Chapter 5: The Scores Beneath the Scores
Dr.
Cole’s face remained still, but his fingers tightened around the back of his chair.
“My account is used by the entire fair committee.”
Officer Reynolds shook his head.
“The login required your private code.”
“It could have been copied.”
“Then you won’t object to an audit.”
“I object to you turning a school error into a public spectacle.”
Marcus stepped toward him.
“You tried to erase what happened.”
“You have no proof I touched that server.”
The office phone rang.
Principal Daugherty answered and switched it to speaker at Reynolds’s request.
“This is Naomi Price,” a woman said.
“I served as the independent judge for environmental science.”
Dr.
Cole reached toward the speaker button.
“This discussion is confidential.”
“No, Adrian,” Naomi replied.
“Not anymore.”
Marcus leaned over the desk.
“Ms.
Price, did I actually win?”
“You received ninety-eight points.
Ethan Cole received ninety-one.”
Renee closed her eyes and gripped Marcus’s hand.
“Then why is my son being accused?”
“Because Marcus’s score was changed to eighty-one after I signed it,” Naomi said.
“I caught the alteration during the final audit and restored the correct result.”
Marcus looked at Dr.
Cole.
“You lowered my score.”
“That is an accusation,” Dr.
Cole said.
“Not proof.”
Naomi continued.
“There were two sets of changes.
Someone lowered Marcus’s score, then entered a higher score for Ethan under my initials.”
Ethan’s voice came from the doorway.
“What?”
Everyone turned.
The seventeen-year-old stood there holding his fair ribbon, his face pale.
“Dad, you told me Marcus failed the plant-resilience test.”
Dr.
Cole crossed the room.
“Ethan, go home.”
“Did you change his score?”
“I said go home.”
Ethan looked at Marcus.
“I didn’t know.”
Marcus pulled his hand from his mother’s.
“You stood beside me when they announced my name.
You wouldn’t even look at me.”
“My dad told me you had copied part of my project.”
“And you believed him?”
Ethan’s ribbon slipped from his fingers.
“I wanted to.”
The words hung between them.
Renee put an arm around Marcus as his shoulders began to shake.
Ethan bent, picked up the ribbon, and placed it on Principal Daugherty’s desk.
“I don’t want this.”
Dr.
Cole caught his wrist.
“Do not destroy your future over a boy who would not do the same for you.”
“Let go of him,” Renee said.
Dr.
Cole released Ethan.
“Everything I did was to protect my son.”
“You protected yourself,” Ethan replied.
“You said if I lost, everyone would know I wasn’t good enough to carry your name.”
Dr.
Cole’s expression changed.
“You are confused and emotional.”
A woman in a gray custodial uniform appeared behind Ethan.
She carried a clear recycling bag filled with torn paper.
“My name is Rosa Alvarez,” she said.
“I clean the committee room.”
Principal Daugherty frowned.
“This is a private meeting.”
“Then someone should explain why Mrs.
Vance asked me to destroy signed judging sheets.”
Mrs.
Vance sprang from her chair.
“That never happened.”
Rosa placed the bag on the desk.
“I saw Ms.
Price’s signature, so I kept the pieces.”
Dr.
Cole reached for the bag, but Reynolds pulled it away.
“These are discarded scraps,” Dr.
Cole said.
“They prove nothing.”
Rosa removed a folded printer log from her pocket.
“This proves who printed the altered copies.”
Principal Daugherty stared at the list.
Her hand moved toward it, then stopped.
“Who?” Marcus asked.
Rosa looked first at Dr.
May you like
Cole, then at the principal.
“The altered sheets were printed from Helen Daugherty’s office.”
