Bending the Rules

Chapter 1 : NO Skating In The Lobby!

The lobby was cool and dark, like a vast cave, and her skates were fast as lightning on the marble. They made a good sound: snick, snick, snick.

As usual, the doorman was having a fit. Louie, this one's name was. A real nervous sort, tall and thin and jumpy. He raised a hand in her direction, just about to give her the usual lecture: No Skating in the Lobby.

"Oh, lighten up, Louie. No worries!" Tori shouted cheerfully in her Australian accent as she sped past him. She flew down over the three small steps and out the door.

And then there was glorious sunlight. Outside at last! Tori Burns threw her arms up to the blue sky and whooped for joy. New York City! She couldn't believe she was here. Her parents had thought that she would be better off halfway around the world from her native Australia. And they were right. Tori loved this huge, hustling, humming city. New York was an extreme place, and she was an extreme girl.

True, it wasn't much fun in Aunt Tessa's big, rambling old Greenwich Village apartment. Tess herself was no barrel of laughs. Her mouth was permanently turned down at the corners, there were deep downward-shooting lines there. She worked in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, painstakingly restoring old picture frames. She didn't fool around at home. There were so many rules there: Don't make too much noise. Don't stomp around the apartment. Don't sing too loudly while doing the dishes.

And above all, Do not ever, ever, ever go into the three rooms at the end of the long, shadowy hallway. Tori didn't know what was in there, and it was definitely not up for discussion with Aunt Tessa. All Tori knew was that she'd be sent home to Australia immediately if she ever opened one of the doors even a tiny crack. Of course, she was consumed by curiosity. What the big mystery?

Tori headed west for three blocks on Bank Street. Lost in thought as she sped toward school, she hung a left and skimmed down the bike path that ran next to Hudson River. Her yellow hair flew out behind her in two long ponytails. Her blue satin jacket was tied around her waist so she could move better.

The guy on the skateboard with pet monkey on his shoulder waved to her, as he did every morning when they passed each other. He was wearing leather short-shorts, as usual. She waved back, yelled "G'day, mate!" and grinned ─ this morning the monkey had a red lollipop.

Soon Tori came to a stop at the front steps of her school. She sat down and quickly changed into her high-tops. It really was an extra-beautiful day. She could see the Statue of Liberty very clearly. It was almost glowing in the strong sunlight. The water in the harbor sparkled.

Streams of kids were pouring into the Manhattan International High School for first period. A few of them waved to Tori as she laced up her sneakers. The Pants Boys, carrying their skateboards, mumbled something and she waved. Tori and her friends gave them that name because of the baggy pants they wore dangerously low on their rear ends. She couldn't remember which one was Evan and which one was Andy. Nobody could. But they were both really cute, in Tori's opinion.

There were so many kids here! Her old high school at home in Melbourne had about five hundred students; there were at least three thousand at M. I. H. What Tori liked best was that the students came in every size, shape, and color of the rainbow. The bad part was that she sometimes felt like a tiny, insignificant fish in a huge sea.

The good part was that it was so huge and diverse, anybody could find friends here. She'd only been here for three weeks, and already had some good mates ── Barbie Roberts, Chelsie Peterson, Lara Morelli-Strauss, Nichelle Watson, and Ana Suarez ── and she had hed eye on a few more prospects. Most of them were sophomores, tenth-graders like herself.

Inside the school it was a madhouse, as usual.

Everybody was crowded around the bottom of the escalator or running up the steps two at a time.

Since class started in five minutes, she'd have just enough time to check the loose tile on the fifth floor.

"Hi, Tori!"

Tori turned to see Barbie hurrying to catch up with her. "Whew!" panted Barbie. "I thought I was going to be late! There was some kind of tie-up on the subway, amd we just sat there in the dark for ten minutes. It was spooky. I don't think I'm ever going to get used to that feeling!"

Barbie wasn't a native New Yorker either. She came from California, and she wasn't yet used to this crazy town.

She was trying her best though. Barbie always looked for the best in everybody and everything, which was why Tori liked her. It was true that her style was about as different from Tori's as anyone's could be. Even so, there was just no way you could not love Barbie.

"Do you want to run up to the fifth floor with me?" Tori asked. "I have just enough time to check the tile before I get to English class. Then I'm on my way to French."

"Great, I'll come with you," said Barbie. "I'm on my way up to the fifth floor. I've got to go to history first period." She made a face. "Yuck"

"It's too bad you have Mr. Budge," said Tori.

"I know you'd like history more if you had a teacher who was fun."

"It's not him, it's me," said Barbie. "I'm just not very good at it."

"You can be good at it, I know," said Tori.

"You just need somebody to help you get excited about history. And Budge isn't the one."

Everybody in the school knew about Mr.Budge. He wasn't a mean teacher, he just didn't quite have both oars in the water.

He was very smart, but a complete nut for cleanliness. He did not like to be touched. All of his students and even the other teachers knew about his personal circle.

This was an imaginary circle that prohibited anybody from getting closer than two feet from him. If you get too close, he'd admonish, "Personal circle! Personal circle!"

In class he talked in a droning voice, writing dates on the board, and he didn't like to answer questions. Not the kind of teacher to get anybody fired up about history.

Tori and Barbie took the escalator to the fifth floor and scooted around the corner to quiet alcove where the loose floor tile was. Manhattan International High was a brand-new school, and a few things hadn't been finished before school began. Tori and Lara had discovered the loose tile in the second week. It was a perfect place for all of them to leave messages during the school day.

As far as they knew, they were the only ones who knew about the loose tile.

Tori wiggled the tile out of its place and looked underneath. There was a little scrap of paper there, and Tori recognized Lara's big, artistic handwritting right away. Tori, she'd written with a purple pen felt-tip pen, "Can you meet me at Eatz for lunch? I have to talk to you about something."

Eatz was the place where they all hung out when they had a free period. It was only a block from school. Tori thought the food was terrible, but the owners were very nice about letting swarms of boisterous high-school kids fill the booths.

Tori and Lara both had ended up with a ridiculous third-period lunch in their schedules. They often ate together. Third-period lunch meant they had to eat at 10:50 in the morning. So they were usually ravenous by the time they got home.

The crowds in the halls were thinning. Time run to class.

"See you later," Tori said. "Good luck with Budge today. Maybe he'll sparkle for a change."

"Maybe, said Barbie, always hoping for the best. Even though she didn't think there was much of a chance.

Tori thought about Lara's note as she bounded up the stairs to English.

What could Lara want to talk to her about?