The Criminal Calls Me Cupcake (Watty Winner 2013)

Chapter 8

            Angela smiled. “Of course not. Vi’s my friend.”

            Mr. H sighed. “Theoretically, Angela.”

            “Theoretically, I refuse to arrest my friend.” The class were beginning to snicker.

            He sighed again, rubbing his temple. “Alright then, Adam what do you think is the answer?”

            Angela leaned toward me. “Does stress make warts grow?”

I slapped a hand over my mouth to stop myself from giggling over the randomness of her question. “Yes, I think it does.”

She grinned. “Well then, I think Mr. H’s wart’s growing before our eyes.”

            “Angela!” our teacher’s voice boomed.

Uh oh . . .

“Please go switch seats with Zayn—You will not be disrupting my class anymore!”

            At first, my lips pulled into a frown. Then, I sat straight up, freezing in my seat. Did he say Zayn? As in Zayn Ryder?

            Sure enough, as soon as Angela trudged to the back of the room, I heard the thump of a bag being thrown on the desk, and the stool creaked as someone took a seat in it. Looking to my left, my eyes met a sight that left me stunned for a moment—dark hair that hung until just above his eyes; a black leather jacket; clenched fists on the table; and I could see a faint glimmer on his lip, a lip ring.

            Holy fudge-sicles. Breath, Vi, breath. He’s just a person.

            “Now that that’s over, Violet, why don’t you tell us the answer? If Zayn was a mafia leader, but he hadn’t killed anybody, would you arrest him?”

            “Er,” I squeaked softly. Then, clearing my throat, I cautiously said, “Yes, I would, because he was still part of the gang . . .”

            “Exactly. Thank you, Violet. So, RICO was used to set criminal penalties for racketeering activity. This included bribery, extortion, illegal drug sales, loan sharking, murder and prostitution—”

            “That’s not all it was used for.” I jumped, wide-eyed, as a low, smooth voice from my left hit me.

            “Excuse me?” Mr. H said, raising an eyebrow.

            “NICO was abused. The justice department used RICO to go after anybody on Nixon’s hate list. Gays, liberals, reformers, subversive students.” Zayn’s eyes glinted, as if he already knew that he was right.

            “Alright, well thank you for that take, Zayn. I’ll be sure to look into that. Now class, I’ll be passing out some readings. There are questions on the last page when you are done reading. Please work with the person you are sitting next to.