Author's note: Thank you to Shelle for helping with this installment and getting
me back on track. (Shelle-you had better put this in!
* * *
Aldys spent the entire drive to school mulling over her decision about what she
was about to do. She didn't want to get Josie into any trouble. As for Aldys'
feelings for Mr. Coulson and his part in all of this, she found herself vacillating
between feeling sorry for him and being insanely angry with him. And she
couldn't completely dismiss the idea of him being a "predator" either, and that
prospect really frightened her. She knew that because of this uncertainty, she had
to proceed with the utmost of caution. She couldn't allow Mr. Coulson to suspect
she knew about his and Josie's illicit relationship, because if he were capable of
using a sweet girl like Josie, who knew what else he may be capable of?
Aldys pulled her Volvo into a space in the student lot and turned off the motor.
She spent a couple of minutes just sitting, taking deep breaths and reminding
herself that she needed to do what was best for Josie. Then, grabbing her book
bag, she climbed out of the car and headed toward the main entrance. After
going through the security checkpoint, she hesitated at the point where she
would have to turn left to go to her locker or continue straight, down the hall
toward the main office.
Aldys had thought long and hard all night, tossing and turning, trying to figure
out who she could talk to about the suspicions she had been having about Mr.
Coulson and Josie and about the scene she had witnessed in the parking lot after
school the previous day. When she woke up this morning, an idea had come to
her: to speak to her guidance counselor, Mrs. Parks, and see what she had to say
about the situation. Aldys had gone to her with her problems before, and she
always found her helpful and supportive. Aldys felt confident that Mrs. Parks
would know what to do.
There were few students in the halls at this early hour, and Aldys felt sure that
no one would see her go into the guidance office, which had a separate entrance,
but was actually part of the main office.
Mrs. Lucent, the principal's secretary, was the only office assistant in yet. She
turned and looked up at the sound of the door closing and then smiled when she
recognized Aldys. "Why, hello, Aldys! And how are you this morning?"
Aldys simply nodded her reply and then got down to business. "I'm here to see
Mrs. Parks, if she's in."
Mrs. Lucent gave Aldys a ghost of a strange look at the abrupt answer the young
girl had given her. Cocking her head to the side just a little, as if in question, she
replied, "Yes, she is. If you'll just wait a second; I'll tell her you're here."
She returned a moment later and told Aldys, "You can to go right in. She's ready
to see you." Aldys thanked her and nervously entered through the guidance
counselor's door.
Mrs. Parks, a slender willowy woman in her forties, looked up from the papers
she was reading on her desk, placed her reading glasses aside, and gave Aldys a
warm, friendly smile.
She pushed a lock of shoulder length dark brown hair behind her ear and
greeted her. "Aldys, I'm glad you came by. Please have a seat." She gestured
toward the seat in front of the desk. "I was going to search you out today, but
now you've saved me a trip."
"Oh?" Aldys asked.
"Yes, I heard from your English teacher Mr. Coulson that you're going to be our
valedictorian this year. Congratulations! That's quite an honor."
At the mention of Mr. Coulson's name, she flinched slightly, but covered it up by
turning away from her to close the office door and sit down. "Thank you."
Mrs. Parks could see that Aldys was all business this morning. She fixed her gaze
on Aldys and asked, "So� What can I do for you?"
Aldys looked down at her shoes for a long moment. Now that the moment of
truth had come, she didn't know if she could go through with it. She looked back
up at Mrs. Parks with troubled eyes and just sighed.
"Is something wrong, dear?" the guidance counselor asked her in a gentle voice.
"I-I'm not sure�" she stammered. "That's what I wanted to talk to you about�"
She thought for another moment as the guidance counselor waited patiently.
Then she thought of a way to ask her questions and get her answers without
getting anyone in trouble�yet.
"Okay� If I give you a hypothetical situation, would you give me your opinion
on it?"
"Hypothetical?" She questioned, with raised eyebrows. She smelled trouble, but
she made sure to remain calm in front of her student. "Sure," she replied affably.
"Well, I have this friend..." Aldys grinned just a little having to use the clich�.
"Go on," Mrs. Parks encouraged, returning her grin.
"She's 17, and a senior..."
"Yes?" Mrs. Parks urged.
"And I was wondering�uh�what would happen if my friend
was�uh�allegedly involved with a teacher?"
Mrs. Parks' expression immediately turned serious. "What exactly do you mean
by involved, Aldys?"
