Mr. Lee was
an Asian-American with a Texan drawl. The first time he spoke with Jackie she
thought he was putting on an act for the newly recruited newsie. It hadn’t
helped that, as usual, he tried to relate to the students in their own
language. She still hadn’t figured out how a person devoted to one of the
fields of communication could epically fail in the use of teen slang.
“I don’t
want you to think of this as a heroic loss,” said Mr Lee, placing a hand on
Jackie’s shoulder.
“Or even an
epic failure,” Jackie responded
automatically.
“Exactly!
After three years as a school reporter you are no nub.”
She guessed
he meant noob, but didn’t feel like correcting him again. Besides, it might
have just been a matter of his accent getting in the way. Sometimes you
couldn’t tell with Mr. Lee.
“Principal Skinner has asked me to
confiscate your press badge, so to speak. I don’t exactly know what it is you
said to him that’s got his undies in a bunch, but I doubt that it requires such
drastic measures.”
“Whew,”
Jackie blew out her relief. “I’m glad to hear that.”
“However,
-”
Uh-oh.
There it was. The dreaded However. It
warned you that something crappy was about to happen. Then you had to wait for
the bad news. And Mr. Lee tended to give you plenty of time to ponder what was
coming.
With a
frown, he announced, “I can’t let you finish the story you were working on.
You’ll have to drop the whole war on drugs thing. Until you can come up with a
different topic to write about you can take over the Dear Lippy column.”
“Ashlee
Rodgers writes that!”
“She
decided that she needed a break from journalism for awhile.”
“That
wouldn’t have anything to do with her calling Ramona Cruz a “hormone-driven
bleacher predator” would it?”
“Sorry.”
Mr. Lee stopped for a moment as he tried to suppress a chuckle. “I’m not at
liberty to divulge any information on that subject. Although, I think that the
recent breakage of her nose might have something to do with it.”
“Couldn’t
you get someone else do Dear Lippy?”
“Probably.
I’m sure a couple of the writers would sink their teeth into an opportunity
like this. They could let slip the embarrassing moments of their fellow
students and claim that it was news-worthy. I know you wouldn’t use your
position as a reporter to settle a personal score. I can trust you.”
Trust! Mr.
Lee was really dropping the power words today. Adults talked about trust
whenever they wanted to guilt kids into doing something. Parents used it all
the time. The worst was when the teachers you liked employed it. Then it really
had power.
“Alright.”
Jackie heard herself say the words, but had a hard time committing herself to
actually doing it. Dear Lippy was junk reporting. No self-respecting news hound
would admit to ever having written the near-gossip column.
“What about
the real news?” she asked. “Will I still be able to contribute some news
items?”
“Sure.” Mr.
Lee patted her on the shoulder and then returned to desk. “You can be Lippy
until Principal Skinner has forgotten about the interview and then I can move
you back to a news desk.”
“How long
will that take?”
“I couldn’t
tell you for sure. It’ll be awhile, I suspect.”
“A month?
Longer?”
Mr. Lee
stood up and guided her toward the exit. “Stay out of trouble for now and I’ll
get you back into the journalist chair as soon as I can. Do not pursue the
story about the drug war on campus. You can practice your reporting skills on
something else, but leave that one alone.”
The door
shut, leaving Jackie alone in the corridor.
That wasn’t
exactly how she thought the meeting would go. She probably should be happy that
she was still a reporter. Well, sort of anyways. But it continued to bother her
that Principal Skinner had used influence to remove her from the position she
had worked so hard to obtain. Weren’t there rules against inhibiting the press?
Jackie took
a deep breath and accepted her demotion to Dear Lippy. She headed over to the
computer lab with the intent of finding Ashlee and collecting any notes she had
for the column.
Not wanting
to talk to anyone right at that moment, she took an indirect path to the lab;
one that went around the football field and through the bleachers. She had just
crossed the field and was about to enter the bleachers on the far side when she
spotted two men behind the sports shed. Her reporting instincts tingled at the
sight of them.
Jackie
ducked behind the bleachers and peered out from the gap between the benches. It
wasn’t two men; it was a man and a teen. The student had on a Varsity sweater,
but his back was turned so she couldn’t tell who it was. On the other hand, she
had a very clear view of the man.
She pulled
out her trusty notepad and jotted down a detailed description of the adult.
Short. Medium build. Dark hair with the beginning of a bald spot on top. He
wore tan slacks and a blue, long-sleeved dress shirt. No tie.
Her
sketching skills were reasonably poor, but she decided that as long as they
were going to stand their and pose that she might as well give it a try. She
had barely started the sketch when the man held out a black sports bag. The
teen took the bag and opened it. After a couple of seconds he nodded and then
pulled out a stack of cash. At least, that’s what it looked like from where
Jackie stood.
A drug deal.
Jackie’s
mind swirled with all the possibilities of what she had seen. This could be the
first real evidence of an organized drug distribution ring at the school. The
jocks could be the ones pedaling the garbage to the other students. Since she
already knew the location of their hand-offs it would be easy to follow up with
more evidence. And most importantly – this would prove how right she had been
to pursue the war on drugs story in the first place.
. . . But
she was supposed to leave it alone. What should she do?
This is the
first decision tree for the readers. Should Jackie . . .
A) Report her findings to Principal Skinner.
B) Tell Daniel and get his advice.
C) Write a Dear Lippy column that exposes the drug ring.
D) Follow the student and see who else is involved.
E) Follow the man and get more information.
