“No shit?” Miles whispers. “How do you know?”
“My dad plays golf with the chief of police. They played on Saturday and the guy told my dad they were reopening the case.”
“Why would he tell him that?” Miles asks. “Shouldn’t that shit be private?”
“He got a call when they were golfing, and from what he was saying, my dad figured it out. He asked him about it and the guy admitted it. He said they got new evidence.”
“Against Braden?” Kade asks.
“I don’t know. I only know what I told you.”
“So that’s why the lawyer’s here,” Kade says. “Fuck. He better not get arrested. If he does, there goes our chance at State.”
That’s all they care about? Their friend may be going to jail, but they’re more worried about winning and going to State?
“Bell’s about to go off,” Dante says, getting up.
We take our trays to the drop-off area.
“When do you have Pruitt?” Dante asks.
“Right now.” I groan.
He laughs. “She’s not that bad.”
“You’re lying.”
“She’s strict, but outside of class she’s nice.” He opens the cafeteria door for me as we leave. “She goes to our church.”
“You go to church?”
“Only on holidays, but my parents go every week. Ms. Pruitt does too. She was going to be a nun but decided to go into teaching instead.”
“Ms. Pruitt was going to be nun?” I say as we go down the hall. “I guess I could see that.”
He stops at the door to my class. “Good luck.”
“Thanks. I’ll need it.”
The door swings open, and there’s Ms. Pruitt, standing straight and tall, her hair in a tight bun, her glasses perched on her nose.
“Ms. Halliway,” she says, shoving the doorstop in the door with her tan leather loafers. “How are you adjusting to the school?”
“Great!” I say in an overly enthusiastic way, a big smile on my face. “I love it!”
She stares at me, knowing it’s a lie. “Please take your seat.”
I sit in the back, like I always do. The class quickly fills up, nobody wanting to be late now that Ms. Pruitt is back. When we had the sub, everyone came in right before the bell rang.
“Welcome back, everyone,” Ms. Pruitt says. “I’m going to start by handing back the quiz that was administered last Friday. Unfortunately, many of you did not pass. I expect you all to work extra hard this week to acquire the knowledge you’ll need for the next exam, which will be coming up soon.”
She hands out the quizzes. I got a D, which is better than I was expecting. The girl next to me got an F.
Ms. Pruitt begins her lesson. I scribble notes down as she talks, trying to listen at the same time. I don’t know why I’mtrying so hard. I don’t care about this class. It’s more like I feel this need to prove to Ms. Pruitt I’m not as stupid as she thinks.
By the end of class, I’m exhausted and have a hard time focusing for the rest of the day. At four, I wait for Trystan, but as usual, he’s one of the last to leave. He gets mad when he has to wait even a minute for me in the morning, and yet he’s at least ten minutes late leaving school every day.
“Why are you always the last to leave?” I ask when he finally shows up.
