Halloween in Paradise (Tj Jensen Paradise Lake Mysteries Book 6) (11 page)

“Does anyone have any questions before we begin?” Tj asked the group of girls who had volunteered to help her with her project.

“Are we actually going to get wet?” one of them asked.

“I think we need to get wet; otherwise it will look phony,” another girl replied.

“But my hair is going to frizz,” the first girl countered.

“I brought my hairdryer,” Tj informed them.

“It’s really nice of all of you to do this for me,” Lexi said.

“You’re our friend and we’re happy to help,” someone said.

Tj had enlisted twenty girls, many of them from the
it
crowd, to join Lexi in a remake of the video of her singing in the shower. The G-rated video had the girls dressed in shorts and tube tops, but the off-key vocals in the second video was just embarrassing enough to prove a point.

“Any other questions?” Tj asked before they began. “Okay. Let’s do this.”

When it was finished Tj uploaded the video to all the popular social media sites with the hashtag showerokee. It took only a few hours for the hysterically funny video to circulate throughout the school, and by the end of the day #showerokee was the new in thing, and the majority of the student body was laughing with Lexi rather than at her.

“Your video was dumb,” Portia said later that day after Tj had called her into her office. “I can’t believe Principal Remington let you make it.”

“Principal Remington agreed it was a good idea to demonstrate that Lexi’s friends had her back. The video seems to have made Lexi more popular than ever.”

“That’s because people are sheep. They follow whoever has the mic at the moment.”

“I noticed that of all the girls on the team you were the only one who didn’t support the idea to help Lexi,” Tj commented.

“So?”

“The fact that you were the only girl to turn me down suggests to me that you’re the one who made and uploaded the video of Lexi in the first place.”

“You can’t prove that,” Portia challenged.

“You’re right; I can’t prove who did it. What I don’t understand is why anyone would do such a thing. It was obviously an attempt to humiliate Lexi. I thought you and she were friends.”

“First of all, Lexi and I are no longer friends. Second—and I’m not saying I was the one who did it—but if it
was
me, I would have posted that ridiculous scene to get even with Lexi for spreading rumors.”

“What kind of rumors?”

“Why don’t you ask her?”

“I will. And if I find out that you’ve been bullying Lexi or anyone else, you can be sure I’ll be taking the matter up with both Principal Remington and your parents.”

Portia laughed. “Go ahead. Catching Lexi in a compromising situation and posting it was my mother’s idea in the first place. You should be glad it was me and not Mom who shot the video. Mom wouldn’t have been so careful about maintaining a PG rating.”

Tj frowned. She didn’t really know Portia’s mother, although she had seen her around campus a time or two. She was what Tj thought of as plastic. It was evident she had had a
lot
of work done to create an image that was about as perfect as fake could be. Tj didn’t understand why anyone would submit herself to that much elective surgery, but she supposed you couldn’t really understand why anyone did anything unless you had the opportunity to walk in their shoes. 

“You realize you just admitted to making the video,” Tj pointed out.

Portia stood up. “I did no such thing, and if you say I did I’ll deny it.” She turned to the door. “Trust me, you don’t want to get on my mother’s bad side. She isn’t nearly as nice as I am. If she thinks you’re standing in the way of what she wants she’ll chew you up and spit you out.”

“And what exactly is it that your mother wants?” Tj asked.

“She wants me to be part of the popular crowd. You may not realize it to look at her now, but my mom was a nobody in high school. She told me that she felt invisible the entire four years she went to this school.”

“She went here?”

Portia nodded.

“When?”

“Geez, look it up.” With that, Portia was gone.

Tj watched her as she walked away. So Portia’s mother had been a wallflower. That could explain a lot. Suddenly, Tj had an overwhelming urge to do just what Portia had suggested: look up her mother. A quick search of the girl’s school records gave Tj a maiden name and a search of the alumni database gave her a graduating class. Tj headed over to the library to look Eve Smith up in her yearbook.

“Morning, Betty,” Tj greeted the school librarian. “Where can I find the old yearbooks?”

“Back wall, near the emergency exit.”

Tj headed to the shelf Betty had indicated and found the correct year. She looked up Eve, but the girl in the photo in no way resembled the woman Tj knew as Portia’s mother, who was blond with a small nose, perfectly straight teeth, and large breasts. The girl in the photo had mousy brown hair, crooked teeth, and a large nose. She wore glasses that partially hid her eyes, but Tj could see they were the same deep blue they were today.

“Did you find what you were looking for?” Betty wandered over while Tj was still looking at the photo.

“You’ve been here a long time. Do you remember this girl?”

Betty looked at the yearbook. “A lot of kids come through here and I don’t remember them all, but yeah, I remember her. She was a timid little thing. The other girls tended to pick on her, so she’d come into the library during lunch to do her homework.”

“This is Portia Waldron’s mother.”

Betty frowned. “You’re kidding. That blond Barbie doll who struts around here is the same girl who was so skittish in high school she couldn’t even talk to the other students?”

“She’s obviously had a lot of plastic surgery.”

“And a personality transplant,” Betty observed.

Tj continued to study the photo. Suddenly, things were beginning to make sense in a sick, twisted way.

“Do you remember if this girl was one of the ones who picked on Eve?” Tj pointed to a photo of Chantel.

“I remember Chantel. I’m not sure this school has ever had a bigger queen bee. And Chantel used to torture poor Eve.”

Tj looked at Betty. “It seems Eve is enacting her revenge by encouraging her daughter to bully the daughter of the girl who made her life hell in high school.”

“Portia is the one who uploaded the shower video,” Betty realized.

