Cece ran down the aisle of bookshelves and stopped in front of the television. Her eyes widened as she tried to make out what her punishment might be.
Instead of a time warning, it was a video. There wasn’t any sound. It took her a moment to place the setting. When the blurry colors sharpened, clothing racks filled the screen.
And then the camera moved again. Cece recognized the location. It was one of her favorite boutiques, several towns from Pioneer Haven.
The video focused on her. It was strange seeing herself on the screen, especially when she didn’t know someone had followed her. She thought back to the last time she wore that white button-down shirt. It must have been two months ago. She had enough clothes in her closet to have a different outfit for every day of each season, and she recalled each time she wore them, so there were no duplicate outfits for at least that long.
She’d chosen that look so no one would suspect what she was about to do. She wanted to appear older and also blend in with the other shoppers.
Cece knew what she was going to see, but never expected anyone else to see it, especially not these people. Her heart thrummed in her chest, and her feet were like bricks, anchored to the floor.
The video was taken from a camera hidden behind a rack. Her blood ran cold. Someone had followed her there, knowing what she was about to do.
She could almost feel the tank top in her hands as she watched herself on the video check the size of the shirt. She watched herself look over both her shoulders before slipping the shirt off the hanger, rolling it up, and placing it in her purse.
And when the stalker clearly had the evidence he needed, Cece watched herself go to another rack and steal two more items before leaving the store.
The person holding the camera walked by one of the mirrors near the shoe department, but the screen moved too quickly for Cece to get a look at the individual who’d followed her. She only saw a blur, though it might have been the tears filling her vision once more.
Her heart roared in her ears. How had someone known about her stealing habit? Her fingers twitched at her sides. She wanted but to be taken seriously as a fashionista so she needed them. She loved the jealousy from the other girls in school when they saw the outfits and the thrill of taking something that didn’t belong to her. But now Jackie was going to tell everyone that Cece was a fraud.
And this person was going to show her parents.
She opened her mouth to say something when an email client opened on the screen.
Her parents’ emails were in the ‘To’ row. A cursor moved across the screen until it hit the subject line.
The words, Video from Cece, were typed into the space.
Then in the body of the email, the person typed, I made this video for you two. Tell me what you think. Love ya, Cecelia.
Cece tried to block the screen with her body to prevent the others from seeing. But it didn’t matter anymore. They already saw the video. The cursor opened the attachment link and the video uploaded into the email.
She pressed her hands against the screen as the cursor moved over the SEND button before the screen went black.
Cece pressed her forehead against the screen, and her breath hitched. Her parents were going to ground her for the rest of her life. And knowing how her parents were attached to their phones, they would get the email within minutes. She imagined them storming down to the school at any moment now and demanding an explanation.
This wasn’t a joke, not at all.
Cece peered over her shoulder at her classmates. Her gaze found Teddy. This person wasn’t messing around and would carry through with the threats. He already knew, but she said it aloud for the others. ‘Teddy, I think your money is gone.’
He slowly nodded and dug his hands into his jeans pockets.
He was still in the same spot across the way, inches from the laptop which held a nude photo of her. There was no reason for it to remain there.
Cece bolted across the room, back to the laptop. Even if Mr. Curtis caught her, she needed to delete that photo before anyone else saw it.
The others started talking, but their voices were muddled together, muted by her heartbeat roaring in her ears.
Even though Cece’s vision was blurred by the tears streaming down her face, she couldn’t mistake the movement of the cursor on the laptop. It scrolled over to the POST button and blinked.
‘No!’ she cried.
She pressed her finger on the touchpad and then the screen went blank.
‘No! No! No!’ She jammed her finger against the power button, but the computer wouldn’t turn on.
Panic seized her. Her breaths came quickly. Her head span, and black spots filled her vision.
A muffled voice filled her ears.
‘Cece,’ Teddy said. He was next to her, holding his hands out as if she might faint. She felt close to it. ‘You need to sit down,’ he said, taking her hand. He led her back to the table where the rest were staring up at her with wide eyes.
