ricky sat in class. everyone was quiet for once. there were a few coughs, sniffles, but no one really said anything. all of the ehs students were afraid - all of their secrets were out. before ricky went to class, he separated from nini to try his best to take down all of his posts but only found a few. he heard his phone alert and saw a notification from gina.
+
earlier, nini informed the principal of her plan to catch the exposer and he was all in. so before the assembly started, mr. mazzara and the administration staff made every single ehs student turn in their phone. the nine teenagers had a plan to stage a fight during the assembly.
"you sure this is gonna work neens?" ricky asked the girl as they sat in the bleachers. ricky sat alone next to nini. kourtney, seb, and red sat together at the bottom of the bleachers while ej, ash, gina, and carlos sat at the top of the bleachers.
"im hoping so," nini whispered to ricky as students started to fill up in the gymnasium. the whole gymnasium was silent, all the students were curious as to what was happening.
"i'm sure you're all wondering why i turned in your phones. it's has come to my attention that a student has been hacking into other people's phones; sharing their text messages, posts, and other private things," mr. mazzara announced into the microphone. the teachers and administration staff started to arrange and organize all the phones on large tables, depending on the grade level.
"we just wanted to make sure that this was in fact an ehs student. so feel free to grab your phones now," mr. mazzara said. before anyone moved, ej was quick to get up.
"gina! i don't wanna talk to you, okay!?" ej loudly said. every student turned their head to look at what was happening, frozen in their seat.
"guys please. can we not do this right now," ashlyn said as she indicated at everyone looking at them.
"can you just shut up and mind your own damn business," gina yelled at ashlyn's face. everyone's cooed an "oooo" at gina's remark.
"alright everyone, settle dow-"
"don't talk to her like that!" nini yelled, cutting off mr. mazzara. nini and ricky walked over to gina and them.
"oh shut up nini," carlos was next to say.
"yeah go tweet about parlor boy on your stupid rant account, would ya?" gina said to nini's face. nini got taken aback at what gina said because it was definitely not what they rehearsed. what gina was saying was true.
"oh shut up gina," ricky spat, "why don't you go cheat on your boyfriend again?"
all the students gasped and "ooo" at ricky's remark. seb, kourtney, and red all glanced at each other with worried faces because this was definitely not the plan. the three of them got up and walked over to ricky.
"okay don't fucking talk to her like that dude," ej said and pushed ricky backwards, "remember what happened last time?"
"don't touch him," kourtney yelled and got up in ej's face.
"he can defend himself, thanks," ashlyn snapped at kourtney.
"you're still defending gina after she cheated on you?" nini yelled at ej's face. the nine of them all started to fight, yelling over each other at the top of their lungs. all of the teachers and staff ran up to the bleachers and tried to break up the fight, but they didn't need to.
before anything else happened, all of the phones rang at once. the sound of the rings echoed throughout the gym, sending a chill to everyone's spines. it was a notification from the exposer.
the whole gymnasium got silent as all the students stared at their phones. no one moved from their place. no one went to grab a phone, so who posted it? each student started to slowly make their way to their phones eager to see what the post was about.
carlos and seb were quick to run down the bleachers and grabbed their phones. they ran back up to the group and showed everyone the post. the nine teenagers who were once fighting, stared at each other with disbelief. if no one had a phone, who posted?
"no... this doesn't make sense!" nini yelled out of frustration.
"we could come up with another plan nini," seb softly said, but the girl shook her head.
"no. the exposer is too smart. it's like it has eyes and ears everywhere," nini groaned.
"how did it record that footage if everyone's phones were taken away," ricky said and everyone shrugged their shoulders.
"maybe the exposer has two phones?" gina stated.
"we're never gonna find out who it is..." red quietly muttered. nini groaned out of frustration and the eight of them watched as tears fell down her face.
"nini... it's gonna be okay," ashlyn softly said, but the girl shook her head.
"no it's not," nini cried, "this person has been ruining my life and i can't-" the girl tried to continue to talk but let out a sob instead. the eight teenagers glanced at each other with soft eyes, feeling bad for the girl.
ricky sat down next to nini and put his arm around her, "hey.. this isn't over yet.." he softly said.
"rickys right, neens," ej said with encouragement, "we can keep trying. we just gotta be patient."
"i'm tired of being patient," nini said in a cold voice. she got up from the bleachers and made her way out of the gymnasium without another word.