Read Philip Gets Even (9781597050807) for Free Online Page B

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stare at him.
    “That is the wildest story...” said Philip’s
father.
    Philip took a breath and said, “And Mr. Greif
wants you to call him tomorrow.”
    “I guess he does,” said Philip’s mother. “And
I’ll give him a piece of my mind about this Johnny Visco.”
    Philip’s stomach flopped over.
    “No, Mom, you can’t do that,” he said. “It
would just make things worse. Anyway, how can I prove it?”
    “Let me take care of it, dear,” said Philip’s
father.
    Philip’s mother gave a loud sniff and left
the room.
    “Don’t mention Johnny Visco when you call,
Dad. Just say I won’t do it anymore.”
    “All right. But keep your eyes open. Don’t
get tricked again, okay?”
    “Absolutely.”
    ~ * ~
    “How did you do?” Emery asked the next
morning as he and Philip walked to school.
    “My mother wanted to call Mr. Greif and tell
him all about Johnny Visco.”
    “You didn’t let her, did you?”
    “No, no. My dad’s going to call and just say
I won’t do it again.”
    “My mom and dad just shook their heads and
said I’d have to take my punishment. You do your composition?”
    Philip nodded and the conversation died
out.
    Both Philip and Emery were in a quiet mood
when they took their seats in class. They did their work in silence
until nine-thirty when the teacher took the class to gym. That
class put the boys in a better mood as they ran around the
schoolyard and forgot about their problems for a little while.
Their good mood didn’t last long, however. Five minutes after they
returned to class, Mr. Greif walked into the room.
    The principal nodded to Ms. Louis and then
looked first at Philip, then at Emery.
    “You boys have something for me, I
believe?”
    Philip pulled his loose-leaf binder out of
his desk and flipped to the back section, where he’d stored his
composition about following the rules. He stared in shock at
nothing but a blank page with two smashed M & Ms on it. Where
was his composition? He turned through his loose-leaf notebook in a
panic. He looked over at Emery and felt that Johnny Visco chill
start at the back of his neck and trickle down his arms when he saw
Emery fumbling through the pages of his notebook, too.
    “Well?” said Mr. Greif.
    Philip felt the eyes of the entire class on
him. He pushed his notebook aside and began pulling books out of
his desk. Four more M & Ms clicked to the floor. And so he gave
up.
    “I can’t find it,” he said in a small
voice.
    “Emery?” said Mr. Greif.
    Emery shrugged and didn’t say a thing.
    “Come with me, the two of you, please.”
    Philip’s stomach crunched itself into the
size of an apple, and an ache the size of a pumpkin throbbed in his
throat, as he and Emery followed the principal down the stairs to
his office. Mr. Greif closed the door and took a seat behind his
desk.
    “You didn’t do the composition I asked you to
do?”
    “I did, but I can’t find it,” said
Philip.
    “Me, too,” Emery added.
    Mr. Greif rubbed his hands across his face
and said, “I don’t know what has gotten into you two. Hiding in the
third floor book closet. Defying my request for this composition.
We have rules in this school, and you’re going to have to follow
them. Neither of your parents has called yet. Did you tell them to
call?”
    “Yes,” said Philip.
    “Yes,” said Emery.
    “Well, go back upstairs and get your things
and then wait outside my office. Your parents will have to come and
pick you up. You’ll be suspended from school tomorrow as punishment
for this. The suspension will go on your permanent record. And you
will bring me that composition on Thursday, or you’ll be suspended
for three days instead of one.”
    Philip and Emery were shocked. Suspended from
school! Nobody ever got suspended from school. Except Johnny Visco.
Philip remembered that he’d been suspended from school in October
for stuffing rolls of toilet paper into the toilets in the boys’
bathroom on the third floor. Everybody in