"In 1970, a group of Middle Eastern nations, plus the Western Hemisphere country of.anyone?.anyone?.Venezuela, in an effort to better control the world's flow of.anyone?.crude oil, formed a conglomerate called.class?.anyone?.anyone?.OPEC, that promptly withheld their shares of oil from the international market. Does anyone know the effects of this on the United States, does anyone know?.anyone?.As a result gas prices here in this country soared to what were then incredibly high prices, although they're rather tame by today's standards. This goes well with our discussion of supply and demand, class; the same thing is pretty much in effect today whenever gas prices fluctuate. Does anyone know, class, who's job it is to deal with these sometimes severe changes?. anyone?.anyone?.anyone?."

No one really respond to the economics teacher's questions, as his slow, monotonous, drawling lecture had, as usual, put the entire class into a heavy stupor. It was as if he was talking to thin air.

From the back left corner, Andie Walsh was just barely hanging on to consciousness herself. Economics was never her favorite subject to begin with, and then with somebody like Mr. Steinberg in charge of the class, learning anything was for all practical purposes impossible. She had enough wakefulness left to take a look at her watch and see, with extreme relief, that there were just two more minutes to go before class ended. The Christmas season couldn't have come soon enough for Andie. Already she had regretted some of the courses she had selected for this year last March.

She wasn't stupid or anything, but the curriculum just seemed to get tougher and tougher every passing week. If it wasn't for the help of her somewhat more gifted friend Philip "Duckie" Dale, she probably wouldn't have even gotten as decent grades as she had. With an application to the University of Illinois at Chicago pending-and the loads of financial aid for being in a lower income family that went with it-she felt she owed it to herself to get marks as high as possible (within reason), allowing her to escape from the poor side of town permanently.

".another interesting point in the history of the market, as then-president Nixon made the decision to.anyone know what?.anyone?.anyone?.take the dollar off the gold standard that it had been connected with for almost a hundred years, so that today our money is backed by.anyone know?.anyone?.anyone?. any.?"

The bell, seemingly long overdue, finally rang. The entire class jumped up and all but ran for the door, eager to escape the unfriendly environment. "Remember, class, read pages 399 to 413 for Thursday," Mr. Steinberg called after them. Very few of his students heard him.

Andie weaved her way through the heavy student traffic in the halls to the stairway leading to the third floor. The next class on her schedule was Trigonometry, another killer, but thankfully, the teacher had informed the whole class yesterday that she'd be away at a meeting today, and that they could have the period as a study hall. This arrangement worked very well with Andie, as she needed the free time to discuss a little plan she'd devised for the holidays with some willing associates who happened to be in Trigonometry with her.

Being from a decidedly lower class background, Andie could very easily sympathize with people who didn't have enough to eat or a proper place to sleep, so she'd decided that this Christmas, she'd start a fund in school to raise money for the poor in the Shermer area. She'd figured that any sum over a thousand dollars would be an acceptable goal to reach for, and planned on giving the money to the Shermer Town Council when they met on December 23rd, two nights away. Through Andie's chain of assistants, she'd managed to already raise about four hundred dollars, including the ninety-six dollars her father had kindly taken out of his welfare check to give to the fund, and was going to step up her campaign over the next two days so she'd make the goal in time. Whether it was possible remained to be seen.

Andie now reached the Trigonometry room. Already, the majority of the students were busy chattering away to each other. She headed toward her seat in the back center of the room, where a pair of her colleagues were waiting for her. One of them was Samantha, who had ice packs lying on top of each of her feet. Although she and Andie were only somewhat distant friends, Samantha's circle of friends being more middle class types, they would occasionally, get together after school to hang out, which was possible, as neither of them really participated in any extracurricular activities. People who saw them together and didn't recognize them might have thought them to be twins, as they looked very much alike, but they were indeed quite different in several ways.

