38
“You’ve hardly touched your breakfast.”
“Sorry, Mom. Guess I’m just not that hungry this morning.” Heather couldn’t bring herself to look into her mother’s eyes. The air was thick with her parents’ distress at her situation, a mixture of sympathy, worry, and disappointment. She hated not being able to tell them that she hadn’t plagiarized anything, no matter what she had been forced to admit to.
Her father’s gentle voice caused her to look up from her eggs. “Heather, tough as this situation is, it will pass. In the meantime, you just have to press on with your normal routine.”
“And not eating won’t help,” her mother continued.
“I know, Mom.”
When she didn’t move to put more food in her mouth, her mother shrugged in defeat.
“Oh well, I guess you can be excused. Maybe visiting with Mark and Jennifer will help more than breakfast.”
“Thanks,” Heather said, rinsing her plate and sliding it into the dishwasher.
Mark opened the door as she stepped up onto the Smythe front porch.
“Hi.”
Something about seeing him standing there in the doorway waiting for her, his chiseled face filled with protective concern, pulled down all her defenses. Without warning, sobs wracked her body. Then he was there, his arms enfolding her in bands of steel as she buried her face into his chest, and somehow, for the first time in days, Heather felt truly safe.
When she finally managed to push herself away and stand erect, she thought she saw a strange light sparkling in his eyes. Then again, why wouldn’t there be? Christ. She’d been bawling like a baby.
“Sorry.”
“Why?”
“Hey, what’s going on out here?” Jennifer asked, poking her head out the door. Seeing Heather’s red eyes, Jennifer turned toward Mark, punching him hard on the arm. “Mark! What did you say to her?”
“Ow. Crap! What is it with you and those fists?”
An involuntarily chuckle escaped from Heather’s lips. Then, unable to contain herself, she burst into laughter. No matter how bad things got, the Smythe twins were the cure. God how she loved these two.
Seeing the puzzled look on Jennifer’s face, Heather managed to establish some semblance of control over her emotions. “It’s okay, Jen. Mark was actually being really nice.”
“Mark? Really?”
“Hey, I can be nice.”
“Humph,” Jennifer snorted. “Anyway, I knew the TV coverage would upset you.”
It was Heather’s turn to look puzzled. “What TV coverage?”
Mark rolled his eyes at his sister. “Open mouth, insert foot.”
A look of horror spread across Jennifer’s face. “Oh, Heather. I’m so sorry. I thought that was what had upset you.”
“Now you’re scaring me,” Heather said, stepping inside the Smythe’s front door. “Is it still on?”
Mark followed on her heels. “Still on? They won’t get off it. You’d think nothing this big had happened in Los Alamos in years.”
Without waiting for her friends to slow her forward progress, Heather walked into the Smythe living room, sliding onto the couch directly across from the television, thankful that there was no sign of Mr. or Mrs. Smythe.
Sure enough, there was Maria Sandoval, news anchor for KOAT, Action 7 News, her face a picture of surprise and disapproval at the story of how three Los Alamos High School students had been caught cheating at the National Science Competition.
“…and although only one member of the Los Alamos team has admitted to plagiarism, a young lady by the name of Heather McFarland, her actions have embarrassed her team, her school, the communities of Los Alamos and White Rock, even New Mexico as a whole. Unfortunately, the review board of judges did not spot the attempt to take credit for someone else’s work before the Los Alamos team had been announced as the winner.”
Maria paused and turned to Barry Jenson, her co-anchor. Barry shook his blond head slowly for the benefit of the camera. “That is unbelievable.”
The camera shifted back to Maria. “That isn’t the worst of it. The communities of Los Alamos and White Rock had already welcomed home their winning team with a big celebration at the Los Alamos High School, complete with the mayors, school staff, and a large crowd of townspeople.”
The camera panned to Barry. “I can only imagine how betrayed the good people of those towns are feeling right now.”
As the camera zoomed out to catch a shot of both anchors, Maria raised her left eyebrow in a manner that indicated that the biggest news was yet to come. “If you think it couldn’t get worse, you’re wrong. It turns out that another member of the team was Los Alamos High School’s pride and joy, all-star, all-state basketball point guard, Mark Smythe.”
“I’ll tell you, Maria. If I hadn’t seen the reports myself, I would think you were making this up.”
“And I wouldn’t blame you.”
The camera shifted back to Barry’s handsome face one last time. “Well I’m sure that all our viewers out there are as shocked by this as Maria and I. You can bet we haven’t heard the last of this one.” Barry leaned back and shuffled the papers on the news desk. “That’s all for this morning. Maria and I will be right back here tomorrow morning, bringing you the latest from Action 7 News.”
The impact of the story left Heather numb. “Oh God. We’re…”
Mark nodded. “We’re screwed.”