The Internet Escapade by Joan Lowery Nixon Page B

next hundred years, and she’d call our mothers, and—”
    “Okay. No squid,” Matt agreed.
    During the last hour of school and all the way home, Sean tried to think of some way to fill Charlie’s order for a bicycle, but he couldn’t come up with a single good idea. However, as Sean entered the kitchen and flopped into a seat at the table, he saw that a package had arrived. It was from Grandma, who was on a spring cruise in Alaska. And the package had his and his brother’s names on the label.
    Immediately feeling better, Sean tore open the box and ripped the paper off his package. He laughed as he pulled out a pair of bedroom slippers that were designed to look like huge, fuzzy bear paws, complete with yellow, curved claws.
    “Cool!” Sean said.
    Sean’s brother, Brian, didn’t get home from school until just a few minutes before Mrs. Quinn arrived home from her job at the advertising agency. Brian laughed at Sean’s slippers and admired the hand-carved totem-pole key chain Grandma had sent him. But his mind was on something more important.
    “I’ve got some really great news,” Brian said. “I won the Top Student of the Month award at school.” Out of his backpack he pulled a certificate signed by the Redoaks Junior High principal and a fistful of coupons, which he tossed on the table.
    Mrs. Quinn hugged Brian, saying, “Oh, Brian, I’m so proud of you! What a wonderful award!”
    But Sean took one look at the coupons and yelled, “Bri, free ice cream and a free hamburger! And look! You’ve got free coupons for Monstermadness!”
    “Two of them,” Brian said. “How about coming with me?”
    “Wow!” Sean said. “When?”
    “How about Friday?”
    “Sure. That’s great.” With a rush of gratitude toward his big brother, Sean added, “It’s real cool of you to share them with me.”
    Brian turned to Mrs. Quinn. “I wish Dad wasn’t away on a business trip so I could tell him my news,” he said.
    Mrs. Quinn smiled and hugged Brian again. “Why don’t you telephone him tonight?” she asked.
    She reached out another arm for Sean and drew him close. “How about you, Sean? Do you have any good news for your dad?”
    Sean’s stomach felt weird again. He took a deep breath and answered, “Well … um … nothing special. I’ll just say hello to Dad. That’s all.”
    While Brian tackled homework and Mrs. Quinn cooked dinner, Sean decided to use his dad’s computer to play one of the games. To his surprise he found an E-mail message addressed to Sean Quinn: YOU GOT YOURSELF IN TROUBLE TODAY. YOU HAD TO GO TO THE PRINCIPAL’S OFFICE. YOU AND MATT WON’T BE THE ONLY ONES IN TROUBLE FOR LONG. TOMORROW MR. BURNS IS GOING TO HAVE PROBLEMS OF HIS OWN .
    “Uh-oh,” Sean whispered. He looked to both sides, as if whoever wrote the E-mail was staring at him. How did this person know that I went to Mr. Burns’s office? Sean wondered. What does it mean about the principal having problems? And what does that have to do with me?
    Creepy!

3

    S EAN RAN UP TO Brian’s bedroom and said, “C’mon, quick! There’s something on the computer you have to see!”
    Brian trotted down the stairs after Sean and followed him to the computer. Brian took one look and said, “E-mail? To you?”
    “Read it,” Sean said.
    Brian did, then turned to Sean. “What kind of trouble did you get into?”
    “Not so loud,” Sean said nervously. “Mom might hear.”
    Brian lowered his voice, but he said, “How can I help you, if I don’t know what’s going on?”
    “Okay,” Sean said. “Remember when Dennis Taylor told us how he switched the hookup on two computers, so what people wrote ended up on each other’s screens? Well, that’s what Matt and I did, only some people don’t have a very good sense of humor and we got sent to Mr. Burns’s office. Someone who knows about it wrote this E-mail letter, but I don’t know who it’s from.”
    “It’s easy to find out,” Brian said. “We’ll check the