The Amanda Project: Book One

The Amanda Project: Chapter Thirty-Two

CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO

"Wow."

"I know."

"It's incredible."

"Seriously."

"I can't believe she did this-she's only twelve."

"I just hope it works."

We were sitting in front of Hal's computer, the three of us staring at the picture of one of Amanda's Oracle cards up on the screen. It seemed impossible that only a few hours had passed since we'd found Amanda's letter to Vice Principal Thornhill.

Someone knocked and simultaneously opened the door. Standing in the doorway was Cornelia.

"Hey," she said.

"This is amazing," I said. "We were just saying that we can't believe you set it up."

Cornelia shrugged, and I thought of all the times people expressed incredulity at my ability to add up a couple of numbers quickly. Even when they mean to be complimentary, sometimes it just makes you feel like a freak.

"I don't see why you don't just go to the police if you're worried about your friend," said Cornelia. She came up behind us and took a cookie out of the open box of Oreos next to Hal.

Nia and I looked at each other. We'd talked about this in the school bathroom while frantically drying ourselves under the hand dryer in the hopes that Mr. Richards wouldn't realize we'd been outside. Nia had pointed out that once we revealed to the police that almost everything Amanda had told us was a lie, they were bound to dismiss her as a nut and the three of us as a bunch of idiots who'd believed some crazy girl who'd claimed she was our friend.

Plus there was the money. What if she'd stolen it? And what if she'd given the school a fake address? How many ways had she possibly broken the law? Maybe their dismissing her as a kook was the best-case scenario. Maybe they'd want to find and arrest her.

"Um, hello!" Cornelia wiped some crumbs off her shirt. "I just asked a question."

Hal looked from me to Nia, and when neither of us spoke, he said simply, "It's complicated."

"When people tell you something's complicated, it just means they don't want to tell you about it," said Cornelia. She took another Oreo.

"Yeah, well," said Hal. "Deal with it. Now, how do we work this thing?"

Cornelia leaned over and hit two buttons on the keyboard. When she did, a picture of Amanda that she scanned in from Hal's sketchbook came up on the screen, along with a photograph of the exterior of Play it Again Sam. There was writing on the screen with words like "edit" and "text" and small boxes drawn around everything.