Pushing Perfect(36)

“Quick, come here, while he’s busy,” Alex whispered.

I scooted over on the couch.

“I did a quick scan of his parents’ room to see if they kept their doctor stuff there. Didn’t find anything. One of us is going to have to get into their office.”

“We can’t do that!” I whispered back.

“Sure we can. The office is right by the bathroom. We’ll just say we have to go, and if he catches us, we’ll say we went into the wrong room by accident. I’ll do it if you want.”

I got the sense that she kind of wanted to—her eyes were all shiny and she looked excited. But it was too much of a risk. “I’ll do it,” I said. “It’s my problem; I have to deal with it. But why the office? Why not get the ones Raj already stole?”

“He might notice,” she said. “And we already know his parents didn’t notice when he took theirs.”

“What’s all the whispering?” Raj asked, setting snacks and drinks on the coffee table and sitting at the other end of the couch.

“Just picking the movie,” Alex said. “How about a nice conspiracy theory? Have you guys seen The Usual Suspects?”

“About a million times,” Raj said, at the same time as I said, “No.”

“That’s the one, then,” Alex said. “Raj, you don’t mind watching it again, right?”

“It will be a pleasure to introduce it to someone else,” he said.

“Are you sure?” I asked. I didn’t know what Alex was thinking, bringing attention to conspiracy theories right now, but I’d rather have watched something else. Something light and fun. “Wouldn’t a comedy be better?”

“Trust me, this will be worth it,” Alex said.

Raj grabbed the remote from Alex—“Such a guy move, Raj. Not cool.”—and started the movie. I was afraid at first I wouldn’t be able to concentrate now that I knew what I’d have to do, but the story grabbed me right away. I was usually good at figuring out who the bad guy was in movies like this—the logic problems came in handy—and I had a pretty good idea this time, too. But Alex nudged me just as the cop started accusing the narrator of lying, and I couldn’t wait any longer.

“Can we take a break for a sec?” I asked. “Raj, the bathroom is that way, right?”

He pointed toward the hallway. “I’ll pause it,” he said.

“No need. I’ll catch up in a minute.” I didn’t want to risk the quiet, even if Alex could probably cover for me.

I walked down the hall and started opening doors, figuring out which room was the office and which one was the bathroom. I turned the bathroom light on and closed the door, then went into the office and closed that door too, using my phone as a flashlight.

Being there was creepy, and not just because it was dark, though that was part of it. The office was a mess, with stacks of paper all over the floor and on the ornate wooden desk. I had no idea how I was supposed to find anything, though it was a comfort to know that not everyone in the house was perfectly neat all the time. How his parents actually got work done in here was beyond me.

I moved the flashlight toward the desk and sat in the desk chair so I could start going through the drawers. They were all full of junk, though—pens and notebooks and toys embossed with drug company logos. There was a stress ball with a smiley face on it and Novalert’s logo, which seemed appropriate. I was tempted to steal it, but I reminded myself of the task at hand.

Digging through the drawers didn’t get me anywhere—there wasn’t a prescription pad in sight. And it was taking me longer than I thought. I had to get back to the movie. Besides, I really wanted to know who the bad guy was.

I stood up to push the chair back, but my shoe caught in the wheel, and when the chair rolled back on the hardwood floor faster than I expected, it took me with it. Why couldn’t there have been a fluffy rug in this room? Then I wouldn’t have wiped out loudly enough for Raj to hear. Because I’d barely managed to stand up again when the door opened and the light went on.

“This isn’t the bathroom,” he said. And he sounded mad.





14.


Busted.

But maybe I could cover. “Um, no, I just got a little lost,” I said. Just like I’d planned. Except I’d been gone way too long for that story to work now. I tried to pass it off with a joke. “Good thing you showed up or I’d have peed in the closet by accident.”

He didn’t look amused. “You’d have figured it out a lot faster if you’d turned on the light. And the light in the bathroom is on. So you must have found that first. What’s going on, Kara?”

“I can explain.” But I didn’t know where to start, or how much to admit.

Raj stood in front of me with his arms crossed over his chest. “Go for it.”

“I just— I have to—”

“She needs a Novalert prescription,” Alex said. She’d come up behind Raj and I hadn’t even noticed.

“I don’t understand. I thought you didn’t want any more Novalert after the SAT.”

“I don’t.”

“Then why do you need a prescription?”

“I don’t, exactly.”