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she shouted, “You do
not
have the right to destroy someone else’s dignity because you have none yourself!”
    Cole was surprised by how the principal was acting. It took a lot of guts, but he still doubted anything would come of it. There weren’t consequences in this school, not like on the island. There, if he chopped wood and covered it, he had dry wood for the winter. If not, he didn’t. If he attacked a bear, it mauled him. If he gave it space, it trusted him. He wished Keith had to face consequences for his actions, but he knew that wasn’t how it was at this school.
    “Cole, you and Peter go on home, but stop by my office in the morning,” Ms. Kennedy said. “I’ll meet the rest of you back in my office in five minutes. Anybody that gets there after me pays the fiddler double.”
    Keith started toward the school, sauntering casually to prove he wasn’t intimidated.

Chapter 5
    A S COLE AND Peter headed down the sidewalk, Cole elbowed his friend. “Hey, your secret weapon worked.”
    “Yeah,” Peter said with a grin. Then he grimaced.
    “Are you okay?”
    Peter wiped blood from his face. “The principal can’t stop Keith and his friends.”
    “Seeing Keith slap you this afternoon made me want to pound his head against a sidewalk,” Cole said. “I want to see
him
stutter and stammer the rest of his life. Maybe I should just beat him up and let the Circle send me to jail.”
    Tears filled Peter’s eyes. “You going to jail won’t make anything better. You’re my only real friend.”
    “Sitting in a dumb freezer and carrying bowling balls isn’t helping.”
    “I agree,” Peter said, “but please don’t go to jail.”
    * * *
    Cole didn’t tell his mother about Keith and the bullies or having to go see the principal, just that they weren’t going to sit in the freezer anymore. He felt like he needed to work things out for himself. Weary, he went to bed early.
    All that night, he tossed and turned, his dreams confused, his body aching. One moment the Spirit Bear was mauling him, and the next instant his dad was whipping him with the buckle end of the belt. Then the Circle was sending him back to jail. Finally, in his last dream, his totem pole had become a monster, threatening to attack him. When Cole’s alarm went off, he felt like a zombie. He hugged his bruised ribs and grimaced as he crawled from his bed to get ready for school.
    “Are you sure you don’t want a ride?” his mother asked as they ate breakfast.
    “I’m sure.”
    “Are you okay?” she asked. “You’re awfully quiet this morning.”
    “I’m fine—I just need time alone.”
    Cole finished eating and gave his mother a quick kiss on the cheek. “Love you, Mom,” he said. “Remember, tonight’s the Circle.”
    “I love you, too,” she said warmly, nodding.
    As he walked to school, Cole’s thoughts were as troubled as his dreams. Yesterday, a cell phone had saved their hides, but what if there had been no cell phone? Then what? And tonight, would the Circle members still think of him as a punk troublemaker? It bothered him that his dad wasn’t coming. He was tempted to just show up at his office downtown to see what he’d do.
    When Cole got to school, he went straight to the main office to wait. Peter arrived a few minutes later, and together they went in to see Ms. Kennedy.
    “That was a slick trick you pulled yesterday,” she said. “Where did you get my number?”
    “It was on one of the teacher’s desks,” Peter admitted.
    “I don’t want students in the school running around with my cell phone number.”
    “I d-d-didn’t give it to anybody,” Peter said, lowering his head. His voice showed disappointment. “It seemed like a good idea.”
    “So what happened to the guys that picked on us?” Cole asked.
    “I gave them detention for a week.”
    “Detention won’t change anything,” Cole said. “It won’t stop the bullying. What are we supposed to do the next time they get in our face? Now