Top of the Class (8 page)
Authors: Kelly Green
I prayed it was a real memory, and not just something I’d seen somewhere on TV and then forgot about.
“Whoa!” Richard shouted. “Look!”
I stared at the monitor. I couldn’t see what he was so excited about.
“What?”
“Look. In the corner.”
In the corner of the screen was Principal Schecter. He was sitting onstage behind Linda with a group of administrators. He took a sip from a water bottle, then turned to one of his cohorts, whispered something, and snuck off-screen.
“Check out the time,” said Richard, pointing to a digital clock mounted on the back wall. It read
8:04
.
“Fast forward, Bernice Wu.”
Bernice sped up the tape, so that the hands on the clock spun ahead in fast-motion. Principal Schecter didn’t return to his seat until the clock read
8:19
.
Fifteen minutes. Just enough time for a little framing and keyboard theft.
Chapter
12
Friday, 2:59 PM
I
didn’t expect them to arrest Principal Schecter in his office, but that’s precisely what they did. It didn’t look the way it does on TV, where a crowd of people gathers on the steps of the courthouse and the disgraced suspect turns to the TV reporters and mumbles, “No comment.”
The scene was far more pedestrian. Officers Jackson and Braverman marched into Schecter’s office and told him he was under arrest. It was the middle of eighth period, and the only people who saw it happen were Richard, me, and the stunned secretaries who worked just outside the principal’s office, who stood at their desks and whispered to one another with alarm.
“Thanks, guys,” Braverman waved.
When Richard and I had walked into the police station, Braverman had said, “What are you, Batman and Robin?” which didn’t make much sense, because they were a crime-
fighting
team, and not a crime-
solving
team, but I let it slide.
After they watched the PTA tape and looked over the financial pages, Braverman and Jackson had subpoenaed a copy of the school’s security camera footage, which showed Schecter sneaking into Ms. Salat’s classroom and switching his keyboard with mine.
They had assured me that Schecter would be charged with embezzlement, pending further investigation into the disappearance of the school funds, but in the meantime they’d nab him for conspiracy.
As we watched Schecter argue with the police officers, Richard held out a hand for me to shake. It seemed odd for me simply to shake the hand of a person who had just helped spare my life—I am a girl, after all—so I pulled him to my chest and wrapped my arms around him.
“Whoa, whoa,” he said, backing away.
“Sorry,” I said. “I just…I really appreciate it. I’m sorry for all the times I’ve been mean to you.” I was only aware of the one time that morning, when I accused him of framing me because he was jealous, but it seemed reasonable to believe that Eric had made him miserable on more than one occasion.
“It’s fine,” he said. “But I still hope you die and I become student council president.”
I laughed nervously.
“Kidding,” he said. “I should actually go to class now. I’ve skipped six classes already, which are the first six classes I’ve ever skipped. It was worth it, though.” And Richard walked off down the hallway.
I had gotten Eric acquitted, I had apologized to Richard. Wasn’t it about time for me to be going?
I turned around and saw Will standing behind me. “Why am I still here?” I said. “I’m a free man now.”
“I’m not sure,” he said. “I just wanted to know if you got to see your mom.”
“Linda? Why would I have seen her? I’m at school.”
“No,” said Will. “
Your
mom. Mrs. Grace.”
My mind flashed on the scent of the woman with the blond bangs and beautiful cheekbones. “I did,” I said. “It was amazing.”
Will put a hand on my shoulder and I felt the familiar numbness, then a shock of cold, but he didn’t move his hand, and after a moment, the coldness melted into a feeling of electricity, like a warm meadow buzzing with bees and dragonflies.
I looked into Will’s eyes. There was a fleck of every lovely color in there somewhere—traces of deep blue and purple, emerald green, hazel, crimson. They were like the insides of jewelry counters.
“Wow,” I whispered, without even meaning to.
“What?”
“I…don’t know. Your hand on my shoulder, it feels…not as much like cold death as it used to.”
“
Thanks
,” he said sarcastically, and pulled his hand away, leaving a feeling of hollowness in its place. “I don’t know why you’re still here. But I have other Shadows to attend to, so…I’m sure you’ll figure it out.”
