Like Teddy, Cece read the note to herself. Her eyes darted quickly over the message. The wait made Zoe’s skin prickle with anticipation. When Cece finally looked up, she glanced at the clock on the wall over the door.
‘What does it say?’ Jackie asked.
Cece grimaced. ‘This is disgusting. I’m not doing it.’ She crumpled the paper in her hand, tears brimming in her eyes.
Here we go, Zoe thought. With her default to crying, the paper could have said anything. While they weren’t sure what had happened to Teddy’s bank account, whatever task Cece had, it couldn’t have been that bad. Right?
‘You can’t leave us hanging like that,’ Q said.
‘Can’t I?’ Cece snapped.
‘I shared with all of you,’ Teddy said. ‘Now it’s your turn.’
‘I don’t have to do anything.’ Cece shoved her chair back and stood. ‘I’m telling Mr. Curtis. This is obviously someone’s idea of a sick joke, and I won’t be a part of it.’
‘No!’ Zoe said, a little too loudly. ‘Teddy’s right. We have to follow the rules. No one outside this table.’
‘Since when were you appointed task-master?’ Q asked.
‘I’m not,’ Zoe said, tugging at her sleeves.
‘She’s a strict rule follower,’ Teddy said. His tone was light, but the remark made Zoe squirm in her seat.
He didn’t know her anymore, so it annoyed her that he was right.
Cece wiped at her eyes. ‘Teddy had a stupid book with money inside. This person wants me naked.’
‘What?’ Jackie asked.
‘This is my kind of mission,’ Q said, rubbing his hands together.
‘Grow up,’ Holly said to Q.
‘No,’ Cece said.
‘I’ll read it,’ Q said, opening his hand to her.
‘Not you,’ Cece said, turning her pleading eyes to the rest of the group.
‘Let me see,’ Zoe said.
Cece thrust the note into Zoe’s hand and then crossed her arms over her chest as if keeping her promise to herself about not removing her clothes.
Zoe took a breath, and read the note over once before reading it aloud.
It was as bad as Cece made it out. Zoe swallowed and read, ‘Vulnerability. That’s what I need from you. You hide behind your money and clothes. So what if you had none of those? Strip down and post a picture for your followers to see. Or else I’ll send another vulnerable moment to the two who matter most. There’s a laptop set up in the biography section of the library. You have twenty minutes.’
‘That is gross,’ Jackie said when Zoe finished.
Zoe slid the paper back to Cece then rubbed her hands on her pants as if her fingers were covered with dirt.
Cece swallowed and nodded. ‘I’m not doing it.’
‘Who are the “two who matter most”?’ Holly asked.
Cece shrugged. ‘Probably my parents.’
‘It’s not like you have a boyfriend,’ Q remarked.
Cece shot him a look.
‘What?’ Q asked. ‘Everyone was thinking it. You’re only with girls all the time. I mean, I’m all for some girl-on-girl action but don’t get mad because we’ve noticed.’
‘I’ve never noticed,’ Teddy said.
Cece blinked at him.
‘What if the other “moment” is worse?’ Holly asked. ‘And this person sends something to your parents?’
‘Worse than showing everyone my naked body online?’ Cece asked. ‘No, thanks. I’ve done nothing wrong. This person is probably just jealous of me.’
Zoe rolled her eyes. She knew Cece was a snob but did she think someone would put this whole thing together because he or she was jealous of her?
‘Are we sure this isn’t Mr. Curtis?’ Jackie asked the group. ‘As I said, I’m pretty sure he likes younger girls.’
‘Why would Mr. Curtis care about what’s in Teddy’s bank account?’ Zoe asked Jackie.
The cheerleader huffed and crossed her arms. ‘I don’t see you having another theory.’
Zoe didn’t have another one. None of this made sense. She knew it wasn’t Mr. Curtis, though.
‘You were already here when we came in,’ Cece said to Zoe. Her eyes fell on everyone else as if drawing each of them in on her theory.
‘You think I did this?’ Zoe asked.
‘You keep defending Mr. Curtis,’ Cece added.
‘Just because I don’t think our teacher is involved doesn’t mean I am,’ Zoe said. How had this all come crashing down on her? She should have kept her mouth shut like she always did.
‘I didn’t know about Teddy’s account—’ Zoe said.
‘A likely story,’ Q said, interrupting Zoe. ‘Everyone knows you have a crush on him.’
Zoe scoffed. ‘What?’
Zoe glanced at Teddy. Her cheeks burned.
‘You know I wouldn’t have done this,’ she said to Teddy. ‘Tell them.’
Teddy was far away in his thoughts.
‘Teddy!’ Zoe said.
He blinked a few times, coming back to the present. ‘It’s not Zoe.’
