Don't Care High by Gordon Korman

‘subject’ in your exam booklet?”
    Dick looked completely blank.
    â€œThis is English,” Miss Vlorque went on. “Shakespeare.”
    â€œYou’re kidding!”
    Miss Vlorque blew up. “How could anyone possibly mistake this for a cooking class? Do you see cooking equipment anywhere? Have we cooked anything?”
    â€œYeah, but I thought this was… you know… theory.”
    â€œIf you didn’t even know what course this was, how could you have done so well? You got a ninety-five!”
    Dick shrugged. “I studied.”
    Miss Vlorque buried her face in her hands. “Tell me this isn’t happening! This is a joke, right?”
    Dick thought it over. “Do you think I could stay in this class for the rest of the term? I mean, cooking class has probably started without me, and I seem to be good at this.”
    â€œDo what you like!” she moaned. “Just go and sit down!”
    â€œMan!” Dick muttered to Sheldon and Paul as he headed for his desk. “I should have known right off when there wasn’t any stove that something was wrong. But, you know, you cut a few classes, come late a couple of times, maybe you don’t pay attention so hot in the first place — it all gets by you. You know — Hamlet, omelet. It’s all so similar.”
    Sheldon and Paul exchanged agonized glances.
    â€œNo sense staying here,” said Sheldon in a strangled voice. “We’d only get kicked out anyway.”
    The two burst out laughing and ran for the door. They found a nice dry place to hide where they could chuckle themselves out. They had regained their collective composure in time to share Wayne-o’s big entrance into English class about twenty minutes later.
    Paul made his first stab into the world of politics in chemistry class. He looked way up into the exquisite countenance of Daphne Sylvester and said, “So what do you think of all the great things Mike Otis, our student body president, has been doing lately?”
    â€œWho?”
    â€œHe’s the guy who fixed the can,” called Wayne-o from across the lab.
    Another voice rang out. “Hey, someone told me today that that guy Mike cares.”
    A hum waxed and waned.
    Paul turned triumphant eyes back to Daphne. She draped her gorgeous frame over the lab stool and motioned for him to begin the day’s experiment.
    Undaunted, Paul forged on. Working shoulder to shoulder with Sheldon, he helped spread the word of Mike Otis all through the halls of Don Carey High School. Even the most dubious and disinterested had to sit up and take notice when, on Wednesday, an emergency roofing crew arrived, just as Sheldon and Paul had predicted. In fact this was due to an area of roof that had caved in under the weight of water, completely demolishing Mr. Willis’s fourth floor office. Sheldon called it “the school board giving in to Mike Otis’s reasonable demands.” Peter Eversleigh called it conceptual. Wayne-o called it another great achievement by the guy who fixed the can.
    â€œWell,” said Paul on Friday after school, “I don’t know if all those Don’t Care students appreciate Mike Otis, but I can sure say that by this time they’ve all heard about him.”
    The two boys sat in Sheldon’s room listening to Flash Flood.
    â€œWelcome to Day Five of the Universal Deluge. This is Flash Flood reporting that there are flash floods in various underpasses, subways and basements. If you’re on the road right now, you’re not going to get home until midnight. Tonight’s forecast is wet. It’s four forty-five in the greatest city in the world, where nothing is dependable, and the only thing you can rely on is the fact that I will be here at Stereo 99 with all the music you’re ever going to need.”
    Sheldon yawned hugely. “It’s almost hard to believe — not only does