Samantha Sanderson Off the Record

by Robin Caroll

  Sometimes, just sometimes, Sam wished Mac wasn’t such a nice person. It was nice to see Aubrey squirm occasionally. It didn’t make up for all the times she went out of her way to be mean, but it was nice when the tables were turned and everything didn’t go the way she wanted.

  That wasn’t a very nice sentiment for a Christian, Sam realized. During last Sunday’s youth meeting, Ms. Martha, the youth leader, had encouraged the group to find a Scripture and to base one of their new year’s resolutions on. Sam had chosen Matthew 22:39: Love your neighbor as yourself, because it made her immediately think of Mrs. Willis, their next door neighbor. Mrs. Willis was a widow who lived alone and was always willing to pick Sam up from school if her parents were busy. Sam had chosen the resolution so that she’d be more aware of Mrs. Willis being alone and needing a friend.

  Once she took on the Scripture as her resolution, Sam realized it wasn’t just about her physical neighbor, but also neighbors in the whole community. And that included Aubrey.

  Which would push and try Sam all year.

  Aubrey still looked ready to spit nails, but Makayla had managed to diffuse her from blowing up. “Be that as it may, Samantha, we need to go see Mrs. Pape.” Aubrey straightened her shoulders. “Now.”

  Sam grabbed her backpack and slung it over her shoulder. “Catch you later, Mac.”

  Makayla threw her a “be nice” look. “See you.”

  Aubrey led the way from the cafeteria toward the eighth grade ramp where Mrs. Pape’s classroom was. “Don’t think I don’t know what you’re up to, Samantha Sanderson.”

  “What?” Sam feigned innocence as she pulled her coat tighter around herself. A fierce wind whipped down the breezeway.

  “You’re trying to show me up, but you won’t do it. I’m on to you.” Aubrey’s eyes were narrowed and her hands were fisted onto her bony hips.

  “Aubrey, I’m just trying to be the best reporter I can be.” That was the truth.

  “Yeah. Sure. Right. You think just because your mom is a hotshot reporter, you’re all that. Well, I’m here to tell you that doesn’t matter.”

  Sam stopped and stared at Aubrey. “Is that what you think? I don’t think that at all. I want to be as good as my mom so I try to be the best reporter. That’s all.”

  Aubrey snorted and opened Mrs. Pape’s door. “Whatever. But you just remember this, Samantha Sanderson, I’m the editor here.” She turned and faced their teacher sponsor. “I found Samantha, Mrs. Pape.” She smiled sweetly as she set her backpack on the desk. It was like she shrugged off her mean girl persona as simply as she shucked off her coat.

  Talk about split personality city.

  Mrs. Pape sat on the edge of her desk. “Hi, Sam. Your article’s getting a lot of attention this morning.”

  “Yes, ma’am.” She braced herself for the lecture to come.

  “I’m sure you researched the facts?”

  Sam nodded. “I have links to a couple of the news reports I referenced about high school grade tampering.”

  “Good.” Mrs. Pape glanced at Aubrey, then back at Sam. “District sent an IT team here early this morning.”

  This wasn’t a lecture at all . . . she was giving Sam information. Sam curbed her excitement and pulled out her iPhone. She opened the Notes app and began typing. “Have they found anything yet?”

  “As far as they can tell, a grade tampering virus is to blame, and it’s only embedded in the grading program, not the whole computer system. That’s why we’re still able to use the other programs on the system.”

  “A virus?” She hadn’t really thought about that, but now that it was out there, that’s the only thing that made sense. She remembered enough from talking with Makayla to know that whoever did this had to use a virus for all the code to worm its way into the system and make the random changes it did.

  “According to the team, the virus has only affected our school, and only the grading program.”

  Sam thought about that as she typed. “But, Mrs. Pape . . . the grades are affected in eschoolplus, which is a web-based district program. We use the district’s network to send our school’s information.”

  “Correct. The IT team reported that the virus was infiltrated on one of the computers in our school and since we only send data related to our school grades to the website, the virus didn’t spread to the rest of the district’s eschoolplus information, or to any other program on our system.”

