After (Parallel Series, Book 4)

by Christine Kersey

  I nodded as my stomach began to churn.

  “He’s going to do it.” Her eyes glowed.

  This was bad news. Very, very bad news. “When?” At least I should be forewarned before I was implicated.

  “He wouldn’t tell me exactly, but he said sometime this week.”

  “I thought he didn’t want to do it.” I wished he still didn’t want to do it.

  A grin played across her mouth. “I think a certain video may have changed his mind.”

  Well, wasn’t that just perfect? My video performance had been so stellar that I’d managed to convince the one person I didn’t want to convince that he must do something for the cause. “That’s great,” I said as I pasted my fake smile onto my mouth.

  “I know, right? Just wait until more people see our video.”

  “Why? What will happen then?” All I needed was a whole flock of criminals to “help” our cause.

  She shrugged. “I don’t know, but it can only be good.”

  For you, I wanted to say. You’re not the face of We Can Choose.

  All through first and second period my mind was on the hacker and how I could persuade Hannah to tell him to not go through with it, but when I got a note during third period to go to the office and see Hansen, all thoughts of the hacker fled my mind.

  I’d seen Hansen around campus once or twice, but mostly I’d tried to forget that he worked at my school. The slip of paper in my hand forced me to face reality. Placing my books into my backpack, I wondered why he would call me into his office. He was the last person I wanted to see.

  Images of him at Camp Willowmoss flashed into my head—punching me in the stomach during the Saturday challenge, pulling the rope during the game of tug-of-war so that I would be forced to slip into the pit of live spiders, hitting me on the leg with his baton in the gym when I hadn’t run fast enough, and finally, on the night Billy and I had managed to escape Camp Willowmoss, staring daggers at me while saying I will kill you.

  My memories of Hansen were all from a nightmare I wanted to forget.

  With my heart pounding, I left the classroom and walked toward the office. I went into the main office space, but when I saw Hansen’s name on one of the closed doors, I froze, terrified to go any further.

  One of the secretaries looked at me with a frown. “Are you here to see Mr. Hansen?”

  I dragged my gaze away from Hansen’s door to look at the secretary. “I got this paper.” I held up the slip that had my name on it and the instructions to come see Mr. Hansen.

  “Just go ahead and knock on his door,” she said with a smile, as if it was perfectly normal to send a student to see the man who wanted to murder her. When I couldn’t seem to make my feet move, she gestured toward Hansen’s door and said, “Go on now.” As if that was all it would take to get me to move.

  The sound of an opening door caught my attention and I shifted my gaze from the secretary to the familiar face of the man standing in the doorway. When my gaze met Hansen’s, my body went cold and the blood drained from my face.

  This wasn’t the friendly face he’d shown me on my first day. He looked pissed. And he was looking right at me.

  Chapter 60

  Morgan

  “Ms. Campbell,” Hansen said with a frown. “Come into my office.” Stepping back so I could enter, he gestured to the space behind him as if I didn’t know where I was supposed to go.

  Though my legs had turned to lead, I plodded forward. A moment later I stood in the middle of his office, and when he shut his door I wanted to object—who in her right mind would want to be alone with a potential assassin? But I stayed silent.

  “Have a seat,” he said, then he lowered himself into his leather chair.

  My hands had become slick with sweat, so when I loosened my grip on my backpack, it slid right to the floor. Trying to decide which was further from him, I looked at the two chairs in front of his desk, finally settling on the one closest to me. Once I was seated, I lifted my gaze to meet his and tried to pretend that his very presence didn’t terrify me.

  “Do you know why I called you into my office?”

  How could I possibly know that? Why would he think I knew that? I shook my head. Mrs. Reynolds’ voice came into my mind, telling me to speak up, that she couldn’t hear the rocks rattling around in my head. “No,” I said, then I cleared my throat to rid it of the sudden scratchiness.

  “Hmm.” Steepling his fingers under his chin, he stared at me.

