The Internet Escapade by Joan Lowery Nixon Page A

smiling a little when he remembered how confused know-it-all Debbie Jean had looked.
    Mrs. Harrison didn’t smile back. “I certainly don’t have to ask where you came up with this idea,” she said crossly. “Ever since the students from the junior high computer club began coming here as volunteers, you two have tried every computer trick the older students brag about. Well, this time you both go straight to the principal’s office. We’ll see what Mr. Burns has to say about this.”
    “Yes, Mrs. Harrison,” Sean answered. He felt sick in the pit of his stomach. The trick had been so much fun that he hadn’t thought about what might happen if he and Matt were caught. He looked at Matt. Matt looked as if he didn’t feel very well either.
    What was Mr. Burns going to do?

2

    S EAN AND MATT SQUIRMED in the two large visitors’ chairs in the principal’s office, while Mr. Burns stared down at them from his height of six feet, two inches. Straining to look up that far made Sean’s neck ache. Mr. Burns was usually a smiling, friendly principal, but at the moment he wasn’t smiling and he didn’t seem very friendly.
    “Just because there are pranksters in the junior high’s computer club, it doesn’t mean you have to copy them,” Mr. Burns said. “Mrs. Harrison was quite upset last week when you played—what was it—oh, yes, Color Nuts on the computers.”
    “That program didn’t hurt anybody,” Matt said. “It just kept changing the monitors’ background colors every few seconds.”
    Mr. Burns didn’t smile. He frowned at Sean and Matt. “How about when you set up a computer to read, ‘for more information press control, alt, delete’? What’s funny about that?”
    “Uh, we thought it was funny when some of the kids from the computer club did it,” Matt answered.
    “Unfortunately, our Redoaks Elementary students working on the computers didn’t think so, since the command turned off their computers and they lost all their work,” Mr. Burns said. “I hope you give some thought to the students you tricked today and either apologize or make it up to them by some act of kindness. I’ll give you a few days. Then I’ll expect you to report that the matter has been taken care of.”
    As Matt and Sean left the office, Sean made a face. “I can’t apologize to Debbie Jean. It will make me barf.” He suddenly stopped complaining and began to smile. “ ’Course, if she happens to get in the way …”
    The bell rang, and a door flew open. Sean and Matt had to jump out of the path of a trampling herd of first graders.
    Charlie careened into Sean and tugged at his sleeve. His eyes shining, Charlie said, “Sean! Guess what? I got the magic computer!”
    “Charlie, there isn’t—” Sean began, but Charlie interrupted.
    “Yes, there is, and it gave me three wishes. They’re secret, so don’t ask what they are because I can’t tell you or they won’t come true.”
    As Charlie ran to catch up with his class, he shouted back over his shoulder, “But I can tell everybody I’m going to get my wishes!”
    “What are we going to do about making it up to Charlie?” Sean asked.
    “What Mr. Burns said. Tell Charlie what we did and apologize.”
    “We can’t do that,” Sean said. “Didn’t you see how excited he was?” He thought a moment, then said, “Since he lives next door to me, it’ll be easy to make his first wish come true. I’ll get a big candy bar and hide it on his pillow, under the bedspread.”
    Matt frowned. “A candy bar’s no problem. But where are we going to come up with enough money to get him his second wish—a new bike?”
    “Uh, yeah. We’ll have to think about it, and about the monster, too.” Sean groaned.
    “I know where we can get a monster,” Matt said. “We could buy a big ugly squid at the fish market and put it under Sam’s bed!”
    Sean chuckled, but he said, “It won’t work. Think how the squid would stink. Mrs. Miyako would be mad at us for the