Page 109 of I Kissed Shara Wheeler
Now she knows what Wheeler’s been spending hours on in his office after everyone else goes home for the night. And why Wheeler wouldn’t want the police involved after Shara ran away, and why he was so threatened by people trying to dig into his family— Wait.
Was Shara involved?
She grabs another page, and another, skimming as fast as she can.
—balance owed—
—answer key—
—my daughter—
There.
We need to discuss discretion. There’s no need to keep your child looped in if his participation isn’t required. My daughter still has no idea I had Carol raise her final grade last year, and that’s for the best. If they feel they’ve earned this, they’re motivated to keep working hard and stay out of trouble.
She scans back up to the sender to make sure she read what she thinks she did.
It’s from Wheeler, and he’s talking about Shara’s grade in Ms. Rodkey’s class last year. The class in which she edged Chloe out by a single percentage point.
“Holy shit,” Chloe whispers.
He just admitted to having Shara’s grades changed.
Which means Shara is disqualified from—
“I think,” she says, staring at the paper so hard, her vision goes blurry, “I think I won valedictorian.”
By lunch, every single student at Willowgrove has at least one page of Principal Wheeler’s emails, which definitively prove that he conspired with the richest parents at Willowgrove to scam their kids into college in exchange for a lot of money and a higher ACT score average to lure in new students.
Dixon, whose dad paid at least $30,000 total to have a proctor look the other way while an Auburn senior with a fake ID took the test under Dixon’s name, has ghosted completely. Mackenzie was spotted melting down in the bathroom, swearing to everyone within earshot that she had no idea her parents paid to have her answers switched with someone else’s. Rumor has it Emma Grace told her that if she wanted people to believe things she says, she shouldn’t have lied about giving her best friend’s crush a handjob at her birthday party.
And Shara—Shara never shows up to school at all. Chloe imagines her in the Wheeler mansion, handing her mom a cucumber water and a Xanax while they meet with the family attorney.
Could she really not have known?
At lunch, Ash asks, “Who do you think did it?”
The choir room is a lot more full than usual, since Georgia invited Summer and Benjy invited Ace, and Ash has somehow convinced Jake and April to stop by and watch them play Breath of the Wild on the Switch they snuck into school. On the top row of the risers, Rory and Smith are having an animated discussion about either poetry or Dragon Ball Z—it’s impossible to tell.
“My money’s on Brooklyn Bennett,” Benjy says. “Total Brooklyn move. Plus, she has means and motive.”
“Nah, it was that kid with the tube socks,” Summer says. “The walking YouTube algorithm. He’s obsessed with ACT scores and loves conspiracy theories.”
“Drew Taylor?” Ash says. “He doesn’t have the range.”
“What even happens now?” Georgia asks, reaching over to steal one of Summer’s Doritos.
Ace, who has been doing wall sits for five minutes straight, pauses mid-squat to say, “Dixon said his dad is going to handle it because he’s a lawyer. Are you allowed to be your own lawyer? Is that a thing?”
“Yes, that’s a thing, Ace,” Georgia says patiently.
In Willowgrove fashion, the well of gossip is bottomless. Apparently, Wheeler’s barricaded himself in his office and is only speaking to legal counsel, entirely ignoring the Willowgrove church board that runs the school and presides over the administration. Nobody knows if he’s going to get arrested or get fired or what. Cracks are forming in the Wheeler empire, and the craziest part is, nobody knows who put them there.
Chloe notices, though, as they scatter into the hall and toward sixth hour, that there’s one person who doesn’t look surprised at this news at all.
She cuts out of seventh hour early—no way in hell is Rory staying the whole day during Taint Week. In-Between Week. Whatever.
She catches him reversing out of his parking spot, and he has to slam on the brakes to stop his back bumper from taking Chloe out at the knees.
