Hacker

by Leslie McGill

  “Leave me alone,” Neecy said. “You’re disgusting.”

  “That’s not what you said last night,” he said loudly. Several students looked at them in surprise.

  “Actually, that’s what every girl who’s ever gone out with you has said,” Neecy shot back.

  Luther threw back his head and laughed. “Babe, I’m sorry I didn’t take you up on it when you asked me to hook up with you. But you really got to get over it! Though looks like Mr. Sullivan’s helping you forget about me.”

  “You’re trippin’,” Neecy said. She turned in the other direction and walked away.

  CHAPTER 17

  Keshawn

  As he walked to class, Keshawn saw Neecy coming out of Mr. Sullivan’s room. As soon as he saw her, he knew she was telling the teacher about her altered grade. Keshawn knew he had made the right choice when he chose her as his unwitting accomplice. For the first time in a long time, he felt a little optimistic.

  Particularly since he had spent the evening putting part two of his plan into action.

  He had set up a fake e-mail account using the name “TeacherCrusher.” It meant nothing, but Keshawn figured Luther would think it had a dirty meaning. Then he sent an e-mail from that account to Luther.

  Keshawn worded the message carefully. He wanted Luther to think it was inappropriate, and everyone else to think it was innocent. So he wrote a message that could go either way.

  When I saw this picture, I got excited. I really want to see you do this.

  He attached a picture to the e-mail, but first he changed the file format so that Luther couldn’t open it easily. A computer tech could fix it in a flash. But he hoped Luther wouldn’t have the skill or patience to try. After all, Luther thought he knew what it was.

  Which brought Keshawn to part three of the plan. It would be much, much harder to execute. He would have to choose his moment carefully. It would also require him to forfeit any chance of ever looking cool.

  He hoped he had the courage to actually do it.

  CHAPTER 18

  Neecy

  Hey, guess what?” Charlie said on the phone that night. “Coach told Luther and Chance they couldn’t practice today because there’s something weird going on with their grades.”

  “Weird? How?” Neecy asked.

  “I don’t know. I just know they weren’t allowed to practice. Something about their grades in math and biology.”

  “Both? That’s interesting,” Neecy said. “I wonder if their English grades were wrong too. My English grade was correct.”

  “Remember that day when they came in? We were working with Mr. Sullivan, and Chance got behind his desk. Do you think he did something to his computer?”

  “It’s possible,” Charlie said. “It will be interesting to see what happens tomorrow. Now, how’s that homework? I gotta tell you, I have no idea how to do number eight.”

  They worked on homework for a while and then said good-night. As Neecy got ready to go to bed, there was a knock on her door.

  “Neecy? Can I come in?” her mother asked.

  “Come in, Mom,” Neecy replied.

  “I just wondered what you decided to do,” she said as she sat on the end of Neecy’s bed.

  “I told Mr. Sullivan I didn’t want that fake grade,” Neecy said. “Sorry, Mom, if you’re disappointed. But I wouldn’t have been able to live with myself if I had kept it.”

  “Baby, I am so proud of you,” her mother said. “You did the right thing. The honorable thing. No matter what happens in your life, you can always look yourself in the eye and say, ‘I did the right thing.’ Not everyone can say that.”

  She hugged Neecy close. “And, hey,” her mother added. “Isn’t it about time I met that young man of yours?”

  Neecy laughed. “I’ll tell him,” she said. “Good night, Mom. And thanks.”

  “For?” her mother said.

  “I guess for leaving it up to me, but believing in me too.”

  “You make me proud to be your mom. Now get some sleep.”

  The next day, Neecy and Charlie went to the cafeteria at lunch. Soon Eva, Joss, Ferg, and Carlos joined them. More students came and sat down.

  “I am so pumped for the game this week,” Carlos said.

  “I actually think we have a chance at winning,” Durand Butler said. “Hopefully Luther and Chance will get their report cards straightened out and can play. But at least JaQuel can be our point guard.”

  “I am still so amazed that Luther and Chance made grades,” Rainie Burkette said. “I think Mr. Sullivan’s class is impossible. And I keep up with the work.”

