062 Easy Marks (4 page)

There was a tap on the open door. Nancy looked up and saw a guy standing there, grinning at her. He was very good-looking, tall and broad shouldered, with light brown, almost amber eyes, and dark brown hair.

“Hi, Teach,” he said.

“Hi, Stu,” she retorted. “Come on in.”

Nancy looked over the sheet that detailed what he was supposed to work on, then got down to it. Victor was very quick, but it was obvious he had never bothered to spend more than two minutes on English grammar before. Now that he
was
bothering, he caught on easily.

“If any of my teachers were as pretty as you, maybe I would have paid more attention to this stuff,” said Victor, gazing into Nancy’s eyes.

“With lines like that I’m surprised you
didn’t
get better grades.” Nancy laughed, trying to deflect his flirtation.

At the end of one of the exercises, Nancy said, “Now, that wasn’t hard, was it? It’s too bad you can’t go back and change last year’s grade in English, now that you know how to do the work.”

“Who says you can’t?” Victor replied. “I could, if I wanted to.”

Nancy started, then caught herself and said lightly, “Don’t be ridiculous. Your grades are in your permanent file.”

“Sure,” said Victor, flashing her a dazzling grin. “And my permanent file is in the school computer, along with everybody else’s.”

Nancy fought to keep cool as she said, “Yes, I know. But you need special access codes to get to them, don’t you? Otherwise, people would go around giving themselves whatever grades they wanted.” She held her breath and waited to hear what he would say.

“There are ways to access those codes,” Victor replied. “You’d have to be really smart to figure out how. But I could.”

Nancy laughed. “You’re not big on modesty, are you?”

Pink spots bloomed on Victor’s cheeks. “Well, I don’t want you thinking I’m dumb just because I bombed out in English,” he told her. “I mean, being smart is sort of attractive, isn’t it? And I want you to see my good side.”

Again, Nancy tried to ignore his flirting, though she couldn’t help being charmed by it a little, too. “You mean, you’ve figured out how to get into the locked files in the school computer?” she asked, trying to get the conversation back on track. “That’s pretty amazing—if it’s true.”

“It’s true, all right. Here, I’ll prove it to you.” He went over to the terminal and turned it on. “Let’s see, what would light a fire under the honchos in the big office? Hey, I know!”

Nancy looked over his shoulder. His fingers were moving over the keyboard too quickly for her to follow, but on the screen she saw a demand for a password, then a directory of files. Apparently, Victor had somehow figured out how to get past the security codes and break into the system. The glowing cursor moved down the list of files and stopped at one named HEADMAST.BIO.

Victor pressed a couple of keys. The screen cleared, then filled up with Walter Friedbinder’s biography.

“Now, what should we do with him?” Victor started typing again. Every now and then he gave a little snort of amusement. Finally, he turned on the printer, printed out the document, and handed it to Nancy. She started reading.

Walter “Twinkletoes” Friedbinder, the new headmaster of Brewster Academy, has one of the largest collections of soda bottle caps in the United States. He has earned degrees in both Fahrenheit and Celsius and is a founding member of River Heights’s Flat Earth Society. Dr. Friedbinder’s research into loose-leaf notebooks and the effects of heating them in oil led to his famous discovery of the fried-binder. . . .

Nancy laughed. “Victor, what have you done?” she cried, trying unsuccessfully to scold him. “This is terrible!”

He pretended to be hurt. “I thought it was pretty good for the spur of the moment.”

“But—but what if somebody sent this out, without noticing the changes you made? Mr. Friedbinder would probably fire them!”

“No problem, Nancy.” Turning to the keyboard, he entered a couple of commands. “There, I’ve restored the original version. I’ll show you.”

The printer began chattering again. When it stopped, Victor ripped off the page and handed it to Nancy. Scanning it quickly, she saw it was a straightforward, unaltered press release about Walter Friedbinder. She folded the two pages and put them in her shoulder bag.

“Very impressive. Can you really get into any file in the school computer?” she asked. “Even stuff like student records?”

“Just about,” Victor boasted. “Figuring out the access codes is my hobby, the same way some guys customize cars, or play video games, or collect weird road signs.”

Nancy shook her head. “Aren’t you running a big risk, though? Changing people’s grades is really asking for trouble.”

