Nobody moved.
Then the students on the bleachers stood.
One at a time.
Then the whole room.
They stood in silence, the way people stand at a fun*ral.
It was the fun*ral my father never had.
I think everyone in that gym understood it, all at once, and that was why the silence lasted so long.
In the third row, a man in a gray suit rose.
"Tom," he said. "I'm Ed Flanagan. I voted yes on Motion 14B."
His face was red.
"I'd like it on the record that I was wrong."
The woman beside him stood too.
"Ruth Ullman," she said. "I'll move to rescind the motion on Monday. And I'll second it myself."
Mr. Lombardi nodded once, and I saw his shoulders drop for the first time all night.
"There's something else," he said. "The faculty met on Thursday. Every dollar of student lunch debt at Stonebridge was paid off last week. As of tonight, there isn't any."