  His steady gaze unnerved me, but that didn’t help me guess why I was there, so I stared back, too scared to do anything else.

  Moving his hands to the desktop, he frowned. “You came to our school because you caused trouble at Fox Run High. Is that correct?”

  I didn’t exactly want to acknowledge that I was a troublemaker, but it seemed that he’d talked to my former principal. “I . . . I just told my friends that they shouldn’t get weighed if they didn’t want to.”

  “Uh-huh. Which caused a lot of trouble for the administrators at your school.”

  I couldn’t care less about the administrators and how much trouble my actions may have caused them. I was only interested in making sure the government stayed out of places where it didn’t belong.

  He leaned forward, then narrowed his eyes. “I want to make it crystal clear that I will not tolerate that type of behavior at my school.” He straightened in his chair. “It’s been brought to my attention that you have become the spokesperson for some new group.”

  Uh-oh.

  “Is that right?” he asked.

  I wondered if this was a rhetorical question. Had he seen the video for himself? If so, he knew perfectly well that I was the spokesperson. “Yes,” I said after a moment. “We call ourselves We Can Choose.”

  “That’s cute.” No smile accompanied his comment. “I also understand that in your video debut, you encourage students to refuse to be weighed.” His eyebrows rose in question.

  It felt strange to be sitting alone in a room with Hansen while having a calm conversation with him. This man was much different than the man I’d had to deal with in the other world, and I found that the longer we sat there without him threatening me, or actually doing me physical harm, the less frightened of him I became. That didn’t mean I would voluntarily spend time with him, but at least I wasn’t feeling on the verge of fleeing.

  “Morgan?” he asked, evidently waiting for me to answer his unasked question.

  All of a sudden, I felt bold. “I’m curious. Did you actually watch the video, or just hear about it?”

  He stared at me a moment. “I saw it.”

  “Then you know what I said.”

  My impertinence seemed to take him by surprise as his head tilted slightly to the side and his eyebrows drew together. After a moment he recovered. “Indeed I do.”

  I didn’t know what else there was to say, and again wondered why he’d called me in.

  “I’ve also heard rumors,” he said, interrupting my thoughts, “that your group is planning on other disruptions. Perhaps criminally disruptive.”

  Other disruptions? Criminal disruptions? What was he talking about? Had he somehow heard about Hannah’s friend who was going to delete the weight data the HLO had gathered so far? Or was there some other activity she hadn’t told me about? Any fear I’d put away came roaring back. I was the one sitting here talking to Mr. Hansen, Vice-Principal. Not Hannah Jacobs. I would be the one held accountable.

  I should have listened to Billy. That wasn’t the first time I’d had that realization. I should have told Hannah I couldn’t do the video. I should have known I couldn’t completely trust her. Just because the other world’s version of her had let me impersonate her didn’t mean she was a good person.

  I held my now-trembling hands in my lap.“I don’t know anything about that.”

  “Huh.”

  His tone and body language clearly conveyed the fact that he thought I was lying. And I sort of was, because I knew about
the probable hacking that would take place. I didn’t know of any other disruptions, but I supposed the hacking would be bad enough. And yes, criminal.

  “You do realize, Morgan, that you are the person the authorities will look to first when these disruptions occur, don’t you?”

  Yes of course, I wanted to scream hysterically. But it was too late for me. That video had put me all-in. Instead, I slowly nodded, my face pale.

  “There is a chance for you,” he said with a tiny smile.

  I wanted to grab onto this elusive chance with both hands, but I knew I wouldn’t like it. Unable to pretend that I wasn’t worried, I asked, “What is it?”

  Hansen’s smile grew slightly. “If you know of any activities for which you don’t want to be blamed, report them to me ahead of time.”

  My eyes wanted to close in despair, but I forced them to stay steady on Hansen. Why oh why does this seem just like my time at Camp Willowmoss when the case workers tried to get me to report any information I had? Were all people in authority like this? That cynical thought brought a wave of discouragement.

