The next day, Mrs. Dominguez called into Neecy’s first period class and asked that she come down to the principal’s office.
As Neecy walked down the stairs, she ran into Luther Ransome and Chance Ruffin.
“What’s going on, girl?” Luther asked.
“No clue,” Neecy answered truthfully.
“Do you know, homes?” he asked Chance.
“Dunno nothin’,” Chance answered.
They waited in the outer office for a few minutes. Mrs. Dominguez got a call and then stood up.
“You may go in now,” she said. “You’re in the conference room.”
Neecy led the way into the large room across from Mrs. Hess’s office. At the door, she stopped so suddenly that Luther walked into her. Sitting around the table were Principal Hess, Mr. Gable, Mr. Sullivan, Mr. Fisher—the district’s tech support guy—and a couple of other men in suits. There were two laptops open on the table.
“Come in, Neecy. Hello, Luther and Chance. Please come in and take a seat,” Mrs. Hess said.
Neecy sat in the first open seat. She didn’t know what this was about, but she didn’t like the feel of it.
“Students, the reason you’re here is because we’ve found some irregularities in your grades,” Mrs. Hess said.
Neecy looked at Mr. Sullivan. He was looking at Luther, as if to watch for a reaction. Mr. Sullivan seemed to sense Neecy looking at him because his eyes shifted her way. As their eyes met, he winked. Neecy realized it was his way of telling her not to worry. She relaxed a bit.
“What kind of regularities?” Chance said.
“Irregularities,” Mrs. Hess corrected. “Grades have been changed. We’re here today to find out how it was done.”
Luther had said nothing so far. His arms were crossed in front of his chest. Neecy noticed that he was wearing a Washington Redskins football jersey with the number twenty-one. The same number he wore on Cap Central’s football and basketball teams.
“I know my grade was changed, but I have no idea how,” Neecy said. “I told Mr. Sullivan when I realized it. I think it was changed the day after our final test.”
“How did you discover the change?” one of the men in suits asked.
“I checked my grade online after Mr. Sullivan gave us back our exams, and I had gotten a seventy-two,” Neecy explained. “Then I got my report card, and my math grade was much higher than I expected. I checked again and my exam grade was a ninety-nine.”
Beside her, she felt Luther jerk, as if he’d gotten a cramp.
“Luther, you look like you’d like to say something,” Mrs. Hess said.
“Nah, I’m cool,” he said. His voice sounded funny, like his jaw was stuck.
“Your grade was changed as well,” Mrs. Hess said. “Had you noticed?”
“I don’t bother to check my grades much.” Luther smirked. “I’m not obsessed with school like Neecy.”
“That’s interesting, because your online account shows you logged in the day after Mr. Sullivan said he returned the tests. At eight thirty at night,” Mr. Fisher said, looking at the laptop.
“Any explanation, Luther?” Mrs. Hess asked.
“Okay, look, you’re right,” he admitted. “I knew my grade had changed. But I just figured Mr. Sullivan changed it for some reason.”
Mr. Sullivan gave a short laugh.
“How about you, Chance? Did you notice any changes to your grades?”
“I never check my grades,” Chance said gruffly. “And I didn’t even get that test back. I wasn’t in class that day. So I wouldn’t know if the grade I got was right or not.”
Mr. Fisher hit some keys. “There’s no sign that Chance accessed his school account. In fact, it looks like he never even set it up with a user name or password.”
“Did either of you change your grades?” Mrs. Hess asked.
Luther and Chance both yelled at once.
“No way!”
“Get out of here!”
“Okay, okay, calm down,” Mrs. Hess said, holding up her hand. “Do either of you have a suspicion as to who changed them?”
“Besides Mr. Sullivan?” Luther asked.
“Right,” Mrs. Hess said. “Any other ideas?”
No one said anything. Had Luther been smarter, Neecy would have bet that he had done it himself. But she knew he didn’t have the skill to circumvent the school’s computer security.
But she knew he somehow played a role. She just knew it.
“Let me just say something here,” Mrs. Hess said. “This is a serious security breach. Whoever did this is in big trouble. Whoever comes clean first is going to be looked at favorably by all these people. Those two are from the school system’s security team. And this gentleman is a D.C. police detective assigned to the public schools.”
