داستان لوری

CHAPTER 8 - Laurie’s Story

Laurie went to see Amy. She showed her the story about the Wave in the new Grapevine.

Amy began to read the story. When she finished she turned to Laurie. She was not happy. ‘You can’t say these things about the Wave, Laurie,’ she said.

‘They’re true, Amy,’ said Laurie.

‘No, Laurie,’ said Amy. ‘I don’t believe that. I think you don’t like the Wave because of your fight with David.’ ‘That’s not true!’ said Laurie. ‘The Wave is doing very bad things to this school. Read what it says in our story.’ ‘I believe in the Wave,’ said Amy. ‘I believe that we’re all a team. I want us to work together. You don’t like it because you think you’re better than us.’

‘But Amy —’

‘I must go,’ said Amy. ‘My lesson starts soon.’ Laurie felt very sad and very angry. Amy was her best friend.

But now Amy walked away from Laurie, too.

♦

Hen Ross read Laurie’s story about the Wave in The Grapevine.

He was very surprised.

When school finished Christy came to Ben’s room. ‘Are you OK, Ben?’ she asked.

Ben looked up from The Grapevine. ‘I don’t like this,’ he said.

‘Something is going wrong. I never wanted the students to fight about the Wave.’

‘I’m hearing bad things too, Ben’ said Christy. ‘Many of the other teachers don’t like your experiment.’ Ben walked to the window and looked out. Some students saw him. They gave Wave salutes. Ben turned to Christy, ‘Most of the students believe in the Wave,’ he said.

Christy did not think that was a good thing. But she stayed quiet.

♦

David Collins read The Grapevine with his friends. His face was sad. ‘I don’t understand Laurie. Why does she write these things about the Wave?’ he asked.

Robert stood next to David. He was very angry. ‘They aren’t true!’ he said. ‘Somebody must stop her writing about us.’ ‘It’s not important,’ David told him.

‘Yes, it is important,’ Robert said. ‘People will believe what they read.’

i tried to talk to her,’ Amy said. ‘But she doesn’t want to listen to us.’

‘We can’t stop Laurie writing about us,’ David said. ‘But we can show everybody that she’s wrong! We can show people all the good things about the Wave.’

‘But people are going to see Principal Owens in his office, too,’ said Brian. ‘They want to stop the Wave. Can you believe that?’ ‘We must stop Laurie Saunders,’ said Robert.

‘Don’t worry, Robert,’ said Brian. ‘David and I will go and see Laurie.’

‘But I don’t think -‘

David felt Brian’s hand on his arm. ‘You’re the best person to talk to her, David,’ he said.

‘Yes, but why does Robert say those things about Laurie? I don’t like it!’

‘Dave, Laurie is trying to stop the Wave,’ said Brian. ‘You must talk to her. She’ll listen to you.’ David did not know what to do. The Wave was important to him. But so was Laurie. ‘Do you think that she’ll listen to me, Brian?’

‘You’re the only person she will listen to!’ said Brian. ‘We’ll wait for her after school tonight. Then you can go and talk to her.’