The Fruit of My Lipstick (23 page)

“Yes, I’m sure it was.” Her gaze dropped to a folder on her desk. A gray folder, not the manila ones everybody used.

“Is that—” I began.

“Let me bring you up to speed, Miss Chang. I’ve just spent the last forty-five minutes with Lucas Hayes, who is practically beside himself with distress.”

“I bet he is.”

I don’t think she heard me, because she went on, “It took me thirty of those forty-five minutes to get him calmed down, in fact. So I’ve called you in here to get your side of the story.”

“My side?”

“Yes. Start with telling me how you managed to get into the boys’ dorm.”

Wow. Travis must have spilled everything to Lucas, who had spilled it to her in the course of being interrogated. That meant there probably wasn’t any point in trying to protect Travis.

“Lucas had a bracelet of mine and wouldn’t give it back,” I began. “It was obviously a control thing—we’d just broken up and he was pretty angry about it. So I asked Travis to find it for me, but when he couldn’t, he let me into the dorm so I could look myself.”

She made a note on the yellow legal pad in front of her. “Go on.”

I decided to leave out some details and skip to the bottom line. “I found the bracelet. And I also found that.” I nodded at the folder in front of her.

“And what is this?”

“You probably already know it’s full of exam answer sheets. Math, Chem, Physics, all levels. Dated for tomorrow and the next day.”

She nodded. “And then?”

“Well, it was clear that Lucas is the one who’s been selling the sheets, but Travis and I didn’t know whether it would be better to confront him about it or to go straight to Mi—Mr. Milsom. In the end Travis decided it would be better to ask Lucas first since I got it wrong with Carly Aragon and we didn’t want to risk being wrong twice.”

“Commendable.”

“And then I went back to my room.” I took a breath, getting ready to tell her about Lissa laying the trap for Source10.

“It’s a very convincing version of events.” She made a couple more notes.

“Version? That’s what happened. Travis can back me up.”

“Would you like to hear Lucas’s story?”

Oh, I’d love to. Complete with pictures at eleven. I sat back and got as comfortable as possible in the old-fashioned slat-backed chair.

She got up and tapped on the outer door. “Lucas, would you come in now, please?”

I shot upright and gripped the wooden arms as he walked in. “Lucas?”

His shoulders were straight, and he wore khakis and his school blazer. He’d obviously come to the headmistress almost immediately after he got back from the presentation at the university. Right after Travis would have confronted him with that folder.

He didn’t even look at me as he tugged briskly at his pant legs and sat.

“Lucas, would you mind telling us again what happened this evening?”

He tucked his chin once in a nod. “I went to a science symposium at USF on computer modeling, because that’s the area I want to concentrate on at Stanford. It lasted until about eight thirty, and I got back to my room around nine. I found my roommate, Travis Fanshaw, in a very agitated mood. I asked him what was wrong and he said he’d had a girl in there while I was gone.”

“That wasn’t what—” I began hotly, but Curzon shut me up with a look.

“Go on,” she said.

“He apologized, which I thought was weird at the time. So then I went to get my stuff organized for my exams tomorrow, and I found that folder in my backpack.” He nodded toward her desk.

You’ve got to be kidding
. “What, it just apparated in there by itself?” I blurted.

“No,” he said, as though replying to a very small child. “I imagine someone put it there.”

“Uh-huh. Like you.”

The headmistress frowned at me. “Miss Chang, please. Go on, Lucas.”

I looked from one to the other. Since when did she first-name a student? Girls were always Miss Whomever and guys were addressed by their surnames. Archaic and sexist, yeah, tell me about it. So what was up with the favoritism?

“So I asked Travis and then it all came out. He thought it was mine. I said I’d never seen it before—especially when I opened it and saw what was inside it. And then I got the real story.”

For the first time, he looked at me. There was no emotion at all in the blue eyes I thought I’d known so well.

“Travis says she bribed him into letting her into our room. She told him it was to get something of hers, just to get his sympathy, but it turned out it was more than that. She asked him to keep a lookout in the hall, and when there was no one in the room, she slipped that folder into my backpack.” His gaze faltered, and his voice hushed. “I’m sorry I hurt you so much, Gillian. But I had to break up with you. I just can’t see a girl who says she’s a Christian and then does things like this when things don’t go the way she wants.” He paused. “In fact, you’ve damaged my faith so much, I’ve asked myself what’s the point of going to church at all if Christians are like this.”