Neecy knew she hadn’t done anything wrong. And yet, she was terrified. She felt like she was going to go to jail. She couldn’t imagine how she would have felt had she actually done this herself.
Still, no one said anything.
“Did you see anything else in your grades that was suspicious?” one of the security guys asked. “Anything alarm bells ring for you?”
“Not really,” Neecy said. “All my other grades were correct.”
“How about you two?” Mrs. Hess asked. “This is the time to pass along anything that you think could help us with our investigation.”
“There is something …” Luther said slowly.
“Go ahead, son,” the detective said. “What is it?”
“I got an e-mail a few nights ago that really spooked me. I didn’t know what to do about it, so I didn’t tell anyone.”
“What kind of e-mail?” the detective asked.
“It was—this is really embarrassing,” Luther said. “It was, you know, inappropriate. It had a picture attached. I don’t know who sent it, but it seemed like maybe it was from a teacher here. I actually wondered …” his voice trailed off.
“Go ahead,” Mrs. Hess coaxed.
“I actually thought it might have been Mr. Sullivan who sent it,” he said. “Especially after I saw that he had changed my grade.”
“I never—” Mr. Sullivan started.
Mrs. Hess put a hand on his arm. “Mike, let this play out,” she said. “Luther, was the e-mail from Mr. Sullivan?”
“I think it was,” Luther said. “The name was ‘TeacherCrusher.’ And the message said something about how much he hoped I’d someday do what was in the picture.”
“Wait, I got that e-mail too!” Chance said. “I didn’t know who it was from, so I didn’t bother to open the picture. I figured it was spam.”
“How about you, Luther? Did you open the picture?” Mr. Fisher asked.
“Yeah. It was really disturbing,” Luther said. “I deleted it right away. But it’s probably still in my trash if you want to see it,” he added helpfully.
“Sure, why not?” Mr. Fisher said. “Why don’t you each sit at these laptops and log in so we can see these messages.”
Luther and Chance walked around the table and logged in to their personal accounts.
“Here it is,” Luther said.
Mr. Fisher read the e-mail. “Open the picture, please,” he said.
Luther tried clicking. “I don’t know what’s wrong,” he said. “It opened at home. It was disgusting. It was like … porn.”
Neecy looked at Mr. Sullivan. He was slowly shaking his head back and forth.
Mr. Fisher clicked a few keys, and one of the security guys made a few suggestions. Then they all looked at the screen.
“What the—” Luther started. His expression went from fake innocence to what could only be described as absolute rage.
Mr. Fisher turned the computer around so that it was facing the rest of the group. On the screen was a picture of a Washington Redskins football player wearing jersey number twenty-one. Luther’s face had been superimposed over the face of the real athlete.
“What was it about this photo that you found so disturbing?” Mr. Fisher asked. “You’re dressed just like this today.”
“But that’s not the—” Luther stopped himself from saying anything more. He stood up and walked back to his seat. He threw himself down. Every muscle in his body seemed tense, like if he could, he would have punched the life out of someone.
“So this message says that the sender hoped someday you’d play for the Redskins. And you thought it was porn? How does this have anything to do with your math grade being changed? Help me out here, son, because none of this is making sense,” Mr. Fisher said.
“We’re ready over here too,” one of the school system security guys said. “Same sender. Same message. Different picture.”
He turned the computer around so everyone could see. On it was a group of graduates in caps and gowns. Chance’s face had been superimposed over the face of one of the graduates.
Luther was breathing hard. Neecy wondered if everyone could hear how agitated he sounded. “Sit back down, son,” the man said to Chance.
Mr. Fisher pointed to something on the laptop he’d used to access Luther’s e-mail. He clicked a few keys and stopped. Then the security guy clicked a few times on the laptop that held Chance’s e-mail. Then he stopped.
“Boys, what are you playing at here?” Mr. Fisher asked. “Do you really think we’re too stupid to know what you’re up to?”
No one said a word.
“Why don’t you tell us, Mr. Fisher?” Mrs. Hess said. She sounded puzzled.
“Well, these e-mails were forwarded to these students from other accounts. They didn’t originate with TeacherCrusher, whoever that is. The original account names are at the bottom, so we can see where they were sent from initially.”