"Umm," Aldys hedged. "I guess you could call it�romantically?"
"Aldys," she began, leaning forward across the desk, "This could be a very
serious situation. Can you please elaborate?"
"Hypothetically, right?" Aldys insisted.
Mrs. Parks sighed. "Right. Okay. Hypothetically speaking�what would make
you think this?"
"Well�maybe they were seen in sort of�um�questionable situations by
another student."
"Such as," she prodded gently, studying Aldys' expression intently.
Aldys continued in a rush, "A soft touch on the arm, the way they sometimes
look at each other when they think no one is watching� sort of too familiar, you
know? And maybe someone saw them�uh, kissing," she revealed. But after
seeing Mrs. Parks visibly flinch at this remark, she blurted in explanation, "But it
was just a quick one."
Mrs. Parks could see how obviously uncomfortable Aldys had become, and after
hearing about her "hypothetical situation", she could easily see why. But still,
most of these matters turned out to be simple misunderstandings on the part of
the witness, so she tried to think of a way to reassure her and make her reassess
her beliefs. "Is it possible this student was just showing appreciation or maybe
thanking this teacher for something? That would be a good reason for seeing
what you saw�"
"No, I don't think so. They kissed on the lips." Aldys admitted.
Mrs. Parks sucked in a painful breath at this revelation. 'Then again,' she
thought, 'maybe this wasn't a misunderstanding�'
But then, after a moment, she started to doubt her own memory and admitted,
"But I'm not sure."
"I see. This is a very serious charge, Aldys. Romantic teacher-student
relationships are not permitted, as I'm sure you can understand. A relationship
such as the 'hypothetical' one you have described could certainly cost that
teacher his job. And seeing that this girl is a minor, he could end up facing
criminal charges as well."
"Yeah," Aldys said quietly. "That's kind of what I thought." She wasn't sure if she
was ready to get anyone into that kind of trouble. Aldys started to rise from her
chair to leave.
Mrs. Parks looked at her intently and asked, "I don't suppose you're willing to
give me names here?"
Aldys hesitated for a second, and then replied, "How can I? It's a hypothetical
situation, remember?"
It was clear that Aldys was not yet ready to take the next step. Mrs. Parks
thought for a moment, and then suggested, "Aldys, I'd like you to give this
'situation' of yours some more thought over the weekend and come see me first
thing Monday morning. Your 'friend' must mean a lot to you for you to be
concerned enough to discuss this with me. You can save her a lot of trouble if
you do the right thing."
She continued, wanting to make Aldys understand the importance of her role. "I
don't want to scare you here, Aldys, but I need to emphasize the gravity of the
matter. There have been cases where teachers have been known to prey on
young girls, pretending to want friendship and then pushing for more."
The frightened look on Aldys' face told Mrs. Parks she'd hit the nail on the head
as far as Aldys' fears were concerned. She pushed, "Do you think this girl is in
trouble? Could she fall for something like that?"
"I don't know�maybe." Aldys was very worried about this. She didn't want Josie
to be hurt or taken advantage of, but she also had a hard time thinking of Mr.
Coulson as a "predator" type. Up until now he had been her favorite teacher and
had always shown her the utmost of respect. But, with Mrs. Parks' distressed
reaction to her "hypothetical" situation, Aldys was starting to fear her original
favorable assessment of him had been wrong. After all, he was very charming,
and he was very handsome. So was that serial killer Ted Bundy. And wasn't it
usually the ones you didn't suspect that did things like this?
Mrs. Parks continued, "How would you feel about talking to your friend about
it? Maybe you can convince her to stop whatever inappropriate relations she
may be having with this teacher. Maybe you could even convince her to turn this
guy in herself?"
The more Aldys thought of her innocent friend Josie being taken advantage of,
the stronger her resolve to help became. "I can certainly try."
"Good. Aldys, I appreciate how difficult it must have been for you to come and
talk me about this. Thank you for coming in and bringing this to my attention.
So� I'll see you first thing Monday morning, right? I'd like to find out how the
talk with your friend goes�"
A part of Mrs. Parks hated letting Aldys leave without divulging her
information, mostly because the idea that there could be a teacher in the school
doing this made her extremely concerned, and she had to think about the safety
of the students. But she also knew that if she spooked Aldys too much, she could
scare the girl off entirely and never find out who it is. Better to give her the space
and time to realize the wisdom of her actions.
