in fact, that Ben began to suspect that some students were cutting other cla.s.ses to sit in on his.

Remarkably enough, though, even with the larger cla.s.s size and the students' insistence on practicing the salute and motto, the cla.s.s was not falling behind. If anything, they were covering their a.s.signed lessons even faster than usual. Using the rapid question and answer style that The Wave had inspired, they had quickly covered j.a.pan's entrance into World War Two. Ben noticed a marked improvement in preparation for cla.s.s and in cla.s.s partic.i.p.ation, but he also noticed that there was less thinking behind the preparation. His students could glibly spit back answers as if by rote, but there was no a.n.a.lysis, no questioning on their part. In a way he could not fault them, because he himself had introduced them to the ways of The Wave. It was just another unexpected development in the experiment.

Ben reasoned that the students realized that to neglect their studies would be detrimental to The Wave. The only way they could have time to spend on The Wave was to be so well prepared that they only needed half the regular cla.s.s to cover their a.s.signed lessons. But he wasn't certain this was something to be pleased about. The cla.s.s's homework a.s.signments had improved, but rather than long, thoughtful answers, they wrote short ones. On a multiple choice test they might all do well, but Ben had his doubts about how they'd do on an exam consisting of essays.

To add to the interesting developments in his experiment was a report he'd heard that David Collins and his friends Eric and Brian had successfully infused The Wave into the school's football team. Over the years, Norm Schiller, the biology teacher who also coached the school's football team, had become so soured by wisecracks about the team's continual losses that during football season he practically went months without speaking to another teacher. But that morning in the faculty lounge Norm had actually thanked him for introducing The Wave to his students. Would wonders never cease?

On his own, Ben had tried to find out what it was that attracted students to The Wave. Some of those he asked said it was just something new and different, like any fad. Others said they liked the democracy of it-the fact that they were all equals now. It pleased Ross to hear that answer. He enjoyed thinking that he had helped break down the petty popularity contests and cliques that he felt often preoccupied too much of his students' thinking and energy. A few students even said they thought the idea of increased discipline was good for them. That had surprised Ben. Over the years, discipline had become an increasingly personal responsibility. If the students didn't do it themselves, their teachers were less and less inclined to step in. Maybe this was a mistake, Ben thought. Perhaps one of the results of his experiment would be a general rebirth of school discipline. He even day-dreamed about a story in the education section of Time magazine: Discipline Returns to the Cla.s.sroom: Teacher Makes Startling Discovery.

Laurie Saunders sat on a desk in the school publications office, chewing on the end of a pen. Various members of The Gordon Grapevine staff sat on desks around her, biting their nails or chewing gum. Alex Cooper was wearing his Sony radio and was bopping to the music through his earphones. Another reporter was wearing roller skates. This was The Grapevine's excuse for a weekly editorial meeting.

"Okay," Laurie told them. "We've got the same problem as usual. The paper is due out next week, but we don't have enough stories." Laurie looked at the girl wearing roller skates. "Jeanie, you were supposed to do a fashion story on the latest clothes. Where is it?"

"Oh, n.o.body's wearing anything interesting this year," Jeanie replied. "It's always the same thing: jeans and sneakers and T-shirts."

"Well then, write about how there are no new styles this year," Laurie said, then she turned to the reporter who was bopping to his radio. "Alex?"

Alex kept bopping. He couldn't hear her.

"Alex!" Laurie said more loudly.

Finally someone near Alex gave him a nudge. He looked up, startled. "Uh, yeah?"

Laurie rolled her eyes. "Alex, this is supposed to be an editorial meeting."

"Really?" Alex replied.

"Okay, so where's your record review for this issue?" Laurie asked.

"Oh, uh, yeah, record review, right, uh, yeah," Alex said. "Well, uh, you see, it's a long story. Uh, like I was going to do it but, uh, remember that trip I said I had to take to Argentina?"

Laurie rolled her eyes again.

"Well, it fell through," Alex said. "And I had to go to Hong Kong instead."

Laurie turned to Alex's sidekick, Carl. "I suppose you had to go to Hong Kong with him," she said sarcastically.

Carl shook his head. "No," he replied seriously, "I made the trip to Argentina as scheduled."

"I see," said Laurie. She looked around at the rest of The Grapevine's staff. "I suppose the rest of you have been too busy hopping around the globe to get anything written as well."

"I went to the movies," Jeanie said.

"Did you write a review?" Laurie asked.

"No, it was too good," she replied.

"Too good?"

"It's no fun writing reviews of good movies," she said.