My mouth fell open and all the breath in my lungs whooshed out. On top of everything else, he was going to pin his loss of
faith
on me?

And then a memory surfaced. A pastor with a puzzled look on his face as he tried to remember who Lucas Hayes was. “You hypocrite,” I breathed. “When did you ever go to church? What was prayer circle, huh? An acting experiment?”

Oh Lord, I see it now. How could I be so dumb? Here I was all over Lissa last term about the power of discernment, when I could have used some myself
.

Lucas ignored me and looked up at Ms. Curzon. “I was so upset I couldn’t do anything but come straight to you. I apologize for being so out of control before, ma’am.”

“That’s all right,” she said. “Thank you, Lucas, for being willing to repeat all of that. I’m sure it was painful for you.”

He dipped his head and swallowed. If looks could kill, then my withering scorn would have at least burned a big black hole in his jacket.

“You may go. Try to get some sleep. You’re in the exam home stretch now.”

He smiled at her, then made his dignified, Olympian exit without wasting so much as another glance at me.

Ms. Curzon sighed. “Are there any changes you wish to make to your story, Miss Chang?”

“Are there any you’d believe?” Who, me? Bitter?

“Whether I believe them or not is irrelevant,” she said. “All I want is the truth.”

You and your Olympiad semifinalist, happily lying through your perfect teeth
. Oh, I knew what this was about. She wasn’t going to risk Spencer Academy’s chance of seeing its name in the papers, science mags, and on Web sites all over the world as being the school that had produced the gold medalist. It meant more wealthy students. It meant fatter donations. And it probably meant a few more laurel leaves in her crown, too.

Never mind that the medalist was a liar and a fraud.

“My version
is
the truth, Ms. Curzon,” I said as quietly as I could, considering the anger ripping through my veins. “I have to tell you something else. My friend Lissa made a deal with Lucas, who calls himself Source10 online. He’s leaving the exam answers she pretended to buy in locker number two fifty-four. It’ll be there half an hour before the second-period Biology exam. Put one of the security cameras on it, if you don’t believe me.”

“I shall. Thank you. In the meantime, you are suspended.”

The anger roaring through me froze abruptly and fell into my stomach in a shower of icy shards. “What?”

“Clearly I can’t allow you to go on as though nothing had happened. At the very least, you’re guilty of being in the boys’ dorm and consorting with a boy in his room.”

“We did not
consort!
”

“Define it as you will, the fact remains that you, by your own admission, were there.”

“That’s grounds for detention, not suspension.”

“True.”

“But I didn’t do what Lucas said. He made all that up to cover his own actions. And what about my exams?”

“At the moment I’m in the mood to give you Fs in all of them. But if I feel differently tomorrow morning, you would attend only the classes in which you have exams. At all other times you’ll be confined to your room. We’ll confiscate your laptop now, to prevent any communication.”

“With who?” Losing my laptop would be like losing an arm.

“If you are guilty, I imagine you’d want to warn your customers that you have been discovered.”

“And since I’m not guilty?”

“According to our manual, anyone who is suspended has their privileges revoked.” She held out her hand. “I’ll need your cell phone as well.”

I pulled it out of the pocket of my cargo pants and gave it to her. “I’m innocent, Ms. Curzon. When you go to that locker tomorrow, you’ll find out it’s true.”

“I don’t like to think that any of our students is capable of this, Miss Chang,” she said, and buzzed the intercom. “No matter how it turns out, I shall be most upset.”

Ha, I thought as Ms. Tobin appeared. Not half as upset as I was right now. Not by a long shot.

To: Faculty©spenceracad.edu

From: NCurzon©spenceracad.edu

Date: March 25, 2009

Re: Urgent: Math and Science Departments

The student who committed the exam-answer fraud has been apprehended. However, in the event that answers for tomorrow’s and Friday’s exams are already in circulation, I am directing you all to substitute and/or scramble your exam questions and answers fifteen minutes before class time.

