The next day at school, everyone is talking about Shayna’s movie. I’m with Kayla and Jen and Shayna when someone comes up to me and says, “That was some production, Neely.”
I start to tell her it wasn’t me, that I had nothing to do with it. But Kayla answers before I do. “She did a great job,” she says. “I think that’s the best practical joke I ever heard of.”
“But I didn’t—”
Jen jabs me in the side with her elbow. As soon as the girl dashes off, Kayla turns to me and says in a sweet voice, “Yours is the only recognizable face in that video, Neely. Except for your loser friend, of course.”
“Yeah, but I didn’t make that movie.”
“Oh?” More sweetness. The fake type. The type that makes you want to gag. “Well, I’m pretty sure that there’s no one who will back you up if you try to involve me or anyone else.”
Jen and Shayna are staring at me. I know that they will never betray Kayla. They probably have an alibi all worked out. They’ll deny, deny, deny. I also realize that I have no idea who any of the boys were. Or what Addie was doing in that wrecked old house. Or how they got her there.
I don’t know anything.
Except that anyone who sees that video is going to see my face.
“Don’t worry,” Kayla says. “It’s not like it’s a crime.”
She’s right about that. It’s a joke, not a crime.
I keep my head down. I refuse to talk to anyone about the video. I’m glad no one in my family sees it. I keep thinking about Addie. I want to ask her what she was doing out there. I want to find out what happened. But the way she looked at me when she was on those stairs, you would have thought was the one holding the knife and that I had just plunged it into her chest. I decide to wait and see what happens. Maybe the whole thing will blow over. She’ll be back at school, some people will give her a hard time, and that will be that. But that isn’t that. Addie isn’t at school on Monday. She isn’t there Tuesday or Wednesday either. On Thursday, I get called down to the office. The cops are there. So are my parents.
“Sit down, Neely,” Ms. LaPointe says. She’s one of the vice-principals. “These officers want to ask you some questions.”
I glance at my mom. She looks upset. My dad is stone-faced.
I sit.
The cops explain to me that the school computer has been hacked and that the school has asked them to look into it. They say they got help from a computer expert from the city and that he was able to trace the computer that was involved. It’s mine.
“Did you hack into the school computer, Neely?” one of the cops asks.
“No.”
“Neely, we know your computer was involved. Did you let someone else use it?”
I think of Kayla and Jen. I think of them sticking together and of Kayla’s threat. I think about getting into trouble no matter what I say.
“I don’t know anything about it.”
“What about that video?” the cop asks. “You’re in it. And the link for it was emailed to the whole school from your computer.”
“I don’t know anything about that either.”
My dad clucks in disgust.
“Your mother tells me you’ve been running with a new crowd. Are they involved?”
Kayla will deny it. Jen and Shayna will back her up. They’ll back each other up. And no one is recognizable. No one except me.
“The school is laying charges for hacking the computer, Neely,” the cop says. “If there was some charge for what you did to that girl, I’d pursue that too.”
“The school has a policy,” Ms. LaPointe says. “What you did is cyberbullying. There will be consequences.”
The next thing I know, I’m arrested and taken to the police station. Class is still in, but that doesn’t stop kids from looking out the window and seeing me. The news will be all over school in no time.
My dad calls a lawyer, who doesn’t seem all that interested in hearing my side of the story. He just wants me to keep my mouth shut until he can get me released to my parents. Which he does. My dad takes me home. He doesn’t say a single word the whole way there. He just drives and parks and lets me out of the truck. As I walk up to the house, he strides out to the barn as if he can’t wait to put distance between us.
I go straight to my room, even though I hear my mother in the kitchen. It isn’t long before she’s knocking at my door, asking if she can come in.
I tell her yes. Might as well. She’s going to do it anyway.
She sits on the end of my bed. “Do you want to tell me what happened?”
“I made a mistake,” I say. What I don’t say is that Kayla planned this whole thing. She wasn’t just out to get Addie—she was out to get me too. And she got me good.
“I can’t believe you did what they say. Not all by yourself, anyway.” My mom reaches out to touch my leg. I find myself recoiling. I hate myself for it. “Did those other girls have anything to do with it?”
She asks it as if it’s a question, but the look on her face tells me she knows it for a fact.
“That girl Kayla,” she says. “She was trying too hard to flatter me. Maybe I’m wrong, but I got the impression she was making fun of me somehow.”
I start to cry. I throw myself into my mother’s arms. I love her so much.