The Enemy Hypothesis: A Brazos High Novella by Sparling Amy

Author:Sparling, Amy
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2020-03-30T16:00:00+00:00

Ten

MARK

Abby and I don’t speak for the next two weeks. I think I catch her looking at me during accounting class a few times, but every time I try to smile or get her attention, she looks away. Every morning I wake up and check the app. Both Abby and I have slipped down and risen up in the scoreboard multiple times over the last two weeks. Everyone in school has changed their position on the board. Everyone except Annabel. She’s still in first place and hasn’t left that spot since the first day the app opened. And no matter how many good things I do, or how many free makeovers Abby gives in her cosmetology class, Annabel remains about five thousand points in the lead.

I can’t stand knowing that a cheater will win this contest. I also don’t want to make Abby hate me forever by going behind her back and telling the principal about the cheating freshman. But time is running out, and we need to do something. I keep hoping for a way to find Abby alone and talk to her again, but she avoids me at every turn.

This weekend marks exactly one week left to win the competition. On Friday, I get called into the office with nine other people, including Abby and Annabel. At a quick glance I can tell we’re the top ten people on the current scoreboard. The principal introduces us to some dude wearing the same polo shirt the guy from the Un-bully video had worn. Luckily, it’s a different guy and this one isn’t as cheesy when he talks to us. He gives us all permission slips and tells us that the top ten students on the scoreboard are invited to visit the car dealership that’s giving us a car tomorrow. The permission slips are for the cameras. Apparently they want content of us picking out which car we’d get if we won so they can use it for future promotional videos and put it on their social media.

I really want to go, if only to spend time with Abby at a dealership, but that means I have to tell my parents what’s going on. I head to the restaurant just before the dinner rush to tell them about the contest, the app, and the prize.

Mom’s curiosity is piqued when I mention the car. “Can you sell it for cash? Or just take the cash instead of the car?” she asks.

“The rules say we can’t get cash instead, but I guess once it’s ours we can sell it.”

“That’s good,” Mom says. “But what makes you think you’ll win?”

I think of Annabel and her five thousand point lead. I’m currently around twenty-five thousand points and Abby is not too far ahead of me. But Annabel is at thirty thousand. Everything Janelle said has been true—never once has Annabel slipped in the ranks, but everyone else has.

I shrug. “I might not win. But I’m in third place right now.”

I don’t think I’ve ever seen my parents as excited as they are when I tell them the news.

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