“So I guess it’s official. I got a D,” she said to Charlie.
“You know, he didn’t actually say that,” Charlie said. “I was listening very carefully to what he said. He said he hoped you wouldn’t be too surprised when you saw your grade. That could mean anything.”
“I love that you’re so optimistic,” Neecy said. “I guess I’ll know soon.”
The last class of the day was cut short so that students could go to homeroom to get their report cards. Neecy reluctantly looked over the paper, knowing what she’d see.
But she gasped in surprise.
Instead of the D she had expected in math, she had a C. Her heart soared. The C was enough to bring her average up to above a 3.0.
She didn’t know how Mr. Sullivan had justified giving her that grade. After all, she had seen her grades posted online and knew exactly what her average in the class was. The school’s computer calculated the grade based on the data inputted by the teachers. So he had to have changed something. She was curious about where he had made the change.
Whatever it was, it was enough to put her in the safety zone.
When she got home that afternoon, she logged in to the online grade system to check her grades. What she saw took her breath away.
Instead of the 72 percent she’d gotten on the last test, Mr. Sullivan had posted a 99 percent.
Neecy felt sick.
She needed the C, but she didn’t want to get it this way. This was a lie. She didn’t deserve that C, and she knew it. And she knew that Mr. Sullivan knew it as well. It made her lose respect for him. Grades were supposed to mean something—you worked hard and you got good grades. You didn’t work hard, or you couldn’t understand the subject, and you got bad grades. But not working hard and getting the same grade you would have gotten by doing a lot of work? That wasn’t right.
Later, she called Charlie as soon as she knew he was home from basketball practice. She told him what Mr. Sullivan had done. She also told him how conflicted it made her feel.
“Do you want to talk to him?” Charlie asked.
“I’m not sure it would do any good,” Neecy answered. “Now I realize what he was telling me today. He changed my grade. I had thought he was warning me that my grade would be bad. But like you said, he never really said that. He just told me I might be surprised.”
“So what do you want to do?” Charlie said. “He really put you in a bad spot. He shouldn’t have done it, but he was trying to help you.”
“It doesn’t sound like him, though,” Neecy said. “It makes me see him in a whole other way. I don’t respect him for doing this. I could always count on him to be fair in the past. This isn’t fair.”
“Well, whatever you decide, I’ve got your back,” Charlie said. “I’ll talk to you later.”
Neecy could barely concentrate on her homework. She was too distracted by the dilemma she faced.
She worked hard in her others classes. She got the grades she deserved. Thank goodness those grades were good enough to maintain her GPA. But math? There was no way she deserved that C. She knew it. Mr. Sullivan knew it too. It seemed so unlike him to do something so wrong.
Neecy stared out of her window, wondering what to do. In the distance she saw a Metro bus pull up to the corner. Her mother got off. She looked tired, as she often did, making her way to their apartment from her job as a secretary for the federal government.
Neecy knew that her mother was desperate for Neecy to receive the D.C. Stars scholarship. In fact, her mother was more anxious about it than Neecy was. The last thing she wanted to do was tell her mother about the math grade. She was afraid her mother would want her to keep her mouth shut. And she knew how much that would destroy her respect for her mother.
She heard the front door open. She could hear her mother’s slow footsteps coming up the stairs.
“Neecy? You home?” her mother called out. “In here,” Neecy said, not getting up.
“So? How’d you do?” her mother asked. Silently, Neecy handed over the report card. She watched as her mother searched for the grade point average.
“Yes,” her mother yelled, pumping a fist in the air. “You did it! I have to say, I was a little worried. I mean, not worried, exactly. But it just didn’t seem like you were studying as much. If you don’t get this scholarship, I mean—I know you’ll get it, you’re a good girl, a smart girl—”
“Mom, stop,” Neecy said loudly. “Just stop it!”
“Well, I’m sorry, but I was just so worried. You know this report card is so important—”
“Mom, this report card is a lie. My math grade isn’t right.”