Aldys nodded silently, then turned to pull the door open. She slowly left the
office, her head down. Mrs. Parks words about the possibility of Mr. Coulson
losing his job, coupled with the frightening picture forming in her head of him
preying on Josie's innocence filled her head. Because she was still mulling over
how she would approach Josie about it, she walked through to the outer office
door with her head down, and almost ran right smack into someone.
"Whoa," she heard a friendly, familiar voice. "Studying too hard, Aldys?"
Aldys recognized Mr. Coulson's voice at the same instant he put his hand on her
arm to stop her from smacking in to him.
She quickly recoiled, breaking their contact and looked up at him in panic,
thinking irrationally that he had somehow overheard her conversation with Mrs.
Parks and knew that she knew about him and Josie. "I'm sorry. Excuse me," she
mumbled, still eyeing him very cautiously.
Sam was perplexed by Aldys' strange behavior. If he didn't know better, he
would have sworn that she was actually afraid of him. But as to why she would
suddenly be afraid of him, he hadn't a clue. He could plainly see that even now
she had a spark of fear in her eyes as they darted around nervously. It was
almost as if trying to find some way to escape. "Aldys, are you okay?" he asked,
very concerned for her now.
Aldys backed up another step and shrank away from him, her back against the
wall. "Yeah, I'm fine. I've�got to get to homeroom," she stammered, giving him
a wide berth as she hurried away from him down the corridor.
Sam stared after Aldys for a long moment, wondering what had gotten into her
today. Then, chalking it up to those strange teenage hormones, he simply
shrugged his shoulders and entered the main office, looking for Jack Kerdan.
Coincidentally, he was there to tell him that he'd gotten a chance to speak with
Aldys about being chosen as valedictorian and that she had accepted. "That
should take a load off his mind," Sam thought, smiling to himself again as he
remembered Josie's comical reaction yesterday morning to being called to the
principal's office.
When he entered, he noticed that the receiving area was empty. Because Mrs.
Lucent was out of the office, and therefore not able to announce him, he walked
directly over to Jack's door and raised his hand to knock. The door was slightly
ajar, so when he heard voices inside he dropped his arm. "That's odd," he
thought, "almost no one bothers Jack in the morning before he's had at least
three cups of coffee�"
Sam honestly had no intention of eavesdropping, and was, in fact, turning to
leave when something he heard through the door stopped him dead in his
tracks. He heard Eva Parks' voice, one of the guidance counselors, say with
obvious concern, "And moreover, Jack, she claims she saw them act
inappropriately on several occasions, and even witnessed what she believed was
a more-than-friendly kiss between the two of them."
Jack sounded shocked and angry. "My God, Eva�you mean one of the teachers
here in this school!?" There was a short pause and Sam assumed that Eva Parks
had nodded her head yes, because Jack continued, "I've been here a long time,
and I just can't imagine who she could possibly be talking about. Did she give
you the name of either the student or the teacher?"
Sam didn't realize that he was holding his breath, afraid to hear the answer. Eva
Parks sighed dejectedly. "I pushed her as much as I dared, but she wouldn't give
me any names. She kept insisting her situation was only 'hypothetical', but you
know how that stuff goes, Jack. There's always truth behind those sorts of things.
But I did, at least, convince her to come back to see me on Monday morning.
Maybe I can get it out of her then. In the meantime, I advised her to..."
Horrified, Sam quickly backed away from the door and left the office. The last
thing he wanted was for Mrs. Lucent or one of the other secretaries to return and
see him eavesdropping on such a conversation. He didn't need to draw any
suspicion, especially since it was him they were talking about.
Striding quickly down the hall, he made a beeline for his classroom, his mind
reeling. Suddenly Aldys' strange behavior from earlier made perfect sense.
Somehow, she had seen he and Josie kissing in Josie's car yesterday. He
remembered Josie's concern about this very thing happening when they spoke
then. He fervently wished he had listened to her, taken her concern more
seriously, but now he would have to deal with the consequences of that error. He
was, however, very relieved and grateful that Aldys hadn't actually given their
names�at least not yet.
'My God, what she must think of me!' he thought to himself in horror as he went
to his classroom and shut the door behind him. After all, he knew how
he felt whenever he heard on the news about other teachers doing things
like it now appeared he was with Josie. It completely turned his stomach and
made him incredibly angry. But, he imagined that it must be incredibly
frightening for poor Aldys, who stood in the middle an awful situation and
didn't know what to do. This wasn't some faraway story on the television to
shake one's head at, this was her own teacher and one of her friends.
