Chapter 2 - THE LIST
Jake spun around.
A girl stood in the doorway.
Maya Reynolds.
Senior.
Straight-A student.
Student council secretary.
The last person Jake expected.
She shut the door behind her.
“You two need to stop talking in the hallway.”
Dylan stared at her.
“How much did you hear?”
“Enough.”
Jake took the phone back.
“You know about Harlan?”
Maya gave him a look.
“Everybody knows something.”
“That doesn’t answer my question.”
She stepped closer.
“Did you actually record him?”
Jake hesitated.
Dylan answered for him.
“Yes.”
Maya’s face changed.
Not surprise.
Relief.
“You finally got him.”
Jake frowned.
“Finally?”
She reached into her backpack and pulled out a folded piece of notebook paper.
There were names written on it.
At least twenty.
Some Jake recognized.
Some had already graduated.
Beside each name was a number.
$150.
$250.
$500.
$900.
Jake stared at it.
“What is this?”
“Payments.”
Dylan looked sick.
Maya pointed at several names.
“Students who paid Harlan. Students who paid Mrs. Pike. Students who paid Coach Bell.”
Jake laughed once, but there was no humor in it.
“Three teachers?”
“Maybe more.”
“For grades?”
“For grades. Test answers. Attendance changes. Discipline reports disappearing.”
Dylan shook his head.
“This is crazy.”
“No,” Maya said. “Crazy is what happens if you refuse.”
She pointed at a name near the bottom.
Eric Salazar.
“Eric was supposed to graduate last year.”
Jake remembered him.
Quiet kid.
Played baseball.
“He moved.”
“That’s what people said.”
Maya folded the paper.
“He refused to pay Coach Bell.”
“So?”
“Three weeks later, he got suspended for having pills in his locker.”
Dylan stared at her.
“You think Bell planted them?”
“I know he did.”
“How?”
“Because Eric had been with me that entire morning.”
Nobody spoke.
Jake felt the story getting bigger by the second.
“Why haven’t you gone to the principal?”
Maya gave a bitter laugh.
“I did.”
Jake blinked.
“What happened?”
“Principal Voss told me accusations could destroy innocent careers.”
“And?”
“Then he told me my Yale recommendation letter hadn’t been submitted yet.”
Dylan cursed under his breath.
Jake felt anger rising in his chest.
“So Voss knows.”
Maya looked at him.
“I think Voss is running it.”
Silence.
Jake’s phone suddenly vibrated.
UNKNOWN NUMBER.
A text.
He opened it.
DELETE THE VIDEO.
His mouth went dry.
Dylan read over his shoulder.
“What the hell?”
Another message arrived.
YOU HAVE TEN MINUTES.
Maya whispered, “How do they know?”
Jake checked the stairwell.
Nobody.
His phone buzzed again.
This time there was a photo.
Jake’s younger sister, Lily, standing outside her middle school.
Taken less than an hour ago.
May you like
Underneath it were four words.
DON’T MAKE THIS PERSONAL.
