Page 41 of Rachel Weiss's Group Chat
“Is everything okay?” My voice came out aggressively chipper.
“Actually, Rachel,” Mike rumbled, “no. There’s something we need to discuss.”
The combination of caffeine and dread was so potent my teeth began to chatter; I felt like I was actually going to faint.
“W-what’s wrong? Have I done something?”
Jennie’s lip curled in disgust. She was clutching a folder against her chest, and I wanted to rip it from her arms and scream,What’s in the folder, Jennie?!
“We took a look at the referral you submitted for your sisters,” Mike said.
This was such a surprise that I forgot my nerves. “What?” I’d almost forgotten about the whole referral business. “If they didn’t qualify for a summer internship, it’s okay. They can just get a job scooping ice cream or something. They’ll be fine.” I was getting rather heated, annoyed that they had made me think I was getting fired, raising my blood pressure to unprecedented levels in the process, when it was really just about my mom’s harebrained scheme. I had known the twins weren’t qualified for an engineering internship. There was no need for all this drama.
“It’s not that they didn’t qualify.” Mike’s deep voice was cautious.
I froze. Was he, perhaps, about to tell me that the twins were off-the-charts brilliant and they wanted to bring them in at once? My brain sped off, imagining the twins being interviewed on the local news, answering the newscaster’s questions with grunts and eye rolls.
“Our company, along with other companies and schools in the area, has been working with law enforcement on an ongoing investigation.”
I felt my jaw slacken. Why was he telling me this, and what could this possibly have to do with my sisters?
Mike stood and began to pace, gazing at the carpet with his hands clasped behind his back.
“When we see test scores above a certain threshold, we engage our law enforcement liaison to make sure everything is kosher.” He swallowed and shot me an uncomfortable look. (I swear, people at this company had no idea how to talk to a Jewish person. Or a woman, for that matter. I must’ve been a total enigma to most of them.) He continued. “Given your sisters’ ostensibly excellent test scores, we followed this protocol.”
I was catching on now. All warmth seemed to leave my body. I set my coffee cup on Mike’s desk, barely able to breathe.
He stopped pacing and looked at me gravely. “Due to the combination of their test scores, the location where they sat the exam, and the proctor who administered it, your sisters will be under further investigation for fraud.”
“I…” My mind buzzed, a desolate wasteland of disconnected thoughts blowing through like tumbleweeds.
“I’m afraid I can’t say anything more since it is an ongoing investigation.” Mike peered at me with something bordering onkindness. I must have looked like someone had just slapped me with a cold fish.
“F-fraud? But… how would they have…?” My voice petered out as I thought of the twins’ total ineptitude at anything outside of TikTok and drawing on their eyebrows, and then my mom’s face billowed into my thoughts, one minute desperate and sobbing, the next minute hard and determined.
I dropped my face into my hands.
“I suggest you don’t say anything more about it here because of the investigation.” He paused. “I just wanted to tell you the reason we won’t be offering your sisters an internship.”
I gave a weak laugh. They werenevergoing to get an internship. But now, because Mom had forced me to submit their applications, theyweregoing to be under investigation for a crime.
“Was there anything else?” I asked stiffly.
Mike shook his head. Jennie stepped aside to let me through. Without looking at either of them, I shuffled out of the office.
That night I paced back and forth in my parents’ living room, my mom on the couch watching me.
“This is bad, Mom. You could be charged with a federal crime.”
“I still have no idea what you’re talking about.” Mom selected a biscuit from the tray on the coffee table.
“I’ve explained it to you three times. I know you know what I’m talking about.”
She crunched into her biscuit and chewed thoughtfully for a long while. “I hired them a tutor.”
I groaned in frustration. “It was more than a tutor and you know it.”
“No, I don’t. I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