Neecy’s mother was quiet for a moment. “Well, maybe you did better than you thought?” she said.
“No, I know exactly what grade I deserved,” Neecy said dejectedly. “And it wasn’t a B. The grade is too high.”
“Too … too high?” her mother asked.
“Too high,” Neecy repeated. “There is no way I have a C in math. I got a D. I saw it online the day before grades were posted. Something’s wrong, and I don’t know what to do about it.”
Her mother was quiet for a moment. “So if the grade is wrong and it gets corrected …” she said.
Neecy could see her mother’s shoulders sag as the knowledge sunk in of what a lower grade would do to her average. They looked at each other silently for a moment.
“What are you going to do?” her mother asked finally.
“I want to keep the grade,” Neecy said. “But it doesn’t seem right,” she added in a whisper.
Neecy’s mother was silent.
“Oh, Mom, I know I’m letting you down,” Neecy said, tears coming to her eyes. “But this is wrong.”
“Do you think I’m going to be disappointed in you for telling the truth?” her mother asked. “Really?”
“What do you want me to do?” Neecy asked.
“You know what? I’m not going to tell you what to do,” her mother answered. “I’ll just lay out the facts. You got a grade you didn’t deserve. I don’t know how that happened or why. I just know what you’re telling me: your math grade is not correct. So you have two choices. You can keep silent, get your scholarship, and know—for the rest of your life—that your success was built on a lie.”
Neecy sat on the edge of her bed and put her face in her hands.
“Or you can tell someone at the school that a mistake has been made and get the grade corrected. There’s a high price for each choice. On the one hand, the cost of getting the grade changed is huge—four years of college costs. Money that you won’t get for college otherwise. On the other hand, you have to think about the cost to your conscience. But in the end it’s your choice. Either way, you’re losing something. It’s just a question of what’s most important.”
“Mom, I’m so sorry,” Neecy said. “I blew this scholarship thing. And it was such a gift.”
“It was a gift,” her mother agreed. “I’m not sure it’s totally blown, since you still have another marking period to get your grades up. But it’s up to you. Either way, you have to live with your decision for the rest of your life.”
Neecy covered her face with her hands. “So you won’t tell me what I should do?” she asked miserably.
“If I told you, it would be my decision, not yours. And you could blame me for the rest of your life,” her mother said. “This is far too serious to have someone else decide for you. I’m sorry, but this is what real life is. Stuff happens, and there’s no one but you to handle it. Sounds cold, but that’s life. I’m going to go take off my shoes and make us some dinner.”
Neecy didn’t look up as her mother left the room. She was more confused than ever.
CHAPTER 15
Keshawn
As the church ladies would say, desperate times call for desperate measures.
Keshawn changed Chance’s and Luther’s grades. Geniuses. Both of them. If Mr. Sullivan ever looked back at this semester’s grades, he’d know right away
that his account had been hacked. But there was no way to guarantee that he’d look at grades for a semester that was already over.
So Keshawn also changed Neecy’s grade.
He knew all about the D.C. Stars. He’d heard her talking. He knew how important it was to her to keep her grades up. By changing the one grade that put her back to a 3.0, Keshawn knew he had put her in a terrible jam. But her stress about her scholarship made her extra careful, so he knew she would know it wasn’t just a casual error.
Knowing Neecy, he was sure she must be agonizing over what to do. He was sorry for that. But it had to be done. But that’s not all he did.
He didn’t want the school to take the easy road and just tell Mr. Sullivan to change his password. He needed the school to delete the keystroke-tracking program from the computers. He also needed to make sure the school system plugged its sloppy security. No more installing tracking programs.
He accessed Mr. Piper’s grade book and changed the grades of kids he didn’t particularly like. Gave them all As. Then he did the same thing in Dr. Miller’s biology class. He figured it would be harder to identify who had done it if the students who benefitted weren’t his friends.
