فصل پنجم

chapter-5

“You guys?”

Miguel was waiting for Kyle, Akimi, and Sierra when they walked through the school’s front doors.

“You have got to see what I found!” He led them down the hall to the library. Miguel Fernandez was super enthusiastic about everything, especially libraries. That’s why he’d been president of the Library Aide Society for three years straight.

“What is it?” asked Kyle as they entered the media center. “A new Dewey decimal number or something?” “No. A whole bunch of book lovers all across America who don’t like us.” “What?” said Akimi. “What’s not to like? We’re very likable people.” “They’re wondering how come they didn’t get to play Mr. Lemoncello’s library game.” “Um, because they don’t live here in Alexandriaville?” said Akimi.

“Only seventh graders at this school were eligible to enter the essay contest to win a spot at the library lock-in,” added Sierra.

For the first twelve years of the Alexandriaville seventh graders’ lives, school media centers were the only libraries they had ever known. The old public library, the one Mr. Lemoncello had loved when he was a boy growing up in the small Ohio town, had been bulldozed to make way for a multilevel concrete parking structure.

“They just wish they could be us,” said Kyle. “You can’t really blame ‘em.” “It’s worse,” said Miguel. “They think they could’ve beaten us.” Miguel waved for his friends to follow him to the rows of computer terminals.

“I was Googling us again this morning, and all these blogs and posts started popping up. None of them are very nice.” “Greetings, heroes!” called Mrs. Yunghans, the middle school librarian, who absolutely loved having the most famous library card holders in America checking out books in her library. “Don’t believe all those nasty things people are writing about you kids on the Web. They’re just jealous.” Kyle and his teammates huddled around a monitor while Miguel clacked the keyboard.

“Check it out.”

They scrolled through the top search results for “Escape from Mr. Lemoncello’s Library.” “It took them a whole day to find their way out of the library?” wrote one blogger.

“I could’ve done it in half a day,” commented another.

“I demand a rematch,” said more.

“This isn’t fair, Mr. Lemoncello.”

“We demand a chance!”

“Put us in that library. We could beat Team Kyle with one 612.97 tied behind our back.” “That’s the closest Dewey decimal number for hand,” explained Miguel. “Actually, it refers to regional physiology of the upper extremities.” “Wow,” said Kyle. “What a bunch of library nerds.” Miguel cleared his throat, prompting Kyle to quickly add, “Not that there’s anything wrong with that.” “Ouch,” said Akimi. “Listen to this one.”

She clicked open a post with even the subject line screaming in all caps.

“ ’KEELEY’S TEAM ONLY WON BECAUSE THEY CHEATED!’ ” she read aloud. “ ’MR. LEMONCELLO IS BLATANTLY LYING TO THE WORLD ABOUT WHAT REALLY HAPPENED ON THAT DREADFUL, GHASTLY, AND ABOMINABLE DAY LAST SUMMER. HE SHOULD BE TARRED AND FEATHERED AND RUN OUT OF TOWN ON A RAIL.’ ” “That’s horrible,” said Sierra.

“Of course it is,” said Akimi. “Look who wrote it.” She pointed to the semi-anonymous signature: “C.C.” Charles Chiltington.