He makes no headway. Kayla’s mother freaks out when the cops show up to question her daughter about something the police have already established was done by someone else. She contacts Jen’s parents and gets Jen’s mom all worked up, and the two of them get a lawyer. Shayna’s parents contact Kayla’s mom. Together they form a united front to protect their daughters against this slander from some local farm girl—me. All three girls are forbidden by their lawyers to talk to the police.
All three sets of parents, led by Kayla’s mom, contact the school and demand that the school do something about these accusations against their daughters. They get their lawyers to make threats, too, if the harassment of their daughters continues while the local farm girl—they always refer to me as the farm girl—gets preferential treatment even though it’s known beyond a shadow of a doubt what her role in all this has been. Kayla’s mom also points out, in person, that her daughter has no reason to persecute any student for any reason—why would she?
For a day or two, it looks like the school is going to let me off with a suspension—at least, that’s what the lawyer says. But then the school board gets involved. It seems that two of the school trustees, businessmen, have been contacted by Kayla’s father, who has been enlisted to come to the defense of his darling daughter’s reputation.
“They’re pressing charges after all,” the lawyer says. “They’re going to allow you to go back to school, but you’re not to have anything to do with any of those girls. You’re also not allowed to use any of the computers at school.”
“It could be worse,” my mom says, squeezing my hand.
“Oh,” says the lawyer, getting ready to stand up, “you’re also forbidden to have any contact with Addie Murch. Her parents have taken out a restraining order.”
“What?! But I didn’t—”
I stop. Because, as far as anyone can see, I did. I look down at the table. Tears sting my eyes. I made a mistake. The least I can do now is take the punishment.
“Okay,” I say.
Chapter Fifteen
It turns out I don’t have to worry about the restraining order because Addie doesn’t come back to school. There’s a rumor going around that her parents are homeschooling her, but I never find out if it’s true because I can never get up the nerve to ask anyone how she is doing, not after that first time when I approach John, my whole body shaking, to ask if he’s seen her around.
He looks down at me. His face is hard and mean.
“You think I’m going to say anything about her?” His voice is as hard as his face. “Why did you have to drag me into it?”
I feel my cheeks ignite like a bushfire in a drought. Kids, caught by the sharpness of his voice, have turned to look. One of them is Kayla. She smirks at me. I slink away. Really, I wish I could run away and never come back.
Kids don’t talk to me. They don’t give me a hard time, but they don’t go out of their way to talk to me either. It’s as if they’ve decided, after they all had their big laugh at Addie’s expense, that I am beneath contempt. At first I’m enraged. Who do they think they are? They were never her friends. They never cut her any slack. They never made any effort to get to know her.
And they laughed.
They all watched that video—no way they can tell me they didn’t—and they talked about it with other kids. And they had a good laugh.
Now they’re judging me?
I wait and wait for my case to be disposed of, as the lawyer likes to put it. It takes forever.
“Not like tv, is it?” the lawyer says, smiling for what is probably the first time ever.
Finally, weeks and weeks later, he tells me he’s set up a meeting with the school board’s lawyer and that if all goes well, I will probably get away with a suspended sentence. He adds that letting time go by means letting tempers cool— something he can say only because he hasn’t been walking around at my school in my skin this whole time.
“By the way,” he says, “all the court orders remain in effect until that time. I don’t want any surprises, okay, Neely? And trust me, neither do you.”
The meeting is three days away when Addie walks into Mr. Grayson’s class.
I feel everyone’s eyes go to her and then to me.
I feel her eyes search me out.
I feel the heat rise in my cheeks. I want to look at her, but I can’t make myself do it. It’s been months. She took out a restraining order against me. She obviously thinks I’m the one who was behind what happened. She hates me.
Still, I want to talk to her. At least, that’s what I tell myself. But no matter how many times I try to lift my eyes, I can’t make myself do it. It’s been too long. Too much water has gone under the bridge, as my grandpa would say. Addie thinks I did that horrible thing to her. She actually believes I’m behind it. She thinks I’m a monster.
