As he spoke, the class members stood beside their desks at attention. Laurie Saunders stood with them, but she did not feel the high energy and unity she'd felt on previous days. In fact, today there was something about the class, something about their single-mindedness and absolute obedience to Mr Ross that she would almost describe as creepy.
“Be seated,” Mr Ross ordered, and instantly the class sat. Their teacher continued his lesson. “When we first began The Wave a few days ago I felt that some of you were actually competing to give the right answers and to be better members than others. From now on I want this to end. You are not competing against each other, you are working together for a common cause. You must conceive of yourselves as a team, a team of which you are all members. Remember, in The Wave you are all equals. No one is more important or more popular than anyone else and no one is to be excluded from the group. Community means equality within the group.
“Now your first action as a team will be to actively recruit new members. To become a member of The Wave, each new student must demonstrate knowledge of our rules and pledge strict obedience to them.”
David smiled as Eric looked over at him and winked. This was what he'd needed to hear. There was nothing wrong with turning other kids on to The Wave. It was for the good of everybody. Especially the football team.
Mr Ross had concluded his talk on The Wave. He intended to spend the rest of the period reviewing the assignment he'd given the class the night before. But suddenly a student named George Snyder was raising his hand.
“Yes, George.”
George sprang from his seat to attention by his desk. “Mr Ross, for the first time I feel like I'm part of something,” he announced. “Something great.”
Around the room, startled students stared at George. Feeling the eyes of the class upon him, George began to sink back into his chair. But then Robert suddenly stood.
“Mr Ross,” he said proudly, “I know just how George feels. It's like being born again.”
No sooner had he returned to his seat than Amy stood. “George's right, Mr Ross. I feel the same way.”
David was pleased. He knew that what George had done was corny, but then Robert and Amy had done it too, just so George wouldn't feel foolish and alone. That's what was good about The Wave. They supported each other. Now he stood up and said, “Mr Ross, I'm proud of The Wave.”
This sudden outburst of testimonials surprised Ben. He was determined to get on to the day's classwork, but suddenly he knew he had to go along with the class a little longer. Almost subconsciously he sensed how much they wanted him to lead them, and it was something he felt he could not deny.
“Our salute!” he ordered. Around the room students jumped to attention beside their desks and gave The Wave salute. The mottoes followed: “Strength Through Discipline, Strength Through Community, Strength Through Action!”
Mr Ross was picking up his class notes when the students burst forth again, this time giving the salute and chanting their motto without prompting. Then silence fell over the room. Mr Ross gazed at the students in wonderment. The Wave was no longer just an idea or a game. It was a living movement in his students. They were The Wave now, and Ben realized that they could act on their own without him if they wanted. That thought could have been frightening, but Ben was confident that he had control as their leader. The experiment was simply becoming much more interesting.
At lunch that day all The Wave members who were in the cafeteria sat at a single long table. Brian, Brad, Amy, Laurie, and David were there. At first Robert Billings seemed tentative about joining them, but when David saw him he insisted he sit at the table, telling him they were all part of The Wave now.
Most of the kids were raving about what was going on in Mr Ross's class, and Laurie really had no reason to argue with them. But still she felt odd — all that saluting and chanting. Finally, during a pause in the conversation, she said, “Does anyone feel kind of strange about this?”
David turned to her. “What do you mean?”
“I don't know,” Laurie said. “But doesn't it feel a little weird?”
“It's just so different,” Amy told her. “That's why it feels weird.”
“Yeah,” Brad said. “It's like there's no in-crowd any more. Man, the thing that bugs me the most about school sometimes is all these little cliques. I'm tired of feeling like every day's a big popularity contest. That's what's so great about The Wave. You don't have to worry about how popular you are. We're all equal. We're all part of the same community.”
“Do you think everyone likes that?” Laurie asked.
“Do you know anyone who doesn't?” David asked.
Laurie felt her face grow flushed. “Well, I'm not sure I do.”
Suddenly Brian pulled something out of his pocket and held it up to Laurie. “Hey, don't forget,” he said. He was holding up his Wave membership card with the red X on the back.
“Forget what?” Laurie asked.
“You know,” Brian said. “What Mr Ross said about reporting anyone who breaks the rules.”
Laurie was shocked. Brian really couldn't be serious, could he? Now Brian started to grin, and she relaxed.
“Besides,” David said. “Laurie isn't breaking any rule.”
“If she was really against The Wave she would be,” Robert said.
The rest of the table became silent, surprised that Robert had said anything. Some of them weren't even used to hearing his voice, he usually said so little.
“What I mean is,” Robert said nervously, “the whole idea of The Wave is that the people in it have to support it. If we're really a community, we all have to agree.”
Laurie was about to say something, but she stopped herself. It was The Wave that had given Robert the courage to sit at the table with them and to join in the conversation. If she argued against The Wave now, she would really be implying that Robert should go and sit by himself again and not be part of their “community”.
Brad patted Robert on his back. “Hey, I'm glad you joined us,” he said.
Robert blushed and then turned to David. “Did he stick anything on my back?” he asked. Everyone at the table laughed.
9
Ben Ross wasn't quite sure what to make of The Wave. What had begun as a simple history experiment had become a fad that was spreading outside his classroom. As a result, some unexpected things had started to occur. For one, the size of his daily history class was beginning to expand as students from free periods, study halls, and lunch came to be part of The Wave. The recruiting of more students for The Wave had apparently been far more successful than he had ever expected. So successful, in fact, that Ben began to suspect that some students were cutting other classes to sit in on his.
Remarkably enough, though, even with the larger class size and the students' insistence on practising the salute and motto, the class was not falling behind. If anything, they were covering their assigned lessons even faster than usual. Using the rapid question and answer style that The Wave had inspired, they had quickly covered Japan's entrance into World War Two. Ben noticed a marked improvement in preparation for class and in class participation, but he also noticed that there was less thinking behind the preparation. His students could glibly spit back answers as if by rote, but there was no analysis, no questioning on their part. In a way he could not fault them, because he himself had introduced them to the ways of The Wave. It was just another unexpected development in the experiment.
Ben reasoned that the students realized that to neglect their studies would be detrimental to The Wave. The only way they could have time to spend on The Wave was to be so well prepared that they only needed half the regular class to cover their assigned lessons. But he wasn't certain this was something to be pleased about. The class's homework assignments had improved, but rather than long, thoughtful answers, they wrote short ones. On a multiple choice test they might all do well, but Ben had his doubts about how they'd do on an exam consisting of essays.