My mind jumps from thought to thought. Fin wouldn’t have… but he could have…he’d be just the type too…he’d try it, and he could afford it…
He’d ask someone clever. The cleverest in the year level. Trinity? No, she’d refuse, she’s a stickler for rules. He’d want someone he could trust to keep quiet. Someone who’d take the risk for the money.
My heart pounds. I could be wrong, but it makes so much sense. That hundred-dollar bill in the envelope…
I sit up and grab my phone from the bedside table and find the contact I’m looking for.
As my phone rings, I pace around the room to manage the adrenaline rushing through my body.
She picks up. “Jasper?”
“Zaina.”
*
An hour later, I take a bus to Fin’s home. He lives right on the outskirts of Easton, in a double-story farmhouse at the end of a half-a-kilometre driveway. I walk down it, looking at the sheep and running lambs in the nearby paddocks.
When I knock on the front door, Fin opens it.
“Oh,” he says, brows jumping up. His face is noticeably free of bruising.
“We need to talk,” I say.
He looks at me down his nose, and for a moment I think he’ll shut the door in my face, but then he nods and lets me in. He leads me into the modern kitchen and opens the fridge. “You want a drink?”
“I’m fine.” I look around the house, but no one else is in sight. Makes sense. Fin’s parents are always busy with work and he has no siblings. At home, he’s as lonely as I am. That’s part of the reason we became friends in the first place.
He shrugs and takes a can of cola for himself, popping the cap and taking a long sip. “You’re here to talk about Kieran, I bet.”
I stand on the other side of the kitchen island. “You called him,” I say. “You said you were going to get him expelled.”
He nods.
I curl my fist by my side and get straight to the point. “I want you to leave him alone.”
He raises a brow. “Why should I do that?”
“Because if you don’t listen to me, I’ll tell everyone that you’re cheating at school,” I say.
He goes still.
“If the school finds out that you’re cheating in Year 12,you’reguaranteed to be expelled.” The rules about cheating in Year 12 are brutal because everyone in the state is competing against each other for a good score.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he says.
“Don’t lie.”
“I’m not lying.”
“Oh,” I begin. “Right, so it’s just a coincidence that this year, you’re suddenly pulling As when you barely passed Year 11?”
“I got a tutor,” he says.
“A tutor who completes all of your assignments? She wrote your assembly speeches too, didn’t she? You pay a hell of a lot for her.”
His eyes flicker.
“I already spoke to Zaina,” I say.
