DURING ENGLISH CLASS, Eric worked with Jessica to make Buck suffer as much as possible in 50 minutes. When Mr. Gallagher had his back turned, they blew spitballs at his head, placed fake (and real) spiders in his backpack, and whispered insults at his back. At one point during Mr. Gallagher’s sleep-inducing lecture on the themes in Great Expectations, Eric got up to go to the restroom and couldn’t resist the urge to say a threat to Timothy under his breath: “Bother Hilarie again, and I’ll throw your scrawny a*s on the ground.”
At the end of class, Eric and Jessica had to hold back laughter when Timothy screamed at a spider falling out of his book-bag.
“You guys are so immature,” Hilarie muttered. But Eric could detect a hint of a smile when she spoke the words.
Fourth period, Eric had P
