Page 68 of Wicked Waters

“Tristan found out. Head boy privileges and his ability to sweet-talk the staff. He said he was gonna resign from his head boy position, by the way.”

“He is? Why?”

I shrugged. “Dunno. I think he’s over all that shit, and I think he feels a bit responsible that he was the head boy and Penelope was the head girl, and he never had any idea that she was behind it all. Will and Katy are gonna be the new head boy and girl for the rest of the term, not that there’s much left of it.”

“He shouldn’t feel responsible. None of us knew. I was her friend. Or I thought I was.” She gave me a sad smile.

“Baby, come here.” I pulled her into my arms, and she let her body relax into mine with a sigh. “Nothing’s ever going to make up for what she did, but I guarantee she’ll regret it for the rest of her life. She’s been expelled. I could’ve pressed for criminal charges separately for the spiking incident, but as it is, the plagiarism, tampering with staff equipment, impersonating two other students—all of that shit is enough to make sure she not only gets expelled, but she has no chance at getting into any of the unis she applied for. Even if they don’t do a criminal check or whatever, someone might’ve uploaded the footage from the ball and emailed a link to all the admissions officers at those unis.”

“Someone?” I could hear the humour in her voice.

“What are you implying, Quinn?”

“Nothing at all.”

I smiled into her hair. “I’d do anything for you. One of the reasons I didn’t want to press charges was because I didn’t want to drag this shit out. We need to finish this term and then go somewhere far away. Somewhere you can fucking shine without another person trying to bring you down.”

“Somewhere with you.”

“Yeah. You and me.”

I couldn’t imagine anything better.

37

QUINN

“As it stands, I’m obligated to punish you for removing the journals from the library.” Professor Fitzgerald shifted in his desk chair, clearly uncomfortable. “I’d like to also offer you a formal apology once again.”

I shook my head. “It’s… Obviously, I was upset, but I understand why you would think I did it. The evidence was right there in front of you. What other conclusion were you supposed to come to?”

“Even so. As for your punishment, detention in the library, replacing the books on the shelves. Four evenings should be enough. Report to the library on Monday at 6:00 p.m.”

“Make it two evenings, and I’ll serve it with her. Double the labour.”

My history teacher sighed as I spun around to see Tristan casually leaning against one of the classroom desks.

“Any reason, Mr. Smith-Chamberlain?”

He placed his finger to his lips and shot me a wink, to which I rolled my eyes, trying not to smile, and Professor Fitzgerald pinched his brow.

“I shouldn’t need to remind you that journals are not to be removed from the library. Fine. You may serve Quinn’s punishment with her if it will help to ease your guilty conscience.”

“My conscience is clean,” Tristan told him, widening his eyes innocently.

“Out. Both of you. As far as I’m concerned, the matter is closed, and I don’t want to hear any more about what you may or may not have done.”

I nodded, thanking him before following Tristan out of the history classroom. As we reached the door, Professor Fitzgerald called after me.

“Quinn?” When I turned around, he smiled. “Very good work on your extra-credit assignment. We won’t count our chickens just yet, but I have a feeling the panel from The Historical Review will be impressed with everything you’ve achieved.”

“Really?”

“Yes, really.”

“Guess you’d better come with me to our lacrosse practice so you can give your boyfriend the good news,” Tristan said as we left the classroom behind. “We need to get him hyped for tomorrow’s game.”

“I will. Thanks, by the way. You didn’t have to offer to serve my detention with me.”

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