  “I know, right?” Eva said. “At least JaQuel worked hard. He was in there almost every day getting extra help. But Chance? I don’t understand how he passed. Or Luther for that matter.”

  Joss looked across the cafeteria to where Luther and his friends were sitting. Luther and Jair had earbuds on, in violation of the school’s rules. Luther’s cell phone was laying on the table in plain sight—also against the rules.

  “I can’t stand those guys,” Joss said. “They think the rules don’t apply to them.”

  “Hey, what’s Keshawn doing over there?” Ferg asked. “I can’t see him as part of Luther’s posse.”

  The students all watched as Keshawn Connor started walking toward Luther’s table holding his lunch. As he got closer, Luther said something to his friends. They all laughed meanly.

  Keshawn didn’t seem to notice. He stopped by Luther’s chair and leaned down to say something to him. As he did, he popped the top on his soda can. With a whoosh, soda shot out all over Luther, Chance, and the others at the table.

  Luther and Chance jumped up swearing. Everyone at the table tried to move things out of the way. Keshawn lost his grip on the can, and it bounced onto the table. The sticky liquid kept spraying everything in its path.

  Keshawn dove for the can, but that just made things worse. It was total chaos. Finally, Keshawn put up his hands and began backing off. Even from across the room, Neecy’s group could hear him say, “Sorry! Oh man, I am so sorry. I can’t believe I did that.”

  He looked totally embarrassed as he left through the cafeteria doors. It wasn’t until a few seconds later that Luther let out a roar.

  “Where is my phone?” he shouted.

  CHAPTER 19

  Keshawn

  The whole cafeteria saw Keshawn spray an entire can of soda on Luther and his friends.

  They thought they’d all witnessed the most embarrassing moment of Keshawn’s life.

  No one knew that it was staged. A distraction to cover up Keshawn’s true intent. There was so much confusion, it took Luther forever to realize that his phone was gone. Keshawn had slipped it into a pocket of his cargo pants.

  He didn’t want to be caught with the phone on him. So he went to the restroom on the first floor. He used a paper clip to open a paper towel dispenser. He stuck the phone way in the back and locked it up again. He planned to retrieve it when it was safe. He was going to take a hammer to it, same as he did with the flash drive. Then toss it in a trash can far from school, where it was destined to become landfill.

  The door opened and a group of guys came in. They were all Luther’s friends, and they weren’t happy. They washed the sticky soda off their arms, and a few used paper towels to blot their jeans.

  “You’re a moron, you know that?” Chance Ruffin said.

  “Hey, sorry. Really!” Keshawn said. “It was an accident.”

  It wasn’t, but they’d never know that.

  “I oughta pound you for this,” Thomas Porter said.

  Great, Keshawn thought. Just the guy I want to have mad at me.

  “This crap is all over me,” Jair Nobles said, rubbing his jeans with a paper towel. “I can’t sit through class like this. What’s wrong with you?” Before Keshawn could answer, the door opened and Mr. Gable, the school security guard, came in. “We’re not going to have any trouble in here, are we, gentlemen?” he asked.r />
  No one answered.

  “Get to class,” he added, holding open the door. Chance went through first, then Keshawn slipped out. The others followed. If security looked at the tapes from the camera outside the restroom, Keshawn didn’t want it to look like he came and left by himself. It would look suspicious.

  That afternoon, the school office called Keshawn’s classroom to tell him to come down to the office. Mrs. Dominguez, the office secretary, asked him to go into the principal’s office.

  “I understand there was some trouble at lunch,” Principal Hess said.

  “I spilled a drink,” Keshawn said innocently. “I felt bad that it got so many people wet.”

  “Some of the people involved said that it looked like you might have done it on purpose,” she said.

  Keshawn tried to look outraged. “On purpose? Why would I do that?” he asked. “I was totally humiliated.”

  “Hmm,” Mrs. Hess said thoughtfully. “Any idea what happened to Luther’s phone?”

  “No. Did he lose it?” Keshawn asked.

  “Apparently in the chaos after you spilled your drink, he lost it somehow.”

