TEN

 

I’m not stupid. I tried to prepare for this job, just like Ms. Williams suggested. It still seemed weird that I was chosen when there are so many eager-beaver overachievers at my school. Even my friends couldn’t believe I got picked. But it seemed like a good deal with no catch, so I thought I should make some effort.

I looked up Polichat online a little at school. It was kind of boring. And obviously I wasn’t actually a reporter for the school newspaper—I just wrote that one article, and Aviante helped with it. I didn’t usually read newspapers and that kind of stuff. So I didn’t really know anything about being a reporter. But it just seemed like asking people questions and snooping. I can do that, right? Right, I told myself to push away nervous feelings.

I didn’t really know what I wanted to do after graduation. Denise makes good money as a flight attendant, and she gets to travel everywhere. But she says the job can be hard when people are mean or she flies overnight. And boring a lot of the time too.

Sometimes I did like to write, especially when Jeannie assigned stories. But my favorite subjects in school were choir and accounting. Accounting was kind of an easy class, but I like money, even fake money. I liked adding it up and seeing how much there is. It made me feel like when I’m grown, I won’t have to worry about money all the time like my mom. I was going to be a senior next year, so I probably should have been thinking about that stuff.

Within minutes of being in the office with Chaz, I was focused less on his hot body and more on panicking and trying to hide it. It was like he and the three other people in the office were speaking a foreign language when they were talking about their jobs.

I should have read a lot more or asked Bosley more questions. Now I felt like I had to BS. Or maybe it was okay I didn’t know any of this stuff. I mean, I am just a high school kid.

I decided to just listen a lot. There was another girl—Maya, I think Chaz said. Maybe I could ask her later about things. I didn’t want to look dumb again in front of Chaz.

“We’ve got a new project we’re all excited about,” Chaz was saying. “You know Jeff Johnson?”

I hesitated. Was I supposed to?

Chaz smiled. “It’s okay. He’s a, a …”

“A tool,” Maya said sourly.

“I believe he calls himself a searchlight for truth,” one of the other guys laughed.

“Wha-aaat?” I couldn’t help saying.

“Exactly,” said Maya. “Basically, he secretly videotapes people and tries to make them look bad to prove that his pathetic beliefs are right.”

“Like, he’s looking in their windows?” I asked, confused. Denise had an ex-boyfriend who was always trying to look in her windows after they broke up. Then she got a restraining order. Scary stuff.

“No, no,” said Chaz, giving Maya a look. “He interviews them. I mean, he’s usually pretending to be someone else, not a reporter, but he’s just talking to them and videotaping what really happens.”

“And then he takes that videotape and edits it. He switches stuff around and cuts things out to make a totally new reality. He’s a con man, not a journalist,” Maya countered.

“Well, not this time,” said Chaz, turning back to a computer again. “He gave us the raw tape, and it looks pretty bad for the mayor.”

Can you see why I was confused?

“Here,” Chaz said to me. “Why don’t you watch the video for yourself.”