She swooshed past us and was gone.
I sat in my chair with a thud. My dad had heard me mention Cooper before. I spent a lot of time talking to Selena about him, sometimes on the phone, sometimes when she was over at my house. Every once in a while, Dad told me to ignore the haters or pointed out that teenage boys don’t have fully developed brains yet.
Dad didn’t know about the pranks. At least not all of them. Certainly, he’d suspected that something was up when I brought two hundred water balloons to school.
But he would see my side of it. He knew Cooper was a jerk.
I folded my arms stiffly. “I hope you’re happy now.”
“You’re the one who started this,” Cooper said. “Don’t blame me for where it ended.”
My mouth dropped open. “I didn’t start this.”
He glowered at me, full of disdain. “Mrs. Tsuru didn’t buy your denial of putting that video together. You expect me to? If you want to seem believably innocent, you shouldn’t have openly asked people for their footage of the games.”
“Opportunity doesn’t prove guilt,” I said. “And besides, you started this by spreading rumors that my dad bought me the part of Maria inThe Sound of Music.”
Cooper looked me straight in the eye. “Your fatherdidbuy you that part. The drama teacher thanked him for his generous donation in front of the entire class.”
His sister must have told him about that. Claire had tried out for the lead too. I hadn’t realized she was so bitter about being cast as one of the singing nuns instead.
He gave me a judgy look. “Puts a whole new meaning to the phrase ‘pay for play,’ doesn’t it?”
He was so, so wrong. “My father donated moneyafterI got the part, not beforehand. He does that because he’d rather give money than help with whatever fundraiser the drama club would force us to do otherwise—which, by the way, is because all of the school’s money goes to the football team instead of supporting the arts. If you need further proof,” I said, gathering indignation, “he gives money to the school for a lot of things, but it’s never gotten me extra credit in any of my classes.”
Cooper didn’t even acknowledge I’d spoken. He leaned back in his chair, long legs stretched out like he was too cool to be here. “Why do you even care about being dragged into the office? Your dad will just buy you out of this problem too.”
Pffft.“I wish.” The school didn’t work that way. And my father sure didn’t work that way. Cooper would see that soon enough once my dad got here.
Neither of us said anything else for a long time. Cooper took out his phone. I went on mine as well, writing furious messages to Selena, and then because she didn’t answer, to my sister, Peyton.
Peyton is three years older than me and was generally no help in Cooper matters. Her advice ranged fromStart dating a burly guy who can threaten himtoConvince Dad to buy a pro football team and then Cooper will kiss up to you.
Not many guys at our school are bigger than Cooper. He’s six foot two and mostly muscle. And football teams are sadly out of Dad’s price range.
Today Peyton’s advice wasEither refuse to admit to anything and tell the principal you won’t speak without a lawyer present orthrow yourself on her mercy. If Dad gets mad at you for choosing the first option, remind him who raised you.
Dad wanted both Peyton and me to become lawyers. So far, Peyton was resisting the pressure and planned to get a nursing degree. I’d become Dad’s only hope for a legal legacy. Thanks, Peyton.
I gave her response a like and checked to see if Selena had responded. She hadn’t.
On some days, I missed having a mother around. I’m pretty sure a mother would’ve been more sympathetic to all of this. Mine had decided that raising two children stifled her career opportunities as a marine biologist. She took off four years ago to study humpback whale migration in the North Atlantic.
Whales. Not that I’m still bitter about that.
There was no point in even thinking about calling her. Norway was nine hours ahead. She’d be asleep. And even if she wasn’t, she would only murmur some half-hearted throwaway line about how people ought to get along.
When Selena finally returned my messages, she already knew about my Miata being under the bleachers. In fact, several pictures of it popped up on social media. Apparently moving my car had been a team effort from the weight-lifting class. I turned to Cooper. “You’re horrible at keeping secrets, just saying.”
He eyed me from over his phone, his blue eyes challenging. “Or maybe I’m so good at it, you don’t know any of my important secrets. There’s no way to prove that, is there?”
I flashed a picture of my convertible parked under the bleachers. “If you were trying to hide my car, you should’ve told your teammates not to text pictures of it to everybody.”
“I think what this proves is that other guys are bad at keeping secrets. My phone is clean of pictures of your car. At least,now it is. I may have sent car pics to some classified ads along with your phone number. Don’t be surprised if you’re barraged by phone calls later. After all, your car is a steal.”
Someone nearby let out a sharp breath. I turned to see a woman in front of us, her eyes blazing at Cooper. She was toned and pretty with curly brown hair like his. She looked too young to be his mother, but the expression on her face left no question that she was.
“What were you thinking?” she demanded, her hand waving to emphasize each word. “It’s not enough that you moved someone’s car so I had to come down to your school and speak to the principal? You already have your next crime planned?”
