Free Her Evil Twin by Mimi McCoy Page B

time, are you
sure
you don’t know anything about Jessamyn’s wallet?”
    Anna pressed her lips together and shook her head. As she did, an image flashed through hermind: a little pink wallet with a ladybug charm.
Emma’s wallet.
    No,
Anna thought, as the truth dawned on her.
Emma wouldn’t have a wallet like that. But Jessamyn would.
    Something must have showed on her face, because the dean leaned forward. “Anna? Is there something you want to tell me?”
    Anna shook her head again. At that moment, all she wanted was to get out of there and find Emma. She had to ask her what was going on.
    Ms. Turk sighed. “Anna, you realize I’m going to have to search your locker.”
    “What? Now?” Anna blurted. She didn’t have time for this. She had to find Emma!
    “Yes, now,” the dean said sternly. “Come with me, young lady.”
    As the dean marched her down the hall, Anna felt as if her feet were moving in slow motion. But her mind was churning.
    It can’t be true. Emma wouldn’t have stolen anything,
she told herself.
She breaks the rules sometimes, but she would never actually
steal.
    But she
did
steal,
said another voice in Anna’s mind.
She stole those cans of paint from the artroom. And dining and ditching — that was stealing, too.
    Come to think of it, Anna had never seen Emma pay for anything. Even when she brought chips and candy for lunch, she pulled them out of her pockets, not from a bag like anyone else would have.
    Anna suddenly felt certain that Emma was in big trouble. Was there some way she could warn her? Frantically, she tried to remember what class Emma was in — Spanish, PE? She realized she didn’t know Emma’s schedule at all.
    They had arrived at Anna’s locker. “Go ahead,” Ms. Turk ordered. “Open it.”
    Anna slowly spun the combination.
The bell is going to ring soon,
she told herself.
Then school will be out for the day. I’ll find Emma right after school.
    These were the thoughts that were going through Anna’s mind as she swung open her locker door. At once, she forgot everything she’d been thinking.
    There, on the top shelf of her locker, was the pink wallet with the ladybug charm. Anna noticed a detail that she’d missed when the wallet had been in Emma’s hand — a name stitched across the flap in white thread:
Jessamyn.

Chapter Eleven
    Anna stared at the wallet, hardly able to believe her eyes. “I — I didn’t take it!” she stuttered. “She must have put it there.”
    Ms. Turk’s face was grim. “I very much doubt that Jessamyn broke into your locker to leave
her
wallet there.”
    Anna hadn’t meant Jessamyn, of course.
But why would Emma do it?
she wondered. Emma was her friend.
    “You’re in very big trouble, young lady.” Ms. Turk grabbed the wallet with one hand and Anna with the other. Her grip was surprisingly strong. It felt like a steel clamp on Anna’s shoulder.
    As the dean dragged Anna back to her office, the final bell jangled overhead. All up and down the hall,classroom doors popped open, and students spilled out into the hall. When they saw the dean and Anna coming, they got out of the way, like the sea parting. Anna was aware of kids staring at her as she passed. At one point she caught a glimpse of Dory, her eyes goggling at Anna from behind her thick glasses.
    “It’s a mistake, Ms. Turk,” Anna kept pleading. “If you’ll just let me explain….”
    “You can do your explaining when your parents get here,” the dean replied as they entered her office.
    My parents?
Anna’s heart sank. “Please don’t call them,” she begged. “I’ll tell you everything.”
    So, feeling like a traitor, she told the dean about Emma, how she’d offered to buy Anna lunch at the deli and paid for it with money from the pink wallet.
    The dean’s frown deepened. “The deli? You mean, you
left
school? You know you aren’t allowed to leave the school grounds during school hours.”
    Oops.
Now she’d really done it. She was only digging them