Samantha Sanderson Off the Record

by Robin Caroll

  “That’s a directive from the principal.” Aubrey looked smugger than usual, if that was possible.

  “I thought she had other suspects,” Sam said, thinking of both Felicia and Luke.

  “She’s trying to be very thorough.” Mrs. Pape smiled. “So, we need to make a list of the people who commented who come across as being in support of this virus.”

  “Isn’t that kinda like profiling?” Sam had heard her dad and his partner discussing the pros and cons of profiling — lumping a group of people together based upon something in common like race or profession . . . or being in support of something or someone. She still wasn’t sure which way her dad leaned on the subject of profiling. She wasn’t sure how she felt about it.

  “No. We’re just perusing commenters to see if something jumps out at us. You know, someone who appears to be a little too much in support of the virus and its results. We’re just helping the investigation. Sam, you go through comments one through two hundred. I’ll go through two hundred and one through four hundred. Aubrey, you go through four hundred and one through the end.”

  Uh-huh. “Okay.” Sam moved to sit behind a computer terminal. She opened the blog and began to scroll through the comments.

  As Mrs. Pape said, some comments were just good job notes to Sam on the actual article. Then there were the comments from parents and others who just wanted to get the system straightened out. Sam passed those by. She stopped on comment number forty-one and reread it.

  The mess up isn’t a crime committed by someone. The crime is that someone was able to cause the mess. School administrators are to blame.

  Sam looked at the poster’s screen name: Robinson-Radar. She wrote it down on her list, then continued reading. Comment number sixty-eight made her stop.

  A crime? You’ve got to be kidding me. Crimes are murders, rapes, and assaults. Grade tampering? Not hardly. Whoever’s responsible should get an A for being able to hack into the computer system. I say put them on honor roll.

  Sam added SickofSchoolStuff to her list, then went back to reading. She’d made it to number one hundred and ninety-three before she stopped again. This comment seemed especially brutal.

  School and district should learn to lock down their own systems. I bet their payroll system is still functioning just fine. Keep paying the idiots who let the virus in, but let’s penalize the students by holding their grades hostage. Yeah, that makes so much sense.

  Sam listed RagOnRobinson to her list just as the bell sounded. She handed her list to Mrs. Pape. “All done.”

  “Thanks, Sam. See you in class.”

  “What are you going to do with that list, Mrs. Pape?”

  “Turn it in to Mrs. Trees.” Mrs. Pape smiled. “Don’t worry, she’ll investigate everything thoroughly. Now hurry up so you aren’t late to class.”

  Sam rushed to her locker, where she met Makayla. “What’d Mrs. Pape want?”

  After telling Makayla about the list of people who commented, Sam shut her locker and leaned against it. “Some of those comments were pretty vicious. I hate that Mrs. Trees is going to find out who they are. It’s almost like they’re getting in trouble for enacting their freedom of speech. That’s not right.”

  Makayla shrugged. “They’re probably just turning the list over to your dad and letting the police do the tracking. You haven’t violated their rights or anything. Mrs. Trees could find the names herself. You just helped her sort through them.”

  “I still feel awful. Like I’m snitching on someone.”

  “If those people didn’t want to be questioned, they wouldn’t have left a comment.”

  “Do you think the person who created the virus is one of the people who posted?”

  “I don’t know.” She paused. “I don’t even know if the person who created the virus is the one who infected the system.”

  Sam stopped. “What are you saying? You think there’s more than one person involved?”

  “It’s possible, isn’t it?” Makayla shut her locker. “But that’s not for us to figure out. Mrs. Trees will turn it over to someone else to look into it.”

  “I hope they don’t turn it over to Mr. Alexander. He’d never figure it out.”

  Makayla frowned. “That’s not nice, Sam.”

  “Come on, Mac. You know it’s true.”

  “Maybe. Hey, I can’t be late. I’ll catch you after school.”

  “Nope. I have cheer practice.”

  “Call me later then.” Makayla rushed off.

  Sam headed down to the EAST classroom. Mrs. Shine smiled as she entered. “Hello, Sam.”

