Digital Disaster! by Rachel Wise Page B

know who did it?”
    â€œOh no! Definitely not.” Darn. I should have known that was
what my question would sound like. Now I was going to get myself in another mess.
    â€œAre you telling me the truth? Swear on our mother’s
life?” She gave me one of her super-intense stares.
    â€œChill out, Allie. Of course I don’t know who it is. I
wouldn’t keep that to myself. I’m just asking because I think I know someone
who might know who did it, but I’m not even sure about that. It’s all very
hypothetical,” I said, but I was starting to confuse myself. I was trying to
re-create the situation with Rock Star and apply it to the hacker incident since that
was public knowledge. Now I wasn’t sure if I was asking about Rock Star or Will
Hutchins.
    â€œWell,” Allie said, then paused to blow on her toes.
“I’d tell them that they were a royal idiot. Nice friend, too,” she
said, and blinked at me. “I mean seriously, who would be so stupid?”
    I laughed. I should have known that the only person who was going to be
more opinionated about this issue than me would be Allie.
    â€œWhat’s so funny?” she asked.
    â€œNothing. I just like your answer. Have you ever cheated on
anything?” I asked her. Even though Allie was opinionated, I had always wondered
this about her. She was a pretty good student, but hated math and science and was
usually more into her friends and dance classes than her schoolwork. Could she ever have
been tempted?
    She was quiet for a moment. “Why do you want to know?” she
asked, very interested in her toenails again. She had finished one foot and was starting
on the next.
    â€œNo particular reason. I’ve just been thinking about the
subject a lot since all this happened.” I tried to sound casual, but I could tell
Allie had something on her mind.
    She stopped painting and put the brush back in its bottle, screwing the
cap on slowly. Then she looked at me and sighed. “I probably shouldn’t tell
you this, but I cheated once, in eighth grade. It was algebra. I wrote some stuff on my
hand for the test and my teacher caught me. I got an automatic F for the test. It was
awful. He called Mom and watched me like a hawk for the rest of the year. It was so
embarrassing, and the most ridiculous part about it was I would have gotten a much
better grade if I had never cheated. Lesson learned!” She lowered her eyes at me.
“Don’t ever do it.”
    â€œI wasn’t planning to,” I said. “Why didn’t
I know about this?”
    â€œMom promised to keep it between me and her. I think she
didn’t want to put any bad ideas in your head. As if,” she said, and started
blowing on her feet again.
    I sat up, shocked that I’d never known Allie had actually done
something like that. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
    â€œWell, you’re so into school, you know? It seems so easy for
you. I just got really overwhelmed and felt like I had to do really well all the time.
Now I can handle things better and ask for help when I need it.”
    I stared at Allie. She thought school was easy for me? Ha! I felt like I
never stopped working. In fact, sometimes I felt like I was way too stressed for someone
in middle school. I thought of Hailey saying how we hadn’t had a sleepover in a
while. It’s true that doing well in school and with the paper was important to me,
but had it become too important?
    â€œSchool is anything but easy to me,” I said. “I just get
really wrapped up in whatever I’m doing and don’t do anything else. But
I’m always stressed. That’s my problem.”
    Allie finished her toes and started clearing up the newspaper. “I
guess things are never exactly what you think they are.”
    I nodded. That was true. “Okay, so I’m going to try to have
more fun. Can you paint my nails?” Workaholic Middle