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‘You didn’t,’ Teddy said. Without asking, he knew what Kevin wanted. It was the same conversation after each big exam.
‘What did you get on the test?’ Kevin asked, his mouth spread into a wide grin.
And Teddy went with his usual response. ‘That’s none of your business.’
‘Aw, come on,’ Kevin said. ‘I bet I got a higher grade.’
‘Ninety-five,’ Teddy said.
Kevin clicked his tongue. ‘I got a ninety-nine. You’re slacking.’
Teddy received a perfect score. He wanted to stick it to Kevin. Make him relax. Then Teddy could be valedictorian. His ticket out of this one-horse town.
‘I have to go,’ Teddy said. He didn’t have time for Kevin today. And he hoped to stop at home before meeting Declan. It was the only time he could see Mom.
‘Don’t study too hard,’ Kevin said with a laugh.
Teddy opened his mouth to say the first thing that came to his mind. He stopped short, not wanting to continue any conversation with his academic rival.
Another text from Declan came through.
I need some $$.
He sighed and pressed the HOME button. He clicked on his bank’s mobile app and made sure he had enough to lend Declan.
There was always enough, but knowing the exact numbers eased his mind.
He flipped over to his messages and responded to his cousin: I want it back in a week. Or I’m charging interest.
He ground his teeth together. He wouldn’t have much time to go home and catch up with Mom now. Declan most likely needed the money right away. He always waited until the last minute, leaving Teddy to be the responsible one.
‘Mr. James,’ a female voice said to his right.
Teddy looked up from his phone. He stashed it away in his pocket by reflex.
His AP English teacher, Mrs. Hathaway, smiled at him. ‘You can use your phone. Classes are over for the day.’
Teddy chuckled. ‘Force of habit.’
She held her smile. ‘I wanted to discuss the possibility of joining our tutoring program. I have one student in mind for you to work with.’
‘I’m not sure if I have time to tutor other students,’ Teddy said. ‘My homework takes up a lot of my time.’ It wasn’t a complete lie. He had a lot of homework, but he had to keep his nights and weekends free for his extracurricular activity. The one that would get him and his mom out of dodge.
‘That’s a shame,’ she said, her lips tugging at the corners. ‘You would be a great asset.’
Teddy nodded. He knew he would be. He almost felt sorry about not accepting the offer. It would be great on his college application, but he couldn’t risk it. He needed the money more.
‘Well, I won’t bother you about it,’ she said, adjusting the collar of her white button-down. ‘Next year you might have more free time, so do let me know if you change your mind.’
‘I will.’ He spun the combination lock again. The straps of his bag dug into his shoulders, and he needed to unload some books.
He lifted the handle to his locker, and something fell onto the floor by his feet.
‘Oh, I’ll get that,’ Mrs. Hathaway said, bending over.
Teddy wasn’t sure how anything would fall out of his locker without seriously injuring anyone. His textbooks were massive.
When Mrs. Hathaway stood up, her lips puckered as if someone had shoved a lemon in her mouth. ‘What is this?’
Teddy swallowed. He knew exactly what it was. And what its street value was, just by looking at it.
‘Is this marijuana?’ she asked.
Teddy reached for it, but she pulled her hand away from him. ‘That’s not mine.’
What the hell? He glanced around him, but no one paid attention to the academic and his teacher.
‘Mr. James, I think you need to come with me to Principal Killian’s office right now.’
CHAPTER FOUR (#ulink_d98dc735-f2f9-52a2-99f8-139a26e746c5)
TEDDY (#ulink_d98dc735-f2f9-52a2-99f8-139a26e746c5)
Saturday (#ulink_d98dc735-f2f9-52a2-99f8-139a26e746c5)
‘Theodore, you are the first to play the game,’ Teddy read off the red slip of paper. ‘Your instructions are hidden in your favorite novel. You have fifteen minutes to fulfill the task, or you fail.’
The room fell silent. The echo of Teddy’s task hung in the air.
He blinked, unsure of what was going on.
All eyes turned to Teddy. Heat moved under his skin as the sound of his given name echoed in his head. No one called him Theodore, except for his late grandmother. The formality of the note struck him, almost as if someone was playing to his childhood self. The self that was most vulnerable. Over the years, he went from a shy kid to someone stronger with thicker skin. But not at school. No, that other ‘self’ was for a different part of his life.
Or was someone messing with him? Not even his teachers had called him Theodore since kindergarten.
‘That was creepy as hell,’ Q said.
Teddy’s mouth flattened, hoping the others wouldn’t see the quiver in his lips. ‘Well, he got my name wrong.’
‘Your task is to find a book?’ Zoe asked.
Teddy wasn’t sure what to do. The last five minutes had been surreal.
‘I think we should tell Mr. Curtis,’ Jackie said. ‘I didn’t ask to be a part of this.’
‘A part of what?’ Q asked. ‘He has to read a book. Big deal.’
‘It’s just a dumb prank,’ Teddy said.
‘Who would mess with perfect Teddy?’ Q asked.
Teddy winced at the word ‘perfect’. It was how everyone at school described him. Trouble had never found him in school. Until this week.
Why was he a target? And twice in one week. First the weed in his locker. Now, this? He didn’t even do drugs. Sure, he’d been around them. The small bag wasn’t enough to get the police involved, but it was sufficient to land him in detention. Principal Killian had gone easy on him. It helped that he’d never been in trouble before. Though, now that record was marred by this situation.
Teddy could have talked himself out of it if Mrs. Hathaway had kept her mouth shut. She was appalled by the situation. Her hysterics made it worse. If she’d have given him a chance to appeal to Principal Killian, he’d be home instead of in the library with his classmates.
