Revenge of the Geek

by Piper Banks

  “What will happen to Nora?” I asked.

  Mrs. Gordon shook her head sadly. “That, I can’t say. But, as you know, the school takes violations of the honor code very seriously. And this is one of the more serious honor code violations that I’ve come across in my entire teaching career.”

  I was surprised to discover that I was actually feeling sorry for Nora. Geek High was a small school, and news traveled quickly. By this time tomorrow, everyone would know that Nora Lee was a cheat. That wasn’t going to be easy for her to live down.

  I wouldn’t tell anyone, I decided. Not even Finn and Charlie. They’d find out—everyone would find out, eventually—but I didn’t want to be the one who started the rumor.

  I stood. “Thanks again for seeing me,” I said again.

  “Anytime, Miranda,” Mrs. Gordon said.

  After dinner, I put Willow’s leash on and led her toward the back deck. My dad was in the kitchen, putting dishes in the dishwasher.

  “Are you going for a walk?” Dad asked.

  I nodded.

  “I’ll come with you,” he offered.

  “Okay, sure,” I said, even though I would have preferred to be alone. I needed to clear my head after all the drama of the day. But I didn’t want to hurt my dad’s feelings, so I waited while he loaded the last few dishes and then turned on the dishwasher. When he was finished, we headed out the back sliding-glass doors, onto the deck, and then down the long flight of wooden steps to the beach below.

  It was still light out, although the sun was sinking in the sky. The beach was largely deserted, except for a flock of small birds darting to and fro on the wet sand near the water’s edge. The low, rhythmic rumble as the tide rolled in instantly calmed my rattled nerves. For the first time in hours, I was able to breathe deeply.

  “You were very quiet at dinner tonight, Miranda,” Dad said.

  Dad, Peyton, Hannah, and I had eaten Chinese takeout. I’d been too busy drowning my sorrows in crisply fried egg rolls, kung pao chicken, and vegetable fried rice to say much of anything.

  “Sorry. I didn’t mean to be,” I said.

  “Rough day?” Dad asked.

  “You can say that,” I said. I told him about my discovery and subsequent meeting with Mrs. Gordon.

  Dad whistled, which made Willow’s ears prick up.

  “That is tough. But it sounds like you handled it well,” Dad said.

  “I guess. Honestly, I sort of wish that I hadn’t found out. That I wasn’t the one who put it all in motion. I guess that makes me a big coward,” I said.

  “No, I think it’s understandable why you would feel that way. But you have to remember, the easy option is rarely the best one,” Dad said.

  I smiled. “Dad’s words of wisdom?” I asked.

  “Hey, you should take what little I’ve got,” Dad said.

  Willow tugged on her leash as she bent forward to sniff at a discarded sandwich wrapper.

  “Yuck. Litter,” I said, picking it up and stuffing it in my pocket, to be thrown out later. Willow looked up at me, clearly perplexed as to why I’d taken it away from her.

  “So what happens to Nora now?” Dad asked.

  “I don’t know. I asked Mrs. Gordon, but she wouldn’t say. But I think Nora could be suspended or even expelled,” I said. Even though it was still warm out, I felt a shiver run through me.

  “You did the right thing, Miranda,” Dad said.

  “People keep telling me that,” I said.

  “And you don’t believe it?”

  “No, I do. I get that once I found out, I had to tell. I do. I just feel bad about it, that’s all,” I said.

  Dad wrapped an arm around my shoulders and gave me a reassuring squeeze.

  “How do you feel things are going at home?” he asked. “You and Peyton seem to be getting along better.”

  “We are,” I said, nodding. It was true: Peyton had been a lot less hostile lately. She’d even stopped spontaneously suggesting all the various plastic surgery procedures she thought I could use. In fact, every time I thought she might be on the verge of insulting me, she’d suddenly stop, press her lips together, and walk away. It was definite progress.

  “I think our family retreat really helped,” Dad said, looking pleased with himself.

  I glanced sideways at him. “Seriously?”

  “Yes. It brought us all together. Made us all realize how important it is to stick together as a family,” Dad said.