The other associate waiting for her was very much more closely acquainted with Andie. Blaine McDonough gave her a warm, loving smile and gave her a strong, passionate kiss as she sat down. It had been love at first sight for the two of them, rare as that kind of romance may be these days, and despite the severe bashing their relationship had taken from their circles of friends, they'd managed to weather the storm in the end. Being very different from the snobby crowd of upper class folk he'd once hung out with (all of whom he'd now permanently severed relations with), Blaine had eagerly embraced the idea of helping the poor, and had been able to give Andie eighty-nine dollars from his own wallet right off the bat after she'd informed him of her plans. He now removed another large amount of money from his pocket as she took her seat. "I finally managed to convince my father to contribute, and he was able to spare two hundred and thirteen dollars," he announced to her.

"Great!" Andie exclaimed, putting it away into her own purse. "If I remember correctly, that brings our total up to around.oh.let me think for a moment.six hundred and thirty-three dollars." She turned to Samantha. "How did you do with your family, Sam?"

"Less well," Samantha said, still in apparent pain from the incident with Del's trunk. "I could only spare about seventeen dollars without going bankrupt, and none of my siblings-my creep-faced brother in particular-were willing to contribute. My parents gave me thirteen dollars in the end, and my aunts and uncles, plus the Donger, managed to cough up a combined twenty bucks in the end, but overall, they weren't as thrilled as other people we've talked to have been. To be honest they're more interested in getting everyone at least one present this year." she now lowered her voice, as if in embarrassment, ".and just between you and I, I have this strange, sinking feeling that I'm going to be left out this time."

"What makes you say that?" a concerned Blaine asked.

"Just last May, they forgot my birthday until it was too late, and with my house overflowing with relatives, all of whom are very high priority on my parents' list, it doesn't look good," Samantha commented pessimistically. "Hang in there, Sam, all things come in the end to he, or she, who waits," Andie said in an attempt to reassure her. "OK," she said, trying to calculate the new total of her cash pot, "that brings us up to.six hundred eighty-three dollars. I'll be meeting with Duckie at lunch after he gets off ScholarFest practice, and Allison will meet me in the hall following school. Hopefully, they'll get enough to get us close enough to the mark." She turned again to Blaine. "If you're not entirely finished with your old crowd, Blaine, perhaps you can get enough from them to help us reach the goal."

"I can't make any guarantees, Andie, but I'll try," Blaine said with a burst of enthusiasm. Then his face took on a look of worry. "Where are you keeping the money, by the way?" he asked her.

"Most of it's in my bedroom, and I put whatever I collect here in my locker," Andie said, puzzled. "Why?"

"I was discussing giving some donations with Gary Hecker," Blaine explained in a whisper, "and I noticed Steff listening in out of the corner of my eye.

If he overheard as much as I'm afraid he might have, we'd better keep a better eye on the cash, as I'm a little worried he might be after revenge following the prom."

"I wouldn't be in the least bit surprised if he was," Andie said, worried herself now. Her former beau had tried his hardest to keep Blaine from committing to her, out of jealousy of his failed stint with Andie, and had almost been able to say he'd succeeded, but Blaine had been able to put his fear of being a social outcast aside and follow his heart to Andie, following which he had rather angrily told Steff, his former best friend (although in hindsight he was anything but one), to get out of his life forever, to which Steff had meekly agreed. However, he had been shooting angry glances in both lovers' directions whenever they'd happened to pass by him this school year, and both of them had been afraid of some kind of retribution ever since, particularly against Andie herself, as many in the school still saw her solely by her class standard.

"Very well, I'll keep the money on me at all times, likely close to my heart," she now said with trepidation. "In that location, he wouldn't dare take it without causing a scene." She gave Blaine a satisfied smile. "Thanks for the heads up on that." It was only then that she noticed the ice packs. "What happened to your feet, Sam?"

"Uh, it's a very long story," Samantha said quickly, "and I'd rather not get into it."

"In 1864, this Confederate warship was sunk by the U.S.S. Kearsage off the coast of France." BUZZ! "Brian?"

"The C.S.S. Alabama."

"Good. This planet's density is so light that it would float on water." BUZZ! "Brian again?"

"Saturn."

"Yes, very good! This element has the heaviest atomic weight of any naturally-occurring element." BUZZ! "Wyatt?"

"Uranium."

"VERY good!"

