Page 40 of The Teacher
“In that case…” Her eyes twinkle. “I guess Mrs. Bennett and I are going to have a little talk.”
“Please, Kenzie,” I whimper. “I made a terrible mistake. I’ve never done anything like that before. I’mnota bad person.”
“That,” Kenzie says, “is debatable.”
With those words, she turns away from me, practically smacking me in the face with her long blond hair. Why does Kenzie hate me so much? I never did anything to her. And it doesn’t seem like she would do this because of Mr. Tuttle. It must have something to do with Hudson.
Is it possible Hudson told her our secret?
If that’s true, I have even worse problems than Mrs. Bennett finding out that I cheated on the trigonometry midterm.
Chapter Thirty-Two
ADDIE
While I am sittingin Mr. Bennett’s English class (notlicking the floor, even though Kenzie keeps shooting me pointed looks), a student enters the room with a folded piece of paper in her hand, interrupting Mr. Bennett right in the middle of discussing a Robert Frost poem. When he raises his eyebrows, the student says, “I have a note for Adeline Severson.”
Mr. Bennett takes the note. He opens it up and reads the contents, and his lips turn down. For a moment, his brown eyes meet mine. “Thank you,” he says to the student. “I’ll make sure she gets it.”
I’ve never wished for superpowers before, but right now, I would give anything for X-ray vision to let me see what was on that piece of paper. But Mr. Bennett puts it down on his desk, and he goes right back to discussing Robert Frost. As if I could concentrate on how nothing gold can stay right now.
Sure enough, as soon as the bell rings, Mr. Bennettcocks his finger at me. I trudge over to his desk, and he holds out the note to me. I can’t stop my hands from shaking slightly as I read the contents:
Adeline,
Please come to my classroom immediately after your last period.
Eve Bennett
Oh no. I can’t believe Kenzie told her so quickly.
“What’s that all about?” Mr. Bennett asks me, although his voice is gentle. There’s a tiny crease between his eyebrows.
“I have no idea,” I lie.
Mr. Bennett doesn’t look like he believes me, but he doesn’t push me further. “If you have any problems, you know you can tell me, right?”
His offer is so nice, I almost burst into tears. But the worst part is that if he knew what I did—that I copied off another student—he would be so disappointed in me. I wouldn’t want to get his help for that reason alone. Then again, Mrs. Bennett is his wife. There’s no confidentiality here, and if she thinks I did something wrong, she’ll tell him all about it. She’ll telleveryone.
“I’m fine,” I say. It’s another lie, but whatever.
Mr. Bennett’s eyes are on my back as I walk out of the room. I try to tell myself that this could be about something else. The ominous note does not necessarily mean that Mrs. Bennett knows I was copying Kyle’s paper. Maybe she just wants to help me with sometutoring suggestions. But then why would she ask to see me “immediately” and have another student send me a note?
When I get to Mrs. Bennett’s classroom, she is sitting at her desk and appears to be grading some of the midterm exams. She’s gripping her red pen, and her brow is furrowed in concentration. As I watch her, I genuinely can’t figure out what Mr. Bennett could possibly see in her. She’s attractive enough, but she’s got a frown permanently burned into her face. How can he stand it?
“Mrs. Bennett?” I knock gently on the door to her classroom, even though it’s already open. “Do you want to see me?”
“Yes.” Her lips are a straight line across her face, almost like they have vanished into her mouth. “Have a seat, Adeline.”
The fact that she’s calling me by my full name is making me nervous. My mother does that too when she thinks I have been behaving badly. But I do what she says, sliding into the desk directly in front of hers.
“So.” Mrs. Bennett focuses her attention on me. Her eyes are too small and look beady. “Is there anything you would like to tell me?”
I stare at her. I don’t say a word. Whatever Kenzie told her, there’s no proof.
When it’s obvious I’m not going to confirm or deny anything, she pulls two test papers out from under the pile on her desk and throws them down in front of her. “You copied Kyle’s test paper. You are right behind him, you were looking at his paper, and you copied his answers.”
I open my mouth to say something, but it feels likethere’s something stuck in my throat, and nothing comes out. I can’t believe this is happening. I’ve never cheated in my whole life, and the one time I did it, I get caught, like, an hour later. I have the worst luck.
