I showed up for school the next day even though every cell in my body just wanted to stay in bed and mope. I skipped my morning HughTube intro and slipped inside unobtrusively with Simon.
"So you got caught peeping," Simon said matter-of-factly.
"I wasn't peeping!" I insisted, glancing around to make sure no one was listening.
"I know, I know," Simon said. "And Molly knows. It was a misunderstanding."
"But I came off as weak and loser-y," I grumbled.
"Oh, come on, you're still in."
"That's another thing. I was never 'in'. Molly doesn't want to hang out with me – she really is just into the campaign."
"Gee," said Simon, a bit disappointed, "I thought you were in."
Simon and I arrived at our lockers... but just then I noticed something down the hall. I stopped spinning my combination lock. "What...?" Simon looked up too. All down the hall, Trey's and Tanya's posters were defaced. They'd been painted over, ripped, and some were even pulled down.
"Who did this?" I asked.
"It's not just Trey's posters," Simon noticed. "It's Tanya's too."
Then I realized: "MY posters!!" Simon and I ran down the hall to one of my posters... which was totally fine. No marks or rips at all. We checked out the other ones too. "They're... totally fine." I thought for a moment and turned to Simon. "You think they ripped up each other's posters?"
As the two of us just stood there wondering, we started to notice some students walking by, giving me sour looks and mumbling to each other. Then Simon's eyes bugged out as he got a troubling idea. "Wait a minute... since your posters were the only ones not torn up..."
"...Everybody thinks it was me!" That was great. Just great. And I had the debate that afternoon! You know, HughTube was cool and all, but I hoped that next time I'd invent something that would identify my mistakes before I made them!
I decided to take the rest of the morning off. I headed back home, leaving Simon to explain my absence to my teachers and Principal Townsend who would no doubt miss his morning on-camera dance routine.
Would I be back for the afternoon's debate? Chances weren't looking good.
YOU ARE READING
HughTube
Humor14-year-old Hugh Hollenbeck doesn't get it. What doesn't he get? Just about everything. That's why he walks around with a little camera attached to his glasses that records his entire life. Then he watches it all later to try to figure out the thing...
