Read Philip Gets Even (9781597050807) for Free Online

door.”
    “I’m trying. It won’t turn.”
    “Then turn on the light. What am I stepping
on?” A tiny crunching sound came from beneath Emery’s feet.
    Philip ran his hand up and down the wall next
to the door until he found the light switch.
    “M & Ms!” Emery cried. “Look!”
    A handful of M & Ms was scattered on the
floor.
    “How’d they get there?” Emery cried,
kicking them out of the way.
    Suddenly, Philip’s stomach dropped and a
chill crept across his neck and down his arms.
    “Emery, that note wasn’t from Mr. Greif.”
    “He signed... M & Ms! Johnny Visco!”
    The boys were shocked into silence, realizing
they were locked in a book closet after coming to the third floor
without permission. Then they heard the noise of the classes
returning to their rooms.
    “Lunch is over. Now what?” said Emery in a
quiet voice.
    The two boys listened as the hallway grew
quiet.
    “Shall we yell and scream and knock?” said
Emery.
    “If we were going to yell and scream and
knock, don’t you think we should have done it when the hallway was
full of people?”
    Emery shrugged. “Try the little button on the
doorknob.”
    Philip tried to twist the lock button in the
center of the doorknob.
    “It won’t. It just won’t. Ewww! And there’s
some junk in there all over the button. Yuck.” Philip wiped his
fingers on his pants.
    “I know who put the junk in there, too.”
    The thought of Johnny Visco silenced the
boys.
    “Well we can’t stay in here all afternoon,”
said Emery. “Try the knob again.”
    “You try it. It’s disgusting.”
    Emery bent down and looked at the doorknob.
“It is full of yuck. Maybe we can hit it with something and
loosen it.”
    “Yeah! Get a book. A big one.” He and Emery
walked deeper into the closet.
    “There are some big books,” said Emery,
pointing upward. “I can’t reach. Here, let me get on your
shoulders. Bend down.”
    Philip looked at him. “Why don’t you bend
down and let me get on your shoulders?”
    “I thought of it first,” said Emery. “Come
on.”
    Philip didn’t argue. Emery did think
of it first. He got on his knees and Emery climbed on his
shoulders.
    “Okay,” said Emery. “Get up. And don’t dump
me off.”
    Philip staggered to his feet.
    “Hey, stop. Hold onto something, will you?
Take two steps. The other way! Okay, I got one.”
    The book, Science for Our Times, was
very thick and had a hard cover.
    Just then the closet door opened. Standing in
the doorway, his face partially in shadow, the bright lights of the
hallway behind him, the boys saw their principal, Mr. Greif.
     
     

 
     
     
     
Seven
     
    “I never sent you a note to meet me,” Mr.
Greif was saying. “And I certainly wouldn’t meet you in a book
closet on the third floor, would I? Or expect you to be performing
a circus act when I found you. Look around. Do you know where you
are?”
    The boys timidly turned their heads right and
left.
    “Well,” said Mr. Greif insistently.
    “Your office?” said Philip shyly.
    “Exactly. Where I customarily meet people.
How long were you planning to spend in the bookroom anyway?”
    Each boy shrugged.
    “And you know you weren’t supposed to be on
the third floor.”
    Philip wanted to mention the note directing
them there again, but he knew that wouldn’t work. The principal
didn’t believe about the note. But that didn’t stop Emery.
    “The note told us to go there,” said Emery.
“A boy gave it to us.”
    “And who was this boy?”
    Philip and Emery looked at each other. Emery
shrugged.
    “He was just a little kid,” said Emery. “I
didn’t look at him much.”
    Mr. Greif looked at Philip. “And you?”
    Philip shrugged. “I didn’t look at him much
either.”
    “Where’s the note now?”
    “The boy took it back,” said Emery.
    The principal shook his head. “It’s a good
thing somebody heard noises in the closet and let me know. What
were you doing in there?”
    “Trying to get out,” Emery said