  “Dad. We only lasted through an hour of that retreat. Then we fled,” I reminded him.

  “But that in itself brought us together. We made the decision to leave as a family,” Dad said.

  “No. Peyton, Hannah, and I made the decision to leave. You were hanging on the rope ladder, yelling for us to come back,” I said. “Are you going to try to argue that that was your plan from the beginning? To get the three of us to bond together in order to bust out of that hideous camp?”

  My dad grinned down at me. “Would you buy that?”

  “No,” I said, and we both laughed.

  Chapter Twenty-seven

  Nora wasn’t in lit class the next morning, and Mrs. Gordon seemed more subdued than usual as she introduced our new book, Last of the Mohicans. I wondered where Nora was. Could she be meeting with Headmaster Hughes right at that very moment? Had she been suspended? There was no way to know, so I tried to focus on taking notes.

  When I got to physics, Charlie said hello, but seemed otherwise aloof. Apparently, she hadn’t forgiven what I’d said to Nora in class the day before. I tried not to let it bother me. I knew it was only a matter of time before Charlie found out that I’d been right all along about Nora.

  Finn loped in, threw his backpack on the table, and then turned to face Charlie and me.

  “Have you heard the news?” he asked.

  “Are you growing a beard?” Charlie asked.

  Finn ran a hand over his prickly chin. “Why, yes. Yes, I am. What do you think?”

  Charlie shook her head. “Not a good look,” she said.

  “That’s because it’s in the awkward growing-out stage,” Finn explained. “It’ll look better when the full beard is in.”

  “Are you going to keep the Mohawk?” Charlie asked.

  “Of course. It’s my new signature look,” Finn said.

  “So you’re going to have a Mohawk and a full beard,” Charlie clarified.

  “That’s right, baby,” Finn said.

  “Bad, bad idea,” Charlie said, shaking her head again.

  “Miranda? Are you going to stick up for me?” Finn asked.

  “What? Oh. About the beard?” I asked. “No. Not a good look.”

  “I get no support from my peeps,” Finn complained. “How about a soul patch?”

  “Ick,” Charlie said.

  “If you’re going to insult this”—Finn waved a hand in front of his face—“I’m not going to tell you my grade-A gossip.”

  “Okay,” Charlie said.

  “Fine with me,” I said, suspecting that I already knew what his gossip was.

  “Okay, fine, stop badgering me. I’ll tell you,” Finn said. He leaned in close. “Nora was expelled.”

  It felt like someone had poured cold water down my back. So a decision had been made. And Nora had not fared well.

  “What?” Charlie asked. “What are you talking about?”

  “Nora was expelled,” Finn repeated patiently.

  “Nora who?” Charlie asked.

  “Who do you think? Nora Lee. How many Noras do you know? It’s not exactly a common name,” Finn said.

  Charlie gasped. “Nora was expelled? Why? What happened?” She turned to look at me. “Miranda, did you know about this?”

  “I didn’t know she had been expelled,” I said.

  “You know that short story she submitted to The Ampersand? The one that was going to be published?” Finn asked.

  Charlie nodded and leaned forward, eager to hear more.

  “She copied
the entire thing from a short story that appeared in The New Yorker,” Finn said.

  There was no point asking Finn where he’d heard this from. Finn loved to gossip, and one of his favorite people to gossip with was Mrs. Boxer, secretary to Headmaster Hughes. He always got his best dirt from her.

  Charlie’s jaw dropped open.

  “Are you serious? She was expelled?” Charlie asked.

  Finn nodded. “That’s the word on the street,” he said.

  Charlie turned to me, her mouth still hanging open. “Did you hear that?” she asked.

  “Yeah,” I said. “I heard.”

  Charlie frowned. “You don’t look surprised.”

  “Of course I’m surprised,” I said. “It’s very surprising news.”

  Charlie continued to regard me suspiciously, but before she could question me further, the bell rang. As usual, Mr. Forrester stood and flapped his hands at us to be quiet. Obligingly, I turned to face the teacher, glad to escape the interrogation for now.

