The Year They Burned the Books

“So,” said Matt after school, when Jamie, Terry, Tessa, Nomi, Jack, and Cindy found him cleaning out his desk in the newspaper office. “What’s your strategy?”

Jamie glanced at the others, none of whom seemed to have anything to say. “I don’t know yet.” She tried to pull herself together. “But I guess we’ll go on with the Renegade. Expand it, maybe.”

“And I guess,” said Terry, “since we’re not afraid of opinion, that we need to do whatever we can to get Mrs. Buel out and Nomi’s mother in.”

“There’s one other person whose term is up,” Matt said. His voice was muffled; he was bent over, rummaging in a bottom drawer. “Helen Rush. She’s an FTV member and she’s running again.”

“Anyone know who’s running against her?” Jack asked.

“My dad,” Tessa told them, grinning. “He was really mad about that meeting, and he’s on our side.”

Cindy grinned back. “So the Renegade needs to—what’s it called? Support?”

“Endorse,” Matt said, straightening up.

“Yeah, that’s it. We need to endorse Mrs. Pembar and Mr. Gillespie.” She looked hopefully at Matt. “I don’t suppose you can help any, right?”

“Right. I wish I could. I’ll reapply for the Telegraph job after the March election. But meanwhile, I can’t violate the school committee’s decision. Besides, gang, you really don’t need me. You may need more staff, though, I think, if you’re going to do a really thorough job …”

“I’ll help,” Nomi said, “now that the Telegraph’s gone and if the Renegade expands.” She smiled at Jamie. “As long as we can publish more than one side of things as the Telegraph did, and as long as we can agree to disagree.”

“You bet!” Jamie said, giving her a quick hug across the shoulders. “Especially in an expanded paper.”

“I’ve got a friend,” Jack said, “who does great cartoons, plus he’s not bad as a writer either.”

“And there’s a girl in my English class,” Cindy put in, “who does really good objective essays.”

“Great,” Jamie said. “Are you sure they’ll all be willing?”

Cindy and Jack exchanged a glance. “Sure,” Jack said.

“After all,” Cindy added, “we juniors need more training if we’re going to run next year’s official paper.”

Matt saluted them as he went out the door, carrying a canvas bag of his belongings. “Good luck,” he said. “I know you’re all going to be just fine.”