Girls in Charge Read Online Free PDF Page B

consider. And my own.
    â€œAs I believe I’ve said before, we can’t have children giving advice to other children about delicate issues.”
    Yes, he had said that, at my house, to my parents and everyone else’s parents on that horrible day.
    â€œThey’ve been responsible in their duties,” Ms. Russo said. “They’ve consulted the school nurse more than once.”
    â€œThat’s all well and good, but this Web site is nothing but one big risk,” Principal F. said. “I don’t have time to police every word on that Web site. Just like I don’t have time to edit every single report from Bet Hirujadanpholdoi that runs on Margaret Simon TV.”
    â€œThese girls can be trusted,” Mrs. Percy said in a firm voice.
    â€œSomething goes haywire and you know who the TV news crews will be calling, don’t you? I’m not losing my job over some half-baked attempt at ‘girl power,’” he said, putting finger quotes around the words.
    We all looked at the floor, feeling one hundred percent defeat. We looked up again when he said our names.
    â€œJemma, Piper, and Kate. Did I or did I not ask you to cease operating this Web site?”
    â€œY-yes, but…,” Kate began.
    â€œThen you can understand why there is likely to be some punishment coming for disobeying me.”
    â€œWhat?” Ms. Russo said in disbelief.
    â€œI can’t rule it out,” he said.

 
    Twelve
    Piper started asking questions of Ms. Russo even before we were fully ushered out of the principal’s office. Mrs. Percy stayed behind for who-knew-what reason.
    â€œShhh!” Ms. Russo said, and shuffled us down the hall. Piper was livid.
    â€œI cannot believe he wouldn’t even listen to us. I swear he does not care at all about girls and he obviously doesn’t respect ‘the power of the global Internet,’” Piper said, using her own air quotes now.
    Kate was surprised.
    â€œI thought we’d at least have a chance to make our points,” she said.
    I was scared.
    â€œWhat punishment does he mean? Detention? A suspension?”
    Ms. Russo started talking, but honestly, I wasn’t listening. My mind started to wander to whether he might just expel us from school entirely. Did this mean I would never go to college? OMG, maybe he was calling the police to get them involved. Could we be accused of fraud or something for taking that pink laptop back and not using it for homework, like he said?
    And another thing: It was already after lunch and I still hadn’t gotten my you-know-what. I would give it the whole day, of course, and I was mildly relieved it hadn’t happened at school. It could have happened while sitting on the pale blue cushion of one of the chairs in the principal’s office. But still, I wasn’t happy. I thought this day would end with two major accomplishments. So far, it was holding at zero.
    Kate must have sensed my silent panic and took me by both shoulders. She gave me a serious look. I guess you could say she snapped me out of it. I took a breath and started hearing what Ms. Russo was saying.
    â€œThis is just round one. We’ll fight this,” she said, but she had no energy in her voice.
    â€œFight it how?” Piper asked. “He said no and he’s ready to bring the hammer down on us.”
    Kate said we should keep answering questions.
    â€œHe didn’t tell us to stop,” she said.
    â€œUh, he did tell us. Five months ago,” I said.
    Kate said she was not one for getting into trouble, but it didn’t seem to her that we could get in much more trouble at this point.
    Ms. Russo said we had to assume we were still presenting our Pink Locker Society session at Tomorrow’s Leaders Today. She said she wished she had told “George” (aka Principal F.) about that.
    â€œMaybe we should have told him about that. He loves when his school is recognized. But maybe