  Sam nodded, even as her fingers flew over the touchscreen. “So the IT team is sure the virus started here at school?”

  Mrs. Pape nodded. “They’re positive.”

  This was bigger than she’d originally thought. Someone had to be pretty good to build a virus like this. Sam stared at Mrs. Pape. “I’m assuming since you called me in that I’ll get to stay on the story?” She snuck a glance at Aubrey. Maybe she’d had a chance to cool off and wouldn’t snatch the story away from her.

  “Aubrey?” Mrs. Pape prompted.

  Aubrey sighed and rolled her eyes. “Yes, you get to stay on the story. But only because your dad has been assigned to the case.”

  So that’s why she’d keep the assignment. Not because she’d been doing a great job, but because they wanted her to use her relationship with her dad to get information. It hurt her feelings a little. She should be used to it by now, but it still stung.

  Mrs. Pape continued, unaware of Sam’s feelings. “The staff are all a bit on edge because most of us utilize the computer system solely for our grading purposes. If the grades can’t be restored, we’ll have to try and work manually, which isn’t ideal. Some teachers aren’t even sure they could.”

  Interesting. Sam chewed her bottom lip. “Dad’s been assigned to the case? As in, this is a police matter?”

  Mrs. Pape nodded. “Oh, this could be very serious. Charges can be misdemeanor and felony.”

  “As soon as Mrs. Trees learned it was a virus and only affected this school, she called the police,” Aubrey said.

  “They just called back and told Mrs. Trees that your dad and his partner would be here soon,” Mrs. Pape added.

  “Oh. Okay.” Sam’s mind raced. Had Mrs. Pape pushed Aubrey to let Sam stay on the story just because she knew Dad was on the case and on his way?

  The bell rang for kids to go to their lockers.

  Sam grabbed her backpack.

  “We can discuss future articles in class,” Mrs. Pape said.

  Sam nodded, but kept heading toward her locker. She didn’t want Aubrey to see the defeat that was surely written all over her face.

  “Hey, what’s wrong?” Makayla asked as soon as Sam joined her at their lockers.

  Yep, something sure showed in her expression. Or maybe it was just that Mac knew her so well.

  “Sam?”

  She quickly filled her bestie in on what Mrs. Pape and Aubrey had said.

  “I’m so sorry, Sam.” Makayla gave her a quick hug. “But that doesn’t mean you aren’t a great reporter. Remember, you cared enough to write that first article before your dad was called in.”

  “Yeah.” That didn’t make her feel much better.

  “And the district thought it was so awesome that they put it on their page.”

  That made her feel a little better. “I guess.”

  “Shake it off, girl. Just be your usual good self. Everybody knows you’re the best reporter on staff.”

  Sam smiled. Mac always cheered her up. She gave her bestie a side hug and slammed her locker. “Thanks, Mac.”

  Mac smiled. “See you at lunch.”

  Sam made fast tracks to English class and barely slipped into Mrs. Beach’s classroom before the second bell sounded.

  Mrs. Beach took attendance, then passed out the worksheets for classwork.

  “Hey, did you hear about Luke Jensen?” Grace whispered once Mrs. Beach had returned to her desk.

  Sam’s heart hiccupped and she twisted in her chair. “What about him?”

  “He was sent to the office because
Mr. Emmitt thought he might have had something to do with the grade tampering thing.”

  “What? Luke Jensen?” She shook her head. “No way.”

  Grace shrugged. “I’m just telling you what I heard.”

  Sam turned back in her chair and stared at the worksheet, but she couldn’t read anything. Luke Jensen? She’d gone to school with him since kindergarten. He wasn’t in AP classes and he didn’t make straight A’s. He had mostly all B’s, but that was hardly a reason to need to change his grades. She turned back to Grace. “Why would Mr. Emmitt think Luke had something to do with the grade tampering?”

  Grace shrugged again. “Dunno. Just what I heard.”

  Sam stared at the board but didn’t really see it. Someone had to have heard wrong. Luke Jensen couldn’t be involved. He just couldn’t.

  CHAPTER FOUR

  I need to talk to you.”

