The Criminal Calls Me Cupcake (Watty Winner 2013)

Chapter 8

**Pic of Zayn on the side! ;) >>>>

Chapter 8

Chapter 8

            I walked into History still drowsy from my lack of sleep, taking a seat beside Angela at our shared table just as the bell rang. “Seats, class! Take your seats!” Mr. Hemmingway ordered. After the rumbles of speech had become only soft whispers, Mr. H started his lecture. “R-I-C-O,” he spelled out. “Anyone want to take a stab at what it stands for?

            Hushed whispers filled the room.

            “Resistance . . . uh, Intercourse . . . Compulsive—” one person yelled out.

            “Obsession!”

            “No! It’s something like Rectal Intercourse Common Obsession—”

            “That doesn’t even make sense!”

            “You don’t make—”

            “Class! This is not sex ed.!” Mr. H. said sternly glaring.

            I nudged Angela. “Was that wart on his forehead there yesterday?”

            She made a face. “Holy crap, it’s like perfectly centered on his forehead too. How does that even happen?”

            “The Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act,” Mr. H.’s voice boomed. “RICO. Allowed law enforcement to get into areas that it had never been before when it came to investigating the mafia.” The taps of his footsteps cleared a silence in the room, and he walked around, eyeing each individual. “This—this is the act that gives the government the power to criminally prosecute and imprison an organized crime leader for the sole reason that he or she was part of a criminal enterprise.”

            Immediately, a single letter threw itself at me, bouncing around in my mind—the very first letter of the alphabet. A. He would fall under this category, wouldn’t he?

            “Let’s see . . . Angela.”

            Angela groaned, slumping in her seat. “What?”

            “Let’s say that you are the chief law enforcer, and Violet is a gang leader—”

            Out of all these people who might possibly actually become gang leaders, why choose me, Hemmingway? Why?

            “Vi would never be a gang leader—she’s too sweet.”

            “Theoretically, Angela, she is a gang leader. But she has never hurt anyone. Never killed anyone. So would you, as a law enforcer, still arrest her?”