“I believe so. She mentioned it was her mother’s idea. At the time, that comment made no sense, but now, sadly, it does. The question is, how do I deal with bullying on campus when the real problem is the bully’s mother?”

“Let me get this straight,” Greg Remington said later that day. “Portia Waldron all but confessed to being responsible for the video that created such a ruckus, but you think her mother is the one who is actually responsible?”

Tj spelled out exactly what had occurred.

“That’s crazy.”

“Yes,” Tj agreed. “It is.”

“Any suggestion as to how to handle this?”

“I don’t know if Chantal Michaels realizes Portia’s mom is one of the girls she bullied. My guess is she doesn’t. Maybe if I explain things she’ll be willing to reach out to Eve. If that doesn’t work I think you need to have a conversation with Portia.”

Principal Remington sat back in his chair. “I’ll speak to Sheila about the situation. Maybe she can help us navigate these murky waters.”

“Perfect. And as long as I’m here, I want to ask if it would be okay if Gina covers my class next period so I can go next door to watch the spelling bee. Gracie is a finalist at the school level and Gina has a prep.”

“Fine by me. Tell Gracie I wish her luck.”

The elementary school had been having spell-offs for weeks to weed the student body down to five students from grades 1–3 and five from grades 4–6, with the winner of each group going on to the regional spelling bee in Carson City. Tj knew the students left standing at this point were all serious competitors who had been studying for months. Tj really hoped Gracie would win. She’d been working so hard; Tj had caught her with a flashlight under the covers going over her word list on more than one occasion.

When Tj entered the school’s multipurpose room she wasn’t expecting to see the crowd that had shown up for the event. Tj hoped Gracie wouldn’t be nervous with so many people watching. Tj waved to Hunter, who was sitting on the bleachers near her dad, her grandpa, and Kyle. She made her way across the crowded floor and sat down between Kyle and Hunter.

“I thought you had to work today,” Tj greeted Hunter.

“I did. I mean, I do. I couldn’t miss seeing our girl compete, so I took a break. I’ll need to go back after.”

Tj liked the way Hunter said
our girl
. After Tj had been given guardianship of her two sisters, it had occurred to her that her new family status might impede her ability to find a husband and have children of her own. Not a lot of the men she’d dated in the past would have been willing to take on a ready-made family.

“I stopped by to talk to Gracie for a few minutes,” Kyle informed her. “She didn’t seem nervous at all. She said she’d been studying and she knew all the words.”

“She does know all the words,” Tj confirmed. “At least all the words they gave her to study. I think if they go through those words and still have more than one contestant in a particular age group, they randomly begin picking other words to break the tie.”

The five students left in Gracie’s group also included Gracie’s friend Loren, who Tj was confident Gracie could outspell; a new student to the school named Brian; an advanced student named Julie, who often beat the other kids in academic competitions; and Trisha, the girl whose parents made her randomly spell words from the dictionary.

“I’m really nervous even if Gracie isn’t,” Tj said.

“Yeah, me too,” her grandpa admitted. “She’s worked so hard. I’d really like to see her win.”

“I think these competitions are harder on the families than on the kids,” Mike added.

“Here they come,” Tj announced.

Everyone clapped as the ten students participating in the spell-off filed into the room. Gracie waved to them as she made her way to the metal folding chairs set out for the contestants. The group from the younger grades would go first.

Tj held her breath through the first few rounds. No one was eliminated. Brian, the only boy in Gracie’s group, was the first to miss a word and be eliminated in the eighth round. Tj’s heart pounded as the contest continued. Gracie was smiling and seemed to be having fun, but Tj was a wreck.

“Why are your eyes closed?” Hunter whispered to her.

“I can’t watch,” Tj confessed. They were into the eleventh round and the words were getting harder.

“Do you think it will make a difference to the outcome?”

“Maybe.”

Tj listened as Gracie easily spelled her word correctly. By round thirteen Loren had been eliminated.

During round fifteen Trisha stumbled on a word. It broke Tj’s heart when she glanced at her parents, who were looking at her with stern expressions on their faces. The poor girl looked like she was going to cry. Gracie reached out and took the girl’s hand, which seemed to help, because she managed to spell the word correctly just as time ran out. Trisha received a demerit for the false start but wasn’t eliminated; the black mark would only come into play if there was a tie.

Julie was eliminated in the nineteenth round, so it was down to Gracie and Trisha. Tj really wished both girls could win. Her little sister had been working hard and deserved to win, but Trisha looked like her whole world revolved around this one competition.

Tj couldn’t help but be aware of the old-fashioned clock on the wall that ticked down the minutes as the girls continued to correctly spell every word that was given to them. When they got to round thirty the announcer informed the crowd that he was about to provide the final word. If both girls got their word correct Gracie would win because Trisha had the demerit. If Trisha got her word wrong Gracie was the automatic winner. If Trisha got her word right and Gracie was wrong, Trisha would win.

Trisha’s word was achievement, which she spelled correctly.

Tj held her breath as Gracie was given her word.

“Glamour,” the announcer said.

Tj smiled. Gracie had struggled with the word, so they’d practiced it until she could spell it in her sleep.

Tj watched as Gracie glanced at Trisha, who had tears running down her face. Then she looked out into the crowd and grinned at Tj.

“Glamour,” Gracie said. “G-l-a-m-o-r. Glamour.”

“I’m sorry, but that is incorrect,” the announcer said. “Trisha is the winner.”

“How could she miss glamour?” Ben said. “We practiced that word a hundred times. She knew it like the back of her hand.”

Tj looked toward the front of the room. Gracie was smiling as Trisha’s parents hugged and congratulated their successful daughter.