A timer sounded. "Well, if you five were in the real thing right now, we'd have the title in the bag!" Mr. Jacobson said enthusiastically to his team of "brains." "I think it's safe to say that we can expect great things from you this evening. You can take a five minute break while I go out and see if I can find anything that'll stump you all."

He gave them one last smile and turned and walked out of the art room, chosen as the practice location as no art classes were held at this time in the morning on Tuesdays.

Brian Johnson let out a deep breath. He had been waiting for today to arrive for a long time now. Ever since he'd first caught wind of the Chicago Area ScholarFest Christmas Academic Competition two months ago. He had eagerly signed up for it, and had breezed fairly easily through the qualifying rounds to make the team. That had been just before Thanksgiving, and in the month since then, going over every bit of reference information he'd been able to get his hands on since then, taking his teammates along for the studying sessions whenever they were available. Some of them occasionally voiced their concerns that he was taking it TOO seriously. Brian could understand where they got that idea from; this was his last chance, being this his senior year, to fulfill his lifelong dream to lead an academic team to victory in an academic tournament. The closest he'd come so far had been a third place finish in a Sixth Sense competition in sixth grade, which may have been a higher placement had a teammate not gotten two questions incorrect at the critical moment in the semifinal match up. It had taken Brian several weeks to get over that disappointment, and he'd poured every bit of himself into all subsequent academic competitions ever since, in the hopes that he'd be able to realize that dream he'd had ever since he was little, the one where he was carried aloft by his fellow Shermer teammates, all of whom were cheering his name loudly.

The team assembled around him at the present was one of the better ones he'd been on, even though all but one of them were freshmen. Duckie, the only other senior, had just barely made it through the final qualifying round, owing to his superior algebra IQ for his being on the team. Of the freshmen, Wyatt Donnelley and Gary Wallace had their great science knowledge to help them along, while the final team member, "Farmer Ted" Hall, could deliver a lot on entertainment. Even Mr. Jacobson had said that in the sixteen years he'd been in charge of instructing Shermer High's ScholarFest team, he'd rarely seen such a diverse and intelligent bunch. And with three freshmen on the squad, he could proudly look forward to contenders for the next several years.

As it was, the freshmen were another reason Brian was bent on carrying the team to victory in this his final year of eligibility. They all clearly looked up to him as a natural leader, and he felt deep down that he'd be letting them down if he failed to do well for them in tonight's competition.

And there was also the small matter of his parents looking down his back, all but demanding he make them proud of him. That was a large amount of pressure for anyone to take, but Brian was trying his hardest at dealing with it, although he was afraid of what might happen if he wasn't successful."

"...Brian, are you listening?" Wyatt was calling to him at the moment. Brian snapped out of his daydream. "Wh-wh-what was that?" he asked his colleague.

"I was asking if you wanted to do anything with the rest of us after school," Wyatt said. "You've been barricading yourself in your room all the time since practice began, and we've all been figuring that we should all be together as a team on this the last day before the competition."

"Well,." Brian had really wished to get some more last-minute studying in, but, he didn't want to isolate his teammates or make them think he didn't care about them. ".what did you guys have in mind?"

"We were all thinking that we'd go down to Chris's Grill in the city and have a nice, big, good-luck dinner there," Wyatt explained, "and since you're the only one here with a license, you'd have to do the driving."

"How about your parents?" Brian asked his colleagues before realizing it was a rather stupid question; despite his companions high IQ, their parents were either relatively nonexistent in their lives (as in the case of Ted and Duckie) or as oppressive as one might expect the parents of a much less intelligent person to be (as in Wyatt & Gary's case). It was a domestic experience that Brian frequently experienced himself, as his parents were real sticklers for him getting the best grades possible. Whenever he slipped up, it was time for a huge reprimand for not working to the best of his ability, a scolding his sist4er Mary occasionally joined in without a backlash, as she held no real affection for him, as many brothers and sisters can claim is their relationship. "Uh, sorry, I forgot," he apologized to his teammates; they nodded, understanding what he meant. "Here's the deal; I'll have to talk to my dad, and I'm not sure if he'll give me the keys, as after I nearly brushed against a bread truck back in November, I've had to have special permission to take the car out, so don't be too disappointed if I can't get it."

