Off the left side of the stage, the students have piled their book bags and backpacks onto one another, with a few jackets and coats tossed on top. With one eye on Bryan in case Zach decides to ditch him—please, Jesse prays, take a hike already, will you?—Jesse digs through the pile in search of his shoulder-style messenger bag. If he’s going to sulk in the shadows, at least he can get his Biology homework done at the same time. Might as well pour salt on the wound and rub it in good.
But when he pulls his bag out from the others, he finds the front flap unsnapped and raised a bit on one side. Cautiously, he pulls it open—it’d be just his luck if someone stole anything he had in there, such as the three pages of science definitions he’d already copied down in Study Hall. His hand aches to
