Chapter 9
Briggs
It’s after three, and she’s not here. I should just go. I need to be getting ready for practice. Ella’s not going to show up. She looked like she wanted to kill me in the cafeteria today. I have no idea why, but whatever it was, she doesn’t seem to want to tell me, or she’d be here right now.
It’s probably good she’s back to hating me.
We were starting to get close again, which never should’ve happened.
I told myself it couldn’t — begged myself to stop it before it did — and then the next thing I know, I’m in her room, in her bed, inside her.
I knew I shouldn’t have gone to her house, but I missed her. I had to see her.
“Just admit it!” Ella says, storming up to me, her arms pumping, a scowl on her face. It’s kind of funny, but I wouldn’t dare laugh. She’s clearly angry at me, and laughing will just make it worse.
“Admit what?” I say as she stops in front of me. “I have no fucking idea what you’re talking about.”
“Your little phone call to Calvin this morning?” she says, putting her hands on her hips.
“Calvin? The tech geek? Why the hell would I call him?”
“To have him hack into the school’s computer and change my grades!
Are you really that desperate to be valedictorian that you’d hire someone to change my grades?
” She huffs. “I can’t believe I trusted you.
All this time I thought you had changed, only to find out you’re the same old Briggs.
Cheating and lying to get what you want.
Why did you even bother asking me to give you the valedictorian title if you were just going to go behind my back and take it from me? ”
As she’s yelling at me, I’m trying to figure this out. Someone asked Calvin to change Ella’s grades? Who would do that?
My father.
He must’ve found out she was ahead of me in class. Fuck.
“Ella.” I hold her shoulders and look in her eyes. “I didn’t do it. I promise you, I didn’t.”
“Your promises are worthless. They’re just lies, like everything else you say.
I was starting to believe you had nothing to do with the city taking my house, but now I’m back to thinking you did it.
If you’d hire someone to change my grades, you’d have no problem taking my house too.
What’s next? You’ll take college from me?
Did you call Harvard and make up a story about me so I wouldn’t get in? ”
“You didn’t get in?”
“No, but that’s not the point. The point is you’ll say and do whatever you have to to get what you want.”
She just described my father, but she was talking about me. Am I becoming my father and don’t even know it? That’s the last thing I want. I hate him. I don’t want to be anything like him, but what if just being around him has turned me into a version of him?
“Are you just going to stand there and not say anything?” Ella says.
I let go of her. “I told you. I didn’t do it.”
“Calvin showed me your number on his phone. You called him this morning, and I’m pretty sure it wasn’t to ask how his day was going.”
“You saw my number on his phone? Are you sure it was mine?”
“Yes. Why are you pretending you didn’t do this? I have proof, Briggs. It was your number on Calvin’s phone. Calvin said you offered to pay him to hack into the school’s system and lower my grades.”
How did my father do that? How did he call Calvin and make it look like I did? I didn’t even see my father this morning. When I got up, he’d already left for work, and my phone was in my room with me. He couldn’t have used it to call Calvin.
“Okay, well, I said what I wanted to say.” Ella turns to leave, then turns back. “I’m not letting you do this. You can try to take this from me, but it’s not going to happen. Even if you find someone to change my grades, I’ll prove you’re the one who did it.”
“I didn’t—”
“I really thought you’d changed, Briggs. But I guess it was all an act. It’s too bad because I . . .” She looks down, then back up at me. “I really liked that guy.”
I want to tell her that guy is me, the real me, not some made-up version of myself, but she wouldn’t believe me.
My words mean nothing to her right now. To get her to believe me, I’d have to prove to her who I am with actions, not words, but I don’t know how to do that.
It seems like every time she starts to trust me, something happens to make her doubt it.
She walks away, heading back around the building. I feel like I should say something, but I don’t know what to say. I don’t know how to convince her that I didn’t do this.
How the hell did this happen? If it wasn’t my father who did this, who else could it be? And how did this person pretend to be me? How did they use my number?
A text pops up on my phone from Parker. Where the hell are you? Coach is pissed!
Shit. I’m late for practice. I look down the hill and see the guys are already on the field.
Be there in a couple minutes, I text back. I go to the locker room to change.
When I get out to the field, Coach yells, “I want everyone to do ten pushups for every minute Chadwick was late!”
The guys groan.
