Read My Side Online

Authors: Norah McClintock

Tags: #JUV039230, #JUV039060, #JUV039220

My Side (6 page)

BOOK: My Side
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Jen and Shayna are staring at me. I know that they will never betray Kayla. They probably have an alibi all worked out. They'll deny, deny, deny. I also realize that I have no idea who any of the boys were. Or what Addie was doing in that wrecked old house. Or how they got her there.

I don't know anything.

Except that anyone who sees that video is going to see my face.

“Don't worry,” Kayla says. “It's not like it's a crime.”

She's right about that. It's a joke, not a crime.

I keep my head down. I refuse to talk to anyone about the video. I'm glad no one in my family sees it. I keep thinking about Addie. I want to ask her what she was doing out there. I want to find out what happened. But the way she looked at me when she was on those stairs, you would have thought was the one holding the knife and that I had just plunged it into her chest. I decide to wait and see what happens. Maybe the whole thing will blow over. She'll be back at school, some people will give her a hard time, and that will be that. But that isn't that. Addie isn't at school on Monday. She isn't there Tuesday or Wednesday either. On Thursday, I get called down to the office. The cops are there. So are my parents.

“Sit down, Neely,” Ms. LaPointe says. She's one of the vice-principals. “These officers want to ask you some questions.”

I glance at my mom. She looks upset. My dad is stone-faced.

I sit.

The cops explain to me that the school computer has been hacked and that the school has asked them to look into it. They say they got help from a computer expert from the city and that he was able to trace the computer that was involved. It's mine.

“Did you hack into the school computer, Neely?” one of the cops asks.

“No.”

“Neely, we know your computer was involved. Did you let someone else use it?”

I think of Kayla and Jen. I think of them sticking together and of Kayla's threat. I think about getting into trouble no matter what I say.

“I don't know anything about it.”

“What about that video?” the cop asks. “You're in it. And the link for it was emailed to the whole school from your computer.”

“I don't know anything about that either.”

My dad clucks in disgust.

“Your mother tells me you've been running with a new crowd. Are they involved?”

Kayla will deny it. Jen and Shayna will back her up. They'll back each other up. And no one is recognizable. No one except me.

“The school is laying charges for hacking the computer, Neely,” the cop says. “If there was some charge for what you did to that girl, I'd pursue that too.”

“The school has a policy,” Ms. LaPointe says. “What you did is cyberbullying. There will be consequences.”

The next thing I know, I'm arrested and taken to the police station. Class is still in, but that doesn't stop kids from looking out the window and seeing me. The news will be all over school in no time.

My dad calls a lawyer, who doesn't seem all that interested in hearing my side of the story. He just wants me to keep my mouth shut until he can get me released to my parents. Which he does. My dad takes me home. He doesn't say a single word the whole way there. He just drives and parks and lets me out of the truck. As I walk up to the house, he strides out to the barn as if he can't wait to put distance between us.

I go straight to my room, even though I hear my mother in the kitchen. It isn't long before she's knocking at my door, asking if she can come in.

I tell her yes. Might as well. She's going to do it anyway.

She sits on the end of my bed. “Do you want to tell me what happened?”

“I made a mistake,” I say. What I don't say is that Kayla planned this whole thing. She wasn't just out to get Addie—she was out to get me too. And she got me good.

“I can't believe you did what they say. Not all by yourself, anyway.” My mom reaches out to touch my leg. I find myself recoiling. I hate myself for it. “Did those other girls have anything to do with it?”

She asks it as if it's a question, but the look on her face tells me she knows it for a fact.

“That girl Kayla,” she says. “She was trying too hard to flatter me. Maybe I'm wrong, but I got the impression she was making fun of me somehow.”

I start to cry. I throw myself into my mother's arms. I love her so much.

Chapter Fourteen

I tell my mother everything. She advises me to tell the lawyer. The lawyer says, “It was your computer, and it's going to be your word against three girls who sound like they have their story pretty much together.”

“Then the police will just have to talk to them,” my mom says.

The lawyer doesn't answer. He asks me, “Those boys who were there— do you know who they were?”

I shake my head. “I didn't see their faces. It was too dark. And they were wearing masks.”

“I see.”

“Those girls know who they were,” my mom says.

“And they're not telling,” my dad says. He sounds angry, but I can't tell at who. I hope it's not me.

The lawyer's sharp eyes are still on me. “Did you actually see that girl, Jen, hack into the school computer?”

“No.” I didn't pay the least attention to what Jen was doing. I was too focused on impressing Kayla.

The lawyer is silent for a moment. He caps his pen and slides his notepad back into his briefcase. “I'll talk to the school and see if they're willing to take Neely's record into consideration. Maybe they'll agree to drop the charges. I'll talk to the police, too, and see if they can make any headway with those girls. But I can't promise anything.”

He makes no headway. Kayla's mother freaks out when the cops show up to question her daughter about something the police have already established was done by someone else. She contacts Jen's parents and gets Jen's mom all worked up, and the two of them get a lawyer. Shayna's parents contact Kayla's mom. Together they form a united front to protect their daughters against this slander from some local farm girl—me. All three girls are forbidden by their lawyers to talk to the police.

