Hero–Type by Barry Lyga Page A

the porch. She shakes her head at me like I've done something wrong. I focus on my homework and then my speech.
    The sun goes down and the streetlights come on. I turn on the porch light and keep working.
    "How about that interview now?"
    Yow! I was so focused, I didn't hear anyone walking up to me. I look up and there's Reporter Guy, his hands in his pockets, standing at the foot of the porch steps.
    "Why would I talk to you after what you wrote in the
Loco
today?"
    He shrugs. "Don't you want your side to get out there?"
    Hell, I don't even know what my side
is.
"Like I trust you to report it."
    He looks offended. "Come on, Ross. It helps both of us. It's win-win."
    "I'm not helping you do anything."
    "Fine. You want to play hardball? We'll play hardball. How'd you like me to do a story in tomorrow's paper all about your dad and what
he
did when he was in the army? Hmm? Would you like that?"
    I freeze up. There's no way in the world I'm going to do an interview with this douchebag, but I can't just let him piss all over Dad, either. Can I?
    He grins. "Do you even
know
what your dad did? Do you?"
    And of course, I don't. Taboo. Forbidden.
Proscribed.
"Just get out of here," I tell him.
    "You don't, do you?" He laughs, and it's an ugly, ugly sound. "Well, maybe you should read tomorrow's paper."
    My body starts vibrating all on its own. I want to tackle him to the ground, give him a little bit of what the Surgeon got.
    But even I'm not that stupid.
    "Get out of here." My voice shakes with anger. "This is private property." I say it loud enough that Mrs. Mac can hear me through the window.
    Reporter Guy nods and starts to back away. "You had a chance, Ross." He throws me a weak, half-assed salute before disappearing.
    Now I'm rattled. He got to me. With Dad. He hit me where I didn't know it would hurt. But I'm also determined. I have Leah to impress and Reporter Guy to piss off. So I'd better be good.

Chapter 17
     

Support
    I WAKE UP AND GET READY FOR SCHOOL . Today is the big day. Today I'll make my stand. I never cared about ribbons or any of that before, but now it's like the biggest thing in my life. It's like my mission. I'll state my case in a way that people will understand. Once I point things out to them, once I show them how I'm thinking, they'll get it. They'll come around. They'll see what I see. It won't be a big deal anymore that I took those ribbons off my car, because people will understand my point of view.
    Last night, Flip made it sound like I would need an alibi for whatever he and the Council had planned. And now, on the way to school, I see why.
    About a jillion years ago, Brookdale started building a bridge on the outskirts of town. No one can tell me what the bridge was for, but it was never finished. There are still two giant iron supports out in the middle of a field, though, like tombstones for the
idea
of the bridge. You grow up in Brookdale and you hear "Don't you go playing around the bridge" (even though it's
not
a bridge) a million times, and then you go and do it anyway.
    Today one of the supports is
covered
with magnetic ribbons.
    I can see it from Route 54 on the way to school, and I actually have to pull over for a second. I'm not the only one—five or six other cars have pulled over, too.
    The support is almost completely obscured by the ribbons. There must be hundreds of them, thousands maybe. It's become a patchwork thing of red, white, blue, and yellow.
    All I can think is,
Where did Flip get all those ribbons?
He didn't have time to order them from somewhere, and that would be one hell of an expensive prank anyway...
    And then I see a car stopped ahead of me. The bumper is dusty and dirty ... except for a clean ribbon-shaped space.
    Oh, man!
    I hustle into my car before people realize a) who I am, and b) that their ribbons are missing, leading to c) the lynching of Kevin Ross.
     
    The prank was too late in the night for it to make the morning newspaper, but apparently it's on TV and