The Nowhere Girls(59)

“It must be hard for someone like you to make friends,” Slatterly says. “Maybe you’d be willing to do things you normally wouldn’t do, in order to make a friend. You might be persuaded by someone like Miss Suarez to do something bad. Something only you could do because of your work in the office, maybe? Because you have access to certain information other students don’t have?” Slatterly stares at Erin for a moment, to make sure she understands. Erin must still look like an idiot because Slatterly keeps talking. “I know Miss Suarez can be very convincing, Erin. Very charming. There’s no shame in being taken advantage of by someone like that. You’re vulnerable, Erin. You have . . . limitations. It’s not your fault.”

Slatterly pauses to let that sink in. Erin knows she is supposed to feel safe now, supposed to trust the principal because she gave her permission to be vulnerable. She’s good; Erin will give her that.

“We failed to protect you,” Slatterly continues. “That’s our job. That’s on us. It’s reprehensible for someone to take advantage of you like that, to make you do their dirty work. To make you steal for them. But you can make this right. You have the power to do that. This could all be over in a second if you turn the troublemakers in. You’d be a hero. You know that? Everyone in the school would love you for ending this crazy disruption, and everything could get back to normal. Wouldn’t you like that? Wouldn’t you just love to be a hero?”

“Like Superman?” Erin says. “Would I get to wear a cape? I would really like to wear a cape.”

“Sure, honey,” Slatterly says with a smile that seems close to genuine. She thinks she’s getting somewhere. “You can wear a cape.”

“A red cape?” Erin says. “A shiny one?” She never knew lying could be so fun. She never knew she’d be so good at it. How is it possible she is so in control right now? The old Erin would be in full meltdown mode by now. Since when is there even a new Erin? When did that happen?

“Whatever you want, dear. You’re the hero.”

Erin stares at Principal Slatterly, her jaw slack. She tilts her head to the side the way Spot does when he’s confused, the way actors do when they’re playing stereotypes of people like her. “What are we talking about again?”

Slatterly’s breath comes out in a big huff. “What is it you do in the office exactly?” Her voice is sharp. She is done playing nice.

“I type the letters and numbers in boxes on the computer screen. I move the papers from one pile to another pile. I refill Mrs. Poole’s coffee cup sometimes.”

“Do you do anything with student e-mail addresses?” Erin can’t tell if Slatterly’s on the verge of screaming or the verge of crying.

“Are those the words with the A in the middle with the circle around it?” Erin says.

Slatterly’s face is red and bulging. Erin suspects her anger is contributing to a serious medical condition. Hypertension. Heart disease. Ulcers. Erin wonders what Slatterly eats, if her diet consists of foods low in sodium and refined sugars and high in fiber and antioxidants, as it should. Mom could probably help her with an appropriate nutrition plan to reduce inflammation.

Erin’s smile is not part of her act. She is not scared. She feels too much of something else, something close to triumphant. Playing dumb has made her feel pretty damn smart.

“What do you want to talk about now?” Erin says, looking Principal Slatterly in the eye for almost a whole second. “I have a special interest in fish. Would you like to talk about fish? I can tell you all about hagfish. They are spineless and jawless and covered in slime.”

“No, I would not like to talk about fish.” Erin can almost hear the word “retard” at the end of Slatterly’s sentence. She can feel her want to say it. “You can go now, Erin.”

So Erin goes back to her desk in the back of the office, where she could do so much damage if she wanted to.

*

“We’re partners!” Otis Goldberg says as he pushes his desk toward Erin’s in AP American History.

“I hate group projects,” she tells him.

Today the hair tie around his boy-bun is purple. The classroom is noisy with moving desks, which would normally make Erin agitated, but she still hasn’t come down from the high of her meeting with Principal Slatterly. She is less annoyed with Otis than usual.

“This is going to be great,” he says. “What luck, huh? The two smartest kids in the class get to be partners.”

“I don’t believe in luck.”

He scoots his desk closer. His desk is practically on top of Erin’s now.

“Do you believe in fate? Like, destiny?” he says.

Erin scoots her desk three inches away from his.

“So what have the Nowhere Girls been up to lately? Anything cool planned, like some kind of subversive action? Can I come?”

“You talk too much,” Erin says.

“All right, class,” Mr. Trilling says. “Let’s stay focused on the task at hand.”

Otis pushes his desk against Erin’s again. He doesn’t even seem aware that he’s doing it. It’s like he has some deep, subconscious need to always be touching someone. He is the exact opposite of Erin.

“Do you have any ideas for our project?” he says. Erin shrugs. “Because I was thinking we could do something about Manifest Destiny and westward expansion, how if you analyze the ideology in psychological terms, it’s like certifiable narcissism, probably borderline personality disorder, maybe even sociopathic.”