Lax punishments

“So Shannon and Rebecca are still friends, huh?” Bess asked as she buckled into the passenger seat of my Prius. George settled herself in the back seat as I turned the key in the ignition and started backing down our driveway.

“Amazingly, it seems like they are,” I replied, shaking my head in disbelief. Shannon Fitzgerald, a classmate of Bess’s little sister Maggie, was the reason I had gotten involved in the whole BetterLife world to begin with. A couple weeks ago, Maggie told me that a friend of hers was being harassed via e-mail and BetterLife — and that it had gotten so bad, her friend was even missing school. That friend was Shannon Fitzgerald, and I soon learned that what Maggie claimed was true: Shannon — or at least her BetterLife incarnation, SassyGirl48 — was being seriously bullied and verbally abused online. After a few days of sleuthing, I realized that it was Shannon’s so-called best friend, Rebecca, who had instigated the bullying — and she claimed she was just getting Shannon back for a lifetime of real-life bullying, of her and of nearly everyone else in their class.

“I can’t imagine making up with someone who had caused me so much distress,” Bess muttered. “I mean, basically they each tried to ruin the other’s life.”

“And all over a boy,” George said, tsk-tsking.

In the course of my investigation, I’d learned that the whole Shannon–Rebecca conflict had been set in motion by one mutually-crushed-on fifteen-year-old hottie named Jake.

I shrugged. “Well, they’re back together now,” I said, turning onto Shannon’s street.

Bess grinned. “You know what they say,” she said, turning to give each of us a saucy look. “Sistahs before mistahs.”

George and I groaned. “Please never say that again,” George begged.

“Seriously though,” I began, trying to change the subject. “Rebecca and Shannon are grounded. They’re not supposed to go anywhere near a computer for another month or so. So how would they have scanned and posted those files?”

George shrugged. “They had to have used a computer,” she replied. “Is there any chance they’re cheating on their grounding?”

“There’s always a chance,” I replied, honestly. One thing I’ve learned from sleuthing is that anyone is capable of anything; you can’t assume you know what decisions a person would make without knowing them really, really well. And even then you can be wrong. “Still, though,” I went on, thinking aloud. “I talked to Shannon just last week, asking about her aunt.” Shannon’s aunt Agnes had been involved in some seriously shady business… in fact, she was the person I’d believed responsible for all the cyberharassment I’d experienced after solving Shannon’s case. Now that I’d received this new e-mail with scans of Dad’s files, though, I knew she wasn’t behind it all. “Shannon seemed totally bored. I really believed she hadn’t been near a computer in weeks.”

“Weird, then,” George murmured.

We’d arrived at Rebecca’s house, forcing our conversation to an end. I parked the car on the street outside, opened my door, and hopped out.

“All right, ladies.” I shoved my keys in my pocket and nodded at my friends with a determined expression. “Let’s get to the bottom of this.”

We strolled up to Rebecca’s front door and I pushed the doorbell. As we waited there for someone to answer, I wasn’t sure what to hope for. Would it be better for the girls to have broken their punishments and posted the files, just to have a culprit in hand? Or would that totally shatter my faith in these girls, who really did seem like decent people at heart?

“Hello?” A middle-aged woman I recognized as Rebecca’s mother opened the door a tiny bit and poked her head out. “Can I help you? Aren’t you — Nancy, isn’t it?”

I nodded and explained that we were looking for Shannon and Rebecca. Nothing to get upset about (yet, I thought to myself); we just needed to ask them some questions.

“Oh, dear,” Rebecca’s mom murmured, shaking her head. “Well, I’m afraid she’s not here. Rebecca and Shannon have been doing so well with their punishments, we decided to let them have a supervised sleepover at the Fitzgeralds’ house.”

“Oh.” I just stood there for a moment, stunned by this new information. A sleepover? Just a couple weeks after Rebecca had basically instigated a cyberwitchhunt on the very friend at whose house she was sleeping over? “Um… okay. I guess we’ll just look for her there.”

