The instant we walk through the front door I can tell I'm in for it. The bad energy is almost palpable. My mother stands in the entrance way, arms crossed, her lips pulled together in a thin line.

As soon as Alex takes off his shoes he scurries up the stairs, leaving me to fend for myself. Coward. I knew I couldn't count on him for anything. I glance at my dad's office door. The light is off, signalling that he's gone to bed for the night. That, or he just doesn't want to get involved.

I swear, this house has no loyalty.

"Ali, do you have any idea what time it is?" She asks. Her voice is shrill, each word assaulting my ears more than the last.

"Mom, relax. It's not like this is the first time I've stayed out late. I'm fine."

"Is that supposed to make me feel better? That this is a new hobby of yours? When I came down to make dinner earlier you were gone, and I looked all over for you, and I called your phone a dozen times and you never picked up. You didn't tell me you were going, you didn't tell me where you'd be. I mean for God's sake Ali what do you expect me to say?"

"I'm sorry, okay? They were last minute plans. Addie and Zak really wanted to go to this party and I forgot to tell you. That's it. Not a big deal. I'm sorry I didn't pick up the phone, I was busy. I'll try to remember next time."

Her gaze flickers around the room, unable to meet mine. She's gotten angry at me tons of times before, but not like this. Her eyes are puffy and tired looking from staying up to wait for me and her makeup has yet to be taken off.

Who knew she cared so much?

"No, you can't just apologize this time, not again. You have been coming home late for months now, and your grades are even worse than usual. I don't know what's going on with you Ali but it has to stop. Your brother Alex has been home studying all night and you're out partying. It's ridiculous."

And there it is. Of course she mentions Alex. It always comes back to him. How much smarter he is than me, how much nicer, how much more responsible. I'm over it. My dad was the only one who acted like I wasn't an idiot and now he hardly even looks at me. Everything seems so fucked lately.

"Has it ever occurred to you that maybe I stay out so late because I can't stand to be in this fucking house?" I yell. "All you do is tell me how much of a disappointment I am, may as well act like it, right?"

She looks at the ground, giving up. "That's it. I'm not doing this, I'm not fighting with you anymore. You want to act like a child then I'll treat you like one. You're grounded for a month. No parties, no hangouts, no late-night drives. The only place you're allowed to be other than this house is school and work. Now go to your room. I'm exhausted and this discussion is over."

She doesn't want to argue? Fine. Anything I say will only make it worse anyways. I trudge up to my room without giving so much as a glance in her direction. I can't believe she grounded me of all things. Grounded me. Like I'm twelve years old again and threw a temper tantrum.

This is why being accepted to Ottawa U is so important. I need to get out of here, to stop living in this house where no one wants me. My mom doesn't think I'll get accepted. If it were up to her I'd live here forever, working some depressing part-time job while Alex graduates university top of his class. The only way my mom will ever see how wrong she is about me is if I prove it to her. Going to Ottawa U would be like giving a giant middle finger to everything she's ever said to me.

As I lay in my bed thinking about tomorrow, my anger turns to motivation. Motivation to graduate and get out of this town.

Mr. Caplan better get ready, because I plan on winning this journal competition if it's the last thing I do.

* * * * *

It's the next morning and I just finished filling Felix in on all the details of the past two days. Aside from the whole 'Mr. Caplan snorting cocaine off his living room table' thing, Felix seemed surprisingly unfazed by the whole story. The idea of figuring out who's behind the Locker 218 scandal actually seemed to excite him. Oh, the irony. According to Felix, selling school assignments for profit goes against the very essence of education and self-development. He would love nothing more than to expose the Locker mastermind, thus restoring peace and balance to the high school world. His words, not mine. I thought the whole speech was a load of crap. Typical smart kid, shitting on us lower class idiots who are just trying to find a competitive edge in this unjust joke of an academic system.

"So what's the next move then?" Felix asks. "It doesn't seem like you have any suspects yet."

Homeroom hasn't started yet and this kid is already acting like he's in charge. That's men for ya. Does he think I don't know that I've made practically no head way on this case? I mean Jesus Christ, it's been a day. Cut me some slack. Besides, Felix could never understand why I have to do this so carefully. If he gets in trouble, his rich daddy can bail him out with a snap of his fingers. But me? I could land myself an expulsion. Forget about university, I'd be lucky to get a job at McDonalds.

"Kevin said that people have put cameras in front of Locker 218 before, right?"

"Yeah," Felix replies, "But no one's ever seen anything. What makes you think we'll be any different?"

"Those people all put the camera in front of Locker 218. Whoever's in charge would never be stupid enough to show themselves in front of the source of the action. But what if we filmed the drop-off locker instead? It's like Kevin said. When he makes a purchase he has to include a drop off location on the sticky note. Maybe this person is a little less careful when they're doing deliveries and not pickups."

Felix looks at me, obviously impressed. "That could actually work. Shoot Ali. I knew I was keeping you in my group for a reason."

Coming from me the idea is anything but impressive. It's not like I'm going to stop Felix from being enthralled by my so-called genius though.

"Your group?" I say. "I'm the Fred of this gang, bucko, and don't you forget it. You're more like... the Daphne."

The statement causes Felix to smile. "So you think I'm the looker?"

Predictable. "On second thought, maybe you're the dog. Now come on Scooby, let's go set up that camera and catch us a suspect!"

With that, I grab Felix's hand and drag him out into the hallway. For a second, I can't help but notice how soft his palms are, and how perfectly they fit into mine. Shaking my head, I ignore the feeling. It was only for a second.

Felix's own cubby has a perfect view of locker 218. I'm surprised I've never noticed before because this makes the two of us practically neighbours. All that's left to do is hope that some poor soul chooses today of all days to make an order. As someone who knows how many customers the locker gets in the average day, I doubt this will be a problem.

