There were several file icons on Ariana's desktop, each marked with a year. I clicked open the most recent and there were nothing but Word files inside. Poems. Hundreds of poems. Some with titles I recognized from the Quill, most with ones I did not. But was one of these an incriminating file in disguise? Was one of these “poems” actually some kind of anti-?Leanne rant that might prove Ariana wanted to hurt her in some way? Who knew? My heart filled with sick, frustrated desperation. I did not have time to click open and read a hundred or more poems.
I scrolled down in the window, looking for who knew what. At the very bottom was one single file icon. A file within the file. It was marked “projects.”
Okay. This could be something. I double clicked. Inside were several more Word documents, each with initials as their titles. EP, CS, IP, NL, TL, IM, and then LS.
LS. Leanne Shore.
My entire mind went blank. This was it. A file on Leanne. I suppose that part of me had always thought it was impossible. That Noelle and Ariana could never have gotten someone kicked out of school for no good reason. But here it was. I was about to have the proof.
Reluctantly salivating, I opened the file. A Word document
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popped up and filled the screen. At the top, the words Latin Studies. Then, Notes from 8/5. My whole body slumped and I almost laughed. Apparently, Ariana had spent her summer taking classes. In Latin. Studies.
Nothing to do with Leanne. Ariana was innocent.
I took a breath and closed the document. I listened for footsteps and heard nothing. Apparently Orlando was still doing his thing. I decided to check out the other initialed documents, just to satisfy my curiosity, so that I wouldn't have gone through all this for nothing. I opened EP. It was a list of women's names with “yes” or “no” next to each one and a total at the bottom, some kind of RSVP list. Maybe Ariana had helped her mom throw a party or something. Next up was CS. I opened it and my heart took a nosedive.
As I Lay Dying, Faulkner, 1980.
Their Eyes Were Watching God, Hurston, 1987.
Invisible Man, Ellison, 1947.
It was a crib sheet. A list in a tiny font set on 3 x 5 paper. And from the looks of the information, it was a senior English crib sheet. Exactly the class Leanne Shore had cheated in. And what had the administration used as their damning evidence?
Crib sheets.
If these matched the crib sheets that had sealed Leanne's fate, then it was all true. Natasha was right. Noelle and her friends had framed Leanne. They had gotten her kicked out of school. But why? Just because she was a suck-?up and she annoyed Noelle? Was that really a reason to mess with someone's life?
Dying to know more now, I opened the file marked IM. Sure
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enough, a file full of copied IM messages filled the screen. They were mostly between Ariana and Noelle. My eyes scanned the first messages. They all seemed mundane. Conversations about homework and parties--nothing out of the ordinary.
Then I saw my name and all the air rushed out of me. I stopped to read.
*Ariana*: so we're definitely doing this Noelle_l: DEFINITELY. We decided we wanted Reed
right? *Ariana*: yes. and lattimer is on board, kiran
got her a free pass at manolo 4 her silence. Noelle_l: PERFECT! Lattimer is 2 easy. So we're
ready to do it? You have the cribs? *Ariana*: all set. just tell me when and where. Noelle_l: TOMORROW. We'll get Reed in here by the weekend. And L out. Thank God! ?Ariana*: you are so bad! Noelle_l: And it feels SO GOOD . . .
I could not breathe. Couldn't move. Co
uldn't have even saved myself if the entire dorm had walked in at that very moment.
They had done it for me, to create a place for me in Billings. This had all happened because of me.
I heard a creak on the stairs and suddenly came to life. I didn't
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have time to think about this. Quickly I copied all the initialed files onto my disk, just in case there happened to be something more worth reading. I shoved the disk into the back pocket of my jeans, then shut the computer down and replaced everything as I'd found it. I was just closing the trunk when I heard voices downstairs. The party was breaking up. I shoved the trunk into the back of the closet, closed the doors, grabbed my stuff, and fled.