Page 74 of Drifting

“Shelby, is Cam still in there? He needs to go. Dad’s on his way, and he’s on the warpath,” Nick calls from the other side of the door.

Sitting up, I stare over at a half-naked Cam. “Babe.”

“I heard.” He sits up and puts his shirt back on as I roll out of bed and walk to the door.

As soon as I unlock it, Nick hurries in, shutting the door behind himself. “Since you stole Mav’s Jeep to come here, I brought him with me. He’s waiting for you on Elm.”

“Thanks, bro.” Cam hugs Nick and kisses me. “I like you calling me babe,” he whispers into my ear. Heading for the window, he looks back at me. “Later, Devil. Try to stay out of trouble.”

As I watch him climb out through my window and run across the backyard, a pang of regret shoots through me. I didn’t want him to leave. I enjoyed the time we spent together.

Nick nudges me aside to put the screen back on the window before he searches around my room. “Where’s your computer?”

I shake my head. “As soon as I got home, I looked for the file. It’s gone, Nick. They deleted it.”

“Doesn’t mean it’s fully deleted. Where is it?”

“Here.” I pull the laptop out of the top drawer of my desk and set it on top.

Nick pulls out the chair to sit, turns it on, and types away. “First, you need a newer computer or, at least, updated security, so that when it turns on, it asks for a password.”

“Did you find out whose paper I supposedly copied?” I huff out, standing behind him.

He shakes his head. “Yeah, they weren’t too smart. Adam Jasman wrote the paper.”

“Adam Jasman…” I search my memory before shaking my head. “Nope, don’t know him. But Jasman sounds familiar.”

Where have I heard that name before?

“Maddie Jasman. Adam’s her older brother. Total asshole.” Nick doesn’t glance up from the computer, his focus on screens I’ve never seen before on my computer. “There!” Pushing the computer diagonally so I can see, he sits back, smiling.

Leaning forward, my mouth drops open. The screen shows my report. “That’s it! But it doesn’t make a difference. It doesn’t prove anything, according to Ms. Webb.” I throw my hands up in the air in frustration.

“But with this, it will.” He hits a few buttons, and another screen pops up. “This shows the log of your computer auto-saving the date and time. That should prove your innocence. Huh. It appears they emailed from…” He types away. “Hmason to Hotbabe8245. I bet that’s Maddie’s email.”

“Whose address is Hmason?”

Nick huffs. “My sister. Why would they send your work to Maddie? It makes little sense.”

“Revenge. Hannah emailed my essay to Maddie so they could print it out and use it as one of theirs.”

He leans back in my chair. “That would make sense. But how did they swap the papers out?”

That’s a good question. We all handed our papers to Sofia, who collected them for the teacher.

I slap my forehead. “They bribed Sofia. She collected the papers. It’s the only way.”

“I’ll have to do some investigating when I get to school tomorrow, but I’ll figure this out.”

I hug Nick. “You’re so awesome! Thank you.” Relieved, I flop onto my couch. Then, a door slams loudly in the house, and I straighten on my cushion. “Was that the front door?”

Nick’s head turns toward the sound. “Hannah.”

A moment later, my bedroom door flies open. “What did you do, bitch?”

“I don’t know what you mean.” I peer over my couch and see the top half of Hannah’s body.

She stomps farther into my room. “Dad told me to come right home. I couldn’t go to cheer practice. It has you written all over it.”

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