Her notes. Cade must have stolen them out of her bedroom. Her heart sped up as Dr. Stratford paged through the papers, the sheets crackling under rough fingers.
“Cade, I do believe you’ll be staying after class with Tyler. We’ll be discussing the zero you’ll be receiving in my course, and the fact that you will never be welcome here again. Oh, and”—he paused, scanning the notes—“Ivy McWhellen? Seeing as how you were so very excited to share your wisdom, I feel like we should have a similar discussion.”
Ivy’s heart moved into her throat. Dr. Stratford couldn’t do that. Cade had stolen the notes. It wasn’t like Ivy was sitting next to him, feeding him answers.
Surely Cade would clear it up. He’d tell Stratford the truth.
But then, Ivy hadn’t been very nice to Cade. Maybe he’d take the opportunity to let her burn right along with him.
“Sir—” Ivy said, standing up.
“Sit,” Stratford said, pointing down. “There’s no talking during tests, Ms. McWhellen. We’ll all have plenty of time for a little chat when everyone else leaves.”
The wind picked up as he spoke, rattling the branches of the trees and throwing wet leaves against the windowpanes. Somewhere, far away, a faint police siren began to sound.
The high, keening wail made the hair on the back of Ivy’s neck stand up. Suddenly, more than anything in the world, she wanted to leave. She should have turned in her half-finished test and left with Mattie. She stared toward the door and back at her test.
She wasn’t even close.
The sky darkened further. Thunder exploded and shook the room. The electricity flickered off for just a moment, and the room was utterly silent—no air-conditioning, no buzz of electric lights—save for the wind battering at the window, making the glass creak and click in the panes, and then the electricity came back on with a rush of sound.
There were four of them left. Cade, Tyler, Ivy, and Kinley, who was scribbling furiously, completely blind to anything happening around her. Every once in a while, she paused, flexed her hand, and then went back to writing furiously.
“I can’t stay here all night.” Mr. Stratford put his hands on his hips. “Kinley, you have five minutes.”
Ivy put her head down. She wasn’t sure if Stratford would even accept her test, but she was going to do her best, and she was damn well going to fight to stay here. She hadn’t done anything wrong. And with everything else, the last thing she needed was to go down in a cheating scandal with Cade Sano.
“Time,” Stratford called, tapping two fingers on his wrist. “Okay, please bring your tests forward.”
Kinley’s head jerked up, and her lip trembled. She put her hands on her neck for a moment, and then she walked very slowly to Dr. Stratford’s desk, like she was visiting the executioner instead of just a professor, and, very deliberately, laid the test on the top of the pile.
She turned around. “Dr. Stratford, I don’t suppose I might discuss some of those questions with you?”
He chuckled. “I’ll tell you what, Kinley. If you can wait out Thing One and Thing Two here”—he gestured to Cade and Tyler—“and then let me finish dealing with Ivy, I’ll let you ask one question.” He tapped his forehead. “Use it well. Now, Mr. Sano.” He fixed his eyes on the back of the room, and Cade came slumping out of his desk, never once breaking eye contact with the professor.
Kinley stood behind the desk. She pulled her test from the pile and crushed it to her chest, like Cade might actually be trying to steal her precious answers.
Ivy stood up too, hesitantly, and behind her, she heard Tyler’s seat squeak across the floor.
Everything happened very quickly from there.
It started at Cade’s neckline. The redness began as a slow build from the top of his chest to his chin, and then blossomed over his face.
“Sir,” Cade began, “my father—”
Dr. Stratford stood up, and looked Cade straight in the eye. “Son, do you think I give a flying fuck about who your father is?”
Behind Dr. Stratford, Kinley covered her mouth. Stratford, as if this conversation were taxing him more than anyone could imagine, took off his glasses and set them on the desk. He rubbed the bridge of his nose, like he was in some sort of great pain.
Cade’s face reddened further. “You should, sir. Everyone else does. And I think he’d be very disappointed to find that you failed me for notes I wasn’t even using.”
Dr. Stratford’s face didn’t change. “So you regularly go around with notes in your lap that you aren’t using? Did you wear them to dinner last night, Mr. Sano? Did they accompany you to the gym?”