“Wait a minute,” he said, holding up a hand. “I never said I
was
changing grades, just that it wouldn’t be that hard to do.” He pointed toward the file folder on the desk. “If I was into changing grades, do you think I’d still have that D from last year’s English class on my record?”

“That’s a point,” Nancy conceded. She was about to ask Victor more questions, but the bell in the hallway started to ring.

“Wow! I can’t believe it’s lunchtime already.” Victor turned off the terminal and gathered his books. At the door, he looked back. “Thanks for the English lesson,” he said. “I actually understood some of it. Hey, could I interest you in getting a burger after school? With me, I mean. My treat.”

Nancy thought quickly. Victor might well be behind the grade-changing scheme. Even if he wasn’t, he seemed to know more about the computer system than anyone else around. “Okay.”

“All right! I’ll meet you in the parking lot around three.” He flashed her a quick grin, and then he was gone.

Nancy found herself smiling. She couldn’t help liking Victor, so far. In the past she’d learned the hard way that—well, even bad guys could have charming smiles.

All the students were probably down in the lunchroom by now. This would be a good time to check out some of the other classrooms.

Nancy shut the door to the learning lab behind her. Checking each classroom, she made her way down the second-floor hallway.

Half the school was on the first lunch shift, so many of the classrooms were empty. Nancy was looking for rooms with computers, places where the mysterious E-mail message might have been sent from, and also a place where the hacker—if it turned out to be a student—could sit, undisturbed, to work his or her grade changes.

Suddenly she stopped. Alone in a classroom with three computers was a short, petite girl with shoulder-length dark hair held back with a headband. She sat working on one of the computers. When Nancy’s shoe scuffed the floor, the girl jumped and turned around anxiously.

“Oh! You scared me!” she cried, seeing Nancy in the doorway. The girl wore an oversize purple sweatshirt over loose-fitting corduroy pants. Her surprised expression quickly changed to one of annoyance as she asked, “Are you looking for something?”

“Just checking out the building,” Nancy told her. She introduced herself as Nancy Stevens and explained that she was the new tutor at Brewster. As Nancy spoke, the girl hit a few computer buttons and closed out the file she’d been working on. Was she finished, Nancy wondered, or was she hiding what she had been writing?

“Catching up on homework?” Nancy asked pleasantly.

“Not quite,” the girl said curtly. “My name’s Randi Peters. I’m the editor of the
Academician
.” She was clearly impressed with her title. “I’m working on an article for the paper. Hey, how about being interviewed?”

Nancy blinked. Had her cover been blown already? “Interview me?” she said cautiously. “About what?”

“About the tutoring program, of course,” Randi said. “I haven’t done a story on it yet. I think it’s a natural, don’t you?”

“Sure,” Nancy agreed quickly. It was perfect—only Nancy hoped
she
would be the one getting useful information. “But I don’t have my schedule on me. I don’t know when I’ll be free. I’ll have to call you.”

Randi smiled. “Okay. See you soon, then.”

Nancy said goodbye and returned to the learning lab for her afternoon tutorials. After her last student, she met Victor in the parking lot and followed his battered old green sedan to the Roost, a hangout a few blocks from Brewster Academy.

The place was just beginning to fill up. Nancy nodded to Sally Lane, who was sitting with friends in a nearby booth. With a quick tilt of her chin, Sally quietly acknowledged the greeting. Nancy looked around, admiring the dozens of high-school pennants hanging from the ceiling and the motorcycle fixed high on the back wall.

“There’s a table over there,” Victor said, pointing to the far side of the room.

“Great,” said Nancy. “I’ll just wash my hands and be right back.”

As Nancy passed Sally’s booth, one of the girls sitting with her—she had short, wavy blond hair and pale blue eyes—looked up. Nancy was surprised when she saw the expression of hatred on the girl’s face. She tried to think if she had crossed paths with the girl somewhere, but nothing came to her.

Nancy was drying her hands when the bathroom door flew open. Startled, Nancy glanced over her shoulder. The girl from Sally’s booth was standing with her back against the door and her hands in the pockets of her leather motorcycle jacket. Her expression was even more hostile than before. There was no mistaking it now—Nancy was definitely the target of her anger.

The girl was short and delicate, but the fury on her face made Nancy cautious. She knew that rage often made people stronger than they seemed.

