Page 117 of My Brother's Best Friend

“Remember that one teacher who hacked into her students’ parents’ bank accounts last year?” Imani said, chomping on another chip. “Well, she was just released from jail, and that woman is back at it again. Can’t catch a break.”

“Tell me about it,” I mumbled, picking at my food.

Between that crazy and Mrs. Dawson, nobody could catch a break, huh?

“I feel like the only nice teacher at Redwood is Mr. Barnes,” Imani said, nudging Allie. “What about you?”

“Huh?” Allie said, glancing over at Imani. “Oh, yeah.”

“Girl, what is wrong with you today?” Imani exclaimed. “Stepbro didn’t dick you down?—”

“Have you heard from Nicole?” she finally asked.

Nobody at the table said a word.

“She was supposed to talk to her dad,” Allie whispered, readjusting her glasses and chewing on the inside of her cheek. She placed her burger down on her tray. “And she didn’t show up for school today.”

Imani turned toward João.

“No,” João said before Imani could ask for a favor. “We have shit to do.”

“But—” Imani turned toward Landon. “Will you help me?”

“Sorry.” Landon shrugged. “We have something to take care of tonight, Imani.”

“What is it?” she asked.

“None of your business. Don’t worry about it,” João growled, grabbing his tray and standing. “Let’s go before she asks any more questions and starts sticking her nose into other people’s shit.”

João, Landon, and Kai all headed out of the cafeteria while Imani followed them with her gaze, brow arched hard.

She mumbled something incoherent underneath her breath and whipped out her phone. “If they don’t want to help us, then we can do it ourselves.”

“Do it ourselves?” Vera repeated.

“Let’s go to Nicole’s house,” Imani said.

“And skip?” Vera exclaimed, glancing nervously over her shoulder at the deans.

“Make it less obvious, Vera!” I whispered.

“But—”

“We’re just skipping for a period. Nobody will know,” I said.

Imani threw her arm around Vera’s shoulders and pulled her to her feet. “We’ll be in and out in no time. Don’t worry about it.” Imani glanced down at Allie. “Is that okay with you? We’ll just make sure Nicole’s okay?”

Allie smiled softly at her best friend and nodded.

While Vera was a pack of nerves, I pulled her along to the exit of the cafeteria, where the deans stood. They had let Poison saunter right out of the room without question, but stood in front of the doors to block us.

“Where are you girls going?”

“Just to the library.” Imani smiled.

“To finish up a bit of studying before our test in Bio today,” I added.

After sharing a glance, they smiled and stepped out of the doorway.

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