  “Hi, Mrs. Shine.” It was obvious to everyone that Sam was Mrs. Shine’s teacher’s pet. The feeling was mutual, as Mrs. Shine was one of Sam’s favorite teachers.

  She took her seat in front of one of the iMacs and pulled out her notebook with her project notes. She’d been working on the Historical Fitness Trail since last year. She’d originally had a partner, but Anna had moved away, leaving Sam to finish the project on her own. She didn’t mind. It gave her time to think as well as get the work done the way she wanted it.

  And Makayla called her a control freak.

  Smiling to herself, Sam logged into the computer. Her thoughts drifted back to what Makayla had said. Was it possible two people were involved? One who created the virus and the other who put it in the system? Had her dad considered that? Was that why he was being so closed-mouthed about the whole investigation?

  Sam thought about the articles she’d read about grade tampering.

  “Hey, Sam?” Marcus Robertson, the newspaper’s eighth grade photographer stopped at her desk. “Did you hear about the PTO meeting last night?”

  Neither of her parents belonged to the parent teacher organization. “No. What’s up?”

  “They voted to let us have a winter formal this year.”

  “Really?” How had she not heard this all day? A winter formal could be fun. She and Makayla and Lana and some of the cheerleaders always had fun at the school dances.

  “Yeah. For Valentine’s Day.”

  Ugh — scratch that plan. Romantic stuff. For most dances, groups of friends would get together and go. Mostly, the groups of girls danced and the boys hung out along the wall talking about football or basketball, depending on the season. But for a Valentine’s Day dance . . . that would be different.

  “Yeah. Anyway, I was wondering . . .”

  If he asked her to go with him, she’d fall out. They were friends. If he ruined that by asking her to go to the dance with him, she’d —

  “Do you think Frannie would go with me if I asked her?”

  Ooh. “Frannie?”

  He blushed. “Yeah. I mean, she asked me to be her escort for homecoming and all. She’s really pretty and . . .” Even his ears turned pink. “I know you cheerleaders hang out a lot and talk. I was just wondering if you thought she’d go with me if I asked her.”

  Awkward. “I, uh, I really don’t know, Marcus.” What was she supposed to say? She wanted to tell him to figure it out himself, but that wouldn’t be loving her neighbor, now would it? “I know she thinks you’re sweet.” She’d heard Frannie say that.

  “Really?” His eyes lit up almost like Chewy’s when Sam dangled bacon over the dog’s nose.

  “Yeah. Really. So maybe you should talk to her, huh?” That’s the best she could do. Non-committal in case Frannie wasn’t interested.

  “I will.” He took a step away from her desk, then stopped and turned back to her. “Thanks, Sam.”

  She waited until he was back at his desk before twisting her hair into a loose ponytail and staring at her project notes on the computer. She grabbed a pen and stuck it in her wound-up hair to secure it at the base of her neck, but her finger slipped and she dropped the pen. It hit the side of the keyboard, then rolled under the monitor.

  Sam shook her hair free and bent to pick up the pen. And that’s when she saw it — a little device much like a USB jump drive — sticking into the
computer’s tower sitting under the desk.

  She leaned closer, realizing what she was looking at. Just like Makayla had suggested.

  It was a keylogger device.

  CHAPTER NINE

  Nikki will cover the upcoming dance and Kevin will report on the basketball game this Friday night.” Big surprise. Everybody knew Aubrey had a crush on Kevin Haynes and gave him the best assignments.

  Aubrey glanced at her clipboard. “Samantha will stay on the report card fiasco since her dad is over the investigation.” She set the clipboard on her desk. “That’s all.”

  Sam frowned. How many times did Aubrey have to bring up Sam’s dad? Hadn’t she proven herself a worthy reporter on her own merit? Probably not ever to Aubrey.

  Felecia leaned over. “She’s just saying that because she’s jealous of you and intimidated by your talent. Don’t let her get to you.” She lowered her voice to a whisper. “Or at least don’t let it show that she’s getting to you.”

  “Hey, Sam?”