  Sam looked up from her almost-finished lunch to meet Felicia’s stare. “Okay. Sit down.” She waved at the space beside her on the cafeteria bench.

  Felicia shook her head. “I need to talk to you alone.” She tossed Makayla a weak smile. “No offense.”

  Mac smiled brightly. “None taken.”

  “Well, I’m about done anyway.” Sam stood and grabbed her tray and coat. “See you outside in a few minutes?” she asked Makayla.

  “Sure.”

  Sam threw away her trash, slipped on her coat, then followed Felicia outside to the recess area. They sat on one of the empty spaces on the benches. “So, what’s up?” Sam asked once they were settled.

  “About your article. Where did you come up with the idea of grade tampering?”

  “Mac and I were talking on the phone and it just came up. I did some Internet research and the idea seemed possible. Why?”

  Felicia looked around, then leaned closer to Sam and lowered her voice. “You know I was expelled from my previous school, right?”

  Sam nodded.

  “Do you know what I was expelled for?”

  Sam grinned. “For being a troublemaker?” It was the nickname Sam had bestowed upon Felicia, in a friendly way, of course.

  But Felicia didn’t smile. She shook her head. “I was expelled for suspected grade tampering.”

  The smile slipped off Sam’s face. “What?”

  “It’s not like this, and it’s not as bad as it sounds.”

  Grade tampering, no matter how you looked at it, was bad. Period.

  “Just listen. Give me a chance to explain.” Felicia’s bad girl demeanor had disappeared.

  Sam nodded slowly. “Okay.”

  Felicia let out a long breath. “Our eighth grade Algebra teacher was the hardest. Even harder than the advanced placement Algebra class here. She’s flunked more kids than any other teacher at the whole school.”

  Sam crossed her arms, as much as a defensive move as to keep warm.

  “Anyway, my best friend was in her class with me. Angie is a sweetheart. You’d really like her. She’s always helping someone and doing something nice for people.”

  Sam didn’t comment.

  “Anyway,” Felicia continued, “Angie has wanted to be a model for forever, and finally talked her mom into letting her submit a portfolio and application. That was back in the summer. She hadn’t heard back from them and had tried to put it out of her mind. Finally, right after Thanksgiving, the agency contacted her. She was given a date and time to audition for the agency. The only problem was, it was during school hours. She begged her mom and finally, her mom agreed to let her miss school that afternoon to go to the audition.”

  Well, that made sense. Sam’s mom, and even her dad, would let her miss school for something really important she wanted to do.

  “The day before the audition, our Algebra teacher announced she’d be giving a nine-week test the next day. If we failed the test, we’d fail the class. Angie asked if the test could be made up. Our teacher said no, but if anyone was planning on missing the next day, they could take it that day.”

  “Without studying or preparing?”

  “I know. It was crazy.” Felicia shook her head. “But Angie didn’t have a choice. She couldn’t tell her mom and miss the audition, and she couldn’t get a zero in Algebra. So she went ahead and took the test.”

  A group of boys came by, tossing a basketball. “Hey, Sam . . . I saw your dad this morning. Are the cops involved in the report card problem?” one of them asked.

  “You’ll have to wait and read my next article to find out,” she told him.

  Once the boys moved on, Felicia continued. “After school, Angie bawled. She told me she’d taken the test and knew she’d failed it. If she flunked Algebra, her mom would never let her do any modeling, even if she was accepted at the agency. She didn’t know what to do.” Felicia stared out across the recess area.

  Makayla and Lana crossed the yard. Makayla gave a little wave to Sam.

  And Sam understood. “You changed Angie’s test grade?”

  “No.”

  Sam wrinkled her nose.

  Felicia smiled. “I went into my cheerleading coach’s computer, accessed the school’s database, and got into the Algebra teacher’s gradebook. Yes, I intended to change Angie’s failing grade to a passing one.”

  “But you couldn’t do it at the last minute?” Sam asked.

  “You think better of me, do-gooder. No, I didn’t change her grade at all. Turns out it didn’t need changing. She’d scored an eighty-eight on the test. Passed with flying colors.”

  “So you didn’t tamper with any grades?”

