Free The Chamber of Five by Michael Harmon

for a split second that I’m going to do anything to jeopardize my position in the Leadership Group, you’re nuts. My mom would kill me.”
    A long moment passed. I took a breath. “I’m asking you both to run with me.”
    Silence. Dead, black silence. Then Brooke rolled her eyes again. “You must be deaf.”
    I pleaded. “Come on, guys. It’s wrong. They’ve ruined the school, and it needs to be changed. Carter and his little Chamber need to be put right. Besides Singletary, just think of how many legitimate students have been ripped off over the years because of this crap.”
    “You can’t do it, Jason,” Brooke argued. “And even if the three of us made it, you need one more.”
    Elvis cut in. “Statistically speaking, Jason, my existence is only known to three percent of this school. The odds of me being elected are nil.”
    Brooke’s face turned hard, and I knew what she was thinking, because I’d spent all night thinking about the same thing. Her parents. I leaned forward, staring at her. “Do you belong here, Brooke?”
    “Of course I—”
    “No, you don’t. Just like I don’t. Do you know when the last time a
real and qualified-for-this-school
student made it into the Leadership Group?
Decades
. Elvis belongs in it and Thomas Singletary belongs in it, and eighty percent of the students here should be able to strive for it, but they’re not allowed. We bought our way in, and you know it. And if eighty percent of the school
knows
that the Chamber will be killed and this school will be what it’s supposed to be, they’ll vote for us. You know it.”
    She studied the surface of the table. “I … I can’t, Jason.”
    “Don’t you think your mother would be proud of you for changing something for the good?”
    “Sure, but …”
    “But what?”
    “But if it works, it means …”
    I nodded. “I know. It means you’d have to give up your spot in the Leadership Group … to somebody who deserves it.”
    Her eyes clouded. “I didn’t make Lambert this way.”
    “But you accept it.”
    “No, I don’t.”
    “Then prove it.”
    Elvis piped in, “Academic requirements, huh?”
    I nodded.
    He smiled. “Well, I don’t know about girly-girl here, but I’lljoin you. And logically thinking, I
could
win a student council spot based on agenda, not on personality.”
    I stared at Brooke. “You know it’s right, Brooke.”
    She studied the lists on the table, then raised her eyes to Elvis. Moments passed. “Okay. I’m in.”

CHAPTER ELEVEN
    “I WANT TO KNOW who was in this Chamber.” Carter looked around the room, then his eyes fell on me. A bottle of vodka sat in the middle of the table. An empty shot glass with THE BLUE SAPPHIRE scrawled across it was placed upside down over the top of the bottle. “You wouldn’t happen to know anything, would you, Jason?”
    “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
    Carter studied me intently. “I’m talking about that.” He pointed to the bottle.
    “A bottle of vodka?”
    He nodded. “Yes.”
    Steven shook his head. “Why would somebody put a bottle of vodka in here?”
    Kennedy laughed, rubbing his hands together. “Doesn’t matter, Steven. Get the goblets.”
    Carter stared rivets into Kennedy. “Shut up.”
    Kennedy shut up.
    I frowned. “So what’s the big deal? Somebody left a bottle.”
    “No, Jason. That’s not the point. The point is that somebody had the audacity to come in here, and the other point is that they think they can play games with me.”
    “With a bottle of vodka?”
    He stared at me, suspicion in the dark of his eyes. Silence filled the room.
    “I didn’t do it. Why would I do it?”
    He didn’t answer, but spoke to all of us. “I want whoever did this in front of me by tomorrow. Got it?”
    Kennedy sighed. “Dude, aren’t you being a little bit paranoid? It’s a bottle, Carter. And it may just be a gift, even if they did come in here unauthorized. Let’s drink it.”
    Carter shook his head,