Digital Disaster! (2 page)

“I got a D on my history paper. And I think I just failed my
chemistry test.”

She dropped her bag again on the floor, but this time Mom didn't say
anything. Then Allie slumped down on the kitchen stool next to mine. She put her head
down over her arms on the counter. Now I was worried.

“Allie,” Mom said in a slow, gentle tone, kind of like she was
talking to a crazy person, “you've been working so hard. What
happened?”

Suddenly Allie lifted her head and smiled. “Psych!”

“Huh?” I said, choking on my hot cocoa a little.

My mom stared wide-eyed at her as Allie thrust out her history paper.

“A minus! And I think I rocked chem. Or at least I didn't
fail. Bring on the hot cocoa! And do we have any cookies?”

“Allie, not funny,” Mom said.

“You have a bizarre sense of humor,” I said.

“Well, you're just bizarre,” she zinged back, but she
was smiling and nudged my shoulder with hers.

“Cheers,” she said, and held up her mug. I couldn't help
but clink back.

That night I had possibly the best lasagna of my entire life. The best
part, though, was all of us relaxing and having fun together. I felt like it had been a
long time since the three of us had done that. And boy did we all need it.

Chapter 2

Mysterious Scandal Rocks School to the Core

On Monday morning at school, after a nice weekend of mostly sleeping in
and watching my favorite shows I'd DVR'd but hadn't been able to watch
for, like, a month, Michael came running up to me while I was trying to unstick the
zipper on my black fleece jacket. Even though it was technically spring, it was still
pretty cold.

“Hey, Sam, did you hear about what happened?”

I looked up from my zipper immediately. Michael called me Sam only when
something was really serious. He was breathless, his face flushed.

“No?” My heart started to beat really fast. I stuffed my hands
in my jacket pockets and braced myself for what he was about to tell me.

“Someone stole the math exam.”

“Wait a minute,
stole
it? What do you
mean?” I asked.

“Well, not stole it exactly. The day before the exam, the math
department teachers couldn't get onto the computer system because the password had
been changed. They thought an administrator or another teacher had changed it. They were
able to retrieve the files, but it took them a day to figure out it was no one on the
staff. It probably was a student trying to get the test ahead of time.”
Michael's hands moved wildly about while he was talking. He seemed upset, but also
kind of excited.

“That's pretty serious,” I said, but was sort of
relieved. I'm just glad it wasn't about anybody getting hurt or something.
“How do you even know this?” I asked.

“I saw Mr. Trigg this morning. He told me everything and wants us to
do a story on it. We're going to talk about it at our meeting today.”

“Wow,” I said, trying to get my head around the whole thing. I
wondered what it was going to mean for all of us.

I went back to my zipper. I had to be in language arts in less than five
minutes and I still had my jacket on. I tugged it down as hard as I could, but no
luck.

“Let me help you there, Pasty,” Michael said. Before I could
respond, he grabbed the zipper and gave it a hard pull. Finally my jacket opened and
there Michael was, standing there still holding the zipper. We stared at each other.

“Uh-oh,” he said.

I couldn't help but laugh. “Thanks a lot, Lawrence!”

“I guess I don't know my own strength,” he joked, but
then he lowered his eyes and looked uncomfortable. “I'm really sorry. Can I
buy you a new jacket?”

I was speechless. He was too good to be true, this Michael Lawrence.
“Uh.” I forced myself to say something. “That's really nice to
offer, but I'm sure my mom can fix it.” I stuck my hand out for the zipper.
“At least I don't have to wear my jacket to class, so thanks!”

His smile returned. “No problem. Any time you need your clothes
ruined, you know who to call.”

I laughed and he handed me back my zipper. I couldn't wait to tell
Hailey about this, and I couldn't help but wonder what he would have done if
I'd taken him up on the new jacket offer. Would we have gone shopping together?
Maybe I had just made a big mistake turning him down. After I put my broken jacket in my
locker, Michael and I walked together to class. His seat was right in front and I was in
the middle. We sat down. The room was buzzing. Everyone all around me was already
discussing the big news. How had people found out so fast? Mr. Farrell, our teacher, was
trying to get the class's attention by turning the lights on and off. It took a
while for people to settle down.
Mysterious Scandal Rocks School to
the Core.

I wondered who was stupid enough to do something like this, if that was
the case. The truth was, no one knew what had actually happened. But if it was a
student, had he done it because he was really afraid he'd do badly on the test, or
had he just wanted to cause some major drama? I looked around. It could have been
anyone, maybe even someone right in this room! Finally people started to settle
down.

Mr. Farrell cleared his throat extra loud. “I know many of you are
concerned about the very serious situation with the recent math exams,” he said in
a stern tone. “There will be an announcement made later today about it,” he
continued. “In the meantime, ladies and gentlemen, we have to focus on the here
and now.”

The here and now was going to be a new unit on Edgar Allan Poe. Mr.
Farrell started by reading the poem “The Raven.” I was anxious to find out
about the test, but Mr. Farrell was going full force ahead. There was nothing to do but
listen to the poem and wait for the announcement. The dark and mysterious nature of the
poem sort of fit the mood.

At lunch Hailey and I got a table together. I could tell she was buzzing
with the same energy we were all feeling, sort of upset, sort of excited. Why are bad
things exciting sometimes?

“What do you think is going to happen?” she asked, taking a
bite of her only lunch item, a big roll with butter.

