Page 73 of So Wild

There was a sharp pain in her chest, like the point of a burning blade. It wasn’t only that he’d done such a horrible thing, it was that—and she hated herself for thinking it—it was that he’d looked at and stolen sexy pictures ofNicole. She’d always thought…but it didn’t matter…but he’d always implied… He wasn’t supposed to be like other gross boys, getting turned on by her and Nicole’s sameness. He was meant to…

Know me. He was meant to know me.

“Sam?” Nicole said in a small voice. “What…what should we do?”

Adrenaline pumped through Sam’s veins, and with it the need for urgent action. She ran to her desk and flipped open her laptop.

“What are you going to do?”

“You’ll see.”

Sam opened Firefox and searched for the Brunswick Secondary School website. She pulled up the right page and clicked ‘current events.’ There were the photos, posted under the heading ‘Your School Captain Nicole DaSilva.’ The picture quality was shit—they were grainy and the color had bled slightly, but there was no denying it was Nicole. She was posing awkwardly, arching her back and lifting her hair. She was wearing a pale pink bra and bikini briefs.

“These aren’t so bad,” Sam said. “They’re no worse than Bonds commercials.”

“But I don’t want to be in a Bonds commercial! What if I get in trouble? What if I can’t get into university? What if I don’t get dux? It’s so fucking embarrassing!”

“Okay, okay, I was just expecting a lot worse. We can deal with this.”

She scrolled to the top of the page, clicked on ‘new post’ and began to type. ‘Whoever the dickhead—’

“You can’t write that,” Nicole interrupted. “Curse words and inappropriate language is automatically blocked.”

“And revenge porn isn’t?”

“I didn’t make the system, I’m just telling you what you can and can’t do. I know Joey Hamilton couldn’t post about his student film on here because the bio had ‘shit’ in it.”

Sam backspaced and retyped. ‘Whoever the dillhole who posted this picture is, you’re a pervert and a moron. That’s me,SAMANTHA DASILVA—you know, the skank sister of the school captain?

Nicole gripped her shoulder, her fingers biting into her skin. “Sam, you can’t do that!”

“Yes I can.”

“But—

“Do you seriously think anyone is going to have trouble believing that’s me?” She turned to look at her sister. “You’re going to uni. I’m going to work in the tattoo shop. It doesn’t matter if people think I’m trash, it only matters that they don’t think it’s you.”

Nicole shook her head. “You can’t take the blame for me. This was my mistake.”

Sam swatted her. “This wasn’t a mistake. You can take all the hardly-nude pictures of yourself you want.”

“But—”

“Dude, what’s the point of having a twin if you can’t do this kind of shit?”

Nicole was crying again, smaller, more delicate tears. “Sam, thank you so much.”

“Anytime.” Sam turned back to the computer and added. “These pictures were stolen and seeing as I’m underage, that makes you a pedo. I’m going to the cops and trust me, anyone who shares or saves a copy is going on the sex offender registry. All the best, Sam.”

She clicked post and watched the writing pop up directly above Nicole’s picture. “Now go call Mrs Fogell or someone from IT and tell her to take the post down. Hopefully no one sees it because the school events page is bullshit, but if they do, they’ll think it’s me.”

“Right,” Nicole said. “You’re not actually going to the cops, are you?”

“Fuck no. We’re going to be dealing with that prick ourselves.” She opened a new window on her computer. Sam opened Facebook and searched for Scott Sanderson. There he stood in his profile picture dressed in cricket gear next to his private school friends. Her stomach twisted at the sight of him. How could she still think he was handsome at a time like this?

Nicole tapped her shoulder. “Sam, what are you doing?”

“Again, you’ll see.”

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