He sat down at his desk, and took a moment to think things through. He decided
that the best course of action at this point was for Josie to tell Aldys the truth
about her age and her undercover status, and she needed to do it now. Up until
that point, he had agreed that it was Josie's decision alone to tell or not tell who
she wanted, since it was her job that could be affected. But now that he was
certain that Aldys was voicing her suspicions to the administration, it was best
that she be let in on their little secret.
But how? How was he going to get the message to Josie without Aldys
suspecting? They were in the same class, of course, and sat right next to each
other besides. There was nothing he could do that Aldys wouldn't notice,
especially now. He knew after their run-on in the hallway that she would be
watching them extra carefully that day. Then an idea came to him, and with a
small smile, he took out the papers he had marked last evening, searching for
Josie's.
* * *
Sam was hoping that Josie would be one of the first students into his class that
morning. If he could just get five seconds with her before Aldys arrived, he could
quickly warn her. But this morning she came in surrounded by Kristen, Gibby
and Kirsten, all chattering at the same time. She glanced over at Sam as she took
her seat in the front row, and flashed him her dazzling smile. He would have
smiled back an acknowledgment of her presence, but just then Aldys came in
and took her seat beside Josie. Sam knew he had no choice but to play it really
cool with Josie until he had a chance to tell her what had happened, so he
ignored her and turned her back on her to face the chalkboard.
As Sam turned around to write something on the chalkboard, he thought to
himself that he couldn't believe he was in this situation. He knew it wasn't Josie's
fault: it was just the nature of her job. But it was quickly becoming too
complicated and agonizing for him to handle. All he wanted was for everything
to be out in the open so he could be with Josie in a 'proper' relationship. Letting
out a big sigh, he turned to face his class and began his lecture.
During class, Sam looked everywhere but at Josie. He didn't call on her at all,
even when she tried to participate. Josie was a little bewildered and hurt at his
behavior, having no clue why he was ignoring her.
Aldys also noticed Mr. Coulson was ignoring Josie and became alarmed,
realizing that Mr. Coulson must know about her meeting with her guidance
counselor. It was the only thing that she could think of that would explain his
sudden turnaround. Aldys, peeking over at Josie's crestfallen face, began to
really worry about Josie, as well as be concerned for herself.
At the end of class, Sam walked around the room, dropping the marked papers
on the desks of their owners. Josie turned hers over and was surprised to see an
A- circled at the top. She had never received less than a straight A for her writing
from him before.
Aldys heard Josie's small gasp after having turned her paper over, so she
surreptitiously peeked over at it. Seeing nothing out of the ordinary, other than
the fact that Josie hadn't scored quite as well as normally, she shrugged and bent
her head to examine her own paper and score.
Josie was in shock. First he wouldn't talk to her or call on her. Heck, he wouldn't
even look at her today. And now she was receiving lower grades on her
papers? Confused, Josie went by his desk on her way out, and asked hesitantly,
"Mr. Coulson, can you tell me why I only got an�?"
Sam started to turn a sympathetic eye toward Josie, but then he noticed Aldys
watching them closely. So instead, he cut her off and answered sharply, "Josie,
why don't you read my comments before you question my reasons for
your grade?" That said, he picked up his things and left the classroom without a
backwards glance. The last thing he needed right now was to see Josie's
expression, because he knew it would have broken his heart. He felt terrible
doing it, but he was comforted by the thought that once she read his comments,
she would understand his behavior.
Josie stared after him and, stunned by his behavior, shoved the paper into her
bag and started to go after him. Aldys' hand on her arm stopped her.
"Josie, are you okay? What was that about?" Aldys asked, nodding toward the
doorway that Mr. Coulson had just exited through.
"I have no idea," Josie replied in a small, hurt voice. "He's never treated me like
that before."
"Well, I guess he's just having a bad day. We all do sometimes, even the
perfect Mr. Coulson, I suspect." said Aldys, trying to keep the venom out
of her voice and not completely succeeding.
Something in Aldys' tone caused Josie to look up at her sharply. 'Does Aldys
know what's bothering Sam?' she wondered to herself, but thought it was best to
drop the subject.
"I guess so." Josie shook her head sadly. "Well, I've got to get to Bio. I'll see you
later, okay?"
"Yeah," Aldys agreed, thinking she would try to find Josie at lunchtime when
they could go somewhere quiet and talk.