  “Sorry I can’t help,” he said. “I was soaked after my drink spilled, so I went right to the restroom to clean up.” He knew the security camera would back this up.

  “Security is searching lockers while I’m speaking to everyone involved. Anything you’d like to tell me before they go to your locker?”

  “Uh … I’ve been planning to throw out those old sneakers for a while?” he said with a grin. “No, nothing, Mrs. Hess. They’re welcome to look.”

  “And you probably won’t mind pulling out your pockets for me,” she said.

  Keshawn wasn’t sure she was allowed to ask that, but he wasn’t going to go all legal on her. He pulled his own phone out of his pocket and put it on her desk.

  “That one’s mine,” he said. Then he pulled his pockets inside out. “Okay?” he asked.

  “Yes,” she answered. “I appreciate your cooperation. Now you can go back to class.”

  He left her office looking somber. But as soon as he got to where he knew he was out of range of the school cameras, he pumped his fist in the air.

  CHAPTER 20

  Neecy

  The next day, Mrs. Dominguez called into Neecy’s first period class and asked that she come down to the principal’s office.

  As Neecy walked down the stairs, she ran into Luther Ransome and Chance Ruffin.

  “What’s going on, girl?” Luther asked.

  “No clue,” Neecy answered truthfully.

  “Do you know, homes?” he asked Chance.

  “Dunno nothin’,” Chance answered.

  They waited in the outer office for a few minutes. Mrs. Dominguez got a call and then stood up.

  “You may go in now,” she said. “You’re in the conference room.”

  Neecy led the way into the large room across from Mrs. Hess’s office. At the door, she stopped so suddenly that Luther walked into her. Sitting around the table were Principal Hess, Mr. Gable, Mr. Sullivan, Mr. Fisher—the district’s tech support guy—and a couple of other men in suits. There were two laptops open on the table.

  “Come in, Neecy. Hello, Luther and Chance. Please come in and take a seat,” Mrs. Hess said.

  Neecy sat in the first open seat. She didn’t know what this was about, but she didn’t like the feel of it.

  “Students, the reason you’re here is because we’ve found some irregularities in your grades,” Mrs. Hess said.

  Neecy looked at Mr. Sullivan. He was looking at Luther, as if to watch for a reaction. Mr. Sullivan seemed to sense Neecy looking at him because his eyes shifted her way. As their eyes met, he winked. Neecy realized it was his way of telling her not to worry. She relaxed a bit.

  “What kind of regularities?” Chance said.

  “Irregularities,” Mrs. Hess corrected. “Grades have been changed. We’re here today to find out how it was done.”

  Luther had said nothing so far. His arms were crossed in front of his chest. Neecy noticed that he was wearing a Washington Redskins football jersey with the number twenty-one. The same number he wore on Cap Central’s football and basketball teams.

  “I know my grade was changed, but I have no idea how,” Neecy said. “I told Mr. Sullivan when I realized it. I think it was changed the day after our final test.”

  “How did you discover the change?” one of the men in suits asked.

  “I checked my grade online after Mr. Sullivan gave us back our exams, and I had gotten a seventy-two,” Neecy explained. “Then I got my report card, and my math grade was much higher than I expected. I checked again and my exam grade was a ninety-nine.”

  Beside her, she felt Luther jerk, as if he’d gotten a cramp.

  “Luther, you look like you’d like to say something,” Mrs. Hess said.

  “Nah, I’m cool,” he said. His voice sounded funny, like his jaw was stuck.

  “Your grade was changed as well,” Mrs. Hess said. “Had you noticed?”

  “I don’t bother to check my grades much.” Luther smirked. “I’m not obsessed with school like Neecy.”

  “That’s interesting, because your online account shows you logged in the day after Mr. Sullivan said he returned the tests. At eight thirty at night,” Mr. Fisher said, looking at the laptop.

  “Any explanation, Luther?” Mrs. Hess asked.

  “Okay, look, you’re right,” he admitted. “I knew my grade had changed. But I just figured Mr. Sullivan changed it for some reason.”

