Disruption Read Online Free PDF

nearby. They looked like just a regular bunch of kids, except for the overly serious expressions. There were small scrawny kids, and there were fat kids, and kids who looked like jocks, but most of them just looked like average, everyday kids like me. If they did call my name, I really hoped it would turn out that we’d be doing a sport I was good at, like soccer or baseball.
    “When I call the names of this year’s Deltas, you are to present front and center,” Mr. Smith continued in his marching-order tone. “When all Deltas have been named, team selection will begin.” He turned and said something to the adults behind him.
    “They’re not going to tell us what sport we’re playing?” I whispered.
    Rylee swatted my arm. “Shut up, and stop trying to be funny. You sound stupid.”
    I grimaced—I wasn’t trying to be. That’s when it hit me, and I suddenly felt like an idiot. We were standing on a soccer field. Maybe Camp Friendship was some kind of super-serious soccer camp or something. I should have realized that as soon as I saw the field. I smiled as a wave of relief washed over me. Soccer I could do. It might even be fun. I glanced at the kids around me again, hoping to spot a few I’d like to use on my team—if they did call me up as a Delta. But as I looked around, I was struck yet again by how average most of the campers were.
    Soccer camps were for jocks. The kid to my right was shorter than me and had to be about two hundred pounds. I bet if they searched his pockets they’d find a dozen Twinkies . . . or at least a dozen wrappers. Plus, on the bus Rylee had said she had a team all sorted out, and that the computer geek from the bus had been on it. He did not look like a soccer player either.
    No. It had to be something else. My stomach flipped. Maybe they wouldn’t call me.
    Mr. Smith finished speaking with the other adults and now faced the campers, looking down at his clipboard. He glanced up, paused for a beat, and said, “Team Octopus will be led by . . . Dexter Miller.”
    “Octopus?” If I hadn’t been so nervous, I probably would have laughed.
    “All kids’ camps have cutesy names for teams,” Rylee whispered. “It would be a pretty big red flag if the names were more appropriate, don’t you think?”
    “Yeah,” I said, doing my best to mask my confusion, “sure would. Total red flag.” Total red flag for what , I had no clue.
    “Not a big surprise they’d pick him to be a Delta,” Rylee said. “Dexter has won a number of smaller competitions in lower-level camps on the east coast.”
    Dexter was a tall, dark-skinned boy of about sixteen or seventeen. He pushed out of the crowd and stood to the right of Mr. Smith. His expression was about as friendly as a cobra’s.
    “For Team Hyena,” Mr. Smith said next, “Becca Plain.”
    Rylee groaned. “I hate her. She better not pick me.”
    Becca Plain looked about the same age as me and had short red hair and a small pointy nose that made her face look very serious. She scanned the crowd when she took her position at the front, and I could actually feel her gaze as she sized up people in the crowd. She was at least a foot shorter than Dexter but looked mean and tough.
    “For Team Squirrel,” Smith said, “Chase Erickson.”
    I tensed at the name and noticed a couple kids around me do the same. Chase strolled up to the front, smiling like he didn’t have a care in the world. He nodded at a few kids in the crowd, and then his gaze flicked straight to me. He’d known exactly where I was the whole time. He glared at me in a way that validated what Rylee had been talking about. He had me in his crosshairs, and he intended to pull the trigger. It went against everything I knew about bullies. I’d stood up to him. I’d proven myself not to be an easy target, but he was still targeting me. What a jerk. I was officially worried but decided not to show it. I glared back.
    “You’re just going to make it worse,” Rylee