By the time I make it to Mr. Werner’s office, I’m this close to puking. He knows. I’m busted. I’m going to be kicked out of school. That’s basically worse than dying.
I watch as my hand rises and knocks on his door.
“Come in,” he says. Doesn’t even ask who it is. He knows it’s me, the dirty cheater who deserves to be expelled.
No. I’m not the dirty cheater. He is. Remember that. I turn the doorknob and walk inside. I have to remind myself not to hunch my shoulders.
“Sit.” It’s delivered as a command, and my body reacts instinctively, practically falling into the chair opposite of Mr. Werner. I can’t even look at him. I look at my hands and find that they’re wringing tightly. Loosen up, hands. They refuse.
“Do you know why you’re here?” he says.
I manage to give a small shake of the head.
“You’re here because I’ve just finished grading the last test.”
Is that a question? Should I say something? I should stop looking down at my stupid hands, at least. I try to meet his eye. Fail. Settle for his neck instead. “Uh-huh?”
“You did very well, Lia.”
I internally scream at my face until it stretches into a smile. “Yay.”
“Yay indeed. To be honest, I wasn’t expecting such a dramatic improvement.”
“I studied really hard for it,” I say, as earnestly as I can. I mean, to be fair, I really did study hard for it.
“I’m sure. Tell me, what are your thoughts on question number five?”
I can practically smell my brain cells frying as my mind short-circuits itself trying to think of an acceptable answer. “That’s the question on uh—”
“Why was the severed sow’s head nicknamed the Lord of the Flies?”
“Oh right. Yeah.” I struggle to recall my answer. Or rather, SiliconBrains’s answer. “Because. Um.”
“You said because it literally has flies swarming around it.”
“Ah, yes. Uh-huh.”
Mr. Werner narrows his eyes. “Lia. That wasn’t your answer. You said because it symbolizes Satan, who is sometimes called the Lord of the Flies.”
“Did I?” Oh god, I’m going to throw up. “I’ve had a really long day, I can’t remember all of my answers.”
“Because you cheated.” He says it so simply, like he’s telling me I’ve got ketchup on my blazer. I feel like my entire face just caught fire.
“I didn’t—”
“You did,” he says, and he’s still so calm, like yep, you totally did, whatever. “We have a zero-tolerance policy on cheating. I’m afraid I have to report you to Mrs. Henderson—”
“If you do that, I’ll tell Mrs. Henderson you’re selling grades to your students!” And it’s out, just like that. Holy shit, I can’t believe I said it. My entire body is pulsing, like my heart’s taken over everything, and I’m just one giant BOOM, BOOM, BOOM. Somehow, I’m glaring at Mr. Werner, and I can’t look away, can’t tear my eyes from his pale gaze, and whoa, I’m on my feet, when did I stand up—
Mr. Werner blinks. Then he throws his head back and laughs, this totally eerie laugh that makes me want to claw my face off because it’s so discordant, so wrong, he’s most definitely a possessed doll come to life.
“That’s just the most—oh god, this is hilarious. Excuse me, but it’s just so ridiculous—” He goes back to laughing madly.
“I have proof!”
“Oh? Do tell.” He’s still grinning like a shark.
“I—” I don’t. Why did I say I have proof? All I have is the test paper from SiliconBrains, someone I don’t know. Someone who probably stole it from Mr. Werner in the first place. “I have proof,” I say again, “and trust me, you don’t want to tell Mrs. Henderson.”
His face twitches. “Don’t tell me what I want or don’t want. Know what I want? I want to keep my job.”
“Am I in the way of that?”
An eternity passes before he answers. “My in-laws.”
“Come again?” What the heck do I have to do with his in-laws?
That twitch again. “Daniel’s parents.”
Right. That bizarre familial connection.
“They called,” he says. “They don’t want you to keep seeing Daniel.”
Wow. This is not real. This is—no. “Did I just step into a K-drama? What’s going on?”
“You’re not stupid. You know why.”
