The sky is a beautiful blue. So beautiful, in fact, that I can hardly stand to look at it. Tearing my eyes away, I focus instead on the field of flowers surrounding me, each one turned up towards the beaming sun. It's the perfect day.

For once in my life, I feel calm. I can't remember anything except how the wind touches gently against my face. I'm certain there's something I'm supposed to be worrying about, but everything else drifts away when I lie down on the soft grass beneath my feet. It's so peaceful here. I wish I could stay forever.

Bang.

I crane my neck and look off into the distance. The sky seems to be darkening a few miles away. The clouds, which were pure white only a second ago, have transformed into ugly, black splotches.

BANG.

This time I see it. A bolt of lightning flashes across the horizon, with the sound of thunder echoing behind it. Suddenly, the wind grows from a gentle breeze to a violent gust. My hair blows into my face, causing me to lose all vision, until the entire world goes black.

I'm blind.

I stumble through the field, which now seems to be covered in thorns or barbed wire - I can feel thin cuts being scrapped into my legs. I try to think of someone's name to call out, someone who can come and save me, but I just can't remember anything. I can't remember his name.

Bang. Bang. BANG.

I fall out of my bed, crashing to the carpeted floor below me. My legs are tangled inside of my floral comforter. Placing a hand against my forehead, I'm met with skin covered in sweat, and yet cold to the touch.

Bang.

My head snaps upward, and I worry that I haven't woken up from the nightmare after all.

Bang, bang, bang.

No. That's coming from downstairs. Someone's knocking on the door.

I stand up – with great difficulty – and glance at the alarm clock on my bedside table.

Seven-fifty.

Crap. I slept through my alarm. Alex has probably already left for school. So has Addie.

Maybe they even went together.

Quickly shoving my legs into yesterday's jeans, I run downstairs and open the front door.

"How could you!?"

Felix shoves his way inside of my house the moment he sees me. His arm is lifted up, and there's a newspaper dangling from his hand, but I can't read the words because of how much he's shaking.

"Jesus, calm down Felix, what the hell has gotten into you?"

He looks at me then, with the most disgusted glare I've ever seen in another person's eyes. "Don't. Don't you dare do that. Don't act like you don't know. You know everything."

I finally focus on the newspaper in front of me, where I can just make out the large headline at the top of the first page:

INTERMIN ACCOUNTING: RAMPING UP FOR LEGAL TROUBLE?

My heart drops in my chest. "Felix, please. Please. You don't understand, you weren't there, I did everything I could to stop him." I'm speaking at a thousand words a minute, so desperate to explain, to defend myself, that I don't care how clear the thoughts are. "My dad, he- he gave everything to that company. And when he got fired, he just couldn't handle it, and the wh-"

"Stop." Felix's face shows no sign of sympathy. No sign of doubt. "For once in your life Ali, just... stop. This whole time... you knew this whole time, and you didn't say anything."

It's not a question – he's made the deduction all on his own.

"I thought I could change things, Felix."

"You know what the sad part is?" He mutters. "You probably could have. I've never seen you give up on anything, and yet... it kinda seems like you gave up on this."

'That's not fair.'  I think.

Felix wasn't there when I spoke to my father last night. He wasn't there with me at that office, where I broke the law constantly so that I could figure out what my dad was doing. He can't feel the overwhelming guilt in my stomach.

Taking a deep breath, I give it one last try. "I am not my father. What he does... that's not on me. We are not the same. You more than anyone should get that."

His eyes become watery listening to me. "But Ali, you're not just anyone. You're... you're like this unstoppable force. A changemaker. You're ready to get your own brother expelled to win a ticket to university, but somehow you draw a line when your dad starts ruining my life? Not only that, but you kept it from me. After everything. After all the conversations we had last night in that truck – you didn't say one word. And that Ali? That really fucking hurts."

He turns on his heel and walks out my front door, which stayed open the entire time. Stepping onto our driveway, he stops and looks back at me. "Oh, and one more thing. I saw Addie at school last night. I saw her break in at two in the morning so she could dig through locker 218." Felix pauses, as if to hold himself back. "I'm going to turn her in. Her and Alex. I'm gonna go to the principal right when I get to school. And there's nothing you can say to change my mind."

Deciding I've had enough of his attention, Felix saunters over to his van and drives away. He leaves me, alone, standing in my entryway like an idiot.

For the first time in my life, I didn't get the last word. I couldn't convince him to understand me, couldn't convince him to give me another chance. I couldn't control anything. I feel like a bystander in my own life. I feel like I'm sitting in a car, watching the consequences of my actions unfold on a faraway TV screen, wondering where the first half of the movie even went.

*****

The city bus drops me off in front of Berkley high at exactly eight twenty. I've missed homeroom at this point, but considering recent events, spotty attendance doesn't seem so bad.

I take a few extra minutes to search around for Felix's van. His threat bounces around in my mind, and I can't begin to guess whether or not he was being serious.

'I'm going to turn her in. Her and Alex.'

