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  “Laurel, Maryland.”

  “That’s not too far from me. We could meet somewhere neutral like the library closest to you, if you want.”

  “Or you could come to my place.” What the heck was I doing?

  Something flashed in his eyes. Caution, maybe wariness. It was hard to say, especially because I had exactly zero experience in setting up a study date. Maybe that had been a dumb thing to say. Maybe he thought I wanted to do more than study. How was I supposed to know, with zero experience? I started to clarify, but I wasn’t sure what I could say that wouldn’t make things worse.

  My face heated and I knew Colt could see it, because when I get embarrassed, my face turns into a freaking red beacon.

  Mortifying seconds ticked past. There was a thoughtful expression on his face as he stared out the window over my shoulder. “When do your mom and dad get home?” he finally asked.

  “My mom gets home about six thirty. My dad…he doesn’t live with us.”

  “Do you think your mom would mind if I came about eight? That would give you guys time for dinner, but not be too late for us to study.”

  Truthfully, I had no idea what my mom would think, because until yesterday no one had ever come over to my house before. Now, on two consecutive days, I’d have different people over. I had a feeling she was going to completely lose it. By that, I meant she would totally misunderstand the situation and be so happy she’d pass out or giggle herself silly.

  I did not look forward to that.

  “I don’t think she’d mind,” I said.

  “Then it’s set.” He slid my notebook toward him and scribbled a number on the top. “Text me your address later, would you? See you tonight.”

  Just like that, he grabbed his backpack and went to the front of the room, presumably to tell Mr. Jackson that we were now lab partners. I had a pretty clear idea what Mr. Jackson would think of that. I sighed and stuck my book and notebook in my backpack before standing up. Patty Trent passed by, giving me a cold, snooty look.

  “Loser,” she mouthed.

  I raised my chin, smiled. “Really? Because Colt asked me to be his lab partner. Who did you get?”

  Shock bloomed across her face. I’d never stood up for myself before, and she hadn’t been prepared for it.

  Her upper lip curled into a disdainful snarl. “We’ll see how long that lasts.”

  I shrugged, but my smile widened. “Guess we will.”

  Chapter Eighteen

  ANGEL SINCLAIR

  After I got home, I walked Mr. Toodles and texted Colt my address. As I pushed the Send button, I thought I should probably mark it as a social milestone or something. I’d texted a guy who wasn’t Wally. Wow.

  I finished my math homework, wrote a persuasive essay for my English class, and logged on to my account at Georgetown University to respond to a couple of discussion board questions and submit my homework. As I logged out of that, I figured I might have time to clean my room, help Mom get an early jump on dinner, and take a shower before the study date. Not that it was a date date, but still…I wanted to be clean and reasonably prepared for all contingencies. Although there was no way I could truly be prepared, because I couldn’t even think of a single contingency. I had no framework, no reference. What did people do on study dates? Study, yes, but did other stuff happen, too?

  Stop overthinking, Sinclair. It’s just chemistry.

  My heart was beating anxiously. My palms were sweaty. I needed to get a grip on myself before I freaked out completely.

  I was headed to the kitchen when my cell rang. I fished it out of my pocket. “Hello?”

  “Hey, Angel, it’s Frankie.”

  “Frankie? How did you get my cell number?”

  “Wally, of course.”

  “What’s up?”

  “Well, while putting the info for the Medieval Melee on my social media, I came across something on my Twitter feed.”

  “What?”

  “I’m not going to explain it. Go check out this website, would you? I’ll hold on. It’s called nothingbutthetruth.com.”

  “What is it? Some political site?” I darted back to my computer and sat down.

  “I wish.”

  It took me a few seconds to pull the website up. It was formatted to look like a newspaper. The headline screamed, Excalibur Academy’s Vice Principal Mows Down Innocent Pedestrian.

  I quickly scanned the article, my heart sinking. It was a horrible mix of a few basic facts and a lot of false information—all of it brutally skewed against Mr. Matthews.

