The Internet Escapade Read Online Free PDF

After school I’ll take you to the mall and we’ll go through Monstermadness. Forget the computer nut who’s been bugging us. We’re going to have fun.”
    “Great!” Sean said and grinned at Brian. He quickly turned off the computer. But it wasn’t as easy to turn off all the questions he had in mind. Someone had got him in trouble. Someone had scared him. And now someone was after him.
    Who? Sean thought. Who are you?

9

    E VERYTHING WAS IN CONFUSION Friday morning, as Sean arrived at school. People were hurrying up and down the stairs and through the halls. The bells rang. There was a short pause, and they rang again.
    “What’s going on?” Sean yelled at Debbie Jean.
    She opened her mouth and said something, but at the same time the bells rang two shorts and a long, making it hard to hear.
    “What?”
    It was suddenly silent. Debbie Jean said again, “The bells are going crazy. Well, not the bells, exactly. The computer that times and rings the bells is crazy.”
    The bells rang again—a long bell that went on and on. Sean scrunched up his face and clapped his hands over his ears.
    In the sudden silence that followed, a stern voice came over the intercom: “Will Sean Quinn please report immediately to the principal’s office?”
    Sean groaned. “Oh, not again.”
    As soon as he entered the principal’s office, Sean protested, “I didn’t have anything to do with the bells!”
    “The bells are timed on the school’s main computer system,” Mr. Burns said.
    Sean wondered if Mr. Burns had grown six inches since he last saw him. “But I didn’t change the computer,” Sean said. “I don’t even know how it’s done.”
    “We’ll discuss this later. Right now, I want you to turn those bells off.”
    Sean looked way, way up and said, “I told you, Mr. Burns, I don’t know how to.”
    Mr. Burns frowned as he thought—and as he grew another inch or two. “Hmmm,” he said. “Our custodian can probably disconnect the electrical system until whoever knows how to reset the system can get here. I’ll call the main office.”
    Mr. Burns didn’t actually excuse Sean to go to class, but he became so busy making phone calls that Sean left the office. He was sure that Mr. Burns didn’t believe him, and he felt bad about it. On Sean’s way to his class the bells rang just once, then stopped.
    Sean was the last of his class to arrive in the room.
    “Good morning, Sean,” Mrs. Jackson said.
    “Good morning, Mrs. Jackson,” Sean said. “I didn’t do it.”
    “Cheer up,” she said. “I believe you.” She smiled and added, “I heard that Brian made Top Student of the Month. Congratulate him for me.”
    Sean perked up, glad that he could brag about Bri with the whole class listening. “He got some cool prizes,” Sean said. “Including two free Monstermadness games at the arcade in the mall. We’re going to Monstermadness right after school.”
    “Lucky!” Matt said. “I love Monstermadness.”
    “Yeah. I wish my brother Frank had won,” Larry said. “We all thought he had a chance at winning, because he really worked on his grades, and he helped with the recycling drive.”
    “Well, I think Monstermadness is stupid,” Debbie Jean said. “All you do is wander around in pitch black tunnels, shooting laser lights at weird faces that pop out of the wall. Is that dumb or what?”
    The whole class began arguing, until Mrs. Jackson called for order and began their history lesson.
    Later, after school, Sean told Brian what had happened. “Mr. Burns still thinks I’m causing all the trouble,” he complained.
    He expected Brian to worry, too, but instead Brian grinned. “This is great,” he said. “We just got another important clue. Not everyone would know how to get to the main computer.”
    “But how would we find out who—”
    “The person in the computer club who knows the most about computers is Neal,” Brian explained. “Let’s investigate him.”
    “But Monstermadness