Six Little Secrets(27)

‘How are we going to get a chance to look through the yearbooks?’ Holly asked. ‘Curtis will be out here to check on us soon.’

Zoe wrinkled her nose. She hated when the other kids called Mr. Curtis by his last name. Their teacher encouraged it, bringing him down to their level. But he was much more than some vapid high school student.

‘It doesn’t matter if we get caught,’ Cece said. ‘We need to figure out who’s doing all of this.’

‘Let me go get them,’ Zoe said.

‘Why you?’ Q asked suspiciously.

‘Because I’m sitting farthest from Mr. Curtis,’ Zoe said. ‘And I’m one of the library assistants. I’ll be able to find them quicker than the rest of you. Is that a problem?’

Q’s eyes narrowed for a moment. Zoe had no idea why he still thought she was involved with this. Even though there were plenty of reasons for wanting to see some of them suffer, she wasn’t the type to hand out punishments.

‘Well, go, then,’ Q said.

She didn’t need his approval. But they didn’t have a lot of time before the next task arrived. They needed to focus on the ‘who’ before they found out whose turn it was next.

Zoe’s pulse thrummed in her neck as she sneaked to the back of the room. She rarely went against the rules, so this was out of her comfort zone. But for some reason, it invigorated her. She located the most recent editions of the school yearbook and grabbed the last five years’ worth of books.

Without hesitation, she sprinted back to the table, careful to stay quiet and out of Mr. Curtis’s eye line. She didn’t want to give Q any reason to suspect her more than he already did.

What did he have against her, anyway? It seemed that his only evidence was that she’d arrived for detention before them. As a library assistant, it wasn’t beyond the realm of possibility that she could be involved. She had access to the entire room and could have set everything up. But she was innocent. And he would realize that once this mysterious Jacob gave her a task.

She shivered at the thought. The tasks were getting more complicated and dangerous. If she were the last to go, how grave an act would she have to complete to keep her secret?

‘I don’t get why Jacob would give up his name,’ Teddy said. ‘Does he want us to catch him?’

‘We have to do something,’ Cece said. ‘The sooner we find him, the better. At least then I’ll have someone to point the finger at when my parents flip over the video.’

‘And the photo,’ Q said.

‘Thanks for the reminder,’ she said flatly.

Q clicked his tongue. ‘No problem.’

‘Here,’ Zoe said, handing out the yearbooks. ‘Let’s begin with the class pictures. At least if we find out Jacob’s last name, we’ll have somewhere to start.’

Each of them took a yearbook, except for Jackie.

‘You should keep working on the chain,’ Holly said, as if reading Zoe’s thoughts. ‘We’ll take over from here.’

‘No,’ she said. ‘I want to help.’

‘There are only five yearbooks,’ Zoe said.

‘And one of us has to keep making the chain,’ Holly said. ‘It will keep Mr. Curtis thinking that we’re hard at work out here.’

‘Fine,’ Jackie said and grabbed her stapler.

Zoe noticed that Jackie didn’t look at the slips of paper. Even though she’d had her turn, Zoe was sure what had happened wasn’t far from Jackie’s mind. Those red letters she had written across her face would forever burn in her head, long after the rash had healed.

Almost forty minutes later, Holly groaned and closed the yearbook in her hands. She rubbed her face. ‘I don’t think this is going to lead anywhere. I found two Jacobs. One was a Mathlete and the other a Varsity basketball player and I don’t know either of them.’

‘Give me their last names,’ Teddy said, writing them down as Holly spelled them out. ‘We need to search all possible connections.’

‘This would be so much easier if we had our phones,’ Holly said.

Cece glanced at the clock. ‘I wonder when the next task is going to be.’

‘It is strange,’ Teddy said. ‘The first three came quickly. Why are we waiting?’

‘That’s easy to say since your turn is over,’ Q said.

‘Maybe the next one will give us more information,’ said Cece. ‘I just want this day to be over. Don’t you?’

The office door opened, and Zoe stiffened. She scooted closer to the table, holding the yearbook in her lap.

‘How is it going?’ Mr. Curtis asked, leaning against the nearest bookshelf.

Jackie turned her head to the side to hide any remaining trace of the rash on her face.

‘Good,’ Zoe said, unable to meet his eyes. She was sure they would get caught at any moment. She had an unconvincing poker face.

‘You should be further along that chain by now,’ Mr. Curtis said, glancing at the clock. ‘This needs to be completed by the end of detention.’

‘I’m hungry,’ Q said. ‘Can we get some snacks to re-energize us? I sure could use a candy bar.’

Mr. Curtis narrowed his eyes. ‘You didn’t bring food with you?’

‘We didn’t know we could,’ Cece said.