"How about we see about Lisa for a backup plan," Gary whispered out loud to Wyatt.

"Who?" Brian asked, having never heard of anyone by the name of Lisa at Shermer High before. His fellow geeks gave him a sort of "You don't know!?" glance that made him feel very left out. "What? What don't I know?" he asked them.

"I guess we should have told you earlier, Brian," Gary explained. "You see, Lisa's the computer girl Wyatt and I cooked up about five months ago, and although we haven't seen her since then, we can try and look on our computer to see if she's still in the general digital area, as she'd really be willing to lend us a car if you can't get yours."

Brian couldn't help but stifle a laugh. "A computer hologram!? Have you guys honestly been drinking?" he asked them, incredulous.

"Uh, well, yeah, sort of," Gary admitted with some embarrassment, "but Lisa's real, believe it or not, and we'll try and show her to you if she's around."

"Very well," Brian said, still not totally convinced. He turned sideways to a grinning Duckie. "And how do YOU know about this?"

"I was at a dinner that you skipped to catch up on European monarchies, Brian," Duckie told him. "And from what everyone else has said about Lisa, she could help you find yourself a girlfriend if you like."

"Um,." romance was a somewhat touchy subject for Brian, ".while I'm sure the offer's sincere, guys, to be perfectly frank, although I have done it before, and as much as I'd really love to have a girlfriend, I just don't feel ready yet for a really serious loving relationship yet."

"Fair enough," Wyatt said. "In that case, maybe she could hook you up with another guy, then."

"Oh, grow up!" Brian gave his companion a light shove.

"Are you ready to escape from the confines of Shermer High my dear?" Ferris asked his girlfriend.

"Whenever you're ready to lead the way," Sloane Peterson told him, planting a kiss on his cheek. They'd been going steady now for a good year and a half now, and were still very much in love. This sometimes made Cameron, Ferris's lifelong friend, feel a little left out at times, but these were rare admittedly, as Ferris and Sloane left him hang with them all the time, and Cameron, with no one else to really turn to, went along with them almost always. The lone times he was reluctant to was whenever Ferris was planning on taking them all on a day off from school, as Cameron also had nightmares of Rooney hacking him to pieces, and it was with a semi-doubtful glance that was looking upon Ferris's secret weapon for getting them out of school-robotic look-alikes of the three of them. "How are these things supposed to work all day so Rooney'll think they're us, Ferris," he now asked his friend dubiously.

"Simple, Cameron my friend, all we have to do is flick these switches here," Ferris flicked these switches, and his creations roared to life, "and presto, they'll behave just like us. To be perfectly honest, I'm not sure they'll last very long without breaking down."

"Oh, that's great!" Cameron commented.

".but if my calculations are correct, they'll hold out long enough for us to get away," Ferris continued. "Now, here's how it'll work: once I'm finished here, we'll all climb in through the holes in the back of the robots, and they'll take us to the auditorium in time for the biology filmstrip. Once it's playing, we'll sneak out, crawl over to the ladder near the broken wiring near the far side, and climb up into the air ducts. From there, we'll make our way to the roof, climb down the fire escape, and jump in my car and be at Walleyland in no time. "Any questions?"

Sloane shook her head firmly, Cameron a little less firmly. "All right then, mount your robots," Ferris said formally.

He climbed in through the back of his robotic persona and closed the hatch behind him. He could see out through high-tech video screens located in the eyes. "Okay, take me to the auditorium," he announced to it. The robot lurched forward.

"Is that all you have to say to it?" Sloane asked teasingly from behind him. "That's not very original!

"I was in a hurry to make these, so I couldn't think of anything more dramatic," Ferris explained to her through his view screen. "It wasn't easy building these things through the shop class manual in my free time."

"Perfect, now we're going to be dead for stealing shop class parts!" Cameron moaned. Ferris didn't answer this. They'd now entered the auditorium. It was filled with kids of all grades, chatting noisily to each other. Ferris made his way to seats very near the aforementioned ladder and motioned Cameron and Sloane to sit next to him. So far so good. But then...