Teddy tilted his head to the side. ‘What did you say?’
Cece hadn’t realized she’d spoken until the words bubbled up to the surface again. ‘He sent it.’
CHAPTER NINE
ZOE
Saturday
Cece’s face paled, and Zoe could have sworn the girl was going to be sick.
‘What happened?’ Zoe asked.
‘It’s it obvious?’ Jackie asked.
‘He sent it,’ Cece repeated. Her voice was stronger this time, but her eyes were far away.
‘We know he sent the video,’ Holly said, pointing at the television. ‘It was on the screen.’
Cece flopped into the chair, her hands were shaking, and her teeth chattered. She wrapped her arms around her chest and leaned forward, her face almost touching the table.
‘No,’ Cece said, choking out the word. ‘He posted the photo. Just now. After sending the email with the video to my parents.’
‘What?’ Jackie hissed. ‘That wasn’t part of the deal, was it?’
‘We’re playing by his rules,’ Teddy said.
Zoe glanced over her shoulder. Mr. Curtis still sat at the desk in the office, focused on his work. Zoe hoped he stayed that way.
‘So it was like a double punishment?’ Jackie asked.
‘I guess so,’ Cece said. Tears flowed freely down her face. The streams created a small pool on the surface of the table.
‘Can you log into your account and delete it?’ Teddy asked.
‘No!’ Cece shrieked.
Zoe cringed at the sound. ‘You have to be quiet.’
‘I don’t care! My life is over because of this creep!!’
Teddy got up from the table and sprinted toward the back of the library.
Where the hell was he going? Zoe turned back to her classmates.
‘You were caught,’ Q shrugged. ‘It happens.’
‘It doesn’t happen to me!’ Cece shouted. ‘I’m going to ruin whoever is playing this disgusting game! My parents are going to sue the school for this.’
‘We’re not going to do much of anything if we don’t find out who’s doing this,’ Teddy said, returning to the table. He held a laptop in his hands.
Was that the one that Cece used to post the picture? Zoe’s heart leaped. Could they find information about their torturer’s motivation by looking at the laptop?
The door to the office opened. If Mr. Curtis had been distracted by his work, he wasn’t anymore.
Teddy shoved the computer on his lap and scooted closer to the desk.
He nodded at Zoe.
‘Cece, just keep working on the chain,’ Zoe whispered as Mr. Curtis approached. ‘We’ll figure this out.’
‘Screw the chain!’ Cece said. She stood and shoved most of the slips to the ground.
‘Excuse me?’ Mr. Curtis said. ‘What’s the problem here?’
‘Mr. Curtis!’ Cece sobbed. ‘I need to tell you something.’
She was going to ruin this for all of th
em.
Zoe wasn’t sure what she could say to stop Cece. As much as Zoe would have wanted to jump off a bridge if her naked photo appeared online, it wasn’t fair for Cece to expose the rest of them. It was her own fault that she hadn’t sent it in time.
Zoe tried to convey her message in a look to Cece since Mr. Curtis was right there. As much as she didn’t want her secrets exposed, they already twice witnessed what happened when someone failed a task. She had no idea what would happen if any of them revealed this game of consequences to Mr. Curtis.
‘Is someone going to answer me?’ Mr. Curtis’s attention landed on each of them. He looked madder than she’d ever seen. ‘I’m trying to be reasonable here, but you all are pushing the limit.’
‘Cece broke up with her boyfriend last night,’ Jackie said. ‘She’s upset.’
Mr. Curtis sighed. ‘Do you need something?’
‘She could use a bathroom break to get herself together,’ Jackie said.
‘I asked Cece,’ Mr. Curtis said to Jackie, with a warning in his voice.
Jackie fell silent as Mr. Curtis turned his attention to Cece.
‘I’d like to use the restroom,’ she murmured.
