By the time Laurie publishes her striking editorial in the Grapevine, it's clear that the Wave experiment is getting seriously out of hand. During the previous week, a new Jewish student was attacked by unidentified members of the Wave for refusing to join this increasingly dangerous and fanatical campus cult.

The editors of the Grapevine have received an anonymous letter from a junior at Gordon High, claiming that seniors have been pressuring younger students to join the Wave. If they refuse to join, they're told that members of the Wave won't want to be friends with them and that they'll lose all their existing friends.

Laurie clearly realizes just how divisive this sinister development is and how much potential it has for generating more trouble on campus. She's particularly disturbed at what the senior told the junior student who wrote the anonymous letter. Apparently, he said that, if the junior didn't join the Wave, it would soon be too late.

"Too late for what?" asks Laurie in her editorial. The senior's remarks are chilling, to say the least, implying as they do some kind of threat. Laurie's response to this threat is to make an impassioned plea for the Wave to be stopped before it's too late.