Parker comes up to me. “What the fuck, man? Where were you?”
“I had to deal with something. It couldn’t wait.”
“For those of you who can’t do math,” Coach yells, “that’s 100 pushups. Get down on the ground. Hurry up!”
We all drop to the ground and do the pushups, then Coach makes us run a mile because one of the guys on the team complained about the pushups.
All through practice, I get yelled at for not paying attention. It’s because I’m trying to figure out who tried to change Ella’s grades. It’s not like I hadn’t thought about doing it, and maybe if I was desperate enough, I would, but I didn’t. I didn’t do it.
“Going to the gym?” Parker asks in the locker room after practice.
“I’m skipping it since I went this morning.”
I never work out in the morning, but I did today so I could get home earlier and study. My father’s working late tonight, so I’ll have the house to myself.
Parker waits for the guys next to us to leave, then steps up to me, lowering his voice. “What the hell was going on with Ella? Why’d she lose her shit in the cafeteria?”
“She thinks I did something I didn’t do.”
“What is it?”
“Nothing. Just forget it.”
“I told you we can’t trust her. The girl’s fucking crazy.” He returns to his locker, and as I watch him grab his gym bag, my mind flashes back to this morning.
Parker was at the gym with me. We were in the locker room together, and when I went to shower, I left my gym bag on the bench.
My phone was inside the bag. Did Parker use my phone?
Was he the one who called Calvin? Parker knows I want to be valedictorian.
I told him that was the reason we were going after Ella at the beginning of the semester.
I told him I wanted to force her to give it up, and if she didn’t, I might have someone hack into her grades.
“Did you do it?” I ask, turning to face him.
“Do what?” He sprays cologne all over him, making me take a step back.
“Did you call Calvin and ask him to change her grades?”
He smiles. “You don’t have to thank me, at least not until I find someone. The geek wouldn’t take my money.”
I slam his locker door shut. “Why the fuck would you do that?”
“Because you told me to.”
He goes to pick up his gym bag, but I shove him back.
“I never fucking told you to do that.”
“You said you wanted to be valedictorian,” he says, his voice lowered. “You said if she didn’t agree to it, we’d change her grades.”
“I said I would, not you, and I wasn’t actually going to do it.”
“I’m doing it anyway. I’m sick of that bitch acting like she’s smarter than us. I can’t wait to see her face when they tell her she’s not valedictorian.”
I pin him against the locker. “Do you know what the fuck you’ve done?”
“What the hell?” He tries to push me away, but he can’t. I’m too strong. “Why are you yelling at me for this? It’s what you wanted.”
“No. It’s not what I wanted. And I told you to stay out of it.”
He stares back at me. “Is this about you and Ella? You don’t want her being pissed at you?”
“It’s about you doing shit behind my back without telling me. How the hell did you even get in my phone?”
“I’ve seen you type in your password.”
“Did you call anyone else?”
“That tall, skinny guy. Calvin’s friend? I can’t remember his name.”
“Did he agree to do it?”
“He didn’t pick up.”
“Don’t fucking call him again, or anyone else. This is my shit to deal with, not yours.”
“Yeah, whatever. Just get the fuck away from me.”
I back away, my eyes on his. “I mean it. Stay out of it. You’ve already done enough damage. I could get expelled for that shit if anyone found out. Maybe even arrested.”
“What’s going on?” Nick says, opening the locker next to Parker’s. He’s a junior and new to the rugby team.
“Nothing.” I hold my gaze on Parker a moment longer before going back to my locker.
Parker grabs his gym bag and leaves.
“You guys have a fight?” Nick asks.
“No. We were just talking about the game on Friday.”
“It’s going to be a tough one,” Nick says.
“Not if we’re prepared.” I close my locker. “See ya tomorrow.”
I leave the locker room and go to the principal’s office. The door is closed, and the lights are off. I’ll have to talk to him tomorrow.
* * *
The next morning, I get to school early and head straight to Principal Perkins’ office. His door is open, and he’s sitting at his desk, looking at his computer.
I knock on his door to get his attention. “Principal Perkins?”
He looks up from his computer and smiles. “Briggs. You’re here early.”
“Yeah, I wanted to talk to you. Do you have a minute?”
“Of course. Come on in.”
I go into his office and shut the door, not wanting his secretary to overhear us. She’s not at her desk yet, but she will be soon.
