Page 52 of Evil Queen

Nathan

It could have been that after staying up all night, Deon never called back, or it could have been that after hoping all weekend, Nikita never called, but when I woke up Monday morning, I felt like deep-fried garbage. My brain was slamming in my skull, my sinuses felt congested, I had chills all over, and my stomach was queasy. If that weren’t bad enough, when I walked into school at the beginning of the day, I saw a huge crowd of people all gathered around the front office. At first, I was terrified that maybe Cherri had gotten into another fight or something worse, but then I saw that everyone was huddled around a long piece of paper hanging on the wall, and it hit me like a collapsing building—final track grades.

Whether Postings Proper believed in peer pressure to make students perform well or liked humiliating the bottom of the pack, I wasn’t sure, but every year, they posted a huge list of all the senior students’ current grades and GPAs, dubbing these grades the final track. They were posted about a month before finals and gave all the seniors an idea of if they and their peers were on track to graduate from high school in a month’s time. Not surprisingly, I didn’t see any members of The Royal Court looking at the paper. Typically, they were in good standing with their grades, but because the last couple of months had brought us each our fair share of challenges, they were probably as afraid as I was about how that may have affected their grades.

Still, if anyone was going to be the brave one, it was going to be me, but not because I wasthe brave one. I was the one who most deserved to have to suck it up. I excused my way through the crowds of students until I was facing the paper, and naturally, my eyes skimmed the sheet for my own name first.

“How is it you have a GPA above 4.0?” one kid asked me just as my eyes landed on my 4.12 GPA.

Though I was certain many people thought I bought the extra points, nothing could be further from the truth. Not only did I always do all of my homework, score perfect or near-perfect on all of my tests, and actively participate in all of my classes, but I was also the kid who always took any extra credit opportunities when they were presented. I didn’t need the extra points that the assignments were designed to provide, but Connor Loche didn’t like it when I didn’t have homework. He used to tell me that a hardworking man was always working, and he taught me that I should never turn down an opportunity to gain favor.

None of that was worth explaining to this kid whose name I didn’t even know. I ignored his question and scanned the list for each of The Royal Court members, one-by-one. I was most concerned about Colette and Avery, followed closely by Kyle and Alistair. Both Kyle and Alistair had taken on some extra weight that they didn’t deserve in this second half of the year as they tried to keep Avery and Colette afloat after things went to shit.

To my surprise and total delight, as I scanned the list, I saw that everyone’s grades were above average, either near or at 4.0. Somehow, Colette and Avery had managed to claw out of their depression enough to get their GPAs back to perfect, and Kyle’s was at 4.0 as well. Alistair, Nikita, and Jaxon were all sitting nicely between 3.5 and 4.0 and were all on track not only to graduate but graduate with honors like those at the top of the pack.

As I looked the list over, a few other names jumped out at me. The first was Deon Keane. He had a dismal but still surprising 1.1 next to his name. It wasn’t a GPA worthy of graduation, not that it mattered, but it was indicative of the fact that before he went on the run to find my dad, he was doing pretty good in school. If my father and I hadn’t interfered with his life the way we had, he might have been that rare story of a reformed convict who recovers and does something with their lives.

Add yet another person to the list of lives I’d ruined.

Sicily was doing pretty good with a 3.4. He probably wouldn’t eke out honors, but he’d graduate even though he had to hold up Deon for the first half of his senior year and Cherri the second half. In the back of my mind, I was prepared to exercise my resources to bump him up if he needed it. He unintentionally ended up being the cleaner for The Royal Court’s mess and was certainly worthy of some gratitude.

The last name that called out to me on the list was the one that also made whatever illness I was battling double in severity. My stomach flipped as I moved down the list to Cherri’s name. Next to her name was a horrendous 1.8 GPA, which was only slightly above her boyfriend’s GPA, a guy who hadn’t been at school since October. I knew she was skipping and generally ignoring school, but Cherri had to have had a very similar grade point average to mine before Deon died. She must not have done anything in the time between then and now, given just how far she had fallen.

That wasn’t good.

I thought about Nikita and all the advice I’d been getting to stop worrying about Cherri so much, but I also had a brother who was expecting me to take care of her. Despite everything that we’d been through these past few months, I couldn’t just let her fall like that, not after all that I’d put her through.

As quietly as I could, I slipped from the middle of the group of students and slid into the front office. The receptionist looked up and prepared to greet whoever was there, but then he saw it was me and looked back down. I couldn’t blame him. I very rarely came into the office for anything that wasn’t untoward. Having some deniability just in case only made him a smart man. I slunk along the wall to the right and down to the last office on the left. The door was open, so I knocked a couple of times and then entered, closing the door behind me.

“Nathan. Congratulations on getting top of your class. That’s very exciting.”

D.J. Motley was our school guidance counselor and the only person who had unimpeded access to each students’ grades and progress reports. Though she saw students from all four grades, her specific job was to aid seniors in reaching graduation, so her next few weeks would be packed with helping anyone who was falling below the mark.

“Thanks,” I replied. “The Royal Court is all looking pretty good. All except one.”

D.J. reached over and snagged the very first file on the top of a pile to her left. She flashed it at me, and I could see Cherri’s name in bold on the tab. “Your queen isn’t looking so hot.”

“She’s had a tough year,” I said. “That’s why I’m here. I’m hoping you can help.”

“Will it be blackmail or bribery?” she asked plainly. “I heard you tried to get Hix with his affair with Jessica. I was shocked to hear that he didn’t go for it.”

“You and me both,” I said. “But no, I won’t be using blackmail. I don’t want to use bribery either.” I sat down in one of the chairs that faced her desk. “It’s fucking April. I’m out of here in a little over a month, and I’m just trying to get everyone to the finish line. Almost everyone has done what I needed them to. It’s just this one little hiccup.”

“So bribery, then?” she said.

I nodded. “There’s gotta be something.”

D.J. flipped open the file and looked down at it. “It’s not an easy thing, Nathan. I’ll be putting my whole career on the line. She hasn’t gone to a single class or done a single homework assignment, nothing since last semester. There will be squirrels suspicious of me if she walks in June.”

“So she won’t walk,” I said. “Just change the grade and mail her the degree. Trust me when I say she’s not showing up for graduation anyway.”

“What happened?” she asked. “I tried to do my job the right way and get her in here to talk, but she wouldn’t give me the time of day. I tried cornering her, and she looked like she was going to kick my ass.”

“She probably would have,” I said. “I can’t really go into it, though. It involves all that shit that happened with Jessica and Deon. Believe me when I say that hearing the details would not be a good use of your time. Just know that she’s been through the wringer, and I’ve put in a lot of work this past couple of months just trying to keep her in good standing. I’ve sacrificed a lot, and I don’t want it to all be for nothing. Come on. You know Cherri’s a good person, and she worked her ass off up until all this shit happened. You honestly want someone like her to fail?”

D.J. leaned back in her seat. “No, I suppose that would be unfortunate.” She ran a hand through her brown hair.

“Be honest. If I wanted to buy her graduation, what would it cost me?”

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