With a confused glance at my friends, I led them back to the car.

“Wow,” I muttered, climbing back into the driver’s seat.

“Yeah, wow,” George echoed. “Okay, what would Rebecca have had to do to seriously get grounded for a month? Because the last time I checked, you don’t have sleepovers when you’re grounded.”

Bess shook her head. “Two weeks,” she said with a sigh. “That’s how long her parents held out? I wish my parents had been that easy.”

“To be fair,” George cut in, “maybe their not being that easy has something to do with your not being a bully who harasses people over the Internet.”

I frowned at George in the rearview mirror. “Girls, girls,” I cautioned, “let’s not jump to conclusions. Maybe Rebecca and Shannon really were being little angels, and deserved a sleepover to let off some steam.”

George snorted. “Ha. I’ll believe that when I see it.”

It took about five minutes to drive from Rebecca’s house to Shannon’s. After parking the car in the driveway, we strode up to the front door and knocked. It only took a few seconds for Shannon’s mother, Mrs. Fitzgerald, to come to the door, and when she spotted me she looked less than thrilled.

“Nancy,” she said cautiously, opening the door with nervous glances at Bess and George behind me. “Well. What a… surprise. I certainly hope —”

“Mrs. Fitzgerald, let me put your mind at rest,” I cut in, softening my voice. “We’re not here because Shannon’s done anything wrong. Something just came up in a different case I’m working on, and I need to ask her and Rebecca some questions.”

“Oh,” Mrs. Fitzgerald replied, relief spreading over her face. “ Oh. Well, that’s fine, then. Rebecca and Shannon are actually doing quite well with their punishments, so we’ve let them have a sleepover.” She stepped back and opened the door for us, leading us into the foyer.

“So we heard,” George murmured, slipping past her.

“We worked together with Rebecca’s parents to come up with an effective punishment,” Mrs. Fitzgerald went on. “You know, bullying is a terrible thing, but cyberbullying! Who in my generation had even heard of it? We decided to ground them not just from computers, but from all electronic devices.”

I nodded. “Wow. That’s intense.”

Mrs. Fitzgerald smiled. “Yes. But we wanted to make sure they learned their lesson! I think they’ve been going a little stir-crazy with no computer, no television, no cell phone, and no iPod,” she went on. “They’ve had to rediscover books and letter-writing! And they’ve been meeting with a counselor, you know, separately, to talk about their issues.”

I smiled. “That all sounds great.”

Mrs. Fitzgerald nodded. “Yes, yes.” She shook her head, as if shaking off an idea. “Look at me, keeping you trapped in our hallway while I tell you all about their punishments. You said you wanted to speak to the girls. Here, follow me.”

I knew the way to Shannon’s room — I’d questioned her plenty of times when I was working on her cyber-bullying case — but I fell into step behind Mrs. Fitzgerald anyway, and followed her up the white-carpeted stairs. I sensed that she was nervous. The last few times I’d come to visit, I hadn’t brought good news. And I really hoped that this time would be different, and that Shannon and Rebecca would turn out to be the little angels their parents thought they were.

We reached the door to Shannon’s room, which was eerily silent. No music, no television, not even any voices could be heard within. Mrs. Fitzgerald knocked gently on the door with the back of her hand. “Girls?” she called softly. Then she gripped the doorknob and opened the door wide, calling in, “There are some people here to speak with you….”

There they were: Shannon and Rebecca. They were huddled on the floor, their backs to us, their shoulders hunched to hide whatever they were working with.

“ Mooooom!” Shannon whined, looking horrified. “When you knock, you’re supposed to wait for us to answer!”

Rebecca dived to the floor, moving quickly to pick something up. But she was too late. We’d all had a clear view of what they’d been dealing with. With a gulp, I glanced at Bess and George and slowly shook my head.

George met my eye. “Oh. My. God,” she said simply.

Дата добавления: 2017-01-14