  “I didn’t, but the thing is, our private school had an alert on its computer systems. As a security measure, if a teacher accessed another teacher’s records, an alert was sent to both teachers and the principal.”

  “Oh.”

  Felicia nodded. “Yeah. It wasn’t hard to figure out that I was the one who accessed my coach’s computer and got into my Algebra teacher’s records.”

  “So they knew you could have changed Angie’s records?”

  “No, they thought I was trying to change some of mine. You see, I had a very, very low grade in that class. If I made less than eighty-nine on the nine weeks test, I would have flunked Algebra for the nine weeks. They thought I was upping some of my classwork grades to offset a bad test score.”

  “They didn’t believe you when you told them the truth?”

  Felicia shook her head. “I didn’t tell them. I didn’t want them to make Angie re-take the test and there be a chance she not score as well on it. It would’ve been just like our teacher to give Angie a much harder replacement test.”

  “So what did you do? Say you did something you didn’t?” Sam would, of course, take blame if it meant protecting Mac, even though she probably wouldn’t let Sam do it. “Didn’t Angie come forward with the truth?”

  “Angie didn’t know what I had done. She had no idea. Still doesn’t.”

  Sam swallowed the lump in her throat. What Felicia meant to do was wrong, but protecting her friend . . . well, Sam had to admire that. “So what did you say?”

  Felicia shrugged. “I admitted to using Coach’s computer and going into my Algebra teacher’s records. I said I looked at grades, but didn’t change a single thing.”

  “They didn’t believe you?”

  Felicia snorted. “Seriously? Of course not, but it didn’t matter. Because I’d accessed unauthorized information, I’d broken school rules. The punishment for the violation was expulsion.” Felicia sat back and hugged her coat around her. “So there you have the whole story.”

  “Wow, Felicia. I’m not sure what to say.” Sam couldn’t say she wouldn’t do the same for Mac.

  “The problem is, since you brought up the possibility of grade tampering, Mrs. Trees has been keeping an eye on me. Especially since our deal is if I have less than a four-point-oh, I’m kicked off the newspaper staff. They’ve called my mother to come up for a meeting after school. Apparently the police will be here too.” Felicia looked a
round and lowered her voice again. “I’m just starting to like this place and now . . . well, I’m scared of what Mom might do.”

  Sam chewed her bottom lip. She believed Felicia and didn’t want to hurt her feelings or make her angry, but she had to ask the question. “You had nothing to do with this, right?”

  The hurt marched across Felicia’s face. She jumped to her feet. “I thought you were different. I thought I could trust you. Guess I was wrong.” She turned to stomp off.

  Sam grabbed her arm. “Felicia, I had to ask. You know you would too.”

  Felicia glared at her.

  Sam’s heart pounded. “Come on. You know I believe you. If you tell me you had nothing to do with this, I believe you. I just have to know the truth.”

  “I had nothing to do with this. Any of it,” Felicia spat out.

  “I’m sorry I had to ask, but you’d do the same.” Sam tugged on the sleeve of her coat. “Sit down. Please.”

  Felicia hesitated for a minute, then sat back down.

  “Look, you didn’t do anything wrong, so there’s no reason to be scared.”

  “Didn’t you hear me, Sam? I was expelled from a school barely nine weeks ago for grade tampering. Now, here at this school, there’s a serious incident of grade tampering.” Felicia shook her head and let out a long breath. “You really think they’re not going to think I’m involved? Wake up, do-gooder, and get real.”

  “First off, of course they’re going to talk to you. They’d be stupid not to, and stop looking at me like that. They’re only doing what they should and you know it.” Sam tapped her chin and stared off at the football field across the lot. “But you did nothing wrong, so you know there’s no proof against you.”

  “But my expulsion . . . Sam, I admitted going into the system unauthorized. Do you really think they’re going to require proof?”

  “This isn’t a private school. They have to have proof. They can’t just suspend or expel you without it.”

  Felicia shook her head. “But they’ve called in the police.”

  “Yep. My dad and his partner.” Wait a minute . . . was that why Felicia had sought her out to tell her everything? Because she knew Sam’s dad was heading up the case? Was everybody going to use Sam because of her father?