"Yeah," said Alex, the globe-hopping record reviewer. "It's no fun doing a review of a good movie because you can't say anything bad about it. The only time it's fun to review something is when it's bad. Then you can tear it to shreds, he, he, he." Alex started rubbing his hands together as he went into his mad scientist routine. Alex had the best mad scientist routine in school. He also did a great imitation of a wind surfer in a hurricane.

"We need stories for the paper," Laurie said resolutely. "Doesn't anyone have any ideas?"

"They got a new school bus," someone said.

"Whoopee!"

"I heard that Mr. Gabondi's going on sabbatical next year."

"Maybe he won't come back."

"Some kid in the tenth grade put his fist through a window yesterday. He was trying to prove that you could punch a hole in a window and not cut yourself."

"Did he do it?"

"Nope, got twelve st.i.tches."

"Hey, wait a minute," said Carl. "What about this Wave thing? Everyone wants to know what it is."

"Aren't you in Ross's history cla.s.s, Laurie?" another staff member asked.

"That's probably the biggest story in school right now," said a third.

Laurie nodded. She was aware that The Wave was worth a story, and maybe a big story at that. A couple of days ago it had even occurred to her that something like The Wave was probably just what the sluggish, disorganized staff of The Grapevine itself needed. But she had set the idea aside. She couldn't even explain her decision consciously. It was just that creepy feeling she'd begun to get, the feeling that maybe they should be careful with The Wave. So far she'd seen it do some good in Mr. Ross's cla.s.s and David said he thought it was helping the football team. But still she was cautious.

"Well, what about it, Laurie?" someone asked.

"The Wave?" Laurie said.

"How come you haven't a.s.signed that story to us?" Alex asked. "Or are you just saving the good ones for yourself?"

"I don't know if anyone knows enough about it to write about it yet," Laurie said.

"What do you mean? You're in The Wave, aren't you?" Alex asked.

"Well, yes I am," Laurie replied. "But I still ... I still don't know."

A couple of the staff members scowled. "Well, I think The Grapevine still should have a story reporting that it exists, at least," Carl said. "I mean, a lot of kids are wondering what it is."

Laurie nodded. "Okay, you're right. I'll try to explain what it is. But in the meantime, I want you all to do something. Since we still have a few days before the paper has to come out. Try to find out everything you can about what kids think of The Wave."

Ever since the night she had first discussed The Wave with her mother and father at dinner, Laurie had purposely avoided the subject at home. It didn't seem worth creating any more ha.s.sles, especially with her mother, who could find something to worry about in everything Laurie did, whether it was going out late with David, chewing on a pen, or The Wave. Laurie just hoped her mother would forget about it. But that night while she was studying in her room her mother knocked on the door. "Babe, can I come in?"

"Sure, Mom."

The door opened and Mrs. Saunders stepped in, wearing a yellow terrycloth bathrobe and slippers. The skin around her eyes looked greasy, and Laurie knew she'd been putting wrinkle cream on.

"How're the crow's feet, Mom?" she asked in goodnatured humor.

Mrs. Saunders smiled wryly at her daughter. "Someday," she said, wagging a finger, "someday you won't think it's so funny." She walked over to the desk and peered over her daughter's shoulders at the book she was reading. "Shakespeare?"

"What'd you expect?" Laurie asked.

"Well, anything except The Wave," Mrs. Saunders said, sitting down on her daughter's bed.

Laurie turned to look at her. "What do you mean, Mom?"

"Only that I met Elaine Billings at the supermarket today, and she told me Robert is a completely new person."

"Was she worried?" Laurie asked.

"No, she wasn't, but I am," Mrs. Saunders said. "You know, they've been having problems with him for years. Elaine has talked to me frequently about it. She's been very worried."

Laurie nodded.

"So she's ecstatic about this sudden change," Mrs. Saunders said. "But somehow I don't trust it. Such a dramatic personality change. It almost sounds like he's joined a cult or something."

"What do you mean?"

"Laurie, if you study the types of people who join these cults, they're almost always people who are unhappy with themselves and their lives. They look at the cult as a way of changing, of starting over, of literally being born again. How else do you explain the change in Robert?"

"But what's wrong with that, Mom?"

"The problem is that it's not real, Laurie, Robert is safe only as long as he keeps within the confines of The Wave. But what do you think happens when he leaves it? The outside world doesn't know or care about The Wave. If Robert couldn't function in school before The Wave, he won't be able to function outside of school where The Wave doesn't exist."

Laurie understood. "Well, you don't have to worry about me, Mom. I don't think I'm as crazy about it as I was a couple of days ago."