  As I suspected, news of Nora’s expulsion passed through the school at lightning speed. By lunchtime, it was the general topic of conversation buzzing through the corridors and the lunchroom. I kept hearing Nora’s name, even though I was doing my best not to listen to what anyone was saying. Charlie kept shooting me suspicious looks, but didn’t interrogate me further. I had a feeling she was holding back until she could corner me in private.

  It was a relief to get into Bumblebee at the end of the day and drive myself home to the beach house. At least there I could get away from all of the Nora talk. But a half hour after I arrived home, there was a knock at my bedroom door. I was sitting on my bed, working on the lit homework.

  Assuming it was Hannah, I called out, “You don’t have to knock. Just come on in.”

  But it wasn’t Hannah.

  “Hey,” Charlie said.

  Charlie was dressed as a rocker girl, wearing dark skinny jeans, a black T-shirt, and a flowy, zebra-striped cardigan. On her feet, she wore red Converse sneakers.

  “Hi. What are you doing here?” I asked, eyeing her warily. Charlie didn’t normally stop by unannounced. I was pretty sure that her doing so today of all days meant that she had an agenda.

  “So, what did you know, and when did you know it?” Charlie asked abruptly. She parked herself on the foot of my bed and stared at me, her head cocked to one side, which made her look like an inquisitive, green-haired bird.

  I sighed and stretched my legs out in front of me.

  “Hi, Charlie. Nice to see you, too. Me? I’m great. Thanks for asking,” I said.

  “I know you, Miranda. There’s something you’re not telling me,” Charlie said.

  “So? I don’t have to tell you everything,” I said crossly.

  “We’re supposed to be best friends,” Charlie said.

  “Funny, it hasn’t seemed like it lately. You’ve been spending all of your time with Nora, and then jumping all over me just because I didn’t buy her act. And, as it turned out, I was right,” I couldn’t help adding.

  Charlie sighed and ruffled one hand through her hair. “Maybe I was wrong about Nora,” she admitted.

  “Maybe?” I said.

  “Okay, I was wrong. I never thought she’d purposely undermine your getting your story published in The Ampersand,” Charlie said.

  “Thanks for acknowledging it,” I said.

  “Do you know how they found out she’d copied the story?” Charlie said.

  I shrugged. “Maybe,” I said.

  “How?”

  I puffed my cheeks and blew out a long, deep breath. But I knew the time had come to confess to my part.

  “I’m the one who found out about it,” I said.

  “You did? How?” Charlie asked.

  “I suspected that she didn’t write it herself. It just didn’t sound like her, or like something any teenager could write. So I did some computer research, helped by Hannah and Emmett, and I found the original story she’d copied,” I said.

  Charlie shook her green-topped head. “I really misjudged her. And you tried to tell me, Miranda. I should have listened to you.”

  “That’s okay,” I said.

  “No, it’s not. God, I was such a jerk. I can’t believe I accused you of being jealous of Nora,” Charlie said.

  Hearing Charlie admit she was wrong didn’t feel nearly as good as I thought it would.

  “To be honest, I was jealous,” I admitted. “I was jealous that her story got picked over mine, and I was jealous of her friendship with you.”

  “I’m sorry I made you feel that way,” Charlie said.

  I leaned back against the pile of pillows propped up against my headboard. “It’s not your fault. It’s something I have to work on. I can’t go around feeling jealous all the time. It’s no way to live.”

  “No,” Charlie agreed. “There’s always going to be someone out there who’s smarter or prettier or more successful. If you focus on that too much, you’ll go nuts. You have to be happy with who you are.”

  “Exactly,” I said. I hesitated. “Have you talked to Nora?”

  “No. I tried calling her, but she isn’t answering her phone,” Charlie said.

  “In a weird way, I kind of feel sorry for her,” I said.

  “Really? Even after she cheated to beat you out?” Charlie asked.

  “I know that wasn’t a nice thing to do,” I said.

  Charlie snorted. “It was a horrible thing to do.”

  “But why did she feel like she needed to do it?” I asked. “Why did she want to beat me so badly that she’d actually risk copying someone else’s work?”

