Free Edison’s Alley by Neal Shusterman and Eric Elfman

Gray. And one of those teachers wound up with a black eye.
    And as they fought, in his anger, Mitch found himself turning back into a human Shut Up ’N Listen. The problem was, Steven Gray wouldn’t shut up.
    “Murló, when I’m done with you—” started Gray.
    And Mitch finished, “—you’re going to go home and play with your stuffed animals!”
    Gray’s eyes went wide. “Shut up! You don’t know—”
    “—the fifth answer on today’s science test.”
    “That’s it! I’m gonna—”
    “—drop out of high school and become a rodeo clown.”
    Beyond that, Mitch didn’t remember any other specifics, except for the satisfying feeling of his fists connecting with various parts of Gray’s anatomy. And although Gray got in some
of his own shots, too, he was far bloodier than Mitch when all was said and done.
    Needless to say, Mitch wound up in Principal Watt’s office, while Gray was sent to the school nurse. Mitch had calmed down by the time he got there, but not enough to regret what he had
done.
    Already waiting for an audience with the principal was Theo Blankenship, not the last person Mitch wanted to see, but definitely among the bottom ten. By now Mitch had two tissues shoved up his
nostrils, which made Theo laugh.
    Mitch took a deep mouth breath and held it to keep himself from losing his temper again.
    Meanwhile, Mrs. Gray came to collect her boy from the nurse’s office and take him home—where he would most certainly play with his stuffed animals and wonder how Mitch had guessed
his secret dream of being a rodeo clown.
    After Gray and his mother left, Theo said to Mitch, “Must have been some fight. Sorry I missed it.”
    From Principal Watt’s office they could hear the muffled sounds of a girl crying.
    “Sydney Van Hook,” Theo explained. “She wrote an inappropriate essay.”
    “So why are you here?” mumbled Mitch.
    Theo looked down. “You know how Galileo School is like our biggest rival?”
    “Yeah.”
    “Well…I barbecued their mascot.”
    “What’s their mascot?” Mitch asked.
    Theo shook his head. “You don’t want to know.”
    While Mitch considered that, Theo leaned a little closer. “So, you’re really good friends with Nick Slate, huh?”
    Mitch had known this was coming the second he saw Theo in the waiting room. “Hey, what goes on between Nick and Caitlin is none of my business, okay? So don’t ask me.”
    “So there
is
something going on between them.”
    “I didn’t say that.”
    Theo glared at Mitch, and poked him in the chest to emphasize every word. “You tell your friend he’d better watch out…because jealousy is a green-eyed mobster—and if
he’s not careful, he’ll be sleeping with the fishes.”
    “Uh…you mean you’re gonna put a fish in his bed?”
    “Exactly. And it’ll only get worse from there.”
    The door to Principal Watt’s office opened, and Sydney Van Hook ran out in a veil of tears. Watt beckoned Theo in with an intensity befitting the Grim Reaper.
    Theo stood up, but before he went in, he turned to Mitch and said, “Whatever Nick’s doing, he won’t get away with it. Like they say, he’s going to find himself between
Iraq and a hard place.” And with that, he turned and walked into Principal Watt’s Office of Doom. The door closed behind him, and in a few moments Mitch could hear Theo crying.
    Mitch found himself alone once more with only his thoughts and the penny in his pocket. Angrily, he tried again to fish it out, but it seemed to be stuck to some old chewing gum that had melded
with the fabric.
    He wished there was some way he could get back at the corporate creeps who had framed his father, but such justice was even further out of his reach than the penny.
    Then, out of nowhere, a voice said, “Mind if I try?”
    Mitch looked up to see Ms. Planck, the lunch lady. Without waiting for an answer, she reached into his pocket with long, tapering fingers, strong from ladling slop day in and day out. She