  She spun in her seat to face a dimple-flashing Luke Jensen. Ohmygummybears! Why did he always make her feel like a blubbering idiot? “Yeah?”

  “Can I talk to you for a second?” He glanced at Felicia and Lana. “Alone?”

  “Sure.” Sam shoved to her feet and knocked her chair over. Heat flooded her face as she bent to straighten the chair, then stepped away from her friends. What if he was going to ask her to the dance? Her pulse went into overdrive.

  Worse, what if he was going to ask her if he should ask someone else like Marcus did? Man, she didn’t think she could handle that one with a straight face. “Yeah?”

  “Listen, I wanted to thank you for not saying anything yesterday to your dad. You know, about why I was in the office.”

  “What happened?”

  “I told them that my proposed project was all connected to sports and I had no idea why Mr. Emmitt thought it could be connected to the report cards problem. I think I convinced Mrs. Trees that I hadn’t completed the finished project yet.”

  “That’s good.” She glanced at his cast. “What about your dad? Did you convince him?”

  He dropped his stare to the floor. “Yeah, but he was still upset because I hadn’t finished the project. He’s always on me not to wait until the last minute.”

  “How’d you break your arm?”

  “Oh.” He lifted his cast and gave her a sheepish smile. “Me and Mark were wrestling around and I fell on the coffee table. Guess I won’t be playing in the game Friday night.”

  Wrestling? Was that just a cover-up story? Sam couldn’t tell. “That’s too bad. Does it hurt a lot?”

  He shrugged. “Not so much now. Hurt pretty bad last night, but the pain medication the doctor gave me makes it better. Bearable.” He smiled, flashing those dimples at her.

  It was entirely possible she was looking for something that wasn’t there about his dad and his broken arm. That’s what Dad told her all the time, that her suspicious mind was in permanent overdrive.

  “Anyway, just wanted to say thanks for keeping my secret.”

  “Sure. No problem.” She went back to her seat between Felicia and Lana.

  “Did he ask you to the dance?” Lana asked.

  Heat filled her face again. “No, of course not. We’re just friends.” Sam concentrated on getting her pen out of her backpack. Slowly.

  “He’s gonna ask you. I can tell that he likes you.” Lana grinned.

  “Shut up.” Sam gave her friend a gentle nudge. “Don’t you have a teacher spotlight article to write?”

  “Okay, okay. I’ll leave it be.” Lana moved up to the next row of tables and brought one of the two computers sitting there out of sleep mode.

  The hairs on the back of Sam’s neck rose. She lifted her head and caught Luke staring at her. She froze. He smiled. She smiled back. He turned back to talk with Kevin Haynes and Tam Lee.

  “I need to talk to Mrs. Pape. I’ll be back in a minute,” Felicia said before moving to the teacher’s desk.

  Sam let out a slow breath, then remembered about the keylogger device in EAST. She needed to see if the paper’s computers had any keyloggers too. She pulled one of the all-in-one Hewlett Packard systems on the table toward her, turning it slightly.

  Yep, sure enough, there was a small device in the computer’s USB jump drive slot on the side of the machine. They were logging the keystrokes here too. And if they had keyloggers on the EAST computers and the newspaper’s, then they most likely had them in the media center’s computers as well.

  This meant they probably did know that the point of origin of the virus infection came from within the school. That would be most obvious, of course, but it was possible for someone to hack into the system by way of a network connection. Makayla had done it before, so another computer ninja genius could do it too. Sam could probably do it if she had enough time, inclination, and did a little research.

  But who had installed the keyloggers? The police? Mrs. Trees? Mr. Alexander?

  A chilling thought hit her. What if the person who put the virus into the system had installed the keyloggers before the virus had been installed? What if that’s how they got into the system — they used someone else’s login information?

  A totally innocent person could end up taking the blame.

  How could she figure out how long the devices had been in the computers? Surely there was a way to tell. Makayla would be able to figure it out, Sam was sure.

  If the keyloggers belonged to the culprits, should she tell her dad so they could dust them for fingerprints?

  “Sam?”

  Sam jumped and turned to face Nikki Cole.

