Cece’s face paled, and Zoe could have sworn the girl was going to be sick.
‘What happened?’ Zoe asked.
‘It’s it obvious?’ Jackie asked.
‘He sent it,’ Cece repeated. Her voice was stronger this time, but her eyes were far away.
‘We know he sent the video,’ Holly said, pointing at the television. ‘It was on the screen.’
Cece flopped into the chair, her hands were shaking, and her teeth chattered. She wrapped her arms around her chest and leaned forward, her face almost touching the table.
‘No,’ Cece said, choking out the word. ‘He posted the photo. Just now. After sending the email with the video to my parents.’
‘What?’ Jackie hissed. ‘That wasn’t part of the deal, was it?’
‘We’re playing by his rules,’ Teddy said.
Zoe glanced over her shoulder. Mr. Curtis still sat at the desk in the office, focused on his work. Zoe hoped he stayed that way.
‘So it was like a double punishment?’ Jackie asked.
‘I guess so,’ Cece said. Tears flowed freely down her face. The streams created a small pool on the surface of the table.
‘Can you log into your account and delete it?’ Teddy asked.
‘No!’ Cece shrieked.
Zoe cringed at the sound. ‘You have to be quiet.’
‘I don’t care! My life is over because of this creep!!’
Teddy got up from the table and sprinted toward the back of the library.
Where the hell was he going? Zoe turned back to her classmates.
‘You were caught,’ Q shrugged. ‘It happens.’
‘It doesn’t happen to me!’ Cece shouted. ‘I’m going to ruin whoever is playing this disgusting game! My parents are going to sue the school for this.’
‘We’re not going to do much of anything if we don’t find out who’s doing this,’ Teddy said, returning to the table. He held a laptop in his hands.
Was that the one that Cece used to post the picture? Zoe’s heart leaped. Could they find information about their torturer’s motivation by looking at the laptop?
The door to the office opened. If Mr. Curtis had been distracted by his work, he wasn’t anymore.
Teddy shoved the computer on his lap and scooted closer to the desk.
He nodded at Zoe.
‘Cece, just keep working on the chain,’ Zoe whispered as Mr. Curtis approached. ‘We’ll figure this out.’
‘Screw the chain!’ Cece said. She stood and shoved most of the slips to the ground.
‘Excuse me?’ Mr. Curtis said. ‘What’s the problem here?’
‘Mr. Curtis!’ Cece sobbed. ‘I need to tell you something.’
She was going to ruin this for all of them.
Zoe wasn’t sure what she could say to stop Cece. As much as Zoe would have wanted to jump off a bridge if her naked photo appeared online, it wasn’t fair for Cece to expose the rest of them. It was her own fault that she hadn’t sent it in time.
Zoe tried to convey her message in a look to Cece since Mr. Curtis was right there. As much as she didn’t want her secrets exposed, they already twice witnessed what happened when someone failed a task. She had no idea what would happen if any of them revealed this game of consequences to Mr. Curtis.
‘Is someone going to answer me?’ Mr. Curtis’s attention landed on each of them. He looked madder than she’d ever seen. ‘I’m trying to be reasonable here, but you all are pushing the limit.’
‘Cece broke up with her boyfriend last night,’ Jackie said. ‘She’s upset.’
Mr. Curtis sighed. ‘Do you need something?’
‘She could use a bathroom break to get herself together,’ Jackie said.
‘I asked Cece,’ Mr. Curtis said to Jackie, with a warning in his voice.
Jackie fell silent as Mr. Curtis turned his attention to Cece.
‘I’d like to use the restroom,’ she murmured.
Zoe sighed with relief. As much as she wasn’t looking forward to her turn, she wanted to have the opportunity to stop this sick game without anyone knowing her secret. Whoever this person was, wasn’t messing around. And if one of them alerted Mr. Curtis, who knew what was going to happen. They had to keep playing.
Zoe couldn’t believe she was starting to think of this as a game. A game involved two parties competing. This one was about humiliation, and it was completely one-sided.
Cece stormed off, barging through the double doors that led to the hallway.
Mr. Curtis turned to the rest of the group. ‘Back to work.’
‘Aye, aye, captain,’ Q said, saluting the teacher.
Zoe rolled her eyes. If anything, Q’s attitude alone would send him back here next week. And that was something she didn’t want at all. How had her life gone from quiet Saturdays in detention with Mr. Curtis to this? And what did any of them have to do with it? That was the key to figuring out what they all had done to deserve this.
Mr. Curtis left the area and went into the office, slamming the glass door shut.
Zoe had never seen him so agitated before. What was going on with him today? Usually, he wasn’t affected by anything. Was it that phone call he took before? Had something happened? It wasn’t her place to ask him. At least not today.
‘Nice save,’ Holly said to Jackie.
