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clip inside my shirt. If we get attacked, I’ll reach in my pocket and push the button. The principal will hear everything that happens.”
    “I don’t think it’ll work,” Cole said.
    “You have a better idea?”
    Cole had to admit that he didn’t.
    * * *
    Wednesday morning, Cole struggled with his thoughts and emotions as he sat in the freezer. What if his time on the island had been a waste? Every day his anger seemed to come back stronger. What if he
was
nothing more than a big screwup?
    Peter stood and opened the freezer door. “I’m about done,” he said casually, trying not to show his shivering.
    Cole followed him out.
    Betty was whistling merrily as they walked from the back of the grocery store. She waved to them. “So are you both happy now?” she called.
    “It’s not something that happens overnight,” Cole said, irritated by her cheerfulness.
    Peter seemed annoyed, too. “How come you’re always happy?” he asked suddenly, stopping at the counter. “You must not have much bad stuff in your life.”
    Betty allowed a sad smile. “I’ve had plenty of bad things in my life,” she said. “I’m not always happy. But would it make things better if I let myself get down all the time?”
    Cole walked to the counter beside Peter. “It’s not that easy—you can’t just decide not to be mad.”
    “Says who?” she asked.
    “I spent more than a year on an island figuring out how not to be mad all the time.”
    “Maybe you’re a slow learner,” she kidded with an easy laugh. “Mostly I sort things out raising my plants. Ever try growing orchids?”
    The boys shook their heads.
    “I suspect there’s really only one way to find happiness.”
    “What’s that?” Peter asked.
    “You have to
want
to be happy—some people don’t.”
    Because they were in different classes, Cole didn’t see Peter again until after school.
    “The secret weapon is locked and loaded,” Peter announced when they met. He patted the cell phone in his pocket and opened a button to show off the little microphone hidden inside his shirt. “I found the principal’s cell number on my science teacher’s desk.”
    “Have you told the principal about your idea?”
    “Maybe that w-w-wouldn’t be smart.”
    Cole smiled. The idea was crazy, but at least it gave Peter a sense of confidence.
    As they left the school grounds together, they passed the bulldog statue. “I hate that thing,” Cole said.
    Peter agreed. “Everywhere you look at school there’s a picture of that ugly mutt.”
    “Hey, I’ve been thinking,” Peter continued. “You’re right. It’s not smart dropping the bowling balls. It’s going to get us in trouble if we get caught. Besides, I’m kind of spooked by that old guy, too.”
    Cole nodded as they walked. “What if the bowling ball hit him? He could really get hurt.”
    “Uh,
hurt?
It would kill him!” Peter exclaimed. “He would look like roadkill—like he’d been run over by a semi. It would crush his skull like a smashed watermelon. All his brains would—”
    “Okay, okay, I get the picture,” Cole said. “So do you have to head home right away?”
    “Not if I call my mom. Why?”
    “Maybe we could just hang out.”
    Peter smiled. “Maybe we can try being invisible.”
    After Peter called his mother, they walked aimlessly for several blocks. Both were in their own worlds, lost in thought, when suddenly they heard footsteps and turned. Keith and his friends had crept up behind them. “Hey, bear bait!” Keith said, a cocky smirk on his face. “Are you two deaf?”
    Cole wanted to kick himself for not paying attention.
    “Time for the secret weapon,” Peter whispered, sliding his hand inside the pocket of his baggy pants to activate the cell phone.
    “What did you say, gimp?” asked Keith.
    Peter spoke loudly, his words slow and deliberate. “I a-a-asked you what you’re going to do to us now that y-y-you caught us two blocks away from school?”
    “We’re g-g-going