  “Sorry, didn’t mean to startle you.”

  “It’s okay. I was lost in thought.” Sam glanced around the room for Aubrey, but didn’t see her. “What’s up?”

  “I want to apologize for the way Aubrey treats you.”

  Sam grinned. “She’s been that way ever since I got to middle school. It’s not your fault.”

  “Well, actually, it kind of is.”

  Sam crinkled her nose. “How do you figure that?”

  “When you were helping me with the whole bullying thing, I think Aubrey got a little jealous that I confided in you.”

  A few months ago, Nikki’s younger brother, Jefferson, had realized that if he or Nikki needed attention, their parents, who were separated, would put aside their differences to be there for Nikki or Jefferson. Her brother had taken it a step too far and began anonymously bullying Nikki. Sam had helped uncover the truth.

  “Isn’t that kind of her own fault, since she avoided you during that time?” Sam asked. Nikki had been nominated to homecoming court, and Aubrey hadn’t.

  “It is, but you know Aubrey . . . she doesn’t see it as her fault in any way.”

  “Of course she doesn’t. She never does.” Sam laughed. “It’s okay, Nikki. I’m pretty much used to it. She doesn’t get to me much anymore. I let her remarks just roll off my back.”

  At least most of the time.

  “I know, but I just wanted to let you know I was sorry for being part of her meanness before.”

  “Thanks. I appreciate that.”

  “Nikki!” Aubrey called from the doorway.

  Sam grinned. “Speak of the devil . . . you’d better go before she gets in a huff.”

  Nikki smiled. “Thanks.” She joined Aubrey at the editor’s desk.

  The desk Sam was determined to have next year, which meant she needed to get cracking on an article for tomorrow. A really good one.

  “Come on girls, jog it out.” Mrs. Holt, the cheerleading sponsor, clapped as they got off the gym floor after stretching and began to jog around the basketball court.

  “Don’t know why we’re bothering. It’s supposed to sleet and snow on Friday so you know they’ll cancel the game,” Remy Tucker, co-captain of the squad and homecoming queen, said as she led the team.

  “They’ll probably cancel school too,” Bella, the perky b
lond cheerleader, added.

  “I hope they cancel school,” Kate said. “We’ve only been back three days and already I’m sick of all the drama.” She rolled her eyes and waggled her eyebrows.

  Missy, the other co-captain, laughed. “How can you be sick of drama, Kate? You’re the one who brings on all the drama.” She took off running, passing Remy and Bella.

  Kate took off after her.

  “Well, I hope it snows. I love winter.” Frannie fell into step beside Sam, matching her pace.

  Sam nodded. “I like the winter too, just not the super cold temperatures. I like cold and snow if I have a nice, toasty fire to sit in front of and a cup of hot chocolate to drink.” She was rambling, but only because she didn’t know if she should mention Marcus’s question or not. It wasn’t like he asked her not to say anything, but she felt awkward enough as it was.

  Maybe he hadn’t asked her. What if she said something then he changed his mind? That would make Frannie feel pretty lousy.

  “Marcus asked me to the winter formal.” Frannie blurted out.

  Sam grinned. Guess that meant he didn’t change his mind. “What’d you say?”

  “I told him I’d love to.”

  “That’s cool.” What would she do if Luke asked her? Probably pass smooth out.

  Frannie nodded. “Yeah. I made sure he understood that meant I’d meet him there. My dad would freak if he thought I was actually going out with a guy.”

  Sam grinned bigger. “How do you think I feel? My dad’s a cop. He’s told my mom that I’m not allowed to even think about dating until I graduate high school.”

  Frannie’s eyes grew rounder. “Is he serious?”

  “I don’t think so. Mom laughed when he said it.” Man, she hoped he wasn’t serious. Not that she thought about dating now, since she couldn’t get a driver’s license, but when she was in high school . . . well, dating was definitely worth discussing then.

  “Whew.”

  Sam nodded. “I like Marcus a lot. He’s super nice. You two are good for each other, I think.”

  “I think so too.” Frannie blushed under her dark African-American complexion. “There’s something else.”