  Fake news at its worst.

  “Who would write this?” Frankie asked, clearly distressed. “It’s awful.”

  I didn’t answer. I was already checking out the specs on the website. It had gone up a few hours earlier. “I need time to check this out, Frankie. I’ll call you back later.”

  I spent the next hour doing a probe of the website. Unfortunately, it was well protected and I didn’t have time for a lengthy hack. The front door opened, and my mom called out to me. Ugh. I hadn’t even cleaned my room, taken a shower, or gotten dinner under way.

  I logged off, stuffed all my dirty clothes in the closet, and made my bed. A glance around indicated the room seemed reasonably neat. I ran down the hall to meet my mom. She was already in the kitchen pulling chicken breasts out of the freezer.

  “Hey, honey,” she said when she saw me. She turned on the water in the sink, dipping her hand in to ensure the water was hot, and then placed the breasts beneath the stream. “How was your day?”

  “Okay. Um, I’m going to have a friend over later to study for a chemistry test tomorrow.”

  Mom grinned. “Frankie or Wally?”

  I cleared my throat. “Colt.”

  “Colt?” My mom turned off the water. “Who’s he?”

  “My lab partner in chemistry.”

  “A boy?” Leave it to my mom to obsess over the littlest thing.

  “Yes. A boy. It’s no big deal, okay? We’re going to study for a quiz.”

  “You didn’t need a lab partner last year,” she noted.

  She would have to remember that. My cheeks heated despite a supreme effort to act nonchalant. “Well, this year things are different.”

  “They are.” She turned the water back on to thaw the chicken breasts. “I’ll take care of dinner. You go get ready.”

  The words get ready terrified me because, for the first time, I wasn’t dressing for school. I hightailed it out of the kitchen. Twenty minutes later I was clad in a pair of jeans and a short white blouse, which I hoped equaled ready. My hair, which was looking more orange than red tonight, was dry, straight, and loose. I wished Gwen still lived with us, because I might have borrowed some of her makeup to hide my freckles. But as I stared at myself in the mirror, I decided makeup for a study date was overkill. Colt was observant and would notice. As it was, I was still indecisive about leaving my hair straight instead of pulled back in a ponytail. In the end, I left it down.

  Mom had our dinner ready, and we ate it sitting at the kitchen table, like we usually did, talking about our days. I didn’t have much of an appetite. Thankfully, my mom didn’t bring up Mr. Matthews, my dad, or the upcoming study session. I carefully steered the conversation to safe things.

  I was drying the last of the dinner dishes when the doorbell rang. I glanced up at the clock. It was precisely eight. Colt was punctual. I liked that.

  Mr. Toodles went nuts yipping at the door as my mom went to answer it. I stepped out of the kitchen just as Colt came in. He stood nearly a half foot taller than my mom but immediately bent down to one knee to pet Mr. Toodles. I was certain Mr. Toodles liked getting petted by those long, strong fingers. I started to think I wouldn’t mind that, either.

  When Colt saw me, he straightened. “Hey, Angel. Ready to study?”

  “I sure am.”

  Mom closed the front door behind him. While his back was to her, she gave me an enthusiastic thumbs-up. I tried not to blush but wasn�
��t sure I entirely succeeded.

  “It’s been lovely to meet you, Colt,” she said. “I’m off to my bedroom now to watch my favorite show in peace. Let me know if you need snacks or anything.”

  “We can get our own snacks, Mom.”

  “Yes, you can. Have fun.”

  “Thanks, Mrs. Sinclair. Nice to meet you.”

  Even though my mom had the wrong idea about the study date, I could not remember the last time she’d glowed with this much happiness. I hoped she didn’t get used to people coming over, because I hated to burst her bubble—I had no intention of doing this on a regular basis.

  After she left, Colt and I stood facing each other awkwardly. I had no idea what came next. But since he wasn’t saying anything, either, I figured it was up to me to speak. “Are you ready to study?”

  “Of course. Dining room table?”

