Six Little Secrets(15)

‘What did I miss yesterday?’ Cece asked Liza, knowing her friend would fill the rest of the time until they arrived at class.

Cece didn’t miss much. Though she did worry about her shift at the Student Council drunk-driving event table. Liza had covered for her.

‘It was worth it to look that good!’ Liza said to Cece.

‘I promise I’ll take your shift today at lunch,’ Cece said.

‘Good,’ Liza said. ‘I’m totally not ready for Mr. Curtis’ test today. I need to review my notes during lunch.

‘If you need help,’ Keelan said, ‘I made flashcards.’

‘Oh my god!’ Liza said. ‘That would be great.’

They arrived outside Mrs. Hathaway’s classroom and lingered in the hallway with their other classmates. It was an advanced placement class, but no one wanted to go in until the last possible second.

Cece glanced in the room. She wanted to go to her seat as the sick feeling in her stomach still hadn’t subsided.

Teddy James was the only one in the classroom other than Mrs. Hathaway. His head was buried in a book, as usual. He was already reading the next novel for class. What a show-off.

Keelan handed over the flashcards to Liza. ‘You’re a lifesaver.’

‘Come on in,’ Mrs. Hathaway said as the final bell rang. She came over to the doorway to stand as a sentry outside the classroom, just as the rest of the teachers did.

Cece saw her chance and took it. She zoomed into the room.

‘Ms. Cho,’ Mrs. Hathaway said from behind her.

Cece slowly turned around, placing the smile back on her face.

‘I need to speak with you in the hallway,’ Mrs. Hathaway said.

Liza and Keelan gave Cece a look.

Cece shrugged and walked out of the room.

‘Are you feeling better?’ Mrs. Hathaway asked, her eyes burned into Cece’s.

Cece lifted her chin and nodded. ‘Yes, thank you.’

‘Good,’ Mrs. Hathaway said. She scanned the hallway and then looked back at Cece. ‘I received a phone call from Principal Killian this morning.’

‘Oh?’ Cece muttered.

‘He wants to see you in his office immediately,’ she said.

Her expression gave away nothing, but Cece had a clear idea what the principal wanted to talk about. Or did she?

‘Do you know why?’ Cece asked, saying each word slowly so her teacher wouldn’t hear the tremble in her voice.

‘I don’t,’ Mrs. Hathaway said. ‘But you’re a good student. I’m sure it’s nothing serious. Come straight back to class when you’re finished.’

For once, Cece wanted to stay in class for another boring lecture rather than face the principal. Not once in her life had she entered that man’s office. And now she was asked to go there the day after she’d skipped school?

She didn’t have to be Teddy James to put two and two together.

Heat moved behind her eyes as she walked down the empty hallway. What was Principal Killian going to do? Tell her parents? She thought she’d covered her tracks with a fake note from her mom.

With her parents constantly up her sister’s butt all the time, why would they notice their youngest daughter skipping school once?

What if he also knew about what she’d done while skipping class? She thought that was a stretch, but her mind was on overload, filling with questions and scenarios.

Tears slipped down her cheeks. She hated that she cried so easily. It always gave away her guilt. She wiped at her damp cheeks and took a deep breath.

Last time was the last time. But when she saw that the shirt had arrived at the store during her nightly fashion hunt, she couldn’t pass up the opportunity.

Now she was going to pay for it.

Her parents were going to be so pissed.





CHAPTER EIGHT




CECE



Saturday


Cece’s eyes were glued to the television screen as her shoulders slowly crept up to her ears. Her carefully rehearsed fa?ade started to crack.

‘What are you going to do?’ Holly asked.

Cece whipped her head around. ‘What do you think I’m going to do? I’m going to sit here and finish this stupid chain.’

‘You saw what happened to Teddy when he did that,’ Jackie said.

Cece cut a look her way. ‘Nothing happened to Teddy. Some stupid ping went off on his phone. That proves nothing.’

‘Do you want to test that theory?’ Q asked.

Cece swallowed the truck-sized lump in her throat. She tried to sound cool about the entire situation, but the way that Teddy’s face paled she knew something had happened to his money. She didn’t want to test it, but she also didn’t want to post naked pictures of herself online. She had thousands of followers, a lot of them carefully curated fashion gurus who if they saw she was just some dumb high school student posting nudes would unfollow her instantly. Or would they share the photo, thinking she was making some fashion statement? Either way, it wouldn’t work in her favor.

What was the alternative? What did this person have on her? Her reputation was paramount—what had she done in public to allow someone to see her in any other state than perfect?

‘If you post the picture, you can always take it down right after,’ Jackie said.