All three sets of parents, led by Kayla's mom, contact the school and demand that the school do something about these accusations against their daughters. They get their lawyers to make threats, too, if the harassment of their daughters continues while the local farm girl—they always refer to me as the farm girl—gets preferential treatment even though it's known beyond a shadow of a doubt what her role in all this has been. Kayla's mom also points out, in person, that her daughter has no reason to persecute any student for any reason—why would she?

For a day or two, it looks like the school is going to let me off with a suspension—at least, that's what the lawyer says. But then the school board gets involved. It seems that two of the school trustees, businessmen, have been contacted by Kayla's father, who has been enlisted to come to the defense of his darling daughter's reputation.

“They're pressing charges after all,” the lawyer says. “They're going to allow you to go back to school, but you're not to have anything to do with any of those girls. You're also not allowed to use any of the computers at school.”

“It could be worse,” my mom says, squeezing my hand.

“Oh,” says the lawyer, getting ready to stand up, “you're also forbidden to have any contact with Addie Murch. Her parents have taken out a restraining order.”

“What?! But I didn't—”

I stop. Because, as far as anyone can see, I did. I look down at the table. Tears sting my eyes. I made a mistake. The least I can do now is take the punishment.

“Okay,” I say.

Chapter Fifteen

It turns out I don't have to worry about the restraining order because Addie doesn't come back to school. There's a rumor going around that her parents are homeschooling her, but I never find out if it's true because I can never get up the nerve to ask anyone how she is doing, not after that first time when I approach John, my whole body shaking, to ask if he's seen her around.

He looks down at me. His face is hard and mean.

“You think I'm going to say anything about her?” His voice is as hard as his face. “Why did you have to drag me into it?”

I feel my cheeks ignite like a bushfire in a drought. Kids, caught by the sharpness of his voice, have turned to look. One of them is Kayla. She smirks at me. I slink away. Really, I wish I could run away and never come back.

Kids don't talk to me. They don't give me a hard time, but they don't go out of their way to talk to me either. It's as if they've decided, after they all had their big laugh at Addie's expense, that I am beneath contempt. At first I'm enraged. Who do they think they are? They were never her friends. They never cut her any slack. They never made any effort to get to know her.

And they laughed.

They all watched that video—no way they can tell me they didn't—and they talked about it with other kids. And they had a good laugh.

Now they're judging
me
?

I wait and wait for my case to be disposed of, as the lawyer likes to put it. It takes forever.

“Not like tv, is it?” the lawyer says, smiling for what is probably the first time ever.

Finally, weeks and weeks later, he tells me he's set up a meeting with the school board's lawyer and that if all goes well, I will probably get away with a suspended sentence. He adds that letting time go by means letting tempers cool— something he can say only because he hasn't been walking around at my school in my skin this whole time.

“By the way,” he says, “all the court orders remain in effect until that time. I don't want any surprises, okay, Neely? And trust me, neither do you.”

The meeting is three days away when Addie walks into Mr. Grayson's class.

I feel everyone's eyes go to her and then to me.

I feel her eyes search me out.

I feel the heat rise in my cheeks. I want to look at her, but I can't make myself do it. It's been months. She took out a restraining order against me. She obviously thinks I'm the one who was behind what happened. She hates me.

Still, I want to talk to her. At least, that's what I tell myself. But no matter how many times I try to lift my eyes, I can't make myself do it. It's been too long. Too much water has gone under the bridge, as my grandpa would say. Addie thinks I did that horrible thing to her. She actually believes I'm behind it. She thinks I'm a monster.

What I really am, right at this moment, is a coward. When the bell rings, I flee, even though I know Kayla and Jen and Shayna will laugh at me for it. I tell myself that when it's all over, I'll go to Addie and tell her exactly what happened. I tell myself I'll do it even though I'm pretty sure she won't believe me. I have to set the record straight, don't I?

I'll swallow the shame and, yes, the anger I feel—how could she believe I would do such a thing?—and I'll tell her exactly what happened. She can choose whether or not she wants to believe me.

In the meantime, I flee. I go to my locker. I ignore the whispers I hear behind me. I know perfectly well who it is—Kayla and Jen and Shayna. I ignore the looks of the other kids too. I ignore them all.

And then I catch a glimpse of her—Addie—out of the corner of my eye. She's staring at me, and I know what she's thinking. I wish she'd come up to me, but she doesn't. Good old Addie, still chicken even after all of this. She watches me, thinking the worst of me, and there's nothing I can do, not today, except turn and walk away.

Next week, I tell myself. I'll talk to her next week.

Norah McClintock has written many bestselling novels, including
She Said/
She Saw, Back
and
Guilty
. Norah lives in Toronto, Ontario.

The following is an excerpt from
another exciting Orca Soundings novel,
Masked,
by Norah McClintock.

BOOK: My Side
13.05Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

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