They nodded. “Cutting it pretty close, though,” Raj said. “My birthday is coming up soon. Don’t forget it!” He didn’t have his usual jokey energy, though. It was getting late, and we were all kind of exhausted.
“Mine’s coming up too,” I said. “But that’s not the point. Ms. Davenport is an adult. And not just any adult—she’s a teacher, one of the people responsible for helping us grow up, and yet she’s put us in this horrible position. She’s magnified the things we did wrong and taken advantage of us being young and weak compared to her. I don’t want to have to admit everything, and it will probably ruin my life, but maybe if we go in together we can get some kind of deal, and then we can be sure her life will be ruined worse.” I didn’t know if it was necessarily the best idea—I’d lose everything I’d ever wanted, after all—but I didn’t know what else to do. Besides, there wasn’t much chance they’d go for it, anyway.
“No offense, Kara, but that sounds more like revenge than justice,” Alex said. “We have no idea how many people she has dirt on. If she decides to trade her story for something on everyone, wouldn’t the police be better off nailing a big group of us, rather than her?”
“I’m with Alex,” Justin said. “Believe me, we’re talking about a sizeable crowd here. I think the cops would go for numbers over just one person, even if she is the ringleader.”
I hadn’t thought this through. I always prided myself on being logical—Alex’s saying I was methodical was the best compliment I’d ever gotten—but being logical and being methodical weren’t always the same thing, and I was learning that sometimes I sacrificed one at the expense of the other. What was logical for me might not work for other people. And sometimes I got my logic wrong.
“What if we came up with another strategy?” I asked. “We could call in an anonymous tip. One of those Crimestoppers-type things.”
“Doesn’t solve the problem,” Justin said. “She could still use us as leverage for a better deal.”
“We need to be completely on top of who knows. Telling the police means we have no control over how they might use what we’ve learned,” Raj said. “That’s a recipe for all of us landing in jail.”
We kept throwing around ideas. I knew they’d reject anything that involved the police, but I appreciated that they were at least willing to talk it out. For a minute I sat back and watched while Alex and Raj debated the pros and cons of telling our parents, and Alex and Justin even managed to talk to each other without getting into an argument. Even as we were fighting about strategy, I felt something I hadn’t felt in a long time, at least not like this: I belonged. These were my friends. It was a strange time to acknowledge it, but in the moment, that’s how it felt.
I remembered having a similar feeling back when I was hanging out with Becca and Isabel. We’d be in Becca’s room, fighting over what we should do over the weekend or which boys were the cutest, and in the midst of all the yelling, I’d feel this sense of warmth, this security in the knowledge that these were my friends, that we could argue and disagree and still have each other’s backs. It hadn’t turned out to be true, but that was at least partly my fault. I found myself wishing Isabel were here and remembered that I was supposed to tell her what happened, but it was really late. I’d call her in the morning, or find her at school.
It was after midnight when Raj suggested an elaborate scheme involving burner cell phones and counterblackmail attempts, with packages of documentary evidence ready to send to newspapers if Ms. Davenport didn’t do our bidding.
“You’ve been watching too much TV,” I said. “I don’t think we’re going to figure this out tonight. Why don’t we all go home and get some sleep and think about it tomorrow, and we can meet up later on and decide what to do? There’s got to be something better than what we’ve come up with so far, and right now, none of us have any tasks scheduled for Blocked— I mean Ms. Davenport.” Hard to get used to saying her name in this context.
We agreed it was time to go. I dropped Alex off last. “We have a lot more information than we had yesterday,” I said. “Do you think it might be worth doing more research? I could come over after school and help.”
“It’s worth trying,” she said. “See you tomorrow.”
It had been a bizarre and terrible day, but now it was finally over. Or so I thought.
Mom and Dad were sitting in the living room when I came home. “Glad you decided to join us,” Dad said.
Uh-oh—Dad sarcasm was always a bad sign.
“We called you several times,” Mom said. “We texted, too. Why didn’t you answer?”
“I’m so sorry,” I said. “I was studying, so I shut off my ringer. I’m exhausted, though.” I faked as big a yawn as I could manage, complete with the over-the-head arm stretching. “Can we talk tomorrow?”
“We’re all here now,” Mom said. “Though we would have preferred to be sleeping. Do you realize what time it is?”