  “Yeah, that’s great.”

  He shrugged out of his backpack and pulled his chemistry book and notebook out, placing them on the table. I retrieved my book and notes from my bedroom and joined him.

  After we organized our study guides, he leaned forward on the table. “Thanks for studying with me, Angel. I appreciate it.”

  He had such nice brown eyes and a genuinely warm smile. Now that I thought about it, I could see how girls might obsess over him. Maybe a little.

  We went through the guide in about twenty minutes. Thankfully, he was bright and seemed to know as much as I did about chemistry. That made me happy, because his intelligence meant I might still be able to do some of the advanced experiments.

  When we finished, he sat back in his chair and studied me. “It’s true what they say about you.”

  I looked up quickly. “Who is they and what do they say about me?”

  “Some kids at school. They say you’re different from other girls.”

  My face burned hot. “Okay, so, what?” My voice came out more miserable than defiant, as I’d intended.

  He leaned across the table. “Angel, I mean that in a good way. You’re one of the smartest girls in school. That’s something to be proud of.”

  “It is?” I looked up at him, unsure.

  “It is. Tell me the truth—you didn’t even look at this material before tonight, did you? You know, we didn’t cover about half of this stuff in class.”

  “I thought that’s what tonight’s study session was for.”

  “Exactly.” He laughed. “No question chemistry is your thing.”

  “It’s not my thing. It’s in the genes, I guess. My mom is a pharmacist and my older sister is a microbiologist. My dad…he was a mathematician and engineer. Science and math kind of run in the family.”

  “Your dad isn’t in the picture anymore?”

  I stiffened and hoped he didn’t notice. “No. He left when I was eighteen months old.”

  “Oh.” Colt was silent for a moment. “Sorry. You only have one sister?”

  “Yeah, Gwen. She works as a microbiologist at a high-tech company in Baltimore. How about you? Do you have any brothers or sisters?”

  “No.” For some reason, he looked sad. “I’m an only child.”

  “Well, at least you have a lot of friends at Excalibur, which is cool, considering you just got here last year.”

  He sighed. “Yeah, right. Lots of friends.” He looked at me for a moment. “Hey, you have blue eyes. I just noticed. Red hair and blue eyes. That’s unusual, right?”

  “It’s a statistical anomaly. I’m a freak of nature.”

  For a moment, he looked startled and then smiled. “Wow. Me, too.” He laughed, looking surprisingly happy.

  “No way. You’re the most popular guy in school.”

  “Maybe. You know, Angel, I think I’m going to enjoy being your lab partner.” He started picking up his papers and book and putting them in his backpack. The study session was ending faster than I’d expected. It also reminded me I hadn’t asked him about the melee yet.

  Nervously, I cleared my throat. “Um, Colt. Before you go, can I ask you a question?”

  “Sure.” His tone was easy, but his smile faded. There was a new wariness in his eyes. As the most popular kid at school, I bet he got asked for a lot of favors.

  I summoned my courage anyway and plunged ahead. “You know Wally Harris, right? He’s a senior and I intern with him once a week after school at this cyberintelligence company. Anyway, he’s putting on a fund-raiser for Mr. Matthews. We’re trying to help him with his medical and legal bills. You remember the Medieval Melee from last spring, right?” When he nodded, I continued. “We’re going to do a benefit game next Wednesday evening at the school to raise money for him and…” I let my sentence trail off, trying to figure the best way to say it.

  “You want me to play in it?” he offered.

  “Yes.” I looked up in relief. “But on the weaker team.”

  He shook his head, puzzled. “What weaker team?”

  “Wally has this idea to pit the jocks against the geeks. But the geeks are going to get killed without a little extra help. That’s where you come in. We’d like you to be captain of the geeks. The pairing is bound to draw a lot of interest among the student body and will hopefully help us raise more money for Mr. Matthews.”

  He seemed kind of surprised. But at least he hadn’t said no right away.