What I really am, right at this moment, is a coward. When the bell rings, I flee, even though I know Kayla and Jen and Shayna will laugh at me for it. I tell myself that when it’s all over, I’ll go to Addie and tell her exactly what happened. I tell myself I’ll do it even though I’m pretty sure she won’t believe me. I have to set the record straight, don’t I?
I’ll swallow the shame and, yes, the anger I feel—how could she believe I would do such a thing?—and I’ll tell her exactly what happened. She can choose whether or not she wants to believe me.
In the meantime, I flee. I go to my locker. I ignore the whispers I hear behind me. I know perfectly well who it is—Kayla and Jen and Shayna. I ignore the looks of the other kids too. I ignore them all.
And then I catch a glimpse of her—Addie—out of the corner of my eye. She’s staring at me, and I know what she’s thinking. I wish she’d come up to me, but she doesn’t. Good old Addie, still chicken even after all of this. She watches me, thinking the worst of me, and there’s nothing I can do, not today, except turn and walk away.
Next week, I tell myself. I’ll talk to her next week.
Norah McClintock has written many bestselling novels, including She Said/ She Saw, Back and Guilty. Norah lives in Toronto, Ontario.
The following is an excerpt from
another exciting Orca Soundings novel,
Masked, by Norah McClintock.
WHEN DANIEL ENTERS A CONVENIENCE store on a secret mission, he doesn’t expect to run into anyone he knows. That would ruin everything. When Rosie shows up, she’s hoping to make a quick getaway with her waiting boyfriend. But the next person through the door is wearing a mask and holding a gun. Now things are getting complicated.
Chapter One
Daniel
“Uh, do you have a bathroom I can use?” I’m ready with an excuse for when the man behind the counter says no. I thought long and hard to come up with it. You have to when you’re asking to use the bathroom in a convenience store, which doesn’t have to provide one the way restaurants do. I have to get yes for an answer if my mission is going to be a success.
The man behind the counter scowls. He peers at me from under gray eyebrows that look like steel wool. Is he on to me? Does he suspect?
“What about your coffee and taquito?” he says. “Are you still going to want those?”
“Yeah. And a two-liter cola and the latest Wrestling World, if you have it.” I throw those in to improve my chances of getting a yes.
“We have it. What about Wresting Today? You want that too?” His piggy little eyes drill into me. I see immediately where he’s going. If I want to use the facilities, I’m going to have to cough up some more money. I take another glance at the magazine rack.
“And Wrestling Connoisseur,”
I say. What the heck—I’m getting paid enough. A few magazines aren’t going to make a dent in my paycheck.
“Through the door beside the coolers and down one flight,” the man behind the counter says.
As I head down the narrow aisle toward the coolers, I glance in the security mirror at the back of the store. The man at the counter, the owne
r, is watching me.
Going through the door beside the big Coke-sponsored cooler is like stepping from Oz back into Kansas. The tile floor in the store sparkles. The wooden floor on the other side of the door is dingy, scuffed and slightly warped. The lights in the store are blindingly bright. On the other side of the door there is only a single naked lightbulb that makes the places it doesn’t hit look inky and a little spooky. The walls of the store are chockablock with neatly displayed and colorful products. The walls of the small room are bare except for a car dealership calendar that hangs from a nail directly above a battered old table and chair. On the table is an adding machine—I didn’t even know those still existed. Next to it is a two-drawer olive-green filing cabinet. On the wall, in an ancient fixture with a pull chain, is another naked lightbulb. This is where the store owner does his accounts. To the left of the door is a flight of wooden stairs. But I don’t go down it.
Instead, I listen. It’s quiet in here. It’s also quiet out in the store. I tiptoe over to the desk. I’d been expecting a computer, but there isn’t one. I open the top drawer of the filing cabinet. It’s jammed with files. I thumb through them, looking for the one I’ve been sent to find. I don’t see it. I close that drawer, open the next one and thumb through more folders.
Bingo! There it is, neatly labeled.