I had the Mediterranean chicken salad, the organic food option we had in
our lunchroom that day. It had olives, tomatoes, and couscous in it. Pretty tasty, but
it probably made Hailey think of her mom's superhealthy cooking too much, which
was always chock-full of things like veggies and “whole grains.” When Hailey
isn't at home she eats the most horrible not-nutritious food you can imagine.

“I really don't know,” I said, chewing thoughtfully.
“They're not even sure about what happened or if anyone actually looked at
the test or the answers.”

“I heard they're having some special computer people come in
to do an investigation,” Hailey said, spreading a big wad of butter on her roll.
Her mom would be so mad if she ever saw Hailey's lunches, but I've been
sworn to secrecy.

“Wow. Why would someone do something like this?”

Hailey shrugged. “Do you think we might have to take the test
over?”

My stomach did a flip. In the back of my mind I'll admit I'd
had the same thought and quickly pushed it away. Suddenly I wasn't so hungry
anymore.

“If we do, I swear I'll make it my mission to find the person
who did it and personally give them a piece of my mind. Michael and I are going to do a
story on it for the paper,” I said.

“So maybe you will actually find out who did it!”

“They better beware.” I meant it. It's one thing to make
your own mistakes, but to ruin things for everyone else, like me, who worked hard and
followed the rules. It made me so mad.

“It's sure livened things up around here,” Hailey said,
looking around. You could see people huddled around talking, and if I had to bet,
I'd guess most people were talking about exactly what we were talking about.

After we left the cafeteria, I was having a hard time concentrating on my
earthonomics class. But just before the next class began, the principal's loud
booming voice came on the loudspeaker.

“Good afternoon, students of Cherry Valley Middle School. I have an
important announcement to make,” Mr. Pfeiffer began. You could hear a pin drop.
“I'm sure most of you have heard that there has been a security breach in
regard to the third-quarter math assessments. We have started an investigation, but at
this point the results of the exam are invalid. A new test schedule will be sent home by
the end of the week and all seventh-grade students will be retested. Thanks for your
understanding during this trying time. Please direct questions to your teachers or to
me. Remember, gossip hurts everyone.”

The microphone went off and the silence continued. My cheeks felt hot as
the news sank in. I'd actually have to take my math test over! The one that
I'd studied a whole week for! It was so unfair!

I looked up at Mrs. Birnbaum. She was pacing in the front of the room, her
arms crossed, shaking her head. She seemed as upset as I was. But she didn't have
to take the test over.

“This brings up a lot of important questions and issues,” she
said after a moment, addressing the class. “This disrupts everyone's
schedules, including the teachers. I do find myself angry. But it's hard to be
angry when you don't know who to be angry at.”

Sophie Meyers, who sat in the front, was on the math team, and was
basically known for being a straight-A student, raised her hand.

“Yes, Sophie,” Mrs. Birnbaum said, pointing to her.

“I just can't believe someone could be so selfish. I work
really hard to do well. And now I'll have to work even harder because someone else
was lazy and dishonest.” Sophie's voice shook a little from her strong
emotions. I was surprised that someone like Sophie Meyers was so upset. Doing well
seemed to come so easily to her. But I guess getting straight A's wasn't
easy for anyone. I also realized these were great quotes for the
Voice
article. I got out my notebook and started to write down what Mrs.
Birnbaum and Sophie were saying.

“Well, first of all”—Mrs. Birnbaum sat down on the front
edge of her desk—“at this point we don't even know if it was a student
who hacked into the system. But I understand how you feel, Sophie. The entire math
department will have to create a new exam in the next few days. More work for you guys
means more work for teachers, too. It's unfair; no way around it.”

“If it was a student,” Will Hutchins said, and paused for a
moment before going on, “maybe the kid was really stressed out. Maybe his or her
parents were coming down very hard. This person might have reacted out of fear, not
really thinking about how it would affect other people. It just might not be so black
and white—the hacker is bad, others are good.”

I put my pencil down and looked at Will. He was the kind of kid who never
stood out that much. He was quiet in class and really into computers and he was in the
IT club. He was actually one of the students helping the paper change over to a new
online format. I'd barely even remembered he was in the class until he spoke up.
It was a good point, and a brave one to make, since I couldn't help but think that
the kind of kid who did this might be just like Will.

“That's a really good point, Will,” Mrs. Birnbaum said.
“It's important to remember all sides to this issue and not to jump to any
judgments until we hear all the facts.”

“But even if the kid was stressed out, it doesn't make it
okay. We all feel stress,” Sophie said, now glaring at Will.

“These are
all
really good points,”
Mrs. Birnbaum said, “and a lot to think about. But we're going to have to
stop here and get some things done today. Remember, if you're feeling overwhelmed,
please come to me or any teacher and ask for help. There's a lot of pressure on
students these days. Don't be afraid to reach out.”

We started a new unit, but my mind was swimming with all these quotes I
was collecting even before officially starting the article. This was going to be
big.

At the
Voice
meeting, Michael, who is always
running late, was actually there before I was and had saved me a seat.

“I've already got some great quotes for the piece,” he
whispered in my ear.

“Me too!” I whispered back.

“Nice,” Michael said. The room was all abuzz. Mr. Trigg had to
clap his hands loudly to get our attention. Everyone finally quieted down.

“Greetings, fellow journos! So we had some big breaking news,
folks,” Mr. Trigg said. “We want to handle this well. As Churchill once
said, ‘With great success, comes great responsibility,' and I can think of no
better words for this occasion.”