“I know who you are and what you’re up to,” the girl snarled.

Who was this girl? What
did
she know? Right now the most important thing was to get away from her. “If you’ll please move, I’d like to leave,” said Nancy, advancing toward the door.

With shocking strength, the girl pushed Nancy back. “You’re not going anywhere,” she said in a voice full of menace. “Not until I’m through with you.”

Chapter Five

N
ANCY STAGGERED BACK
, almost losing her footing. This girl was out of control. Nancy would have to deal with her carefully.

“I’m telling you, you’re mistaken,” Nancy said. “I don’t know you.”

“Maybe not,” the girl countered. “But I’m going to make sure you remember me for a long time.”

The girl pulled her right hand back, as if to rake her nails across Nancy’s face. As her arm started to move, Nancy reached up and caught her wrist. Her thumb pressed on a spot where the nerves that control the hand run close to the surface. The girl turned pale, and her hand opened.

“Let me go,” she muttered through clenched teeth.

“Kim!” a high-pitched voice called. “What’s going on in there?”

Nancy took a quick step to the left and put her back to the wall, ready to take on two attackers if she had to. But the newcomer was Sally, her hazel eyes filled with concern.

“Nothing,” Nancy’s opponent said, almost spitting out the word. A moment later she stormed out of the rest room.

“Who was that, and what is her problem?” Nancy asked Sally.

“Her name’s Kim Forster,” Sally replied. “When she saw you walk in with Victor, it kind of lit her fuse, if you know what I mean.”

“You mean, she and Victor—” Nancy leaned back against the wall. “I thought maybe she found out I was investigating this case and she was involved somehow.”

“I doubt it,” said Sally. “She’s got this intense thing for Victor. They dated for a while. Kim didn’t seem that upset when it ended, but for the past couple of weeks all she can talk about is what a rat he is.”

“That’s odd,” Nancy remarked. “I wonder what set her off?” With a shake of her head, she added, “Well, I’ve got other things to worry about. Have you discovered if any other kids have been approached by the grade-changer?”

“No luck so far. How about you?”

“Nothing yet,” Nancy told her. “Listen, I’d better get back to Victor. He’s probably wondering what happened to me.”

“And I’d better get back to Kim,” Sally replied. “Now that she’s cooled off a little, I’d better make sure she stays that way.”

As Nancy walked back to her table she could almost feel Kim’s glare boring into her back. If that was the way Kim was after cooling off, it was a good thing that she hadn’t stayed heated up!

Victor looked up as Nancy sat down. “You were gone so long that I went ahead and ordered for you. A cheeseburger and french fries—okay?”

“Fine. I just ran into a friend of yours.” Nancy made a slight motion of her head in the direction of Sally and Kim’s booth.

Victor glanced across the room, then shifted uneasily. “Oh. Did you have any, uh, problems?”

“Sort of. Kim seems to be pretty hot-tempered and impulsive.”

“You could say that,” he replied with an empty little laugh. “Did she try to show you her deed? The one that says she owns me?”

“No,” Nancy said, chuckling.

“Good. It’s a forgery, anyway.” He paused and studied the top of the table. “We had a few dates, that’s all. No big deal. And we stopped dating, because it wasn’t working for either of us. We were both okay with that—I thought. But now she looks at me like I’m a worm she’s planning to dissect for her biology project.”

Nancy leaned back to let the waiter set their food on the table. She wanted to get off the topic of Kim and back to investigating the case. “How long have you been interested in computers?”

“Since I was fourteen,” he said. “I was in a car accident. I got banged up pretty bad—missed a whole year of school. I should have graduated last year, but I had to make up the year I lost. Anyway, while I was laid up, I started hacking around with my dad’s home PC. I couldn’t do much else that year.” Victor leaned back in his chair and smiled. “And
that
is how I became the computer genius you see before you today.”

“I bet I can guess what you’re going to study in college,” said Nancy, taking a bite of her burger.

His smile disappeared, and he became serious. “The big question isn’t what, it’s where. The places that have really good Information Sciences programs cost a fortune. I don’t have that kind of money. I’m at Brewster on a full scholarship. So either I get a college scholarship or I settle for a second- or third-rate school. That’s where you come in.”