The Wizzle War by Gordon Korman

trouble!
    Without saying a word Bruno got up off his bed and began to remove the masking tape that divided the room. An enormous grin split his face. “About ninety of us are meeting tonight.”
    Boots smiled grudgingly. As a committee member, maybe he could maintain some control over his roommate.
    * * *
    Illuminated by moonlight, Bruno Walton stood up before the crowd of boys in the woods behind Macdonald Hall. Most of them had come against their better judgement. They were looking around nervously, asking each other if they knew the reason behind this secret meeting.
    “The meeting will come to order,” said Bruno. Then, less formally, “Hi, guys. Glad you could make it.”
    “What is this?” piped someone.
    “This,” announced Bruno grandly, “is The Committee.”
    “What committee?”
    Bruno looked at them solemnly. “
The
Committee.”
    “The Committee?”
    “
The
Committee?”
    “We’ll all be expelled. I’m leaving.”
    There was general agreement, and some of the boys began to walk away.
    “Wait!” pleaded Elmer.
    “Hear us out, at least,” said Bruno. “If you don’t hear us out, we’ll all get mad. Have any of you ever seen Wilbur when he’s mad?”
    “Okay, Bruno,” called someone impatiently, “let’s hear it.”
    “The purpose of The Committee is to get rid of Wizzle,” began Bruno, “and —”
    “Well, why didn’t you say so?” Instantly, the crowd was on Bruno’s side.
    “I can’t stand that guy Wizzle!”
    “He gave me so many demerits that I had to write lines!”
    “He gave me so many lines I got demerits for not writing them!”
    “I can never remember how to tie my tie. Should the little end be longer than the big end?”
    “Wizzle confiscated my rock collection because it wasn’t making efficient use of space.”
    “When no one was looking, I kicked his computer.”
    “Good for you.”
    “Okay,” said Bruno. “To signify that you’re with The Committee, I want you all to come up here and press this remote control button. It makes an earthquake at Wizzle’s house, so it’s kind of your initiation into the organization.”
    One by one, the boys went up to Elmer’s remote control button and pressed it.
    “Now,” said Bruno, “let me tell you about OperationShut-Up.”
    Boots looked at him. “Operation Shut-Up?”
    “Wouldn’t it be great if Wizzle couldn’t say anything?”
    “Sure,” said Boots. “But how are we going to shut him up?”
    “We’re not,” grinned Bruno. “We’re going to do the next best thing. We’re going to shut up his WizzleWare. Okay, listen carefully, guys …”

Chapter 9
The Paper Chase
    On Monday morning Mr. Wizzle had dark circles under his eyes. The earthquakes were getting worse. On Saturday night he could have sworn there had been a hundred little tremors, followed on Sunday night by a quake even bigger than before. On both nights he had been forced to abandon his cottage. After all, who knew just when the entire fault line might cave in completely? He winced. Every time he left the house in a big hurry, there was Mr. Sturgeon at his window. The man was getting to be a regular peeping Tom!
    Mr. Wizzle suppressed a yawn. He’d been planning to analyze the teacher efficiency reports he’d been putting together. It was just a matter of printing them.
    A flashing red light on the print console drew his eye. “Out of paper,” said Wizzle aloud. How strange! He was certain he had loaded the tray only Friday. He glanced at the spare box on the floor. Empty. This was impossible. It had been full on Friday afternoon! He went down the hall, took out his master key and unlocked the supply room door. He walked in and opened up a new box of ink-jet paper. There inside the carton sat twelve rolls of toilet paper. He opened another box: more toilet paper. And another. All the boxes were filled with toilet paper. Furious, he opened a carton marked
Toilet Paper
. Well, that at least was correct.
    Mr. Wizzle stormed to his