Page 90 of TJ Powar Has Something to Prove

“When?” TJ bursts.

Everyone in the room looks at her. Charlie replies, “The end of our Spring Break trip.”

“So you didn’t like that post?”

He gives her an odd look. “What?”

TJ exhales shakily. So that means... that means...

No, no, no. She’s not allowed to change her mind about him again. It’s safer to stay firmly in the world where she has a reason to hate Charlie.

Except she can’t. She can practically feel her heart singing,He didn’t like that post!And she can’t shut it up. All she can do is stare at him, until she starts noticing little details she didn’t see before. The shadows under his eyes. His ever-so-slightly crooked tie. His fingers, smudged with ink. And... trembling, very slightly where they rest on the table.

“Forgive me if I don’t find this convincing,” Mrs. Grayson says dryly. “We take these kinds of comments very seriously.”

TJ wheels on her, her determination to prove Charlie’s innocence even stronger now. “Who was the accuser, anyway?”

“Like I said, that’s private.”

“It’s okay,” Charlie says quietly. “I al-al-al-already know who.”

He shuts his mouth after stuttering. Mrs. Grayson gives him a curious look. TJ, however, feels like she’s been whacked over the head with a realization.

Isaac Turner, that tool—all this time she thought the Turners were going to mess withher. But they’ve decided to mess with Charlie instead.

But Isaac wasn’t at the Whitewater Spring Break trip. So how could that have happened?

“Let me call my cell phone provider,” Charlie says suddenly. “They’ll be able to confirm that I got a new phone. Could that work as evidence?”

Mrs. Grayson blinks a few times. “I suppose—it could.”

Charlie takes the phone and starts dialing. His expression is calm, but his hands are still trembling. He hates talking on the phone. This is going to shake him.Allof this is. As Isaac knew it would.

TJ excuses herself from the room because she’s starting to see red.

Outside, she stops short. Nate is leaning against the wall. He pushes off when he sees her. “What’s going on? Everyone’s waiting for the debate to start.”

“Charlie’s being interrogated,” she says angrily. “And I’m pretty sure Isaac had something to do with it.” And because she’s pissed, she tells him the whole story. Nate’s eyebrows climb higher with each word.

“Wow,” he says when she’s done. “Well, doesn’t surprise me. Isaac has it out for Charlie.”

TJ crosses her arms. “I wish I understood why. But Charlie doesn’t talk about it.”

“Wait, you don’t know?”

TJ gawks at him. “Are you sayingyoudo? You’re not even in their year.”

“So what? Even eighth graders at Whitewater know this one.” Nate spreads his hands dramatically. “The Day Charlie Rosencrantz Snapped.”

TJ leans in. “Snapped? How?”

Nate puts a finger on her forehead to push her back. “Patience. You need the backstory to fully appreciate it.” TJ resists the urge to throttle him. “Charlie and Isaac used to be friends. But in high school Isaac got obsessed with his university applications and started looking out for number one.”

Sounds like someone else TJ knows.

“Charlie rolled with it. So he didn’t say anything when Isaac started using his ideas to move up school council. Charlie was still in some shitty notetaker position when Isaac became student president. And in debate, during their Junior Nationals qualifying season, I hear Isaac took the best contentions without asking and Charlie had to slap together arguments at the last minute. Stuff like that. And then Isaac announced he was moving away, so the president position opened up. Isaac decided to help Brandon Fletcher with his campaign instead of Charlie.”

“Why? How did that help his résumé?”