"Abort plan!" Cameron suddenly yelled.

"Why?" Ferris asked him, confused.

"Vernon alert!" Cameron cried out, pointing over his shoulder. Sure enough, the superintendent, whom Ferris had also been trying to outrun for the past four years, was standing not more than ten feet away, glancing suspiciously in there direction. "Remain calm," Ferris explained to his friends, "Once the lights go down, he won't be able to see us."

"He can still hear us." Cameron started to protest, but the lights just then started coming down. "You two wait for my signal," Ferris informed his girlfriend and buddy. It was his plan to wait about four minutes into the filmstrip before they made their move. True, Vernon's appearance had him a little nervous, but he'd outsmarted the superintendent before, and was confident he'd do it again.

The filmstrip started. It concerned DNA and RNA, neither of which Ferris really cared about. He waited patiently, keeping one of his eyes on the ladder that led to freedom and the other on Vernon, who fortunately began walking away to the other side of the auditorium shortly after the projector started rolling. Finally, when a loud sound effort started buzzing throughout the auditorium, denoting DNA strands connecting naturally to each other, he whispered to Sloane and Cameron, "OK, NOW!"

The three of them cracked open the escape hatches on their robotic counterparts and slid underneath their seats. They crawled down the otherwise vacant aisle heading straight for the ladder. But no sooner had they reached it when Vernon's voice rang out from very close behind them,

"Hold it right there, you! "Sally, hit the lights!"

"Go for it!" Ferris whispered. He and his friends dove for the ladder and scrambled up it as quickly as they could. As luck would have it, Sally the projectionist took her grand old time hitting the houselights, and by the time she did, the three students were up the ladder and into the ducts. In a better stroke of luck, Cameron stumbled somewhat as he climbed into the duct, and although he managed to hang on, he knocked the ladder down, right on top of Vernon's head, thereby cutting off any possibility of them being followed.

"Left at the next turn, then straight on for a quarter mile," Ferris mused.

He'd apparently figured out the path through the ducts a long time ago. It was a long and winding passage, and it took Cameron and Sloane all their wits to keep up with Ferris. Finally, the trickster came to a duct on top of the vent inscribed, "TO ROOF" He smiled at them, then pushed the hatch open and climbed upward. Finally, after about three minutes of struggling up a steep path, they found themselves on the roof of the high school.

"Didn't I tell you two it would work?" Ferris asked them triumphantly.

"You certainly did," Sloane gave him another kiss. Even Cameron had to force a small smile. "OK, now it just down the fire escape, and away we go," Ferris now added enthusiastically.

The fire escape was three stories down. The three students easily traversed this quickly and made their way through the parking lot to Ferris's brand new Mercury Cougar that his parents had given to him in September for his eighteenth birthday. It worked flawlessly. "Fasten your seatbelts," Ferris told his friends as they climbed in. "And just be patient, because it had a little trouble getting started at first this morning due to the cold, so this may take a few minutes."

"HOLD IT RIGHT THERE, BUELLER!!" came an all-too-familiar shout from the school's front door. Rooney was barreling down the steps with a look of primeval rage on his face. Apparently, he'd found out too quickly about the robots, and was now bent on ruining Ferris's carefully-laid-out plans. For the first time, Ferris was truly concerned, as he tried to turn the key in the ignition. It was still flooded. "GO! GO! GO!!" Cameron and Sloane were screaming frantically at him.

"I'm trying, I'm trying!" Ferris yelled back. Rooney was almost upon them; it was now or never. He gave it one last desperate turn, and the engine finally roared to life. He quickly jammed down on the gas pedal as Rooney reached the driver's side door, and the car took off at about sixty miles an hour, running over Rooney's foot, which had unfortunately (for him) been right in the path of the rear tire at the time. The principal's howl of pain made the three of them feel much more relieved. "Have a nice day, Mr. Rooney!" Ferris yelled out the window to his adversary, who raised his hand away from his aching feet long enough to make an obscene gesture in Ferris's direction, "We're going to see history in the making at Walleyland!"