Page 5 of Golden

A growl of frustration escapes between my teeth and I snatch up my towel and head toward the showers. Someone is getting fired and it’s sure as hell not going to be me.

* * *

A little over half an hour later, I fold my arms across my chest as I stare down at the assembled team. There are only five of us. Ella, my deputy, Stefan, a junior who’s been with me since his freshman year, Theia, a sophomore who’s also on the swim team, and our newest recruit, Evan.

“Who the hell fucked with today’s edition?” I bark.

I’m met with silence and wide eyes. Of course, no one’s going to admit to it, but I have to try, right?

“Do you know how much shit I’m going to get in for this?” I continue, glaring at each one in turn. “It doesn’t matter who did it; I take the flack.”

“I checked the proof last night,” Theia says, her bright pink hair still damp from practice this morning. “It was fine then.”

I sigh. “I checked it last night, too.”

“So, it must have been tampered with this morning,” Ella reasons. Her long blonde hair is up in the world’s highest ponytail, which I can only assume is meant to be ironic. “Right?”

My shoulders slump as I try to figure out how this could have happened. The Howl is set up to publish automatically at seven every morning, sparing one of us from having to be there to do it physically, even though Theia and I are usually in the pool by five thirty anyway.

There’s no way it’s Theia because she’s with me at swim practice. Ella would never do something to The Howl because it’s her baby as much as it is mine after joining the team together freshman year. I look between Stefan and Evan, my eyes narrowed. They’re both on the lacrosse team, but Stefan couldn’t look further from a jock. His black hoodie is pulled over his thick, dark brown hair, his eyes narrowed as his teeth worry the ring through his lower lip. He meets my gaze head on, and I know he’s daring me to accuse him. I don’t. My gut tells me it’s not him.

As my eyes slide to Evan, our newest member, I’m surprised to find him already watching me, not a trace of intimidation on his face. He’s an overachiever, Evan Rose. On both the lacrosse team and The Howl, he’s also a Wolf. I didn’t want to hire him on that fact, but the dean didn’t give me much choice. Evan’s father is editor in chief of one of Oregon’s major newspapers. Luckily, the kid’s decent. He worked for his high school paper for four years and has a great writing style.

We’re only a couple of weeks into the school year and Evan has been covering the fluff pieces without complaint until I find his niche. I can’t imagine he’d do something so reckless.

“There’s a chance it’s someone else,” I say. “I don’t want to point fingers, so I’m going to ask each of you to be aware. Check not only your own sections, but the ones on either side too and hopefully this will be a one off.”

Everyone mumbles their agreement and I shake my head. “I want everyone’s pieces in early today. I’m moving the deadline to two o’clock. That should give us extra time to check through and ensure this doesn’t happen again.”

I wave my hand to dismiss them, and the groans are silent but visible as everyone stands and makes their way out. I’m not sure what I was expecting, but the sense of disappointment and uselessness is not something I enjoy.

Ella lingers, her dark brown eyes narrowed. “Want me to go over the files from today’s issue and see if I can trace where the extra article was uploaded from?”

I nod. “Yeah. That’d be great. Thanks.”

Striding over to my desk at the back of the computer lab, I sink onto my chair and dig my earbuds out of my pocket. It was hard not to let the team see how much I’m freaking out inside. I don’t let people see how I’m feeling at the best of times, but right now, my heart is trying to gouge its way out of my chest. I can’t lose this job. Swimming is a form of meditation, but The Howl has been my life for three years. It’s not like I want to go into the world of newspaper publishing when I graduate, but I’ve put so much damn effort into this place, the thought of losing it now makes me want to vomit.

When I joined the campus newspaper staff three years ago, The Howl was a weekly print out that ended up littering campus or being used as scrap. Now, thanks to marketing, research, and a ton of hard work, we produce six digital issues a week, filled with news, interest articles and features. Our stats are the best they’ve ever been, and we boast more unique readers than Howl FM, our campus radio station, has listeners.

That’s what I want when I leave here—to take a company and use my skill set to grow it. I won’t grow in my father’s shadow.

Cranking up the volume, I drown out the world as I open today’s files and begin hunting for something I already know I’m not going to find.

SOL

The huge grin that lights up my little sister’s face as I pull onto our driveway never gets old. I’ve been waiting for her to turn into a moody teenager with no time for her big brother, but she’s fourteen this year and it hasn’t happened yet. Despite her left leg dragging, Jacey bounds down the steps, not stopping until she collides with me, barely a second after I close the car door.

“Sol!” she shouts, throwing herself at me in a way that leaves me no choice but to scoop her up.

I squeeze her and place her down, shaking out my arms. “You’re almost fifteen Jace,” I say, shaking my head. “You’re getting way too big for that.”

She rolls her eyes. “Shut up. You’d cry big fat jock tears if I stopped.”

My eyebrows shoot up. “Lies. Vicious lies.”

I pop the trunk and grab my bag of laundry as Mom appears in the doorway.

“Sol,” she scolds. “You’re almost twenty-two and you’re still bringing your laundry home? Don’t they have a machine at the Den?”

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