Chapter 8: Evan

When did I become such a dork? Wanting attention from a girl, wasn't something that I'd ever felt before. Not once. I didn't have to, they gave it to me before I could even think about it. Ever since I hit puberty, it was almost as if I'd become a magnet. One that attracted the opposite sex in a heartbeat.

"I have a confession to make," she said, and it caught the principal's attention and stopped the tense atmosphere which made time stand still and it felt as if, at some point, even the clock had gone mute. I hated coming in here, the threat of being kicked out of another school meant that my only future would be to stay at home. With my drunk mom.

Hell no!

'Stewart, the rich quarterback love magnet.' Every-one needed a nickname in high school, and that just hap-pened to be mine. Not, 'Stewart, the miserable kid with the alcoholic mom and cheating dad, who'd been kicked out of one too many schools.'

I was too popular and had too much cash to be la-beled what I was behind closed doors. Everyone only saw what they wanted to see in high school at times; I wondered if it was a blessing or simply a curse.

"Yes, Ms. Johnson go on."

He wasn't cleaning his glasses now and his eyes pinned her to her chair with an intense gaze. His eyes were fixed on hers, and then it was as if a lightbulb went off over my head. I wondered, for a single second, if it was her? The girl from the closet! No, surely not, I would remember, right? Then again, I'd been so focused on football and everything else lately, that maybe I just hadn't noticed that her eyes were very similar to that girl's. Maybe that was why I couldn't be sure it was her.

But that girl's hair had been blond, this girl's hair was brown. I knew girls liked to dye their hair a lot now, but would she make such a change so quickly? Was it possible? She cleared her throat and that drew my atten-tion back to reality.

Her eyes fluttered as she spoke. "I copied his paper during the math test. I know the reason that we're here. And I'm the one that should be punished."

Holy crap!

I understood exactly why we were here now. That math test a couple of days ago, right after that party, when the recruiter from the state university showed up with an offer I couldn't refuse and had raised my hopes. I'd been too busy floating on air to really care about a stupid test.

"Stewart is it true?"

I opened my mouth, but then Mr. Hopkins answered for me.

"Of course, it`s not true. The idea of someone with a 4.0 GPA copying from someone who has an average of..."

He started flipping through some papers, but I an-swered for him.

"2.75 average," I sighed.

He dismissed my response and said, "There`s a digit that shouldn`t be there. The ´seven is a little optimistic, don´t you think?"

"Anyway, I´m the one that copied him,¨ she contin-ued, and it was clear that as much as she was persistent, it was obvious that she was lying. But, why?

"Ms. Johnson are you still going to continue with this lie?"

First, she nodded, and then she shook her head in the negative, then she nodded yes again. Obviously, she wasn't sure how to answer that one.

"I did it. I own up to it. I´m the one that should be punished," she stood up, and I knew she was taking the blame, and like a coward, I sat there. I said nothing. It was as if my mouth zipped shut as she shot me a cold stare. A warning gaze as if to dare me to get up.

"The consequences of cheating are high. I will not be taking this lightly," Mr. Hopkins said with annoyance. He wanted me to confess or to at least put me down, or even better kick me out of the school. The idea of not being able to do either seemed to upset him. To annoy him. I wasn't the least bit sad for him, but the only thing on my mind was, why?

Ms. Johnson confessed to something that she didn't do. I didn't know whether her lie or her ass intrigued me more?