* * *
However, at lunch Josie didn't wait for Aldys by her locker as she normally did;
she didn't particularly want any company. She wanted to sit alone to recover
from the rude and hurtful way Sam had treated her in class. What could she
possibly have done to deserve his brush off?
She went directly out to the courtyard and found a quiet, solitary place to sit. As
she pulled her brown paper lunch bag out of her book bag, her graded paper
from English Lit fell out onto the ground. She bent over to pick it up, and
suddenly she remembered what Sam had said about reading his comments
before questioning his reason for the grade. So, scanning the paper, she read
Sam's comments under the 'A-' grade. It said, "...doesn't just suspect, she knows.
You have to tell her the truth ASAP!" For a moment, Josie was confused.
Who knew what? And what did this possibly have to do with her
grade?
She looked back at the top of the paper. Leaning in to look more closely at it, she
noticed the minus sign on her grade was in different colored ink than the A and
the circle around it. It was almost as if it had been added afterwards. And the
minus sign was in the same color ink as the rest of Sam's mysterious message.
Obviously, she realized, the changed grade was supposed to be part of the
message itself. A-� meaning Aldys!? Josie's heart started pounding harder and
she suddenly felt out of breath as relief washed through her. Now she
knew why Sam had been acting so aloof in class! And if Aldys knew of her
relationship with Sam, then that also explained Aldys' weird comment to her
afterward.
But how did she know when she obviously hadn't just yesterday
afternoon? Then Josie realized that Aldys must have seen them together in Josie's
car last night. This was not to mention the close call in the hallway yesterday and
the cell phone call at Nana's.
Josie realized she had underestimated her young friend. 'Maybe she
should be the reporter,' Josie thought wryly. 'She's obviously better at stealth
than I am�' She wondered how Sam knew about Aldys' discovery when she did
not, but she had no reason to doubt the sincerity of his statement.
Josie stood and tossed the paper and the rest of her lunch back into her back,
intent on finding Aldys and explaining things to her. She looked in all of the
usual places, but just couldn't find her. Josie sighed heavily. She knew it was
urgent that she speak to Aldys and clear things up before she told anyone.
* * *
It wasn't until after school that they met up again, and this time it was Aldys
searching out Josie. Aldys had decided to speak to Josie immediately instead of
waiting for the weekend. She was worried that what had happened in English
class with Mr. Coulson this morning might be a sign of things to come�for both
of them and needed to make sure Josie took action before it was too late.
Aldys tapped her on the shoulder, and Josie turned around.
"Hi Josie, I need to talk to you about something. Do you have a minute?"
Both relieved and nervous at the sound of Aldys' voice, she breathed, "Sure.
Actually, I wanted to talk to you, too. Why don't we find an empty classroom?"
Josie asked, thinking it was better to get this over with, and the sooner the better.
Aldys agreed and followed her into the nearest empty room. Josie sat facing the
hallway and Aldys dragged a chair around to face her.
Aldys took a deep breath, and started to ask, "Josie, I need to know� Is there
something I should know about you and�?" when she noticed Josie staring past
her at the open doorway. Aldys turned around in her seat to see what had
caught Josie's attention and paled as she saw Mr. Coulson standing staring back
at them.
To Aldys' horror, Josie smiled warmly at him and said, "I'm glad you're here,
Sam. Why don't you come in? You should be a part of this, too."
Aldys felt a shiver of fear slide up her spine at Josie's familiar use of Mr.
Coulson's first name. If she had needed any confirmation of her suspicions, she
had just received it.
Sam hesitated momentarily, noting the look on Aldys' face. Again, the sting of
guilt hit him. Poor Aldys could only be thinking the worst of him, and under the
current circumstances, he couldn't blame her. Nevertheless, he entered the room,
closed the door behind him. He walked over to perch himself on the edge of the
desk beside Josie's, also facing Aldys, prepared to support Josie in what would
probably be a difficult moment for her.
Aldys felt the panic rise up from her already queasy stomach to tighten her
throat, and started to rise out of her chair. Josie, sensing she was about to flee,
grabbed Aldys' hand to stay her.
"Wait, Aldys, please! It's okay," Josie soothed. "Please�let me explain what's
going on here."
Aldys looked from Josie to Mr. Coulson and back, and then straightened her
spine and sat back down, finding her courage once again. She was determined to
help her friend at all costs, and if Mr. Coulson thought he could intimidate her
by his presence, she thought forcefully, then he had seriously underestimated
her. "Josie, I already know what's going on. I saw you."
