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chancellor, and tell him I was there.”
    She clenched her teeth.
    “You won’t, will you?”
    “I can’t.”
    “I know. You can’t report it for the same reason I had to sit there and watch it. But I didn’t want to.”
    She put her hands on her hips. “Liar.”
    Anger welled in my chest. I took a breath. “Listen, I just wanted to apologize. That’s all. I’m sorry it happened.”
    Her face tightened. “Apology not accepted.” Then she turned on her heel.
    “Brooke.”
    She turned. “What?”
    “You could have walked out just as easily as me.”
    After that, she stared at me for a moment, rage and shame at the truth of what I’d said in her eyes, then turned and walked away.

CHAPTER FIVE
    “S INGLETARY , T HOMAS,” Coach Yount called. “Cut.” Then he moved on to the next name. Most of the freshmen were going down in flames.
    Kennedy laughed under his breath, nudging me. “That was a no-brainer. The guy can play tennis like your mother has kids. Fucked up and retarded.”
    “Don’t you ever get sick of hearing your own voice, Kennedy? I’d kill myself if I was you.”
    “I’m crying inside, Weatherby. You wound me.”
    “I’m sure I do.”
    He grinned. “Chamber meeting today at four. Be there or be an idiot.”
    I shuddered inside. The last two days had been spent agonizing over the kid and what I should do. I didn’t like admitting it one bit, but Carter Logan scared me. He could hurt me, because he could hurt my father, and I was trapped.
    I’d studied the kid’s file, and it wasn’t good. None of it. His father had been killed by a drunk driver two years ago; his mother checked out groceries at Walmart in the Heights, and her annual income was a little over twenty thousand dollars. My father spent twenty thousand last year on having the pool retiled.
    As I read deeper into his file, I reached his academic reports. Elvis had nothing on this kid. He wasn’t gifted in
a
subject; he was gifted in
every
subject. His IQ was off the charts, and as I read his test scores, I realized he wasn’t some sort of idiot savant with a chance to find a niche somewhere; he was a kid walking around with more brainpower than entire countries. He’d scored in the top one percent in all subjects.
    Then I got to his police record.
    Three stints in juvie for aggravated assault, two misdemeanor theft charges (dismissed), vandalism, and one felony charge for tampering with an Internet server. Of all things, the tampering charge had to do with hacking into federal courthouse files. He was a hacker, and for how innocent the kid looked, he wasn’t.
    I couldn’t do it, though. No matter how bad he was, he hadn’t done anything to me. But I didn’t see a way out of it. As we filed from the tennis courts, I fell in line beside him. I was fully a head taller than him. “Has Kennedy bugged you at all?”
    He didn’t answer.
    “Don’t talk much, huh?”
    “Not to people at this school.”
    “Why are you here, then?”
    “None of your business.”
    “He’s got it out for you.”
    He gave nothing away, this small, skinny kid. No emotion. “I don’t care.”
    “You should.”
    “I don’t.”
    I stopped, grabbing his shoulder. “Do you not understand this? I’m trying to help you here, and you’re being a prick about it. You’re in trouble, Thomas. You shouldn’t have pissed on his stuff.”
    He snapped his shoulder away. “Don’t touch me.”
    The look in his eyes reminded me of his file. Aggravated assault. “I’m trying to give you a break.”
    His face finally broke, but it wasn’t fear or anger or anything. It was a smile. A genuine and easy smile. “What makes you think I need help with anything?”
    “What, you think you’re tough or something? Kennedy
likes
pain.”
    His eyes met mine. The smile was still on his face, and his voice came soft. “Don’t you have bigger problems to deal with?”
    “Than what?” I shrugged. “You’re the new frosh meat is all, and you’re making