  I couldn’t tell him about the hacker. For one thing, I didn’t know who it was. But I also couldn’t betray Hannah’s new group. Especially since I was the spokesperson. That would be so not cool.

  “Well?” Hansen said.

  “I don’t know of any,” I managed to say while keeping my eyes locked on Hansen’s.

  “Very well. You may go back to class.”

  I picked up my backpack and made my way back to class, all the while worrying about what would happen when Hannah’s hacker friend did his thing. My only hope was to convince her to stop him from doing it—without telling her about my conversation with Hansen. Somehow I knew it would be a bad idea for her to know about that.

  Chapter 61

  Morgan

  “I don’t understand why you don’t want him to do it,” Hannah said to me as we sat at lunch with Sara, Katie, and Olivia. “If the HLO doesn’t have that information, and then we get most of the kids to refuse to be weighed next month, then that will really make it hard for them to do their thing.”

  As much as I agreed with her, I wasn’t thrilled with the illegal method they would be using. Especially since I would be the one implicated. I looked at the faces of the other girls and wondered who else knew about the hack. Hannah didn’t seem to mind these three knowing about it. Had they told anyone else? How much did Hansen know?

  I thought about my time at Camp Willowmoss when I’d been pretending to be Hannah Jacobs. I’d been so sure that I’d gotten away with my false identity, but it had turned out that they’d known the whole time. Did Hansen know about the upcoming hack and he was just testing me to see if I’d tell him? What if I did? Would he let me off the hook? But what if I didn’t and he knew that I knew? Would I be in even more trouble because I hadn’t reported it to him?

  Confused and scared, I didn’t know what to do. Desperate to talk to Billy, I picked up my phone to call Rochelle so she could get Billy on the phone, but Hannah’s hand on my arm pulled my attention back to her.

  “What’s going on, Morgan?” she asked. “Why are you chickening out all of a sudden?”

  Maybe mixing a little honesty with my answer would help convince her. “I’m just worried about what will happen if he gets caught.”

  She laughed like she didn’t have a care in the world—which she didn’t since she wouldn’t be the one who would get in trouble. “He won’t get caught. Don’t be so worried.”

  Not knowing what else to do to get her to change her mind, I sighed in frustration. Then something occurred to me, something that would tie her to the crime. “But if he does—”

  She frowned, like she didn’t want to even consider that outcome.

  “If he does,” I repeated. “And if We Can Choose is tied to it, then won’t they know you’re involved? I mean, since the video was uploaded through your youtube account?”

  She laughed, like I was foolish for even suggesting it. “Besides the fact that I used a fake email address when I opened that account, I used an online VPN service to hide my IP address. I’m totally covered.”

  She was way more clever than I’d given her credit for. “So what you’re telling me is that I’m the only one tied to We Can Choose?”

  A smug smile lifted the corners of her mouth. “I think that’s best, don’t you?”

  No! “Uh, not really.” Panic began to swell within me. Panic that I would be in deep trouble if this hack went on as planned. Maybe I should tell Hansen. But the moment the thought entered my head, I dismissed it. There was no way I wanted to help him out. Besides, I didn’t want to be a snitch. It just didn’t feel right. Instead, I had to convince Hannah to put a stop to it. I grabbed her arm and leaned toward her.

  She looked at my hand with shocked surprise.

  “I need to talk to you,” I whispered with urgency.

  She glanced at the other girls. “I’ll be back in a sec.”

  We walked out of the cafeteria and stopped in the quiet hallway.

  “What is it?” Her tone showed her annoyance at being pulled away from lunch.

  Trying to be as cool as Billy always was in difficult situations, I smiled with pretended confidence. “I thought you should know that someone close to you might have a big mouth.”

  Her eyebrows drew together. “What do you mean?”

  Wanting to tread with delicacy, I hesitated.

  “Come on, Morgan. Tell me.”

  “Okay. I think there are rumors going around that something tied to our group is going to happen. Something illegal.”

