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.’
‘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.
