“Oh, that’s just terrific,” I said out loud.
Nobody even looked up. I was just another crazy person talking to herself on the train. Now what did I have to look forward to?
moi I’m guessing it’s not a tin of cookies.
Before getting off the train, I airdropped ten bucks to the sleeping man’s Cred-It Card, which came up on my Doc as Pleese Help, Gary. Just as my Doc screamed again.
And for the record, I say when it’s time to take the video down.
Not if I find you first, betch, I thought.
“Frankly, Kyle. It’s incriminating.”
“No, it looks incriminating,” I said.
With only five days until college admissions deadlines (and, no, I hadn’t contacted a single admissions office), I didn’t make it to the Walk. As if she were our fifth member, Dr. Graff met me at the front entrance. Would I be so kind as to speak with her in her office? Usually Graff messaged your school tablet if she wanted to see you. Her in person? Not good. Fawn had been about to come out and meet me; instead she let the boy next to her keep talking. My Doc dinged.
fawnal Will wait here.
Audra’s avat had been red all morning. She hadn’t contributed at all to our group thread since Christmas Eve. The only personal txt I’d received from her since yesterday had come only moments before. Busy was all it said. I assumed that meant she wasn’t coming in. This was the third day in a row I hadn’t seen or spoken to her. At least she’d sent around her theme last night: Like a Virgin.
In honor of me, I supposed.
At the moment, I couldn’t be more grateful for it, because as Dr. Graff scrolled through the pics of me and Mr. E. standing out in front of his building last night, my one consolation was my knee-length skirt and fitted blazer. It was almost like Audra had known I’d be sitting here.
“Clearly, there’s no denying you were at Mr. Ehrenreich’s apartment building yesterday.”
Nope, no denying it. Especially not with Dr. Graff flicking through the photos that AnyLies had posted on the Student Activities board. There was Mr. E. leading me into his building by my hand. There was Mr. E. gesturing as if we were having a lovers’ quarrel. Never mind that I was leaving, not entering, the building. Never mind that we weren’t holding hands, we were shaking them, and that he’d only walked me outside to make sure I was safe. Never mind that he was telling me he hoped he never saw me again.
“And I don’t even know what to make of this video.”
It was the video someone had recorded from the blank FaceAlert window on my room screen the first night after the Mr. E. video posted. Now it was linked to the photos as a related video on YurTube. The whole world could see me with my hair in a topknot, my retainer in, telling myself I could fix this, that it would all be okay. I sounded all-caps GUILTY, like the caller had caught me as I was flicking through the photos in the middle of a huge freak-out. Then my terrified face when I realized they were recording me. And, fine, normally I might have laughed at the almost-fell-over part, if the video had been of anyone else but me.
The video still exists. You can search it. Last time I checked it had 350,000 views. The pics-vid combo was my belated Christmas gift from AnyLies. She’d titled everything “Kisses.”
My Doc and profile were blowing up again. The whole school felt as buzzy as on the day the video dropped. At least I knew one thing: AnyLies drove a yellow Hydrogen Coop. And I guess if AnyLies was in the car, that couldn’t have been Jessie on the train. Though it couldn’t have been Jessie in either place. She was in Istanbul, right?
Dr. Graff took a decorative pen from a holder on her desk and clicked it, unblinkingly waiting for my response.
“Mr. E. and I were brainstorming who might have done this to us,” I said.
Or at least I was. Mr. E. was mainly cleaning and acting like a disgruntled child, but I didn’t think telling Dr. Graff that would help my case any.
“Kyle.” Dr. Graff frowned. “As noble as your reasons were for being there, you must see how much more indelicate this makes an already extremely indelicate situation. I feel that we are working against each other. We need to be on the same side.”
“I’m sorry to disagree, Dr. Graff,” I said carefully. “But in my view, the most unseemly thing is that I am repeatedly being bullied literally, or well, virtually, on the boards of my school, and my school is doing nothing about it. Why are these pics even still posted?” I cleared my throat. “Doctor…Ma’am.”
Dr. Graff flicked the holoscreen away and kept clicking the pen.
“Yes, about that,” she said. “I conferred with the head of the board of trustees this morning. He spoke with the other board members and they all think it would be in the best interests of everyone involved if you were to stay home from school for the rest of the week. You can restart fresh in the new year. By then things should have calmed down.”
She said it so gently that the words took a click to sink in. When they did, I blurted out, “You’re suspending me?”
Never mind my perfect attendance. My whole Park Prep career would be negated. A suspension would go on my record. Every college would see it. Plus, it quite simply was not warranted.
Graff cleared her throat. “It’s not a suspension, per se, as much as a small leave of absence. Mr. Rosenthal and the rest believe a little time away from school will lessen the disruption this incident is causing—”
“Mr. Rosenthal? As in Jessie’s dad? Dr. Graff, I’m not entirely sure it isn’t Jessie who’s masterminding this whole thing. And now her father wants me suspended?”
“Jessie’s father is the head of a multibillion-dollar company. I’m sure he has more important things to do than involve himself with his daughter’s school rivalries or take down one of her classmates.”
My eyes grew wide. Only through a strong sense of self-preservation did I stop myself from blurting out, Can you hear yourself right now? I mean, when had a multibillion-dollar company ever cheated? Only all-caps ALL THE TIME. Park Prep always claimed it prepared you for the real world. Welcome to it, Kyla.
“Besides, between you and me, he has already spoken to Jessie about the flash-mob gag in the hallway and the video of your tiff with Ms. Cyr.”
“He did? What did Jessie say?”
Graff puckered her lips. “She said she had nothing to do with either of those things.”