I pull it out and scan the sheets inside. They look like the ones that were described to me. I dig the miniature camera—a spy camera, if you can believe it—out of my pocket and photograph every sheet. I put everything back into the folder and replace the folder in the file cabinet. I tuck the camera into my pocket. I start back to the door.
Before I get there, I hear the man behind the counter yell something— a name. I’m about to push the door open and go back into the store when I hear a different voice—a familiar one. I decide to wait. If I go out there, I’ll be recognized. If I’m recognized, I’ll be exposed. If I’m exposed, I’ll have to abort my mission. And if I abort… let’s just say I don’t want to kiss my paycheck goodbye.
Titles in the Series
B Negative
Vicki Grant
Back
Norah McClintock
Bang
Norah McClintock
Battle of the Bands
K.L. Denman
Big Guy
Robin Stevenson
Blue Moon
Marilyn Halvorson
Breaking Point
Lesley Choyce
Breathless
Pam Withers
Bull Rider
Marilyn Halvorson
Bull’s Eye
Sarah N. Harvey
Cellular
Ellen Schwartz
Charmed
Carrie Mac
Chill
Colin Frizzell
Comeback
Vicki Grant
Coming Clean
Jeff Ross
Crash
Lesley Choyce
Crush
Carrie Mac
Cuts Like a Knife
Darlene Ryan
Damage
Robin Stevenson
The Darwin Expedition
Diane Tullson
Dead-End Job
Vicki Grant
Deadly
Sarah N. Harvey
Dead Run
Sean Rodman
Death Wind
William Bell
Down
Norah McClintock
Exit Point
Laura Langston
Exposure
Patricia Murdoch
Fallout
Nikki Tate
Fastback Beach
Shirlee Smith Matheson
First Time
Meg Tilly
Grind
Eric Walters
Hannah’s Touch
Laura Langston
The Hemingway Tradition
Kristin Butcher
Hit Squad
James Heneghan
Home Invasion
Monique Polak
House Party
Eric Walters
I.D.
Vicki Grant
Impact
James C. Dekker
In the Woods
Robin Stevenson
Infiltration
Sean Rodman
Jacked
Carrie Mac
Juice
Eric Walters
Kicked Out
Beth Goobie
Knifepoint
Alex Van Tol
Last Ride
Laura Langston
Learning to Fly
Paul Yee
Lockdown
Diane Tullson
Masked
Norah McClintock
Middle Row
Sylvia Olsen
My Side
Norah McClintock
My Time as Caz Hazard
Tanya Lloyd Kyi
Night Terrors
Sean Rodman
No More Pranks
Monique Polak
No Problem
Dayle Campbell Gaetz
One More Step
Sheree Fitch
One Way
Norah McClintock
Outback
Robin Stevenson
Overdrive
Eric Walters
Pain & Wastings
Carrie Mac
Picture This
Norah McClintock
Plastic
Sarah N. Harvey
Rat
Lesley Choyce
Reaction
Lesley Choyce
Redline
Alex Van Tol
Refuge Cove
Lesley Choyce
Responsible
Darlene Ryan
Riley Park
Diane Tullson
Riot Act
Diane Tullson
Rock Star
Adrian Chamberlain
Running the Risk
Lesley Choyce
Saving Grace
Darlene Ryan
Scum
James C. Dekker
Sea Change
Diane Tullson
Shallow Grave
Alex Van Tol
Shattered
Sarah N. Harvey
Snitch
Norah McClintock
Something Girl
Beth Goobie
Spiral
K.L. Denman
Sticks and Stones
Beth Goobie
Stuffed
Eric Walters
Tagged
Eric Walters
Tell
Norah McClintock
Thunderbowl
Lesley Choyce
Tough Trails
Irene Morck
Triggered
Vicki Grant
The Trouble
with Liberty
Kristin Butcher
Truth
Tanya Lloyd Kyi
Viral
Alex Van Tol
Wave Warrior
Lesley Choyce
Who Owns Kelly Paddik?
Beth Goobie
Yellow Line
Sylvia Olsen
Zee’s Way
Kristin Butcher
For more information on all the books
in the Orca Soundings series, please visit
www.orcabook.com.