Suzie Elliot, Evil Genius?

Chapter 12

Suzie was sitting at her school desk trying to figure out what to write her Rubicon paper on. She was pretty sure that she was going to write about Simone, thinking that being honest with her was a big step for her. She had never opened up like that before, so it was a learning experience for her. She had just settled on that when Casey walked into class, her eyes all red and puffy.

Suzie heard Simone let out a gasp behind her, Jessica opened her mouth in shock, and several other kids in the class all turned to stare. Casey ignored them all, and eyes downcast took her seat. Unfortunately, she was several desks over from Suzie, so they couldn't talk, and Simone was two desks behind, so all she could do was turn to her and shrug. Casey had obviously had a rough night.

When the bell rang, Suzie stopped worrying about Casey; she wanted to concentrate on the test. Mr. Kelly handed them out to the kids at the front of the rows, who then turned and passed them back until everyone had one. Suzie put her name on the test and dove right in. She worked quickly, the multiple choice problems being a piece of cake to her. The biggest stumbling block came when she got to the last question, an essay question asking them who was their favorite emperor and why.

Suzie had a tough choice, since she had really liked what she had read about both Augustus and Hadrian, and she didn't know which to pick. If only she had a time machine so she could go back and see what they were really like! Finally, she settled on Hadrian and went to work writing. She filled her paragraph, and the flipped the paper over and filled in the back as well, she couldn't seem to stop writing! Finally, she finished and sat back, flexing her left wrist which was stiff after all of the writing.

When she stopped to look around, she noticed all the other kids were writing busily, she hoped the studying with Simone helped her get a good grade, but Mr. Kelly had a rule about looking over your shoulder during tests, so she couldn't look. She did notice Casey sitting rather listlessly, as she was just randomly circling answers as far as Suzie could tell. Suzie wondered what had happened to her last night.

When the lunch bell rang, all of the tests were passed in to Mr. Kelly, who put them into his briefcase to correct later. All of the students started filing out towards the cafeteria, with Simone and Suzie hanging back to see how Casey was. Casey barely noticed them, as she walked with her head downcast to the cafeteria.

When they all found their table, Simone and Suzie made sure to sit across from Casey, and watched her slowly unpack her food. Immediately, they noticed her personalized paper cup had been replaced by a red plastic one.

"Casey? Are you all right?" asked Simone.

Casey looked up at them, her eyes filled with tears. "No! I'm not all right! My parents won't let me go skiing over Spring break, and I have to go stay with my aunt in Raleigh." She burst into tears.

"Oh Casey, I'm so sorry," said Suzie, patting her hand.

Casey buried her face in her napkin, with all of the other students looking on with mixed expressions. Several were confused, while many were delighted as they had been tormented by Casey for quite some time. Suzie and Simone did their best to keep their expressions neutral, as they didn't want to give anything away.

Suddenly Casey sat up straight, her eyes blazing. "If I ever find out who did that to Mrs. Williams, I'm going to kill them!"

"I thought you did it?" said Suzie, acting confused.

"No I didn't!" yelled Casey, causing several teachers to shush her.

"Then what was your cup doing there?" asked Simone.

"I don't know! My mom even got one of her private investigators to get finger prints off it, but the only ones there were mine, my mom's and Mrs. Williams'. But it wasn't me!" Casey said accusingly down the table, daring the other kids to say it was.