Secrets & Lies: Two Short Stories by Kody Keplinger Page A

wearing or how I fixed my hair anymore. Don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t fun, but it could have been worse.
    On Friday, Whitley and Nathan were going to pick me up after cheerleading practice and take me to a movie in Oak Hill, the next town over. Since I knew I could talk them into a quick detour, I volunteered to take Elsie her biology work from the past two weeks.
    “That would be wonderful, Miss Caulfield,” Mrs. Robb said, placing a few worksheets into a folder. “And I know you take good notes. Would you be okay with photocopying them for her?”
    “Of course.”
    “Thank you. I know she’s going through a hard time, and I don’t want her to feel too behind when she comes back.” She handed me the folder. “If she has any questions, tell her she can e-mail me.”
    “I will.”
    She smiled. “You’re a sweet girl,” she said. “Elsie’s lucky to have a friend like you right now.”
    I wasn’t sure I’d go that far. I still couldn’t shake the feeling that none of this would have happened to her if it wasn’t for me telling Justine about her locker room behavior. I owed her an apology, I decided, which was part of the reason I was going to her house after school—to drop off her homework and to clear my conscience.
    “I’ll be back in a few minutes,” I told Whitley and Nathan as I climbed out of the backseat.
    “If you take too long, we’re leaving without you,” Whitley said.
    Nathan rolled his eyes.
    “What?” she asked. “I don’t want to be late for the movie.”
    I laughed. “It won’t take that long… I hope.” I shut the door and walked up the driveway to Elsie’s front door. The closer I got, the more anxious I felt. By the time I rang the doorbell, my heart had jumped into my throat and started dancing. I swallowed, hard, and waited.
    Elsie opened the door. She was wearing sweatpants and a pink tank top, her curly hair whipped up into a messy bun. She seemed surprised to see me, her dark eyebrows shooting up her forehead. “Bailey? What are you doing here?” she asked.
    I held up the folder. “I brought you some stuff from biology. Can I come in?”
    She nodded and stepped aside so I could enter the house. She shut the door, then led the way down a hallway to her bedroom. The walls were covered with posters from different anime series. I recognized a few from when Nathan was in high school. I guess they were still popular.
    She sat on the edge of her bed and took the folder from me. I watched as she opened it up and started flipping through the pages inside. “Wow,” she said. “There’s a lot.”
    “Yeah… but I put a copy of my notes in there, too. So hopefully those will help.”
    “Thanks,” she said.
    “So…” I realized I was wringing my hands and stopped, shoving them into my pockets instead. “How are you? When are you coming back to school?”
    “I’m… better,” she said. “I’ll be back next week, I think. But I’ve decided to quit cheerleading. It’s just too embarrassing.”
    “Did you hear about Justine?” I asked.
    “Yeah. Principal Roth called my parents. They wanted to press charges, but I told them not to. It would just make going back to school worse.” She shut the folder and put it aside. “I just can’t believe it was her. She’s always seemed so nice.”
    “I know. She’s not who I thought she was, either.”
    “How did she even know?” she asked. “Why would she put the camera there?”
    “That’s… That’s actually something I came to talk to you about.” I looked down at my feet. “I told her. One day at lunch, we were talking and it was just stupid and I told her about walking in on you in the locker room. I’m sorry.”
    “You… You did it?”
    I nodded slowly, then looked up. “I didn’t know what she was going to do, though.”
    “Oh my God,” Elsie said. “I should’ve known.”
    “W-what?”
    “I should have known you were behind this,” Elsie said. “You’ve always been jealous of me.”
    I