He only hoped that Mr. Sullivan would report the hacking immediately. For his plan to work, Mrs. Hess needed to tell the rest of the teachers to check their grades too. The school would then see how widespread the dishonesty was. Then maybe they’d tighten up their computer security to keep this from ever happening again.
As those big-hat-wearing church ladies would say, locking the barn door after the horse gets out.
The next day Keshawn ran into Luther before school. Luther motioned with his head toward the courtyard in the center of school.
They walked outside.
“Did you put that picture in Sullivan’s computer like I told you?” Luther asked.
“Yep, buried where only I can find it,” Keshawn lied.
Buried was right. He had taken a hammer to the flash drive, then threw it in a trash can along Bladensburg Road. But he did save one copy of the picture, just in case.
“You need to send it to me in an e-mail. I need it to look like it’s from him to me. Think you can handle it?”
“I’m in people’s e-mail all the time,” Keshawn boasted. “I think I can handle it fine.” Figure it out, NFL2B, Keshawn thought. That means you. “What do you want the e-mail to say?” he asked.
“Something like, ‘I’d like to do this to you.’ Something pervy like that,” Luther said. “My e-mail address is HandsomeRansome. I need it to be in my list of received mail in case I ever need to say he was messing with me. Clear?”
“Crystal,” Keshawn said.
Luther wasn’t satisfied ruining only Keshawn’s life. Now he was trying to ruin Mr. Sullivan’s life as well.
“Oh, and I want you to send an e-mail from Neecy to Charlie Ray. Tell him that she wants to break up with him, and that she doesn’t want to talk about it. Be really cruel, so he’s too hurt to talk to her.”
He wants to ruin my life, Mr. Sullivan’s life, and now Neecy and Charlie’s lives as well, Keshawn thought. He is out of control.
He had to find a way to disable Luther Ransome.
Not physically, though he had to admit, he wouldn’t cry if Luther got hit by a Metro bus.
No, Keshawn needed to find a way to make sure that Luther never tried to use that recording against him. He had to find a way to blackmail Luther so Luther could no longer blackmail him.
Right now, Luther could use his recording to make sure Keshawn did what he was told. He had to come up with something just as powerful to use against Luther. They’d both have a threat they could use against the other. Not a pleasant way to live the rest of their lives in high school, but necessary.
He just had to think of something.
CHAPTER 16
Neecy
Neecy barely slept. She weighed her options and neither felt right. If she told Mr. Sullivan that she wanted him to change her grade back, she might be throwing away tens of thousands of dollars in scholarship money. In fact, it might mean she couldn’t go to college at all.
But if she didn’t say anything, she knew that for the rest of her life she would know that what she had achieved had been based on a lie.
The choice was impossible.
She was angry that Mr. Sullivan had put her in this position. He should have given her the grade she deserved. Teachers should do the right thing. It shouldn’t be her responsibility to tell him to be honest.
She finally gave up trying to go back to sleep. She got dressed and left early for school.
As she walked up Seventeenth Street, she ran into Carlos and Ferg. “Hey, did you hear our good news?” Ferg said when she caught up to them. “The whole basketball team made grades!”
The two boys high-fived each other.
“Even Luther and Chance?” Neecy asked. “They never work in math class.”
“I don’t know,” Carlos said. “I just know that we all had to show our report cards to Coach Williams yesterday. It’s all good.”
Neecy shook her head. There was no way that Luther or Chance could have passed math. She knew how hard she’d studied for the final test, and she only got a seventy-two. Luther and Chance often ditched class, and rarely turned in any homework.
That settled it. She was disgusted that Mr. Sullivan would change grades for students who didn’t deserve it.
Charlie joined the group and put his arm around her. “So what did you decide?” he asked softly so the others couldn’t hear.
“I’m talking to him,” Neecy said firmly. “I hadn’t decided until just this minute. I want good grades, but not this way. It makes me no better than those creeps.”
