THOSE GOOD TEEN YEARS (Book 1)

Chapter Nine: Break In

Alison paced as she tried to convince Lincoln. He was still not convinced to help her. True, she didn't have Sienna's charm to make things happen her way, but she thought she was scary enough that people did what she wanted. Guess not, since it wasn't even working with her best friend.

"C'mon, Linc, you have to do nothing! you just have to hack the bitch's computer and steal the questions!"

"Nothing? Are you kidding me, Ali? I have to hack into a teacher's personal computer! Personally,  I am all for going na-na-na-na on her face, but I'm going to committing a crime! I don't want to get expelled!"

"You won't! I'm not going to mention you at all. If I get caught-which I will- I'll just say that I'm good with all this. OK? The blame comes all on me. No one will even know I asked you for help. Trust me. I'm good with this stuff." Ali prayed inside that Linc would say yes. Ever since that day, when she had by mistake (even though it felt good) called Ms. Travis a vindictive bitch and she in turn had threatened to stop her from passing out by ruining two of her best papers, Ali had been thinking some plan. She had finally gotten her 'Eureka!' moment in her bathtub (kinda like Archimedes, only she hadn't run naked in the streets). Now, she was having doubts about it. The plane was simple. Hack into Travis' personal secure file, take the final papers and bingo.

Lincoln thought for a long time. They were in his room. It was a wacky room, but clean by boy standards. It was actually his lab that looked like it had been struck by permanent disaster. Anyway, he finally nodded.

"But get this, if I get into trouble, you're dead. Ok?"

Ali squealed and threw her arms around him. He grinned and took out his laptop. 

Soon, they were well into the plan. The school website opened up, and Linc went to login for teachers. It asked for a username and a password, naturally. The username was simple. Marion Carolina Travis, Lincoln wrote. The password was tricky. Lincoln pondered over the thing, and then finally asked something.

"I think the teachers at our school use personal statements for their passwords. Not sure, but Mr. Webb mentioned it once. Do you think you know something about Travis?"

Ali thought about it. She actually didn't pay attention in her class. But there was one statement that kind of made her blood boil.

"Yeah, there's this one that sounds really torturous. It's something like-hmmm- yeah got it. Discipline before friendship is the best lesson of life. I know, so freakin' crappy. I don't know who her mom was. Must have been really unlucky to have a kid like her..."

"Personal comments about unlucky moms aside, I think I got it." Lincoln said.

"You what?! Seriously? Oh God, Linc, I love you!!! Thanks a lot, Geek."

She checked out the access thing. Their was normal stuff in there. Nothing about her. CRAP. Then something caught Ali's eye.

Final papers: Alison Laura Thomas. Subjects: Biology and English Literature. Category: Extra tough.

The bitch! She actually followed up on her word! Damn! She scrolled the mouse over to the papers, and was shocked. They almost looked like they were from high school. Definitely something that would make her fail.

Lincoln was also shocked. "Looks like Sandra's bio paper."

Oh right. His sister, Sandra Abernathy, was a senior, who was amazing in biology. Great. Lincoln had just confirmed her feelings. She was screwed.

"You know, I can damage the control language of the page and stop her from accessing it right?" Linc gave his impish grin.

Ali made her green eyes wide and pleading. Sometimes it was good to play damsel in distress. 

"Can you, Linc? Please help me. I want to be a freshman next year."

Lincoln nodded absent mindedly, then shook himself out of the stupour. He immediately started doing weird stuff on the keyboard, and left Ali alone. After half an hour, he called out to her.

"Ali? It's done. you're gonna give the same paper has the rest of us." He smiled.

Ali breathed a sigh of relief. She knew she would get in trouble. A lot. But she didn't care. She hugged him goodbye, and went outside in a dazed sort of way.

Three cheers for Linc and me, she thought. Oh well.