I realize this will cause some inconvenience, but the integrity of our school is at stake. I have no doubt that by using this strategy, we will also be able to pinpoint students who have compromised themselves by buying answer sheets in the last day or two.

Thank you for your help, and I look forward to the results of tomorrow’s exams.

Natalie Curzon

Source10
      You awake?

LMansfield
    I’d better be. Bio in 2 hours.

Source10
      Where’s the money?

LMansfield
    I pay you when I get the sheet.

Source10
      Wrong. In advance.

LMansfield
    Thanks for telling me. Not.

Source10
      I’m canceling the deal.

LMansfield
    Why? I’ll pay you!

Source10
      Sorry.

LMansfield
    But I’ll flunk Bio!!

Source10
      Not my problem. No tickee, no laundry.

LMansfield
    That’s not fair!

Lissa turned from her monitor to me, her face white with panic. “He backed out of the deal.”

I sucked in a breath. “Why?”

“He says it’s because I didn’t pay in advance. Now what are we going to do?”

The urge to just give up and cry swamped me, and I fought it back. “There’s nothing we can do, I guess. Curzon will go to that locker—if she hasn’t already—and it’ll be empty. Nothing will show on the cameras. End of story.”

“Gillian, I’m so sorry.” Lissa’s eyes were full of tears. “I should have paid attention. I should have asked if he wanted the money up front.”

“I don’t think it’s that. I think he’s spooked and being careful. On the bright side, you won’t get whatever punishment they have in store for the people who bought answers.”

“But that isn’t helping you.”

“Hey. Just having you for a friend is helping me.” I gave her a hug. “As you reminded me yourself the other day—the truth will set us free. I told the Lord all about it last night and put everything in His hands. It’ll be okay. You’ll see.”

She gave me a watery smile. “I wish that included my Bio final. If I’d gotten that answer sheet, it sure would have been tempting to use it.”

“No, you wouldn’t.”

“My brain is so seized up I don’t think I can squeeze a single fact out of it.”

“Try to relax,” I suggested. “Close your books and don’t even think about it. Listen to some music or something, and let your cortexes unclench.”

That got a laugh out of her. “Thank you, Dr. Chang. Does that work for the gluteus maximus too?”

And then it was time. We met Shani at the top of the stairs, and Carly joined us. We hadn’t even gotten halfway down the stairs when half a dozen juniors I recognized from my various classes stopped us.

“Thanks a lot, Chang,” a tall boy sneered. “Thanks for almost making us flunk.”

His friend stepped up, getting in my face. “Why are you still here? I heard you got kicked out.”

“Get away from her,” Lissa snapped.

“Little Miss Christian,” the first boy said, not giving an inch. “Read the Ten Commandments lately? Oh, wait. You need the answer sheet!”

“Are you deaf?” Shani swaggered up to him, five feet six inches of girl, four inches of stiletto heel, and ten feet of attitude. “Get away from her and keep your pinheaded comments to yourself.” She jerked her face into his and he stepped back, lost his footing on the step, and had to grab the wood and wrought-iron railing to keep from rolling down the stairs like a basketball.

His friends turned to give him a hand, and I grabbed Carly’s arm and took the stairs down to the foyer two at a time.

But there was no escape. The word was out, and the word was
Gillian
.

Every ten feet, someone had to tell me what a skank they thought I was. Some people made themselves happy by flipping me off. Two girls from our volleyball team who were way better at bumps than brains pinned me up against a locker and told me their opinion—or would have, if a teacher hadn’t passed just then. As it was, I had to detour to the girls’ restroom to wipe the spit off my cheek.

Mentally, I kissed any hope of straight A’s good-bye. I didn’t care anymore whether I even passed my classes. I wouldn’t be coming back. I could be thankful for small mercies, though—since Curzon had confiscated my cell phone, I couldn’t get any hysterical calls from my parents.

At noon, I trudged down to the dining room to get a tray to take back to the dorm. As I stood at the cooking island waiting for my helping of
goulaschsuppe
, the nasty looks were enough to make me want to skip lunch and run. Maybe that was what house arrest was all about: safety, not punishment. If those two girls from volleyball were any indication, a riot could break out if too many people realized I was in the room.