  Charlie hesitated. “She did something else, too,” she said. “But I don’t know if I should tell you.”

  “What?”

  “It’s just going to make you mad,” Charlie warned.

  “Now you have to tell me,” I said.

  Charlie played with the black rubber bracelets she wore stacked up on one wrist. “Nora told me that you told her you like Finn,” she said.

  “So? I do like Finn,” I said.

  “I mean like him like him. In a romantic way,” Charlie explained.

  “What?” I shrieked. “Are you serious?”

  Charlie nodded. “At first she just hinted at it. She said things like, ‘Are you sure there’s nothing going on between Miranda and Finn?’ And I kept saying, ‘No way.’ I mean, you’re with Dex. And you’ve never had feelings for Finn, at least not that I know of.”

  “Never!” I said. “Never, ever, never!”

  “Right. So that’s what I told Nora. And she finally told me that you’d admitted to her that you liked Finn, but didn’t want me to know about it. She said the whole reason you kept encouraging me to tell Finn how I feel about him it was because you were hoping it would backfire,” Charlie said.

  “That’s ridiculous! I can’t believe what a liar she is! Did she do the same thing with Finn? Tell him something so he’d be mad at me, too?” I demanded.

  “Who knows? Finn probably wouldn’t even notice if she did. You know how clueless he is,” Charlie said.

  “Even so. It’s so underhanded,” I muttered. “And you seriously believed her?”

  Charlie smiled faintly. “Part of me knew she had to be making it up. Or, at the very least, had misunderstood something you’d said. But I have to admit, a small part of me couldn’t help wondering if she was telling the truth, and if you weren’t the friend I’ve always thought you were,” she said. “I think that’s part of the reason why I didn’t take your side when you first told me your suspicions about Nora.”

  “When did you know she was lying?” I asked.

  “Honestly? Just now when I saw your reaction,” Charlie said.

  “I’ve never had romantic feelings for Finn. And I never will,” I said.

  “I know. I mean, I know that now,” Charlie said. She took a deep breath. “And I’ve decided that you’re right. I do have to talk to Finn. I’m going to tell him how I f
eel.”

  “Seriously?” I asked.

  “Seriously,” Charlie said.

  “Are you nervous?” I said.

  “Of course. I’m terrified. But you know what? I have a feeling that the conversation is going to go okay. I saw the way Finn acted when he found out I’d gone out with Chad. And, yeah, I know that I shouldn’t have done that just to make Finn jealous. But, even so, his response was encouraging. I think it’s going to be good. Actually, I think it’s going to be pretty great,” Charlie said. A rosy flush was coloring her cheeks.

  “Wow,” I said. “This is a big deal.”

  “I know,” Charlie said.

  I wondered what would happen. Finn, Charlie, and I had been a trio ever since the seventh grade. If the two of them started dating—or if they started dating and then broke up—what would that do to our friendship? But I tried not to dwell on it too much. Things would happen as they happened. There was no way to predict how it would all unfold.

  Chapter Twenty-eight

  Over the next week, talk of Nora’s plagiarism continued to swirl around Geek High. I got tired of hearing about it. Nora had been so quiet and shy, most people hadn’t taken the time to get to know her. But everyone knew I’d been friends with Nora—and quite a few of them had also heard that she and I had had a falling-out even before her plagiarism was discovered. As a result, I was constantly peppered with questions about what Nora had been like, and had I suspected what she was up to. I shrugged most of these questions off. I didn’t feel like talking about it.

  Gradually, things in my own life got back to normal. Through Hannah, I found out about an Orange Cove High junior named Patrick Shaw. He was a nationally ranked junior tennis player, and was currently helping to organize a charity tennis tournament to raise funds for leukemia, which his little sister had been diagnosed with six months ago. I contacted Patrick, and he agreed to be interviewed for my student-athlete profile that would eventually appear in the second issue of The Ampersand.

  Candace didn’t accept my short story for publication in the first issue—after the plagiarism debacle, she decided to temporarily omit the fiction feature—but she told me she would absolutely consider my work for future issues, which was encouraging.