Jackie blinked at Holly.
‘We should clean this up,’ Teddy said, kneeling next to the scattered slips on the ground.
Everyone else helped except for Q.
But no one pushed him.
‘Can you believe Cece is a shoplifter?’ Q asked, then underlined his disapproval with a little whistle. ‘Who would have thought? I guess she isn’t as wealthy as she makes out.’
‘I did.’ Jackie organized her chain on the table as half of it was on the floor and slightly tangled.
‘How did you know?’ Holly asked.
Jackie shrugged one shoulder and took a deep breath before speaking. ‘She’s always bragging about her new clothes. It’s enough to make you take notice. Jessie Googled the prices of some of her outfits. The total was insane, like thousands of dollars. I know her parents are doctors, but that seems a little extreme. Besides, I’ve seen them at some school events, and they seem too frugal to allow Cece to go on crazy shopping sprees like that.’
‘Why do you care what other people do?’ Holly asked.
‘I don’t,’ Jackie said. ‘Jessie did the research. I’m just spreading the information.’
‘Your specialty,’ Holly said.
‘Can you get off my back?’ Jackie asked. ‘I’m not the one with the problem here.’
‘What does that mean?’ Holly asked.
‘Enough,’ Teddy said.
Zoe turned to him. She didn’t realize how captivated she was by Jackie and Holly’s conversation. She couldn’t believe that Cece shoplifted either. But thousands of dollars for clothes? It didn’t make sense that she’d resort to that. Did her appearance matter so much that she would commit a crime over it?
Teddy sat in his chair and opened the laptop.
‘Can you find the picture?’ Zoe asked.
‘I want to see it,’ Q said.
‘To delete it,’ Zoe said.
Q smirked at her.
‘It’s not even booting up,’ Teddy said, pressing the power button. ‘How does that even happen?’
‘Was the battery low?’ Q asked.
‘Is anyone good at computers here?’ Zoe asked. ‘Maybe if someone can boot it up, we can get the photo down?’ At the very least Cece wouldn’t have to get into trouble with her parents as well as everyone else she knew.
‘I can take a look,’ Holly said from the floor. She scooped up several pieces of paper and stacked them on the table.
‘I think we should let it go for now,’ Teddy said. ‘I think whoever did this, knew how to shut it down remotely.’
‘Let me take a look anyway,’ Holly said.
Teddy handed over the laptop.
Zoe started on her chain again, her mind wandering with what fate this person had in store for her.
‘That’s cold, man,’ Q said, sitting in his chair, not helping. ‘A double punishment.’
‘If she didn’t take the photo then she would have just been in trouble with her parents,’ Jackie noted.
‘She was about to post it when she froze,’ Teddy said.
‘This person must have it out for her,’ Jackie said.
‘He has something out for all of us,’ Holly said.
Zoe nodded. Her mind was full of possibilities, but none of them could connect the dots between the six of them. After stapling two more slips to the chain, she could no longer ignore the dull ache settling deep in her forehead. She put the stapler down and rubbed at her temples.
She glanced at the others in the room. What if one of them were involved? There were a lot of things that had happened since they’d come to the library. The tasks seemed well organized, but the timing was perfect—someone could be controlling the circumstances from nearby, but she came back to the idea that someone in that library was involved. Sure, she had arrived first, but someone could have easily set everything up before her.
Then her mind drifted to Victor again. He had the keys to the school. And she’d witnessed most of the kids in that room treating him like a second-class citizen at least once. Maybe he was sick of it and wanted to offer some revenge.
No. He wouldn’t have stooped to that level. He was a kind man. Besides, what the notes said wouldn’t have lined up. Well, at least Teddy’s wouldn’t. Unless Victor needed money or something. At that point, they weren’t even sure what happened with Teddy’s money. The whole Cece situation was terrible, but the sweet man that Zoe talked to on a daily basis couldn’t be capable of something like that.
Could he?
Zoe hated that she thought of Victor as the mastermind at all, but she wanted to know what was going on before it was her turn to suffer.
Zoe had no idea about the secret lives of Teddy and Cece, so maybe she didn’t know Victor at all, either.
That possibility didn’t help with her headache.
‘Jackie,’ Holly said, her voice trembling.
The concern in Holly’s voice pulled Zoe from her thoughts.
Holly held up a red slip of paper, plucked from the pile in front of them. Thick black marker branded the front of the slip spelling out Jackie’s name.
Zoe was right. They looked through the pile after Teddy’s mission. They couldn’t have missed a red slip. Someone in that room was messing with them. Zoe just had to figure out who.
‘Give me that!’ Jackie hissed, reaching across the table and snatching the red slip from Holly’s hand.
Everyone leaned forward in their chairs, desperate to know the details about the next task and its possible consequence.