She turned to Sam and glared at him. "Please, don't bother trying to insult my
intelligence with a bunch of pretty lies, either; they won't work on me. C'mon,
Josie, let's go; let's get out of here." Aldys stood again and wrapped her fingers
around Josie's wrist, trying to drag Josie from her seat. She needed to get Josie
away from Mr. Coulson; she needed to make her see reason.
"No, wait, Aldys, it's not what you think," Josie pleaded with her.
Sam jumped in also. "Aldys, please� Let us explain�"
Finally, all the pent up fear, worry, and anger she'd carried around with her
since seeing them kiss came to a head. She whirled around and advanced on
Sam, slashing her arms angrily through the air in a quelling gesture. "No! There
is no explanation for your behavior, Mr. Coulson! None that will satisfy
me, anyway! I saw you kissing Josie in her car yesterday, and it was plain
to see this was no friendly peck on the cheek! And you called her on her
private cell phone, the one with the unlisted number. And I saw
you with your hand caressing her shoulder in the hallway yesterday morning,
too�and I saw the guilty look on your face when you realized I might
have seen you doing it."
"And then there was your 'chance meeting' at the concession stand at the
baseball game last weekend. It was funny that you professed to be so hungry,
but yet you came back to your seat from the concession stand empty-handed.
This is not even mentioning the prom, when you were dancing together
and staring into each other's eyes like no one else existed on the planet." Aldys
was so livid at Mr. Coulson's inappropriate behavior with her friend that,
authority figure or no, she was practically screaming at him.
Josie tried to intervene, saying, "Aldys, you are right about all of that, but..."
Aldys interrupted her, giving her a curt, silencing look. "No, Josie. I'm not
finished."
Aldys took another step toward Sam, pointing an accusing finger at him.
Without even realizing it, Sam shrank back a little against the desk he'd been
leaning on as a self-protective measure. "You know, I used to think that you
were different, Mr. Coulson�that you were a cut above everybody else around
here. You always seemed so passionate about your work, and you seemed to
genuinely care about us kids. Yes, apparently you even had me snowed
there for a while. But after seeing what you're doing to Josie, I can now see you
for what you really are: a smooth talker who knows how to use other
people's insecurities to get what you want from them. And it's obvious�to me,
at least�what it is you want from Josie. Well I, for one, am not going to stand by
and let you do that to her!"
Sam visibly flinched at the obvious recrimination in Aldys' words and tone. He
opened his mouth to say something, anything, to calm Aldys down, but nothing
would come out.
Aldys then turned on Josie, angry with her for not seeing the obvious truth of the
situation. "Josie, can't you see that he's just using you?" she asked, pointing to
Sam. "Do you honestly think a teacher is going to have a serious
relationship with a 17-year-old student!?"
Josie reached out to place a hand on either of Aldys' shoulders. "Aldys, just
listen to me, would you!? Of course Sam wouldn't have a
relationship with a 17-year-old student. That's what I'm trying to tell you! I'm not
seventeen years old. I'm 25, pretending to be 17!"
Aldys wrenched herself from Josie's grasp, exasperated with her friend's obvious
lack of sense. How could she kid around at a time like this? "Quit it, Josie! I'm
serious here and you're making jokes." If Josie was going to play games like that,
how was she supposed to help her?
"I'm not joking," Josie said emphatically, reaching into her purse to pull
out her driver's license. She handed it to Aldys who looked at it for a long
moment. Then she looked up to examine Sam, then Josie, and then looked back
to the small rectangular piece of plastic in her hand.
She started to doubt herself, but persisted, "Well, it could be fake..."
Josie threw up her hands in frustration. She'd had no idea that it was going to be
this difficult to convince Aldys of her true identity. "Believe me, its real! I
am 25 years old. I'm a reporter for the Chicago-Sun Times, undercover as
a student for an article. She rummaged around in her purse again, looking for
her 'Press' I.D. badge. "Sam is the only one here who knows�except for you
now, obviously�" she said, handing her the badge.
Just then, all three heard the door open and turned to see Principal Kerdan
standing there.
"What's going on in here? I heard the commotion from clear down the hall. Is
something wrong?" His eyes honed in on Aldys.
Josie and Sam both looked worriedly at Aldys, holding their breath, and
wondered what she would reply.
The dreaded "To be continued..."
* * *
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