“But, can’t you stay and help me?” I whined, aware of an acute feeling that I didn’t want him to leave.
“I’m sorry, I can’t,” he said. “Now, look over there, please.” He pointed at the other end of the hallway.
“Why?” I asked, my eyes fixed on his.
“I can’t disappear if you’re looking at me.”
“Well, then, I’ll just keep looking at you,” I said, putting my hands on my hips.
“Abby, don’t be a pain. Look over there.”
A pain? Other Shadows to attend to?
Why was Will being mean to me? Stranger still, why did it matter to me? I spun around dramatically, then turned my head back, and Will was gone.
I called Eric’s mother from the school parking lot, standing near the empty police car. When I told her what had happened, she squealed with relief. “Thank God! Frank Schecter is a lowlife. You, on the other hand…you are marvelous. I love you so much.”
As Linda sang my praises, I tried to conjure the image of my real mother, whatever her name was.
“Mom,” I said. “I saw your PTA video. You were great.”
She whimpered. I heard the unmistakable sound of crying.
“What’s wrong?” I asked.
“I just…I feel like you’re back. I don’t know where you’ve been lately, but I feel like I got my boy back.”
I had a pretty good idea of where Eric had been.
“I gotta make another phone call, Mom,” I said. “I’ll be home soon.”
I hung up and scrolled through the contacts, stopping at the listing for “DR,” which could have meant “doctor” or, more likely, “Davida Rogers.”
She picked up after two rings.
“Why hello there,” she cooed.
“I’ve been exonerated,” I said.
“I know. Word is already flying around the school. Maybe we can celebrate later. You can come to
my
apartment this time.”
“Actually,” I said, “I can’t. I have to go home.”
“Home?” she whined. “That’s not where fun things happen, Eric.”
I hesitated before going on. Would Eric really want this? I didn’t know. But I was sent into Eric’s life because he needed someone who could see it clearly, and it was clear to me what had to happen.
“Listen, I can’t do this anymore. This whole thing.”
Miss Rogers was silent.
“I don’t want to have to uphold a code of silence,” I said.
Secrets are no fun
, I thought. At least according to Will. “The University of Virginia is a long way away from Evanston, anyway, and that’s where I’ll be in a year.”
Miss Rogers raised her voice. “But you knew that going in, Eric! Why did you make me start this in the first place? I risked everything to be with you, because I loved you. And you said you loved me too.”
“I do love you,” I said. “But I didn’t
make
you do anything. It was your decision.”
Maybe Eric wouldn’t want it right now, but years later, when he had graduated from college and was living in DC, working as a senator’s aide, lying in bed next to his fantastic girlfriend who was his age and required nothing of him but love—no secrets, no risk—he’d thank himself for somehow acquiring the momentary fortitude to break up with Miss Rogers.
“Screw you,” she said, and hung up.
I put my phone in my pants pocket and closed my eyes, breathing in the smell of fall, the rushing wind, the orange leaves, the sense that anything was possible.
When I opened them again, I saw the police officers exiting the school, with Principal Schecter in front of them, his hands cuffed behind his back. As they passed me on the way to the police car, Schecter turned and locked eyes with me for a moment. I thought maybe he’d apologize, or call me a bastard, or spit in my face, but he just looked at me and smiled.
“Goodbye, Abby Grace,” he said.
Wait. What did he say?
I rushed toward him, but my knees gave out. The now-familiar darkness was starting to cloud my vision. No, no, don’t leave now, I thought. I have to find out how he knows I’m Abby Grace!
But it was too late. I was caught in the swirl of static. It spun me around, tangling me up in a thickening whirl of departure, and before I could do anything more than call out, I was leaving Eric’s body.
And I was gone.
Author’s
Biography
K
elly Green
spent her childhood loving ghost stories and s’mores. The ghost stories stuck.
Girl Steals Guy
is the second episode in her new series,
Borrowing Abby Grace
.
Follow Kelly:
www.twitter.com/BorrowingAbby
Enjoying
Borrowing Abby Grace
?
Episode 4, the beginning of
The Nemesis Trilogy,
is coming soon!
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race at:
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