Free Nets and Lies by Katie Ashley Page A

so I just turned my phone off.
    I didn’t bother fixing up. After I showered, I pulled my hair into a ponytail. I slipped on a pair of jeans and team hoodie. When I got downstairs, I found the kitchen empty. Luke had early practice this morning, so Mom had left to take him. I grabbed a piece of toast and a water bottle and headed out the door.
    As I drove to school, everything seemed the same as it had before—the same traffic, the same early morning radio station’s corny jokes, the same morning parking lot antics at school. The world had kept right on turning despite what had happened to me.
    But everything normal changed when I entered school. I heard it the moment I pushed through the double doors into the front lobby. It was a slow whine like an annoying gnat interrupting a picnic. The kind you couldn’t drive away by furiously swatting your hands.
    As I started down the blue and white tiled hallway, it became a low rumble—ominous and dark like a storm brewing on the horizon. I glanced at the faces around me, my heart thudding to a stop. The usual goofy grins and wide-eyes of gossipers had been replaced by masks of shock and horror.
    My first thoughts were that someone had been killed. The air constricted in my lungs. It was the same somber atmosphere as two years ago when a popular junior died in a car accident. Who could it have been? Suddenly Will’s face flashed before my eyes.
    Oh, please, God. Not Will!
    But as I passed by each buzzing group, conversation silenced. I bit my lip and shifted my book bag that suddenly felt like lead on my shoulder. It took only a second for me to realize that a death wouldn’t silence conversation. No, that kind of swarming hum was reserved for rumor and accusation. Someone was in trouble. And then I knew.
    The masks of horror were for me.
    Numerous pairs of eyes burned through me, questioning, judging, mocking. At that moment, I would have done anything to escape—sold my soul if I had to. The slow burn on my face crept down my neck, and I began to wonder if it would spread out onto my arms as well.
    There’s no way they know. Only you and Coach T know what happened, and there’s no way in Hell he’s told! As much as I tried to calm myself down, it didn’t help very much. My heart continued pounding. Just let me make it to my first period class. But when I hurried around the corner, I skidded to a stop. Dr. Micheltree and two men stood outside the classroom.
    Suddenly, I forgot how to breathe. A voice in my head screamed, “ In and out, in and out!” Picking up my feet seemed foreign, and if someone hadn’t bumped into me, I would have been forever cemented in that spot.
    When they saw me, Dr. Micheltree started forward, parting the crowd like Moses with the Red Sea.
    “Melanie, will you come with us please?”
    Speaking was not even a possibility. Fear wound tightly around my vocal cords, restricting my air. I merely nodded. I followed her and the men back down the hallway.
    The looks were even more intense now. I made the mistake of glancing up once, but after the expressions on people’s faces, I ducked my head back down again.
    They don’t know . They don’t know. They don’t know! Once again I rationalized that only Coach T and I knew, and he would never, ever tell. He had sworn me to secrecy, hadn’t he? There were no cameras in the gym, and no one had been left at school that late besides us. No one could know!
    As much as I tried believing that, I couldn’t possibly understand why I was being summoned to the office not two days after what had happened, nor why everyone looked at me like I was diseased or something.
    I was thankful when Dr. Micheltree ushered me into the main office. It was virtually empty this time of the morning, so there was no one else to stare at me. The clicking of her heels echoed off the tile floors as we made our way down the long corridor to her office.
    When we got inside, she motioned for me to have a seat. I eased down in the