“And?” Mrs. Hess urged.
“Are those your account names, gentlemen, ‘HandsomeRansome’ and…” Mr. Fisher cleared his throat. “Um, ‘TakeAChance’?”
“Get out!” Chance yelled. “I never—”
“Mrs. Hess,” Mr. Fisher said incredulously. “They sent these e-mails to each other.”
Luther shook his head slowly. Neecy would have bet he didn’t know the e-mails had come from their accounts. Suddenly, she remembered the e-mail message from GoodTimeCharlieRay that resulted in her kissing Charlie. The same person had to be responsible.
“So let me get this straight,” Mrs. Hess said. “Luther, you accused Mr. Sullivan of sending you an inappropriate e-mail with a disturbing photo attached. But the e-mail and photo was actually from Chance. And you sent Chance an e-mail and photo. Do I have that right?”
Luther said nothing. He just clenched and unclenched his hands.
“And as for you, Chance, you sent Luther an e-mail that—”
“I did not!” Chance yelled. “Look, I didn’t know my grade was changed. I didn’t pay any attention to that e-mail because I thought it was spam. And I never sent Luther any e-mail saying I hoped he’d play for the ’Skins. Someone’s hacking, and it ain’t me!”
“How about you, Luther?” Mrs. Hess asked. “Anything you want to say?”
“Yeah, find the hacker,” he said. “Did you find my phone yet?”
“Your phone?” Mrs. Hess asked, confused. “What does your phone have to do with what we’re discussing here?”
“Just asking,” Luther said.
Neecy was confused by his question. It wasn’t to the situation he was facing. She wondered what the connection could be between his phone and the changed grades.
“All right, we need to talk to decide how we’re going to proceed,” Mrs. Hess said. “We don’t have any proof that either of you accessed our grading system to change your own grades. Yet. But, Luther, you’ve made some very serious accusations about Mr. Sullivan. We do have proof that your accusations are lies. So you lied about a teacher. You and Chance sent each other the e-mails.”
She turned to the school security guard. “Mr. Gable, please put Chance and Luther in separate offices for the time being, and then come back here. Neecy, you may go back to class. I hope we can count on you not to discuss this with anyone. And let me just say, we’re all really proud of you for having done the right thing. I know when you talked to Mr. Sullivan about your grade, you had no idea how much you would help us uncover a real hacking scandal. So we are very grateful.”
Neecy was warmed by the principal’s words. She left the room and returned to class.
At lunchtime, JaQuel Rivas stopped by the table where Neecy and her friends were sitting.
“Bad news,” he said. “I ran into Luther in the hall. He was getting his stuff out of his locker. Both he and Chance are off the team.”
The whole table expressed their shock. “What’d they do?” Eva asked.
“Neither one of them made grades,” JaQuel said.
“But they showed their report cards to Coach yesterday,” Ferg said. “And they were fine.”
“Apparently the wrong grades were posted.”
“How is that even possible?” Joss said. “The whole system is computerized.”
“I don’t know, but that’s what he said,” JaQuel responded.
Neecy looked around the table. Each of her friends was looking at JaQuel as he talked.
Then someone caught her eye.
Keshawn Connor. He was at the next table.
And he was looking at her.
Their eyes held for a long moment, and then Keshawn raised an eyebrow and gave her a crooked smile.
Then Neecy knew.
She knew who sent the e-mails to Luther and Chance. She knew who raised her grade. And she knew who had sent the e-mail that brought her and Charlie together.
She didn’t know why, and she didn’t know how. But she knew it was Keshawn.
“But here’s the other thing,” JaQuel said. “Chance is allowed to stay, but Luther’s suspended for five days.”
“No way!” Eva exclaimed. She turned to Neecy. “That should make you happy, Neecy,” she joked. “A Luther-free week.”
“Oh yes, the whole thing makes me very happy,” Neecy said with a laugh. “In fact, I wish I could personally thank whoever was responsible. We’ll probably never know, but he knows who he is and what he did. And he’s my hero,” she said.
“What makes you so sure it’s a he?” Joss asked.
“Just a hunch,” Neecy said. Then, when nobody was looking, she glanced at Keshawn and grinned.