Chapter 28 Then
Then
It was another morning of waking up to my parents fighting.
My mom was accusing my dad of being oblivious, not paying attention to what was happening in his own firm.
My dad was saying that they all had their own cases to work and worry about—they didn’t spy on each other.
Maybe you should’ve, she said. They were still fighting as I got ready for school.
They were still fighting when I came down.
“Can you at least wait to fight until I’m at school? It’s getting old,” I said, opening the fridge and grabbing a bottle of orange juice.
That made them both go instantly quiet.
Dad looked tired as he met my stare. I could only hold his gaze for a couple of seconds before I dropped my eyes and went to the cupboard for a glass.
“Do you have questions for me, Indy?” he asked.
“Did you do it?” I blurted out. “Steal money from your clients? From the government?”
“Excuse me?” he asked, his voice immediately at a ten.
“Is that why you were so worried about that document that you thought I lost in your office? It was incriminating? You needed to shred it?”
“You think I did this?” His voice was even louder.
“Marcus, don’t yell at her. You asked her if she had any questions. She asked.”
“Did you tell her to ask me that? You both think I’m some con man? Nice. If you must know, that document you lost was something that would’ve helped clear me.” With those words he left out the front door.
My heart dropped. I set both the glass and juice on the counter and turned to face my mom. “He thinks this is my fault?” Was it? Had I not been in the office that day, would this all be cleared up by now?
“No, of course not. He didn’t mean that. He’s feeling defensive because I asked him similar questions yesterday.”
My heart felt like it was beating in my ears. “You think he did it?”
“He told me he didn’t. I want to believe him, but why is this taking so long? Shouldn’t they have been able to prove he didn’t by now?”
“Maybe they’re being thorough,” I said.
“Yes, you’re right. I’m stressed.”
I looked at the time on my phone. Ava would be here in five. But for the first time since this started my mom was actually talking to me. I shot the group a text: Sorry, woke up late. I’ll drive myself today.
Ava gave my message a thumbs-up. Nobody else responded.
They were probably all still mad at me for not going back to the party that night after leaving the school.
For not having the sleepover we had planned.
Cody and I hadn’t gotten caught after running through the halls in a panic and out the doors.
We just climbed in my car and left. Once we were clear of the school, we both busted into laughter even though my heart had still been racing a million miles a minute.
I turned back to the counter and poured myself half a glass of juice.
“I’m taking the longer shifts at work this week, so I won’t be home as early as I normally am.”
“Okay.” I swirled the juice in my glass. “Was Dad pissed we got a car?”
“Dad is pissed about everything right now.”
“Right.”
“You deserve it, Indy. You’re a hard worker and keep amazing grades. We’re proud of you.”
I took a drink instead of answering. If she had seen me running out of the chemistry classroom and into the parking lot with Cody the other night, would she still be proud?
“Things will be back to normal soon,” she said, more to herself than to me, it seemed.
“What’s the worst that could happen?” I asked, needing her to tell me Dad would just get some sort of fine or suspension or something. If he was being truthful and he’d done nothing, they couldn’t punish him.
“I don’t know,” she said, but I had a feeling she did, and the fact that she wouldn’t say it out loud let me know it was way worse than a fine.
“Can they arrest him for real?”
“I don’t know,” she said again.
That meant yes.
“I have to go,” she said.
When she left I went and searched my room again for the document. I even searched his office, but there was nothing to find in there; they had taken everything.
I was sitting in first period when the classroom phone rang. It was such a rare sound that I jumped. Mr. Fraser, my AP Lit teacher, walked over to the wall by the door and picked up the phone.
“Hello,” he said.
The few times the phone had rung in class, it was typically a parent waiting in the front office to take their kid to a doctor or dentist appointment.
Parents used to be able to text their child about that, but we weren’t allowed to look at cellphones anymore.
This time Mr. Fraser’s eyes found mine as the person on the phone relayed some sort of message to him.
I didn’t think either of my parents was waiting in the front office. Or maybe they were. Had something happened with my dad’s case? My heart immediately accelerated. Mr. Fraser hung up the phone and said, “Indy, front office. Take your things.”
Take my things? Did that mean I wasn’t coming back to class?
“Okay.” I picked up my bag. Caroline was in this class with me, but she didn’t look at me as I walked toward the door.
So she was mad at me. I didn’t blame her.
I’d been a bad friend the past couple of weeks.
I should’ve gone back to the party after the stunt with Cody, but I’d just taken him to his dad’s house, not in Harper’s neighborhood, and went home to settle my nerves.