Zoe sighed with relief. As much as she wasn’t looking forward to her turn, she wanted to have the opportunity to stop this sick game without anyone knowing her secret. Whoever this person was, wasn’t messing around. And if one of them alerted Mr. Curtis, who knew what was going to happen. They had to keep playing.
Zoe couldn’t believe she was starting to think of this as a game. A game involved two parties competing. This one was about humiliation, and it was completely one-sided.
Cece stormed off, barging through the double doors that led to the hallway.
Mr. Curtis turned to the rest of the group. ‘Back to work.’
‘Aye, aye, captain,’ Q said, saluting the teacher.
Zoe rolled her eyes. If anything, Q’s attitude alone would send him back here next week. And that was something she didn’t want at all. How had her life gone from quiet Saturdays in detention with Mr. Curtis to this? And what did any of them have to do with it? That was the key to figuring out what they all had done to deserve this.
Mr. Curtis left the area and went into the office, slamming the glass door shut.
Zoe had never seen him so agitated before. What was going on with him today? Usually, he wasn’t affected by anything. Was it that phone call he took before? Had something happened? It wasn’t her place to ask him. At least not today.
‘Nice save,’ Holly said to Jackie.
Jackie blinked at Holly.
‘We should clean this up,’ Teddy said, kneeling next to the scattered slips on the ground.
Everyone else helped except for Q.
But no one pushed him.
‘Can you believe Cece is a shoplifter?’ Q asked, then underlined his disapproval with a little whistle. ‘Who would have thought? I guess she isn’t as wealthy as she makes out.’
‘I did.’ Jackie organized her chain on the table as half of it was on the floor and slightly tangled.
‘How did you know?’ Holly asked.
Jackie shrugged one shoulder and took a deep breath before speaking. ‘She’s always bragging about her new clothes. It’s enough to make you take notice. Jessie Googled the prices of some of her outfits. The total was insane, like thousands of dollars. I know her parents are doctors, but that seems a little extreme. Besides, I’ve seen them at some school events, and they seem too frugal to allow Cece to go on crazy shopping sprees like that.’
‘Why do you care what other people do?’ Holly asked.
‘I don’t,’ Jackie said. ‘Jessie did the research. I’m just spreading the information.’
‘Your specialty,’ Holly said.
‘Can you get off my back?’ Jackie asked. ‘I’m not the one with the problem here.’
‘What does that mean?’ Holly asked.
‘Enough,’ Teddy said.
Zoe turned to him. She didn’t realize how captivated she was by Jackie and Holly’s conversation. She couldn’t believe that Cece shoplifted either. But thousands of dollars for clothes? It didn’t make sense that she’d resort to that. Did her appearance matter so much that she would commit a crime over it?
Teddy sat in his chair and opened the laptop.
‘Can you find the picture?’ Zoe asked.
‘I want to see it,’ Q said.
‘To delete it,’ Zoe said.
Q smirked at her.
‘It’s not even booting up,’ Teddy said, pressing the power button. ‘How does that even happen?’
‘Was the battery low?’ Q asked.
‘Is anyone good at computers here?’ Zoe asked. ‘Maybe if someone can boot it up, we can get the photo down?’ At the very least Cece wouldn’t have to get into trouble with her parents as well as everyone else she knew.
‘I can take a look,’ Holly said from the floor. She scooped up several pieces of paper and stacked them on the table.
‘I think we should let it go for now,’ Teddy said. ‘I think whoever did this, knew how to shut it down remotely.’
‘Let me take a look anyway,’ Holly said.
Teddy handed over the laptop.
Zoe started on her chain again, her mind wandering with what fate this person had in store for her.
‘That’s cold, man,’ Q said, sitting in his chair, not helping. ‘A double punishment.’
‘If she didn’t take the photo then she would have just been in trouble with her parents,’ Jackie noted.
‘She was about to post it when she froze,’ Teddy said.
‘This person must have it out for her,’ Jackie said.
‘He has something out for all of us,’ Holly said.
