Page 138 of The Darkest Note

“Cadence?” The sound of bed sheets rustling tells me I woke her out of bed.

“Who’s that?” A male voice says.

“Just a student.” She clears her throat. “Give me a second, Cadence.”

“Sure.”

I hear more rustling then a door creaks open and clicks shut.

“Are you okay?” she asks. From the reverb in her voice, I can tell she’s in a bathroom.

“No, not really.” My words erupt in a gush. “Look, if I had anyone else to turn to, I wouldn’t be bothering you in your private time, but if I don’t do something, I’m going to get kicked out of Redwood unfairly and I can’t…” My breath stalls. “I can’t let Dutch win. I’d die first.”

“Sweetheart, calm down, okay. Start from the top. Tell me what happened.”

I tell her about Dutch’s plan. “It sounded like they were going to change the grades tonight.”

“Are you sure?”

I recall the moment in the elevator. “Yes.”

She blows out a breath.

I tap a finger against my foot. “Christa already hates me and with her dad being the chairman of the board at Redwood, it doesn’t matter what the truth is.”

“Why would they do this to you? Seriously, what the hell is wrong with those boys? One of them goes around lying about his age and the other—”

“Did Dutch lie about his age?” I ask. That seems unlike him. He might be a despicable bastard, but he doesn’t hide it.

There’s a long pause as if Miss Jamieson probably exposed something she didn’t mean to.

After a moment, she speaks again in a more composed tone. “If it was a matter of simply changing your grades unfairly, I could intervene. The problem is if they’re taking it straight to the board. There’s a chain of command at Redwood Prep. Once the situation has escalated, we can’t do much to reverse it from our level.”

I groan and fall against my bed. “So you’re saying I’m screwed.”

“I’m saying we have to move faster than they do or we find someone higher than the chairman to support you.”

“Who’s higher than the chairman?”

There’s a moment of silence.

“I might know of someone. Well, not me. Mr. Mulliez has a connection we can explore.”

“I tried to call him, but he didn’t answer,” I tell her.

“He got a new phone number when he moved from the US.”

Hope springs to life again. “So you’re saying…”

“Let me talk to Mr. Mulliez. Even if this is a dead end, we’ll keep fighting. We’re not going to let them win, Cadence.”

After that conversation, I can’t sleep. My mind is too busy cycling through all the things that could go wrong with her plan.

When Miss Jamieson finally calls me back the next morning, I haven’t gotten a wink of sleep.

Snatching the phone up, I croak, “What did Mr. Mulliez say?”

“He’s cashing in a favor from an old friend.”