Someone had done this to him. And that person was in the building right now. If only he could get to the front office and find out who used the intercom. He wouldn’t risk Mr. Curtis finding him out of his seat. Having more than one detention in his file would give Kevin another heads up on him for valedictorian. Teddy had to keep a low profile for a while, maintaining the rest of his school career all about school and nothing else.
Teddy glanced at the door. Where was Mr. Curtis? Had he heard the voice too? The front office staff could program the intercom to report to the entire school or one room. Since Mr. Curtis hadn’t returned to the room, Teddy doubted that Mr. Curtis had heard it. Unless he didn’t care for pranks either and had already caught the person who disguised his voice.
Teddy hoped so. Maybe Mr. Curtis would come back to the room with the culprit. He could then try and move the blame for the weed to this person, saying he was blackmailed, which he was.
He looked down at the note. Fifteen minutes. The clock was ticking.
‘I think you should at least check it out, man,’ Q said. ‘What’s the harm?’
‘I really think we should tell Mr. Curtis,’ Jackie repeated.
Teddy gave her a look. She never spoke to him during school. They moved in different circles. He didn’t care about being popular, but if he could show the cheerleader he wasn’t a wimp, then he might land on her good side for the rest of their academic career together.
Chairs scraped against the floor behind him as the others followed.
‘What’s your favorite book?’ Cece asked, coming up beside him. They shared several classes together and like Jackie, rarely uttered a word to each other unless they had to. She was pretty but not his type, but he’d take any action these days. He knew he’d probably graduate as a virgin, but he still had another year to go. Anything could happen.
‘Carrie,’ Teddy and Zoe said at the same time.
He looked at her. She bit down a smile, but he knew it was there. The others glanced at her too.
‘How did you know that?’ Q asked, his eyes narrowed.
‘We used to be friends,’ Zoe said.
Teddy swallowed his hurt as he turned down the third stack of bookshelves. He spent the majority of his reading in the horror genre. Mom devoured those books during every spare moment she had, turning Teddy on to the genre. When he was younger, they would sit under the blankets of his bed with a flashlight reading scary stories.
He’d never told anyone that. It was something he shared with his mom alone. So why did this person think he knew his favorite book? Other than the tattered copy under his mattress, not many people in his life knew.
‘Carrie?’ Holly asked.
‘Stephen King,’ Q said, ‘not the book I was thinking for you, nerd.’
Teddy ground his teeth together. ‘I prefer modern fiction to the classics. And don’t call me that.’
Q laughed and slapped a hand on Teddy’s shoulder. ‘I think I like you a little more now.’
Teddy stiffened at his touch.
‘Chill out, man. I’m just messing around,’ Q added.
They all filtered down the aisle, following Teddy.
Teddy found the book. There was only one copy. It didn’t have a sticker on the spine, so it wasn’t a library copy. The paperback shook in his hands. The worn edges reminded him of his personal copy. He imagined seeing the name Bert handwritten on the inside. His mom purchased the book second-hand. There was writing in the margins from the Bert guy. While reading, Teddy felt as if he knew this stranger more than he knew his own father.
No, it wasn’t possible.
He couldn’t bear to look. Instead, he focused on the piece of red paper sticking out from the pages. Teddy touched the edge of the paper and slid it out.
Scrawled letters in a thick black marker stared up at him.
‘You take from others for personal gain. Now it’s time someone took from you. The one thing you cherish. Money. You will hold ten one-hundred-dollar bills, a small sample of your growing bank account. You will destroy them, or I will take away everything. You have ten minutes.’
Teddy’s palms dampened as his trembling hands opened the book wider. A hole was cut in the middle of the pages, just big enough for a stack of cash to fit inside. He cringed at the idea of someone purposefully cutting the pages. Especially since this was his book.
He dropped the note, and it fluttered to the floor.
Q picked it up and read it aloud. Everyone peered over Teddy’s shoulder to take a look at the cash.
‘Is that your money?’ Jackie asked. Her eyes were wide saucers.
Teddy closed the book and held it against him. ‘No.’
He had the urge to protect the book and the money inside. He knew the money wasn’t his. It couldn’t be. There was no way anyone could have access to his account. He used the savings account his grandmother had opened for him when he was a kid to store everything he earned. Even if this person knew how much he had, the bills in the book were probably fake.
He wanted to check the money and count it, but not with his classmates ogling the cash. They already knew too much.
‘So, he wants you to destroy that money?’ Cece asked.
‘Where did you get all that, anyway?’ Q asked.
‘This isn’t real,’ Teddy said. ‘Someone is messing with me.’ He opened the book again and picked up the top bill, a crisp hundred-dollar note. He held it up to the light and saw the security thread in the paper. This bill wasn’t counterfeit.
Teddy’s grip on the book tightened.
Q lifted a lighter from his pocket and held it out. ‘If it’s not real then you shouldn’t have any trouble destroying it as the note said.’
‘This is stupid.’ Teddy snatched the note from Q and headed back toward the table. He tucked the note into the book and closed it.
‘What are you doing?’ Zoe asked.
‘What does it look like?’ Teddy said. ‘I’m going to finish this chain and then get ahead in my reading for next week.’ At least then he’d have more time to stay out tonight if he completed his work early. He started for the table.
‘You’re not going to destroy that money?’ Jackie asked.
‘Why should I?’ Teddy asked. It was real, and it was a thousand dollars. He wanted to stash it away in his account, just as he did with every other spare hundred he earned.
‘Are you sure?’ Q asked.
Teddy glared at Q. ‘I’m sure.’
