Page 97 of A Scandal in Homeroom
Beth looked at Fitz as if he gave her the world. I wanted Irene to look at me exactly that way.
“The big gesture always works,” Fitz said.
“The what?”
“The big gesture. You know, overwhelm her with a gesture and you’ll have her undying affection forever.”
“Gesture. You mean like flowers?”
“Sure, if that’s Reen’s thing. I can’t say I know her all that well. Mostly just as Beth’s friend. But she’s a Thornfield orphan and a Have-not. It’s easy to do something nice for her because she hasn’t had a whole lot of nice things happen up until now.”
I processed that suggestion.
“You going with her to the Cotillion Saturday right?” Fitz asked me.
“Yes. As her date.”
“Beth said she’s trying to keep cool about it, but really she’s over the moon she got invited.”
“Yes,” I mused. “There is apparently an emergency dress shopping event happening after school today. That’s an idea. A gesture. What if I bought her the dress? Would she like that?”
Fitz stopped walking, and I stopped with him. “I don’t think so, man. I don’t think you want to do that.”
“Why not?”
“Reen’s got a lot of pride. This whole thing, being invited to the Cotillion, it means a lot to her. Let her get her own dress, her own shoes. Stick with flowers and you probably can’t fuck things up.”
I nodded, somewhat bemused. Why would anyone be proud about being invited to a dance?
“It’s so crazy about Mr. Bennet,” Fitz said as we resumed our journey, obviously Beth’s father still on his mind. “You would have thought he had everything. House, cars, big loving family. Nope. Turns out he’s just a crook. It’s like I don’t know anybody anymore. Beth’s dad, my best friend. Next we’ll find out Janie has a secret life as a stripper in Philadelphia.”
“I’m fairly certain Ed wouldn’t allow that to happen,” I laughed.
Fitz laughed, too. “Yeah, that would not go over well with him. So tell me how you did it?”
“Did what?”
“Cracked Ed’s phone code.”
I blinked, barely remembering the occurrence. Although I suspected it was part of the reason I annoyed him most of the time.
“It was simple, really. I considered what motivated him the most based on what I’d observed up until that point. I’d seen him use a four-digit code, so from there it was obvious. Three. Nine. Seven. Three.”
Fitz shook his head, not understanding the relevance of the numbers. Then I took out my mobile and showed him on the keypad.
“Three. Nine. Seven. Three,” I repeated.
That’s when he saw it and tipped back his head and laughed. “Holy shit.”
“Hmm. Well, the truth is most of us are pretty obvious about things. I could have been wrong, but I wasn’t. E.Y.R.E. Three. Nine. Seven. Three.”
Fitz shook his head. “Remind me never to mess with you, Holmes.”
* * *
Later that Day
Reen
