Margaret Haddix: Among the Imposters

But what good had all her hacking done?

“Earth to Lee,” Jason was saying. “Or whatever your name is. You should know, your schedule really doesn’t matter. I can change all your grades on the computer, anyhow.”

But after breakfast, Luke determinedly marched off to his first class, listened closely, and took detailed notes. By the end of the hour, he knew something he’d never known before: Prime numbers could be divided only by themselves and one.

In his second class, he boldly grabbed a textbook off the bookshelf and read the poem whose page number the teacher had written on the board. He could even make sense of the fancy language — two people were friends, and one of them died, and the other one felt sad.

Luke figured he had an unfair advantage, understanding that.

In science and technology class, the teacher was talking about gasoline motors. Luke could just picture one, all grease-covered, in Father’s tractor. And now he knew how they worked.

By lunchtime, Luke was ready to brag to Jason, “I am learning something now.” He was even confident enough to tease, ~Maybe I won’t need your help with my grades.”

— You’re going to learn a whole term’s worth in just a week?” jackal boy mocked. “Right. Next week, Friday, at five o’clock, you’ll come begging, ‘Please, please, I need help! I’ll do anything!”’

Luke only set his jaw and pulled out a book to study.

By the end of the week, all the teachers had test dates written in chalk on their blackboards. And Luke was spending every spare moment studying.

“Why?” Trey asked him one night as they were trudging out to the woods. “Jason can fix your grades. And it’s not like your real parents are going to see them, anyway.”

“When you were stuck in your room,” Luke said, “didn’t you ever want to know anything about the outside world? About whether other people were like you, or different, or whether grass grows the same way all over the world, or how a car runs?~

“Not really,~ They said.

Luke was sorry that he couldn’t explain. It wasn’t the grades themselves that mattered to him. But he felt like he had something to prove. Maybe that people from the country — leckers-weren’t so dumb, after all. Maybe that Jen’s dad hadn’t risked his life for nothing, getting Luke a fake identity. Maybe that Luke wasn’t wasting time just hanging out in the woods making jokes with the girls from Harlow while other third children still had to hide.

He was surprised that, with each day that passed, his classes made more sense to him. The teachers weren’t really that bad, just distant. The history teacher, Mr. Dirk, could tell fascinating stories about kings and knights and battles, and they were all true. The literature teacher could recite whole poems from memory. Luke didn’t always understand all the words, but he liked the cadence and rhyme. The math teacher said once, ‘Aren’t numbers friendly?” and he really seemed to believe it. Luke wondered if the teachers were shy, too — if they had some of those phobias Trey and Jason had talked about, and were downright terrified of looking their students straight in the eye.

The night before his first test, Luke studied through dinner, and skipped going to the woods with all the others during Indoctrination so he could hunch over in a hallway, reading history Jason mocked him—”What are you trying to do, bookworm? Learn as many big words as Trey?” and, “You could read all night and still not pass your tests. Come on.”

“Leave me alone,” Luke growled, eager to get back to the 3frojan War.

Luke was surprised that Jason stepped back instead of insisting.

“Fine,” he said. “Waste your time. See if I care.”

The words sounded like the swaggering boy Luke was used to. But his tone seemed to say something else. So did the set of his shoulders as he walked away. He sounded wary, on edge.

Could Jason possibly be scared of Luke?

Luke was nobody Jason was in charge. Luke decided he was imagining things, and went back to his book.

Still, after lights out, Luke couldn’t sleep. He was too unsettled — worried about the test the next day, wondering what his family was doing back home, wishing Jen were there to figure out Jason for him. He even thought back to the advice Jen’s dad had written for Luke: “Blend in.” Who was Luke supposed to blend in with? The boys who trudged blindly through the halls each day? The ones who followed Jason? Or Jason himself?

Somewhere in the room, a bed creaked.

Luke thought it was just someone turning over in his sleep but he stiffened anyway, and listened hard.

There was a pat-pat-pat that could have been footsteps, or could have been Luke’s imagination. And then, the hall light shone briefly into the room as the door was opened and closed.

Luke sat up. He crept over to the door and opened it a crack so he’d have light to see by.

All the beds were filled with sleeping boys except two. Luke’s.

And Jason’s.

Luke took time to grab one of his textbooks so he’d have an excuse if someone caught him out of his room after lights out. “1 only wanted to study some more,” he could say. “I’m worried about my tests.”

But the only person who might catch him was Jason.

Out in the dimly lit hall Luke looked back and forth, not sure which way to go. Probably Jason had only needed to go to the bathroom, and Luke was foolish to follow him. Luke headed toward the bathroom first.

Why didn’t I think to go to the bathroom after lights out, back when I was trying to find a place to read my note? Luke wondered. But Luke had been too terrified back then to think like that. He wouldn’t have dared leave his bed. He had actually blended in quite well. And if I’d read the note right away, I wouldn’t have discovered the door to outdoors or the woods. I wouldn’t have had those few days of setting up my garden. He still missed his garden. He tried not to think about it. And I never would have gotten to know anybody.

But how well did he know his new friends? The only friend he’d ever had before was Jen, and that friendship had been entirely different.

It wasn’t fair to compare.

He sneaked quietly down the hall, feeling foolish. Of course Jason would be in the bathroom, and he’d only have rude comments and mockery for Luke when he saw him. “Can’t even pee without your books, huh?” maybe, or even, “Hey, lecker, we’ve got toilet paper here and everything. You won’t need to use that.”

The bathroom was empty.

Luke backtracked, and glanced in his room again. Jason’s bed was still empty. Luke went the opposite direction from the bathroom. All that lay down this hallway was the back stairs.

Maybe Luke wouldn’t look for Jason anymore. What did he think he was going to do when he found him? But Luke was so thoroughly awake now that he decided he might as well study. The details of the Trojan War and the Peloponnesian War were blurring in his mind.

He went over to the stairwell and sat down on the top step. He leaned against the wall, opened his book, and began reading. “The Greeks fought battles for—”

Far below Luke, someone was murmuring.

Luke sat still for a minute, tempted to ignore it. It probably was Jason, but so what? If he was having a secret meeting without Luke, why should Luke care? It wasn’t Like Jason’s gang ever planned anything real, anyway.

But Luke did care. If Jason’s gang was going to help third children, Luke owed it to himself — to his family, to Jen, to Jen’s dad — to take part.

Luke eased down to the next step. And the next. And the next. He kept clutching his book because he didn’t want to make any noise putting it down. Yet he wondered if he should be making noise, acting normal, so he could come upon the secret meeting casually, “Oh, hi, guys— didn’t know you were down here. Can I help?”