“How can I help you?” Principal Perkins asks, interlocking his hands and resting them on his desk.
“I found out something you need to know.”
“What is it?” he asks, his brows drawing together.
“Someone’s planning to hack into the school’s grading system and change people’s grades.”
He sits back in his chair, concern covering his face. “Where did you hear this?”
“I can’t say. I just need you to know it could happen so you need to keep an eye on it, maybe bump up your security to make sure no one can get into the system.”
“These are very serious accusations. Are you sure about this?”
“As far as I know, it hasn’t happened yet. I just heard a rumor that it might.”
“So this is just a rumor. You don’t know if someone’s actually planning to do it.”
“It’s more than a rumor. I overheard one of the tech geeks — I mean, guys — saying someone called him and asked him to do it.”
“Do you know who that person was?”
“No, but why does it matter? The point is, it could happen and you need to stop it.”
He nods. “Does this attempt to change the grades apply to all students or just a certain few?”
“I heard they were going after Ella Quinn.”
“Ella’s slated to be this year’s valedictorian.”
“Yeah, I know. So it makes sense they’d go after her.”
“It only makes sense for the person who’s next in line.” He eyes me. “I believe that’s you, isn’t it?”
“Yes, but I swear, I had nothing to do with this. If I did, I wouldn’t be telling you and trying to stop it.”
“Why would anyone else care about Ella being valedictorian?”
“Ella has a lot of enemies. Well, not really enemies, but she doesn’t have a lot of friends. It might just be someone who doesn’t like her and doesn’t want her being valedictorian.”
“And you have no idea who that person would be?”
“No. I don’t.”
He stands up. “Thank you for bringing this to my attention. I’ll be sure to look into it.” He walks me to the door. “Have a good day, Briggs.”
When I walk out to the main office area, I see Charlotte sitting there, right across from the secretary’s desk.
“Hey,” I say as I go past her.
She won’t even look at me. Ella must have told her what happened.
The rest of the day, I try to talk to Ella, but she won’t let me get near her.
She even skips lab to avoid being near me, telling Ms. Higgins she has a headache and needs to go rest in the nurse’s office.
At the end of the day, I look for her at her locker, but she’s not there.
I go out to the parking lot and see her driving away.
After rugby practice and the gym, I pass her house as I’m driving home and decide to turn back. She at least needs to hear my side of the story.
I park in front of her house and go up to the door. I ring the bell, and her father answers.
“I don’t think she wants to talk to you,” he says. I can’t tell if he’s angry or annoyed with me. It might be some of both. I doubt Ella told him why we’re fighting. I remember her saying she doesn’t tell her dad much about what goes on at school. She doesn’t want him worrying.
“I just need a couple minutes,” I say. “Could you ask her to come out here?”
“Ella!” her dad yells. “Briggs is here! He wants to talk to you!”
“Tell him I’m not here!” she yells back.
Her dad smiles. “She’s not here.”
“Would you please just ask her to come out here? I really need to talk to her. It’s important.”
“Is this about your assignment?”
“Yes,” I lie.
He nods and goes back inside, closing the door behind him.
A few moments later, Ella comes out. “Lying again? This time to my dad?”
“I couldn’t tell him the truth.”
She goes past me, stopping in the middle of the driveway.
I walk over to her. “I didn’t do it.”
“That’s why you’re here? To tell me that stupid lie again?”
“It’s not a lie. Parker did it. We were at the gym and he used my phone when I was in the shower.”
“Why would Parker care about my grades?” she says, rolling her eyes.
“He doesn’t. But he knows I do, or that I did. At the start of the semester, I told him to help me pressure you into letting me be valedictorian. I told him to bully you and give you shit, not change your grades, but he did it anyway. He did it without telling me.”
“Yeah, right.” She heads back to the house. “Bye, Briggs.”
“Ella, wait!”
The door opens, and her dad’s standing there, giving me a look that says, Leave. Ella goes past him into the house, and her dad closes the door.
She didn’t believe me. No matter what I tell her, she won’t believe me. I’ve lied to her too many times for her to believe I’m telling the truth.
Why do I even care? Whatever Ella and I had going on needed to end. I wasn’t able to end it, so maybe fate stepped in and did it for me. Things keep happening to break us apart. Maybe that’s a sign that Ella and I just aren’t meant to be.