  “Let me get this straight.” He folded his hands on the table and leaned forward. “You want me to be the captain of the geek squad for a special melee exhibition game to raise money for Mr. Matthews.”

  “That’s correct,” I said.

  He started laughing. I watched him, unsure as to whether this was a positive development or not. He laughed so hard, I couldn’t help but laugh a little with him, all the while feeling a bit apprehensive as to what he was thinking.

  After a minute, he wiped an eye and grinned at me. “I’d be honored, but I have an important question first.”

  I tried not to get too excited by the honored part, but initial relief swept through me anyway. “Okay, shoot.”

  “This would be just for Excalibur students, right?” he asked. “We’re not inviting other schools to participate?”

  I thought it an odd question, but if his participation depended on it, I would answer it as honestly as possible. “As far as I know, only Excalibur students will play in the melee. It will be just one exhibition game. I’m sure we’ll be able to drum up enough people to play on each team, especially if you are onboard. Of course, we can’t exclude people from other schools from attending in the audience. That’s good, in my opinion. The more people, the better chance we have of raising lots of cash. But, between you and me, I can’t see why anyone other than Excalibur students would even want to come.”

  Colt considered and then nodded. “Fair enough.” Standing, he swung his backpack over his shoulder. “I’m in.”

  “You are? That’s great, Colt. Thank you so much.”

  I walked him to the door, and suddenly we stood together in a moment of supreme awkwardness. If he liked me, maybe this was the moment when he would kiss me. I had no idea if people kissed after study dates. Maybe not on the first one. Maybe never. How would I know, since I’d never been kissed before?

  “You’re really tall,” I blurted out.

  “You’re really short,” he countered, grinning and giving me a fist bump. “Thanks, Angel. I’m glad you agreed to be my lab partner.”

  He opened the door and left me standing there happy but confused. Were we study partners? Friends? Something else? Maybe that was to be determined.

  I was picking up my chemistry papers from the dining room table when my cell rang. I pulled it out of my pocket and answered it.

  “Angel?”

  “Wally?” His voice sounded panicked, which made me instantly anxious. “Are you okay? What’s wrong?”

  There was a long pause. “I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but the assistant district attorney has decided to charge Mr. Matthews with assault with a deadly weapon.”

/>   Chapter Nineteen

  ANGEL SINCLAIR

  “What?”

  “It’s in the report. Go read it.” Wally hung up.

  I raced to my computer. I didn’t believe it, couldn’t believe it, until I hacked into the police department and read the report for myself.

  It was true. All of it.

  I felt like throwing up, although that would solve zip. I needed to go to the police station and tell them everything. Although I couldn’t prove any of the events were connected, the police needed to know about the bleacher incident and the mysterious person in Mr. Matthews’s office the day of the accident, just in case. If I could get Frankie to come, she would help me corroborate the bleacher story. I had no idea if they were related, but I didn’t want any information to be left out. I also wanted the police to know the nothingbutthetruth.com website was full of lies and misinformation.

  My phone dinged, signaling a text. It was from Wally.

  Angel, what are we going to do?

  We need to talk to the police tomorrow. We should tell them everything we know.

  Agreed. I’m not stopping the fund-raiser. He needs us more than ever now.

  I know.

  I spent most of the night trying to hack in to the evil website, but whoever was running it was capable. Security was surprisingly top-notch and I was too tired to form an innovative or effective strategy. I fell into bed discouraged and frustrated. We had to do something and quick or Mr. Matthews was toast.

  The next day at school was a blur. The bus was late, so I didn’t see Wally and Frankie at my locker. I didn’t even have the chance to tell them Colt was onboard to help us with the fund-raiser. When I was finally able to tell them, at lunch, they were excited and, not surprisingly, more determined than ever to proceed with the fund-raiser.

  Although I’d completely forgotten to study for an AP English quiz, I only missed two questions. Nic, the jerk, was in a surprisingly good mood. He probably got a perfect score. I ignored the satisfied glances he threw my way.