If Felix really does go to the principal, I could already be too late. Too late to save the few people left in my life who don't totally hate me.

But what if I did beat him here? What can I really do?

I have no idea how to stop Felix from completely ruining Alex and Addie's lives. He couldn't care less about my opinion now. He said it himself – I have absolutely no chance of convincing him. The only way to thwart Felix's plan is to ensure that the principal doesn't believe his story. I need to make him come across as unreliable.

Too bad Felix is about as trustworthy as they come. It's going to take pure magic to make the principal take my word over his.

The only good news is that Felix's van is nowhere to be seen. Whatever happens, at least I still have a few more minutes to figure out my plan of action. I may not be the smartest person, or the nicest person, or even the most loyal, but I'll be damned if I'm not the best schemer there is.

When I walk into school, I head straight for the office in hopes that they'll give me a late slip. My attendance was pretty shit to begin with, and I wouldn't be surprised if this is the straw that breaks the camel's back. A phone call to my mother is the last thing I need right now.

"Hey Tiffany." I greet.

The receptionist looks up at me from her computer, a scowl quickly forming on her face. "Again, Ali? Jesus, this has got to be the third time in the past month."

"I know... I know. Listen, I have a super good reason for being late though."

Tiffany's eyebrows perk up expectantly.

"I um..." I glance around frantically, trying to think of a bulletproof excuse.

"It's my fault." A voice interjects.

I turn around, only to be met with Mr. Caplan's smug and taunting smile.

"I had asked Ali to go down to the library to fetch me a few books before first period starts." He continues, moving closer to me until the two of us are standing side by side. "Those stairs always make my back hurt." He places a hand on my shoulder. "I completely forgot to give her an excuse slip."

Judging by her skeptical stare, I'd guess that Tiffany can see through Mr. Caplan's bullshit story. Luckily, she also seems too tired to argue. "Alright, fine. Just go to class Ali. And... try not to be late again. Please."

I give her an appreciative glance before rushing out the office doors, not wanting to be in the same room as Mr. Caplan for another second. The man follows me, however, oblivious to my attempt at avoidance. Or maybe he simply doesn't care.

"Not so fast Alexandra. I was hoping we could have a quick chat."

The way he over-enunciates his Ts makes my fingers curl. "Tiffany was pretty adamant about me heading straight to class."

"She'll get over it." He deadpans. "Besides, how rare of an occurrence it is for me to find you without company. No sidekick today?"

He's poking at me the same way you'd poke at a feral dog caught in a cage. It makes me seethe with anger.

"Did you want something?" I ask.

A spark ignites in his eyes for only a moment – long enough for me to get a glimpse into the true Mr. Caplan. Not the one I'm used to seeing on a daily basis, when he stands in front of a classroom wearing fancy clothes and strong cologne. Not the one who acts so calmly you'd swear he wasn't human. No. The man I saw just then was... unhinged. He was the type of man to say up until five in the morning binging cocaine off a mahogany coffee table.

He was the type of man who could be outsmarted - who had been outsmarted. It only took Felix and I a day to figure out who his ghost writer was. In another week, I'll likely have found her.

Knowing this gives me enough willpower to stand tall and ignore his jabs.

In a couple months' time, I'll have this man ruined. With or without Felix's help.

"I wanted to share something with you." Mr. Caplan states. "A tall tale that I heard not more than ten minutes ago." He pauses, no doubt testing me once again, but I remain silent. "I was typing up an email, cup of coffee in my hand, when a student arrived at my desk. Let's call this student... Little Bird. I was quite surprised to see Little Bird, because they aren't in any of my classes this semester. Do you have any idea why they wanted to see me?"

Deep breaths. "No."

"Well it turns out that Little Bird had quite the interesting development to bring to my attention regarding a fellow pupil. Apparently," he says, eyes hungry for a reaction, "this pupil is in the process of investigating my personal life."

No.

No, no, no.

"Can you guess who they were referring to?" He questions.

My mouth tastes softly of bile. "I have no idea."

He looks at me, deeply and for a long while, as if trying to count every pore on my face. "It was you."

Panic starts to build up inside of me. The two of us are standing in the school hallway, with no one else within ten feet of us, and yet I feel completely suffocated. Mr. Caplan's stance makes one thing clear: there's no escaping this.

He paces back and forth. "At first I didn't believe him. After all, what information could you, Alexandra Shaffer, ever possibly want to dig up in relation to your high school English teacher? But then it hit me."

I remain silent, because there's nothing I can say that would fool him. The way that Mr. Caplan is strutting around the halls arrogantly, as though he's the smartest person in the world, makes it increasingly clear that this monologue of implied accusation isn't a theory to him – it's a fact. He's not looking for confirmation from me. He wants to gloat. Mr. Caplan wants to witness the exact moment when I realize I've lost everything. The man has beaten me and this is his trophy.