  “What?” The outrage on her face seemed genuine. “No one would have said anything.”

  “Maybe, just to be safe, you should make sure those rumors prove to be false.” I frowned. “We don’t want to put an end to We Can Choose right when it’s getting started. I mean, look at all the views on youtube. We don’t want to have to start over.”

  She chewed on the inside of her cheek while she considered my words. “Maybe.” She looked away for a moment, then she met my gaze. “I guess I can talk to my friend.”

  Yes! “That’s probably a good idea.”

  “Uh-huh.” She suddenly seemed distracted. “I’ll let you know what he says.”

  I watched her walk back to the cafeteria as a feeling of calmness settled over me.

  By the time Mom picked me up after school I hadn’t heard a word from Hannah and I was beginning to get agitated. What if her friend did the hack before she was able to talk to him? What if he decided to do it despite her asking him to stop?

  “How was school?” Mom asked.

  Well, I wanted to say, I was called in to talk to the vice-principal and basically threatened, but good news! I talked my friend into having her hacker buddy not commit a criminal act that I’d be blamed for, so my day was great! “It was fine,” I said instead. No reason to worry her when there was nothing she could do about any of it.

  “I’m glad you’re settling in at Brightwood.”

  “Yeah, me too.” I wondered if I would be less stressed if I still attended Fox Run, but it was hard to know. I was sure I would have screwed things up there too somehow.

  My phone chimed a text message and I quickly swiped it to see if it was from Hannah. It was, but she didn’t deliver the news I’d been hoping for.

  Hannah: We’re on.

  I could only assume that meant the hack was still going to happen, and I held back a groan as I texted back.

  Morgan: When?

  Hannah: Soon.

  Thumbs poised above the keyboard, I considered what to say. There was still time to talk him out of it. Maybe if I tried.

  Morgan: I want his number.

  Hannah: No.

  Fury pulsed within me, and I felt helpless. I was screwed. Unless . . . Unless I told Hansen about it. The thought made me frown. How could I even consider that? Was I so worried about myself that I was ready to throw Hannah and We Can Choose under the bus
?

  Uh, yeah.

  I’d been through more than my share of hard times. Maybe it was someone else’s turn. Especially since I didn’t want this to happen—in fact was actively trying to stop it.

  We pulled up to our house and I rushed inside, desperate to talk to Billy, but he wasn’t there. “Where’s Billy?” I asked Zac.

  He looked up from his video game and shrugged, then focused back on the TV. A moment later Mom came in.

  “Do you know where Billy is?” I asked. He usually got home before me.

  “Yeah. Evidently his mother picked him up from school.”

  That sounded so strange, but I was glad for Billy that this world’s parents wanted to spend time with him. But that didn’t change the fact that I needed to talk to him. Now. “Do you know when he’ll be back?”

  Mom smiled and shook her head. “I have no idea.”

  Great.

  Chapter 62

  Billy

  I’d been surprised when my mother had shown up at Fox Run High to pick me up, but I’d also been pleased. I wasn’t used to having a parent who cared, but I thought I could get used to it. I’d called Morgan’s mom to let her know where I would be, and then I’d gone with Becky.

  “I thought it would be fun for you to come over for a while, then Jim and I would like to take you to dinner,” she said as we drove toward her town.

  “Yeah, that sounds good.”

  When Jim got home from work—he left early that day—the three of us hung out. It was similar to Saturday, and I found myself becoming more comfortable with my parents in this world.

  “I think we should head over to the restaurant,” Jim said to Becky as dinnertime approached, then he turned to me. “We decided it would be best to drive back to Fox Run and eat there.” He chuckled. “It might be awkward if we ran into someone we knew at a restaurant around here.”

  The entire time I’d been considering getting to know Jim and Becky I’d been focused on how they would react to meeting a living, breathing Billy. It had never occurred to me that they would be worried about people they knew seeing me. “Yeah, that makes sense.”