“You know, if you ask him to change your grade back, he may feel he needs to change theirs back too,” Charlie warned. “Not that I’m telling you not to do it.”
“That’s their problem,” Neecy said angrily. “I’m not going along with something wrong just so the school can win basketball games.”
“You going to wait till class?” Charlie asked.
“No, I’m going to go see him now,” Neecy said. “If I talk to him in class, everyone will know.”
“Well, good luck,” Charlie said. “And for the record? I think you’re doing the right thing.”
Neecy gave him a half smile and took the front stairway up to the second floor. She stood in the doorway of Mr. Sullivan’s room. She needed a moment to get her courage up. Accusing a teacher of dishonesty was not easy.
“Neecy, good morning,” Mr. Sullivan said pleasantly. “What can I do for you?”
“Mr. Sullivan, I need to talk to you about my grade,” Neecy said. She hated that her voice came out all squeaky.
“I think you got the grade you deserved,” Mr. Sullivan said gently. “I’m sorry that it was a surprise to you.”
“But that’s just it,” Neecy said. “It was a surprise because it was wrong. I didn’t deserve that grade. I track my grades online. I knew what to expect. You shouldn’t have changed my test grade. It’s a lie.”
Mr. Sullivan looked confused. “Neecy, I’m afraid I have no idea what you’re talking about,” he said finally. “Are you saying you think you should have gotten a better grade on the final test?”
“No,” Neecy said. “I mean, yes, I should have, because I should have done better. But I got a seventy-two on the test, and you posted it online. Then when I looked again, it changed to a ninety-nine! I appreciate that you were trying to help me keep my D.C. Stars scholarship, but it’s not right.”
“A ninety-nine?” Mr. Sullivan said incredulously. “Ninety-nine?” he repeated. “Neecy, in sixteen years, I can probably count on one hand the number of students who scored that high on my tests. I didn’t change your grade once I recorded what your test score was. Maybe you saw something else? A homework assignment?”
“It was the test,” Neecy said. “I’ve probably checked it fifty times. It brought my
grade way up, which would have been great. But it’s a lie.”
Mr. Sullivan hit some keys on his computer. “Let’s take a look,” he said. “Okay, here’s your class. And you have a—What?! You’re right. A ninety-nine on the test,” he said. “What did you say you actually got on the test?”
Neecy pulled the graded exam out of her backpack. “Seventy-two,” she said.
“I can’t imagine how I made that mistake,” Mr. Sullivan said. “Did you say you had seen the seventy-two earlier?”
“I did,” Neecy said. “I saw it the day you returned the tests. Then when I got my report card, I was so surprised by my grade. I checked online to see how I could have gotten a C in your class. That’s when I found the ninety-nine.”
“But I didn’t post any grades after I recorded the test scores,” Mr. Sullivan said slowly. “So for it to have changed …”
All of a sudden, his expression darkened. His eyes narrowed and a hard look came over his face.
“Are you kidding me?” he hissed, staring at the screen.
“Excuse me?” Neecy asked.
“Neecy, yours isn’t the only grade that’s been changed,” he said disgustedly. “This is very serious, and I need to get to the bottom of it. It may take me a while to figure out what’s going on. In the meantime, you should keep this conversation to yourself. I don’t want your name involved. What’s going on needs to be reported to Principal Hess.”
Neecy said she’d keep quiet and then turned to leave.
“Neecy?” Mr. Sullivan said.
She stopped and turned back.
“It took a lot of courage to do what you did,” he said. “And I know you could really use that C. So I’m really, really proud of you for telling me about the error.”
“It wouldn’t have felt right to keep quiet,” Neecy said sadly.
She turned and walked out of the room, practically bumping into Luther Ransome.
“Hey, Neecy, whatcha doing in Mr. Sullivan’s room all by yourself so early in the morning?” Luther asked with an evil leer. “Getting a little extra attention?”
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