Focus, Addie!
As I’m staring down at the test paper in front of me, I can’t help but notice that I have a perfect view of Kyle Lewis’s test paper. He’s sitting just in front of me and to my left, but because he is left-handed, I’ve got a great view of his paper. And Kyle always gets straight A’s in math.
Of course, that would be cheating. There’s no two ways about it—looking at the test paper of another student would be seriously wrong, and while I have done a lot of bad things in my life, I always thought of myself as the sort of person who would never do that.
Except if I don’t, I am definitely going to fail this midterm.
Damn it.
Okay, what if I just look at the answer for a few of the questions? I don’t need to copy all of them, just enough to get a passing grade. I mean, it’s not like trigonometry is something that will be useful to me in the future. It’s not like I’m missing out on some extremely important life skill. Poetry is probably more useful than trigonometry, and that’s saying a lot.
Before I can stop myself, I find myself copying down Kyle’s answers. Thankfully, they are multiple choice questions, and showing work is not required, although I try to scrawl down a few things because I don’t want it to look like… Well, I don’t want it to look like I copied the answers off the guy sitting in front of me.
After Mrs. Bennett calls time, I pass my paper up to the front with the rest of the class. Even though most of my answers are correct for a change, I have a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach.
I cheated. I’ve never done anything like that before.
Maybe deep down, I’m just as bad as my father.
But I need to look on the bright side. I was looking at a failing grade on that exam, and while I didn’t copy all Kyle’s answers, because that would’ve been super suspicious, I’m pretty sure I got enough right to score a B.
As I pack up my belongings, a shadow falls over me. I raise my head, and Kenzie is looking down on me. She sits two seats behind me on the left, and I’d managed to nearly forget she was there, except for the fact that she always manages to kick my backpack when she walks by me. But now she isn’t walking by me. She is standing directly over me.
“So, Addie,” she says, “did you get a good look at Kyle’s paper?”
All the blood drains out of my face. “What?”
“Dude, you were so obvious.” She rolls her eyes. “I’m sure even Mrs. Bennett saw you staring at his paper. But in case she didn’t…”
I realize what she is getting at. Kenzie saw me looking at Kyle’s test paper, and she’s going to tell on me. If I did something like that to her, I would be tormented for it. But Kenzie can get away with anything.
“Please don’t do this.” I hate to beg her, but I can’t have another scandal at the school. I can’t. “I wasn’t… I mean, maybe just one or two answers, that’s it.”
She shrugs. “I know what I saw, Addie.”
Kenzie strides out of the classroom, going much faster than me with her long, slender legs. She really is just physically so obnoxiously perfect. I can’t even blame Hudson for liking her. Even though I hate her.
“Kenzie…” I am huffing and puffing to keep up with her as she walks down the hall, in the opposite direction of my next class. I’m probably going to end up being late, but I need to prioritize. “Please don’t talk to Mrs. Bennett. Please. I’ll do anything you want.”
Kenzie comes to an abrupt halt. She turns to look at me, her blue eyes flashing. “Anything?”
“Yes! Anything.”
“Fine.” She taps a finger against her teeth. Her nails are painted ice blue. “When we get to English class today, I want you to get down on your hands and knees and lick the floor.”
My mouth falls open. “Lick the floor?”
She nods. “For sixty seconds.”
I don’t even know what to say. If it were some other class… Well, I’m not sure I would do it, because, like, gross. But I definitely am not going to lick the floor in front of Mr. Bennett. God, what would he think of me?
“I’m not doing that,” I say.
“In that case…” Her eyes twinkle. “I guess Mrs. Bennett and I are going to have a little talk.”
“Please, Kenzie,” I whimper. “I made a terrible mistake. I’ve never done anything like that before. I’m not a bad person.”
“That,” Kenzie says, “is debatable.”
With those words, she turns away from me, practically smacking me in the face with her long blond hair. Why does Kenzie hate me so much? I never did anything to her. And it doesn’t seem like she would do this because of Mr. Tuttle. It must have something to do with Hudson.
Is it possible Hudson told her our secret?
If that’s true, I have even worse problems than Mrs. Bennett finding out that I cheated on the trigonometry midterm.
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Chapter Thirty-Two
ADDIE
WHILE I AM SITTING in Mr. Bennett’s English class (not licking the floor, even though Kenzie keeps shooting me pointed looks), a student enters the room with a folded piece of paper in her hand, interrupting Mr. Bennett right in the middle of discussing a Robert Frost poem. When he raises his eyebrows, the student says, “I have a note for Adeline Severson.”
Mr. Bennett takes the note. He opens it up and reads the contents, and his lips turn down. For a moment, his brown eyes meet mine. “Thank you,” he says to the student. “I’ll make sure she gets it.”
I’ve never wished for superpowers before, but right now, I would give anything for X-ray vision to let me see what was on that piece of paper. But Mr. Bennett puts it down on his desk, and he goes right back to discussing Robert Frost. As if I could concentrate on how nothing gold can stay right now.
Sure enough, as soon as the bell rings, Mr. Bennett cocks his finger at me. I trudge over to his desk, and he holds out the note to me. I can’t stop my hands from shaking slightly as I read the contents:
Adeline,
Please come to my classroom immediately after your last period.
Eve Bennett
Oh no. I can’t believe Kenzie told her so quickly.
“What’s that all about?” Mr. Bennett asks me, although his voice is gentle. There’s a tiny crease between his eyebrows.
“I have no idea,” I lie.
Mr. Bennett doesn’t look like he believes me, but he doesn’t push me further. “If you have any problems, you know you can tell me, right?”
His offer is so nice, I almost burst into tears. But the worst part is that if he knew what I did—that I copied off another student—he would be so disappointed in me. I wouldn’t want to get his help for that reason alone. Then again, Mrs. Bennett is his wife. There’s no confidentiality here, and if she thinks I did something wrong, she’ll tell him all about it. She’ll tell everyone.
“I’m fine,” I say. It’s another lie, but whatever.
Mr. Bennett’s eyes are on my back as I walk out of the room. I try to tell myself that this could be about something else. The ominous note does not necessarily mean that Mrs. Bennett knows I was copying Kyle’s paper. Maybe she just wants to help me with some tutoring suggestions. But then why would she ask to see me “immediately” and have another student send me a note?
When I get to Mrs. Bennett’s classroom, she is sitting at her desk and appears to be grading some of the midterm exams. She’s gripping her red pen, and her brow is furrowed in concentration. As I watch her, I genuinely can’t figure out what Mr. Bennett could possibly see in her. She’s attractive enough, but she’s got a frown permanently burned into her face. How can he stand it?
“Mrs. Bennett?” I knock gently on the door to her classroom, even though it’s already open. “Do you want to see me?”
“Yes.” Her lips are a straight line across her face, almost like they have vanished into her mouth. “Have a seat, Adeline.”