  Mr. Sullivan gave a short laugh.

  “How about you, Chance? Did you notice any changes to your grades?”

  “I never check my grades,” Chance said gruffly. “And I didn’t even get that test back. I wasn’t in class that day. So I wouldn’t know if the grade I got was right or not.”

  Mr. Fisher hit some keys. “There’s no sign that Chance accessed his school account. In fact, it looks like he never even set it up with a user name or password.”

  “Did either of you change your grades?” Mrs. Hess asked.

  Luther and Chance both yelled at once.

  “No way!”

  “Get out of here!”

  “Okay, okay, calm down,” Mrs. Hess said, holding up her hand. “Do either of you have a suspicion as to who changed them?”

  “Besides Mr. Sullivan?” Luther asked.

  “Right,” Mrs. Hess said. “Any other ideas?”

  No one said anything. Had Luther been smarter, Neecy would have bet that he had done it himself. But she knew he didn’t have the skill to circumvent the school’s computer security.

  But she knew he somehow played a role. She just knew it.

  “Let me just say something here,” Mrs. Hess said. “This is a serious security breach. Whoever did this is in big trouble. Whoever comes clean first is going to be looked at favorably by all these people. Those two are from the school system’s security team. And this gentleman is a D.C. police detective assigned to the public schools.”

  Neecy knew she hadn’t done anything wrong. And yet, she was terrified. She felt like she was going to go to jail. She couldn’t imagine how she would have felt had she actually done this herself.

  Still, no one said anything.

  “Did you see anything else in your grades that was suspicious?” one of the security guys asked. “Anything alarm bells ring for you?”

  “Not really,” Neecy said. “All my other grades were correct.”

  “How about you two?” Mrs. Hess asked. “This is the time to pass along anything that you think could help us with our investigation.”

  “There is something …” Luther said slowly.

  “Go ahead, son,” the detective said. “What is it?”

  “I got an e-mail a few nights ago that really spooked me. I didn’t know what to do about it, so I didn’t tell anyone.”

  “What kind of e-mail?” the detective asked.

  “It was—t
his is really embarrassing,” Luther said. “It was, you know, inappropriate. It had a picture attached. I don’t know who sent it, but it seemed like maybe it was from a teacher here. I actually wondered …” his voice trailed off.

  “Go ahead,” Mrs. Hess coaxed.

  “I actually thought it might have been Mr. Sullivan who sent it,” he said. “Especially after I saw that he had changed my grade.”

  “I never—” Mr. Sullivan started.

  Mrs. Hess put a hand on his arm. “Mike, let this play out,” she said. “Luther, was the e-mail from Mr. Sullivan?”

  “I think it was,” Luther said. “The name was ‘TeacherCrusher.’ And the message said something about how much he hoped I’d someday do what was in the picture.”

  “Wait, I got that e-mail too!” Chance said. “I didn’t know who it was from, so I didn’t bother to open the picture. I figured it was spam.”

  “How about you, Luther? Did you open the picture?” Mr. Fisher asked.

  “Yeah. It was really disturbing,” Luther said. “I deleted it right away. But it’s probably still in my trash if you want to see it,” he added helpfully.

  “Sure, why not?” Mr. Fisher said. “Why don’t you each sit at these laptops and log in so we can see these messages.”

  Luther and Chance walked around the table and logged in to their personal accounts.

  “Here it is,” Luther said.

  Mr. Fisher read the e-mail. “Open the picture, please,” he said.

  Luther tried clicking. “I don’t know what’s wrong,” he said. “It opened at home. It was disgusting. It was like … porn.”

  Neecy looked at Mr. Sullivan. He was slowly shaking his head back and forth.

  Mr. Fisher clicked a few keys, and one of the security guys made a few suggestions. Then they all looked at the screen.

  “What the—” Luther started. His expression went from fake innocence to what could only be described as absolute rage.

  Mr. Fisher turned the computer around so that it was facing the rest of the group. On the screen was a picture of a Washington Redskins football player wearing jersey number twenty-one. Luther’s face had been superimposed over the face of the real athlete.