Can I Trust Her? by Frances Lucas

Author:Frances Lucas [Lucas, Frances]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Southern Belle
Published: 2022-05-23T18:28:35+00:00

Chapter Twenty-Nine

VIRGINIA

Monday, December 16, 3:00 p.m.

I’m all focused on the investigation now, though my between-class pursuits proved fruitless. A conversation with Marisol’s volleyball co-captain and senior reporter for the Gazette, Fatima Mann, yielded nothing other than a grudging acknowledgement that Marisol was a pretty good setter but could use more work on her hits. Mr. Cooper told me to mind my own business before I had a chance to even ask him about Marisol’s other story ideas. The easel I’d noticed last week was put away, so I got nothing there, either.

After school, I sidle up to Yoon-hi at her locker as she takes her camera out of the snow boot in her locker and sharpens a pencil with it.

She catches my look and lifts her chin. “What? You thought this was a real camera?”

“Sorry, it’s just that Officer Hess said the Insta pic wasn’t taken with a smartphone camera.”

She tosses me her pencil sharpener. It’s as light as an empty water bottle. “This one’s shit for calls and photos, but it doubles as a coffee mug. You want it? I didn’t kill her, Virginia, although we were planning to run away together.”

She’s putting me on, making me feel guilty for suspecting her. I set it back on the floor of the locker and say, “See you later.” I am so not in the mood to be teased.

With everything else going on, Katie and I neglected to make plans to meet after school. And when I go by her locker, she isn’t there. I wait for a couple of minutes, then head for Mrs. Hicks’s room, finding her rearranging student desks into a circle. “Can I help?” I offer, dropping my backpack inside the door.

“Absolutely,” she replies. There’s a post in the center of the room and outlets on the floor we have to work around.

“Getting ready for an NHS meeting?” I say when we finish, hoping to start a conversation that will eventually work its way around to Marisol.

“Not until after Christmas. Then, I suppose, we’ll have to choose a new president.” She sighs, then gestures to the chairs. “This is to facilitate better class discussions.”

“So we get to choose who won the Civil War?”

“Very funny. I said discuss, not vote. You have your brother Pete’s sense of humor. Why aren’t you in NHS, Virginia?”

I shrug. “Not smart enough, I guess.” I like Mrs. Hicks even though her assignments are too hard and she doesn’t mind putting kids on the spot if she believes they aren’t paying attention. She’s one of those teachers who wants to be friends with everybody, which can be annoying, but somehow it works for her.

“That’s a cop-out and you know it,” she argues, refusing to let me off the hook. “I suppose it’s also why you quit the ski team?”

“Exactly. It’s an intellectual sport.”

“Oh, you know what I mean.” She waves a hand in semi-irritation. “You don’t want to compete with Pete’s reputation. And you quit skiing because Katie doesn’t go with you anymore.”

My

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