Life Of A Bitch

37

"Uh, he was not feeling well," he mutters, his eyes not leaving the papers.

I cannot help feeling annoyed at this. He promised me to find the culprit, not the other way around. And now, he's sitting at home, probably stuffing ice-cream and binging in sad romance movies and moping-

My thoughts are interrupted by a loud whistle. I look over to Aaron, who's staring at us with a broad grin on his face, holding up an answer sheet, which is marked '15/15'.

"Lucy Roderick," Brenna reads out. "That makes sense, as she's a junior."

"Yeah," I say, eyeing the paper. "Because, why would we suspect a junior out of the blue?"

*

"Miss Roderick," Brenna greets the junior sitting in front of her. Even a blind can tell that she's beyond excited. With a bright smile on her face, and eyes which seem like they would pop out any moment, Lucy lets out a giggle every now and then, apologising for her every move.

I cough a little to signal Brenna to carry on with her questions. She nods and smiles at Lucy. "So, you've proved that you're exceptional at programming for a fifteen-year old. Impressive."

"Thanks," she says, laughing loudly. "I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to do that."

I suppress my chuckle. There's no way in hell this clumsy girl is involved with any of this.

"Okay, so," Brenna says, leaning towards her. "We're going to test some other skills of yours, too."

She frowned at her. "Uh.. like what? I- I can sing and I was a tree in a play in 3rd grade, does that cou-"

"I meant, skills related to programming," she says, forcing a smile. "Like, can you hack? Phones, accounts.. don't worry, you're not going to get into any trouble for it."

"Oh," she hesitates a little and then nods. "I can. I hack social media accounts and crack open phones easily. But," she adds hurriedly. "These are all for fun. I mean, I hack to test my skills and leave them like that, no harm done."

Aaron exhales and straightens his shirt-pocket, where his phone is, recording everything. And to ensure that nothing goes wrong, I have my phone out too, pretending to just browse on it while recording this whole thing.

"Okay, Aaron?" Brenna asks, not breaking eye-contact with Lucy. When he doesn't respond -he's staring intensely at Lucy which honestly is ridiculous- she barks out his name which hurts Aaron as he's being shouted at in front of a junior and they squabble for some time.

"Now, Lucy," she says, glaring one last time at Aaron who just huffs in irritation. She places a phone- an old one of hers- in front of her and a piece of paper. "To test that you're speaking the truth, you'll do what I say. This account, jjlooney, is a completely fake account: it has a few photos but it's just an account created by us. We need you to hack this in front of us."

Lucy takes the paper and reads out the username. "You sure it's not real?"

"No it's not," Brenna assures her.

"Even if it is, you shouldn't have a problem as you roam around hacking accounts all the time," Aaron remarks.

Lucy laughs loudly again, uncomfortably and takes the phone in her hands. "Is there a time limit?"

"No, we just want to see if you can do it or not."

She looks at us and then takes the phone in her hands, keeping it in such a way that we couldn't see what she's doing. "Hackers never reveal their secrets." She said, laughing.

Within eight minutes, grinning like a cheshire cat, she hands the phone back to Brenna. "It's done. You can reset the password, delete this account or do whatever the actual owner does, if there is one."

Aaron looks at me, raising his eyebrows. I get the signal and take out my very pink flashy phone from my pocket and hold it behind my back, ready for Brenna's words.

"Nice," she comments, as if admiring Lucy's nails. She takes out a sheet of paper crumpled beyond measure from her bag and straightens it out on the table. "Now, let's do a rapid-fire test, huh?"

"Is that important?" Lucy asks, peering at the sheet.

"That's not for you to decide," Brenna smiles, snatching the paper before she gets to look at it. "So ready?"

She nods slowly, still confused and unsure about this, judging from her face.

"Favorite colour?"

"Black."

"Favourite animal?"

"Guinea pig."

"Favourite food?"

"Homemade brisket."

"Favourite singer?"

"Selena Gomez."

"Do you like ice-cream?"

"Sometimes, yes."

"Do you like chocolates?"

"Yes."

"Do you like video-games?"

"Totally!"

"Do you like reality TV?"

"No."

"Do you like conspiracy theories?"

"Yes."

"Have you hacked Jennifer's account?"

"Yes- what?" She stutters, blinking at her.

Her eyes fill with sheer bewilderment as I show her the phone in my hands.

"Recognise this phone, Lucy?" Brenna smirks.