‘See,’ Zoe said, thrusting her hand out to the rest of them.
‘That proves nothing,’ Jackie said. ‘Maybe you’re in it together?’
‘That makes no sense,’ Teddy said.
‘Why would I want to see Cece naked?’ Zoe said with a grimace.
‘Maybe you swing both ways?’ Q asked.
Zoe fisted her hands in her lap. Why did Q have to fan this flame?
‘We’re all here for a reason,’ Q said. Even though he spoke to the group, his eyes focused on Teddy.
‘What are you looking at?’ Teddy asked.
‘It doesn’t add up,’ Q said. ‘You’re obviously hiding something.’
Teddy looked at the rest of the group. ‘I didn’t do this.’
‘How did you get the money?’ Q asked. ‘I’ve never seen you do anything but study. Where do you work?’
Teddy’s shoulders heaved.
Why was he getting so upset?
‘Come on, Teddy,’ Q pressed. ‘The more you hide, the guiltier you look.’
Teddy shook his head, refusing to talk.
‘Now I’m curious,’ Jackie said with a wry smile. ‘Tell us.’
‘Who says it’s someone in this room?’ Holly said. ‘We were all here when he spoke over the intercom.’
‘Except for Mr. Curtis,’ Jackie said, still sticking with her theory.
‘Why are you so obsessed with him?’ Holly asked.
Jackie worked her jaw. ‘He’s the only other person in this building, loser.’
‘Stop being such an attention whore,’ Holly said.
Jackie opened her mouth to say something, but Q interrupted her.
‘What about Lurch?’ Q asked.
Cece wrinkled her nose. ‘Lurch?’
‘Yeah,’ Q said. ‘The janitor. We passed him on the way in.’
‘His name is Victor,’ Zoe said, proving her theory that most of the guys she went to school with were jerks. He didn’t deserve a nickname like that.
‘Are you two in on this together?’ Q said, waggling his eyebrows.
Just because she had the decency to know his name? Zoe seethed. But she held her tongue. Every time she opened her mouth, another accusation flew her way.
‘We need to take a step back and assess the situation,’ Teddy said. ‘This person brought us here for a reason. We need to find out what we all have in common. Then we might be able to figure this out.’
‘What would we have in common?’ Cece asked. ‘Other than going to the same school?’
‘We have some classes together,’ Zoe offered.
‘But not all,’ Teddy said.
‘I’d never be caught dead hanging out with any of you,’ Q said with a stupid grin on his face.
‘Likewise,’ Jackie said.
‘Then let’s look outside of school,’ Holly said.
‘I think school is all we do have in common,’ Jackie said. ‘Sorry, but we don’t move in the same circles.’
‘What if it’s a bunch of people who ganged up together to make us do embarrassing things?’ Cece suggested.
‘For what reason, though?’ Teddy asked.
‘Why is any of this happening?’ Cece asked.
Zoe tried to connect the dots, but nothing came to mind. Someone knew they were all going to be in detention that week. If she opened that discussion then they would want to know why she was there. That was something she’d never tell. Apparently, they all had secrets, just like that strange voice said. But this person included her in the ‘six’—how did he know that Zoe would be there? She wasn’t in trouble. Maybe someone else was meant to be there too? She had most likely been roped into the situation by accident.
Or did he know her secret?
She circled back around to the question. Why them? Why these particular people?
If there was a common thread, she wasn’t able to connect more than two of them at a time. She knew Teddy from her past, but now they shared only one class together. She and Holly shared theater and English class, while the rest of the kids were in a smattering of other classes. Zoe didn’t do any after-school activities, so she wasn’t sure if the others had any in common?
A light flickered in the corner of Zoe’s vision. Next to the main circulation desk was a television mounted on a big cart. Not all of the classrooms had televisions, so this one moved around from classroom to classroom on days that the teachers showed movies. Mostly the non-honors classes were offered the movies in standard definition while the honors kids—and several of their parents with deep pockets—had access to better audiovisual equipment.
The screen came up with static filling the space. The sound was off, so there was nothing to alert Mr. Curtis that the television turned on.
‘Who did that?’ Jackie asked.
‘Who do you think?’ Teddy asked, sitting up straighter.
‘This is getting interesting,’ Q said.
‘Or terrifying,’ Cece said.
They stared at the screen, waiting for something to happen.
Then the static stopped, the screen went blank into black nothingness.
Zoe preferred the static. If someone had turned the television on as a joke, that was okay with her. But deep down she knew what was coming next.
White lettering scrolled across the screen like a tickertape, each letter slowly revealing itself from right to left.
TICK TOCK, CECE. TEN MINUTES.
The words went through that cycle twice, as if they needed to reread them, and then the screen turned off.
Zoe tore her eyes away from the television and landed on Cece.