In the front office, the woman behind the desk pointed me toward the back hallway. I’d never been in the back hallway in my life. It led to the principal’s office. I only saw the principal, Mr. O’Connell, out and about on campus, when he would wave to us in a friendly manner.
I knocked on the door and heard a muffled “Come in.”
I opened it and the first person I saw was my mom, sitting in a chair in front of the principal’s desk. At first I was confused, and then I was terrified. Had something happened with my dad? Why wasn’t he here?
“Have a seat, Ms. Blair,” Mr. O’Connell said.
I didn’t want to sit. I wanted him to immediately tell me what was happening.
Or better, I wanted my mom to just check me out of school and not involve anyone else in our business.
Wasn’t that what she’d told me we needed to do?
Why had she changed her mind now? Had she told Mr. O’Connell about my dad?
“What’s going on?” I asked.
“Sit down, Indy,” Mom said, her voice sounding tired and angry.
So I did. I sat. And that’s when I noticed an open laptop on the desk in front of him. A grainy image of me and Cody running out the doors of C building was frozen on the screen. My blood ran cold.
He pointed to the laptop. “You have been identified as one of the people that broke into the school last Friday. There was some damage done in the chemistry room.”
My eyes went to the screen again. I knew it was me, but how did he? My face wasn’t clear. Were there other images?
“Some chemicals were stolen from the supply closet.”
“Chemicals?” I asked, surprised. What chemicals? Why? “No. That wasn’t me.” Or Cody, I wanted to say. He hadn’t taken anything either. But I stopped myself. If Mr. O’Connell didn’t know Cody was the other person in the video, I wasn’t going to tell him.
He didn’t stop there, though. He placed my calculus test in front of me. “Do you recognize this?”
My blood ran cold. “Yes.”
“It has also been brought to our attention that you cheated off another student’s paper to get this grade.” The score at the top said 99 percent. It was a good score. “Is that true?”
Beau had tattled on me? Had he also been the one to identify me on the video? The thought shocked me.
“No,” I said, because that was just instinct. And I hadn’t cheated for the entire test. Just six questions. How could they prove that? Especially if I didn’t get the exact same grade as Beau. My moving up in the class ranks proved that I hadn’t.
“I guess that was more of a rhetorical question,” he said. “We know you cheated.”
I swallowed.
“You will get a zero for this test.”
“A zero?” I asked, appalled.
“We’re questioning your other test scores from this year as well. I’m consulting your teachers, trying to decide if you need to retake all the tests you’ve taken this year in a controlled environment to see if you can replicate the grades.”
“What?” I asked. “That’s not fair.”
“We take cheating very seriously. The punishment is typically an expulsion,” he said.
“Especially when we know you’re trying to rise in the school ranks.
But we’re willing to extend some courtesy since you’ve been an exemplary student.
” His hand shifted to the computer screen, reminding me this was about more than cheating.
Was he saying they were going to extend me courtesy there as well?
Was he trying to get me to confess? Would it help if I did?
“Who else was with you?”
“We were just getting his backpack,” I said. “He’d left it.” Although as I said that out loud, I realized there was no backpack. Or if there was, he hadn’t gotten it that night.
Next to me my mom sighed.
“I didn’t cheat on my other tests,” I said in a panic. “This is literally the only one. And only because I lost my textbook. And only for a few questions. I’ll retake this test. I’ll show you.”
“You don’t get to retake this test. This test, the one we know you cheated on, will be counted as zero. It’s the others that are being negotiated.”
My head whipped over to my mom. Was she going to defend me?
“They pulled me out of work for this,” she said. “I told them you would never break into school or cheat, but you’re saying you did?”
“No! Well, yes, but I didn’t do anything,” I said. If they had more video, they’d see that.
“And the test?” she asked.
“Just this one time. On a few questions because those FBI guys stole my book.”
“Indy,” Mom said in a warning voice. “Watch it.”
I snapped my mouth shut, my jaw instantly clenching.
“I can’t believe you did this.” She pinched the bridge of her nose.
“I shouldn’t have to retake all the other tests. Not without proof.” Were they really going to take Beau’s word over mine? Although now I’d admitted to it, hadn’t I?
“You sound like your father,” my mom said under her breath.
Tears sprang to my eyes.
“Is that all you need from me?” she asked. “I only have an hour lunch break and I’m using it for this.”
“We’ll be in contact, Mrs. Blair. Thank you,” Mr. O’Connell said.
She walked straight out the door and didn’t look back.
“You’re lucky,” Mr. O’Connell said. “That the rest of the video backs up your story.”
I didn’t feel very lucky.