Zoe nodded. Her mind was full of possibilities, but none of them could connect the dots between the six of them. After stapling two more slips to the chain, she could no longer ignore the dull ache settling deep in her forehead. She put the stapler down and rubbed at her temples.
She glanced at the others in the room. What if one of them were involved? There were a lot of things that had happened since they’d come to the library. The tasks seemed well organized, but the timing was perfect—someone could be controlling the circumstances from nearby, but she came back to the idea that someone in that library was involved. Sure, she had arrived first, but someone could have easily set everything up before her.
Then her mind drifted to Victor again. He had the keys to the school. And she’d witnessed most of the kids in that room treating him like a second-class citizen at least once. Maybe he was sick of it and wanted to offer some revenge.
No. He wouldn’t have stooped to that level. He was a kind man. Besides, what the notes said wouldn’t have lined up. Well, at least Teddy’s wouldn’t. Unless Victor needed money or something. At that point, they weren’t even sure what happened with Teddy’s money. The whole Cece situation was terrible, but the sweet man that Zoe talked to on a daily basis couldn’t be capable of something like that.
Could he?
Zoe hated that she thought of Victor as the mastermind at all, but she wanted to know what was going on before it was her turn to suffer.
Zoe had no idea about the secret lives of Teddy and Cece, so maybe she didn’t know Victor at all, either.
That possibility didn’t help with her headache.
‘Jackie,’ Holly said, her voice trembling.
The concern in Holly’s voice pulled Zoe from her thoughts.
Holly held up a red slip of paper, plucked from the pile in front of them. Thick black marker branded the front of the slip spelling out Jackie’s name.
Zoe was right. They looked through the pile after Teddy’s mission. They couldn’t have missed a red slip. Someone in that room was messing with them. Zoe just had to figure out who.
‘Give me that!’ Jackie hissed, reaching across the table and snatching the red slip from Holly’s hand.
Everyone leaned forward in t
heir chairs, desperate to know the details about the next task and its possible consequence.
CHAPTER TEN
JACKIE
Three Days Earlier
‘What’s Erin’s deal anyway?’ Yvette asked Jackie.
Jackie glanced at her friend through her mirror as she finished slathering another layer of Pink Blossom on her lips.
‘What are you going on about?’ She tightened her ponytail and fluffed her curls one more time. Her look was in place and perfect. She expected nothing less.
Yvette blinked a few times and cleared her throat. She wiped at the corner of her red lips, a habit that gave Jackie insight into how nervous the girl was around her.
Jackie suppressed the smile trying to bubble up. Yvette was a new addition to Jackie’s group, and she was trying way too hard. Though Jackie appreciated the gossip fed directly into her ear, Jackie wanted to show her why she was the gossip queen.
‘She’s sucking up to Mr. Curtis big time,’ Yvette said, glancing over her shoulder.
Jackie took her time, knowing Yvette was waiting for her response. She closed her locker and turned.
Yvette’s eyes were wide with anticipation.
Mr. Curtis stood outside of his classroom with three other students. Tyler, Harry, and Erin.
Tyler and Harry were talking football, of course—those meatheads lived and breathed the sport. To anyone who wasn’t paying attention, it would have all seemed innocent enough.
Jackie had been searching for something to pin on Erin, and it looked as if she’d found a shred of something to work with.
The look on Erin’s face was priceless. Jackie rarely worked with hard evidence. It was too difficult to come by. The rumor mill served her well. It was less work, and it gave her creative freedom. It was a necessary tool to keep her at the top of the food chain.
During her brothers’ reign as the most popular guys in school, they made it appear effortless. As a girl and not part of a set of twins, she had to work harder. But the reward was so sweet. She was almost addicted, fueling the constant movement of information throughout her class and the school.
As she took in Erin’s expression, the wheels in Jackie’s head turned faster and faster, molding and shaping the rumor’s many parts. Erin was a senior, but Jackie’s wrath wasn’t limited to just the junior class. Especially when that senior thought she could bring Jackie down.
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