"I have a problem now, Alexandra." Stopping mid-step, he chooses to face me yet again. "My problem is this: if you truly do know my secret, you have the ability to make my life very, very difficult. What's stopping you from taking this secret and handing it over to anyone who will listen? My own student has seen me as a fraud. I won't lie to you. Wicked in Red was written largely by somebody else, and the only people who aren't fooled into thinking otherwise are you, me and this helpful Little Bird."

I have never been so blank. My muscles, my thoughts, my voice, all seem to be completely frozen, like I'm one of those creepy mannequins you see at cheap discount stores. The sense of control I've tried so hard to maintain has come crashing down in the span of minutes. The only thing I can do is watch.

"After spending hours trying to understand what you had planned, however, there is still one thing that I cannot figure out." He admits. "Were you going to turn me in? That would be self-sabotage at its finest. Destroying my reputation as a writer would only serve to erase any chances you have of getting into university. Surely you must understand that."

"I don't need your stamp of approval to succeed!" I yell, beginning to break, but my voice quivers with uncertainty.

That one sentence is all it takes for Mr. Caplan to read my thoughts. "You were going to wait, weren't you? You sneaky little minx. You were going to wait until I gave you the reference letter, until you got accepted into your university of choice, and then you were going to betray me. You were, weren't you?" He says the last few words forcefully, starving to hear my confession. "The moment I would have stopped being useful to you is the moment you would have taken me to court. Well it's too late now, Alexandra, because your entire venture relied on me being completely in the dark. And now I've learnt everything."

He shoves him hand into his blazer pocket then, pulling out a folded-up letter. Mr. Caplan hands it to me proudly.

It's a reference letter. My name is written at the top of the first page, and Mr. Caplan's signature is placed neatly at the bottom. I come to a paragraph in the middle of the letter that turns my stomach inside out.

'Alexandra Shaffer has been an instrumental part of not only my grade twelve English class, but of my career as an author as well. During her early high school years, she assisted me in the brainstorming process for different aspects of my now published novel, Wicked in Red, and is even responsible for creating some of the major plot points and characters within the story. If it weren't for her, Wicked in Red would be nowhere near the success it is today. This is the exact mental prowess that makes Alexandra a perfect candidate for your institution.'

"You involved me." I whisper, looking up at him with a mixture of disgust and disbelief.

When he answers me, he sounds almost sad. "You involved yourself. When I send them this reference letter, you'll be connected to the theft of Wicked in Red forever. Turning me in would convict the both of us."

I rack my brain, trying to come up with any loophole for how I could climb out of this deepening grave, but it's obvious that I have only two choices. Either I can keep Mr. Caplan's secret once and for all, or kiss my future goodbye.

"Face it Ali," he declares, "without me, you'll graduate from this school only to become a societal leech, barely living off of minimum wage. I'll make it my mission to ensure that no school in the western world will ever take you."

It feels like every nightmare I've ever had is coming true, forcing me to choose between myself and some greater justice. If I do what Mr. Caplan wants, Felix will see once and for all the kind of person I am.

A selfish coward.

"Tell me one thing." I say suddenly. "Give me the name of the person who told you about me."

Mr. Caplan peers at me darkly. I get the feeling that he's happy I asked him. "It was your sidekick. The tall, pale boy who always follows you around. What was his name?"

The colour drains from my face.

"Felix. His name is Felix."

*****

My blood is boiling. I stomp through the halls, desperate to locate Felix so I can tear his body to limb from limb. The loud sound of my shoes slamming against the linoleum tiles is like a metronome keeping the rhythm of my hate-fueled thoughts. I don't care about the scared glances being thrown in my direction. I don't care about the classrooms all around me that can hear my angry stride. The only thing on my mind is Felix's hypocrisy.

Within minutes, I spot his messy head of hair half hidden inside of his cubby – the rest of the world goes white.

"You conniving, backstabbing piece of shit." I screech, slamming the locker door as it narrowly misses crushing the tip of his nose. "Be mad at me, hate me if you want to, but how dare you use that as an excuse to fuck up everything."

Felix backs away from me. "If this is your way of convincing me not to go to the principal, it's kind of a shitty strategy."

"Don't play stupid." I reply. "I'm not talking about the principal. I'm talking about what you said to Mr. Caplan this morning. What you told him about me – about our plan."

"Do you hear yourself?" He shouts. "I literally got to school thirty seconds ago. I don't even know what you're talking about. You sound insane."

"Insane? I'll show you insane. I'll show you just how insane I can be. You wanna threaten me, threaten my friend and my brother? You wanna start protecting the single most vile man at this school just for some petty revenge? If you can play dirty, so can I - and I'll do a lot worse than tattle to some washed up writer with a superiority complex. Just. You. Wait."

"What are you going to do, lie to me? Manipulate me? Fuck over my entire family? Newsflash Ali, you've already done all of that. I have nothing left to lose."

I give him the same smirk that Mr. Caplan gave me when he had finally stolen every last bit of hope I had. "That's where you're wrong, Felix. You have everything to lose."