The phone call from Danny’s mom. Danny telling her she’s racist. My own mother’s struggle to be accepted by Papa’s family. There’s a feeling in my stomach, this horrible clench like when you bite into a piece of fruit and realize it’s rotten. I’m thinking of Ibu now. Realizing just how much of this hate she’s had to go through. Papa’s whole family seeing her as nothing more than a brown woman.
“I’ll stop seeing Danny,” I say, desperately. “We’ll just be friends. Please, don’t report me.”
“I don’t think they’ll believe that.”
“So I’m going to be expelled because I started dating the wrong guy?” My entire future is about to be destroyed because I’m the wrong color.
“If it makes you feel better, that’s not quite true. You’re going to be expelled because you cheated on my test.” He picks up his phone and starts dialing.
And then. Something magical happens.
The door to his office swings open, and Mandy strides in, saying, “Here’s the rest of the money—”
The only thing wider than my eyes is my mouth. And Mandy’s mouth. It’s just for a second, then she quickly recovers and says, “For the school trip. What’re you doing here?”
“What school trip?” I say.
Mandy glares at me. “The school trip from last semester.”
“Where did you guys go?”
“The museum,” Mandy says.
“Which museum?” I’m relentless. I’m a shark that smells blood.
“MoMA. In SF.”
“Why would an English Lit class go to the MoMA?”
“Enough.” Mr. Werner’s voice silences us both. “Come back later,” he says to Mandy.
She shoots me her very best bitch face and then stalks out with a hair flick. I turn back to look at Mr. Werner. I have no idea if I have enough to report him—in fact, I probably don’t—but this is enough to shake the board, surely?
“So you were telling me about how you’re not selling grades to your students?” My voice comes out a lot calmer than I’m feeling.
Mr. Werner looks almost bored. “It’ll be your word against mine.”
Shit, he’s right. It’ll be me, a struggling kid from a neighborhood known for its delinquents against him, a well-respected teacher. I struggle to remain confident. “Yeah, but if I reported you, they’ll have to do an investigation, just in case.”
“And they’ll find nothing. I’m nothing if not meticulous. This is a service I’m offering only to a select few of my students. It doesn’t affect the other students’ grades overmuch, certainly nothing that would look off to anyone else.”
“What if I paid? Like the other kids do?”
“You won’t be able to afford it. There’s a reason why only the wealthiest students can take up my offer. An A costs twenty thousand dollars.”
My hand goes to my kris pendant, squeezing it, my thumb going over the familiar grooves on the sheath. “I don’t need an A. I just need to pass.”
“A C goes for ten thousand. Per test.”
I glare at him, searching every part of my mind for something. Anything.
“Sophie!”
“Yes, what about her?”
Talk about grasping at straws. But you know what? Even straws are better than nothing. “She knows what you’re doing.” A flash of Sophie, kicking madly. “We’ve been talking.” If her gouging cryptic messages on my wall counts as talking. “She says she’s got proof. I wasn’t sure before, but if there’s two of us reporting you, they’ll investigate—”
“And, like I just said, they’ll find nothing.”
“Maybe not on you, but what about the kids?” I’m on to something now. I can feel it, same way dogs can sense the hunt. “Your customers. Not all of them are going to be as anal as you. Look how careless Mandy was. It’s not gonna take much to find something on her or any of your other customers. We’re kids!” I spit the word at him.
Mr. Werner doesn’t say anything for a while, but his jaw clenches and grinds as he watches me. He doesn’t look bored anymore, so I know—I know—I’ve got him. He can’t take me down as easily as he thought. “I don’t have a choice, Lia.”
“You do! You could—” What? What can he do? “Just give me some time. Just—I’ll look into transferring out of here.” Crazy. Completely nuts. But I can’t think of anything else right now. “I’ll tell them it’s a family emergency or whatever. I’ll make it work. Please, Mr. Werner.” My voice comes out trembly with tears. “I can’t—I need this. For college.”
He closes his eyes. “I’ll think about it.”
He won’t. But maybe I’ve bought myself a bit of time.