After eight minutes of leaning against dented metal I start to think we're out of luck. Homeroom has started by this point and the only students roaming the halls are either skipping or whishing they had.

"Tell me again why we can't do a fake essay request ourselves?" Felix asks. "Dropping off our own note would be a lot easier than waiting for some other idiot. Better yet, we could get Kevin to do it for us. May as well make some use of him."

"If someone found out that we bought an assignment ourselves we could lose all sense of credibility. A journalist is nothing without credibility Felix. Doesn't matter if it's just for observation. And as for Kevin, I think we've already pushed our luck in that department. Ask that guy too many favours and he's guaranteed to go rogue."

"You know what I think?" Felix responds. "I think you just want an excuse to spend time with me. If you like me so much Ali all you have to do is -" Before he can finish the sentence I plaster my hand to his mouth. A familiar girl walks up to Locker 218 with a stack of pages in her hands. I turn around to face the opposite direction, choosing to watch her through the reflection on my phone. Felix does the same.

She stops in front of the locker and looks around before slipping the pages inside one by one. It doesn't take long. After dropping off the last one, she walks away.

Felix looks at me confused. "Correct me if I'm wrong but didn't Kevin say that buyers have to drop off an envelope? Like, with cash and stuff." He asks.

"Maybe she's not a buyer." I say. "Felix, she's our missing link! This is how our bad guy gets all those essays to sell without ripping them off of the internet. He must be paying other students a portion of the profits to write them. Honestly, it's pretty smart if you ask me."

Felix scoffs. "You say smart, I say borderline illegal. Dude, imagine how many people are involved in this thing. We're busting down a whole empire here."

"Did you recognize her?" I ask Felix.

"Uh, yeah. I did."

His gives me a weird look. "Um, okay." I prod expectantly. "What's her name?"

He sighs. "That was Sam. The girl they were talking about at the party. Like I said, she's in a bunch of my AP classes, gets perfect grades. She could probably finish off a ten page essay in under an hour. Not surprising she's decided to make some money doing it."

Well I'll be damned. Something Felix knows that I don't. After all this time, it's feels strange to finally put a face to the behind-the-scenes locker operations. Humbling. I may know a lot but I definitely don't know everything.

I pat Felix on the back appreciatively. "No kidding, eh? Little miss Valedictorian working for the enemy. That's one complex woman Felix."

I'm so focused on Felix and I's conversation that I almost miss her leaving in the opposite direction.

"Felix quick, we've gotta follow her! See where she's going!"

The both of us slink silently behind her as she leads us towards the school announcements board hanging outside the main office. We made sure to stay about ten feet away from her so she doesn't catch our watchful eyes.

Stopping in front of a section dedicated to the school play, Sam starts lifting up different posters and checking what's underneath them.

"What's she doing?" Felix asks, a little too loudly. "It seems like she's looking for something. Can you tell what's she's looking for? God I can't see anything with these new glasses."

"Would you shut up?" I hiss.

Too late. Sam turns around at spots us instantly. Whether from Felix's voice or mine, who can say.

"Felix?" She says, eyes wide. "What are you doing here? Were you... watching me?"

His eyes dart around nervously. "Um, no? Or yes. Yes, I was, I was watching you. I was watching you because.... Because I wanted to.... Ask you about the party last night! Yeah. I wanted to ask you why you weren't at Dylan's party last night."

Jesus Christ. Felix's face is so red I'm worried he's about to pass out. There's no way Sam's going to believe that lie, not when the person telling it looks guilty as hell.

"Oh." Sam says suddenly smiling. "That's so sweet of you."

I practically do a double take. What? Is she serious right now, is this girl actually buying this crap?

"A friend of mine needed help last night so I had to bail last minute." She continues. "I was really sad about it though. I was looking forward to hanging out with you."

At the last part Sam takes a strand of her blonde hair and starts twirling it around her finger shyly. Holy shit. She likes him, she likes Felix. We can totally use this to our advantage.

"Hey, Sam right? I'm Ali, a friend of Felix's. He always talks about how smart you are. And busy too! It's so cool that you have all your shit together. I'm completely jealous. We were actually just talking about how badly I need a job to save up for university. Do you know anyone hiring?"

I elbow Felix softly and nudge my head in Sam's direction.

"Yeah." He states, catching on. "I mentioned to Ali that you might have an idea. I remember you saying something a while back about finding a new job." Felix stops for a second, brushing a hand through his wavy brown hair. "I'd really appreciate it."

Sam's cheeks blush to same colour Felix's were last night. She gives him an uncertain look. "Okay well, I might be able to help. But you can't tell anyone. It's not exactly a legitimate job."

I make a zipping motion in front of my mouth. "Consider these lips sealed."

"It's kind of hard to explain. Have you guys heard about the locker?" She asks. We both nod. "Well that's how I make my money. A classmate of mine told me about it last year when I was looking for some extra cash. Basically, I write assignments and test answers and stuff for the person in charge of selling them. Kind of like an employee, except anonymous. They don't know who I am and I don't know who they are, that way no one gets in trouble. Then off to the buyer they go, ready to be handed in for an easy grade." 

I feign awe. "Wow. No way. That is so cool. I'm totally interested. How do I sign up?"

"You don't exactly sign up. It's more like... accepting job postings. That's what I was doing before I saw you guys actually." She motions to the bulletin board behind her. "Every week a new page gets posted here asking for new tutors. The page is always hidden behind a bunch of other advertisements so that only the people who know about it can find it. The posting looks innocent enough. But that's the trick. On the bottom of the page are a bunch of tickets. Each ticket has a different class subject and assignment. The deadline should be oon the ticket too. All you have to do is take a ticket for the one you want and get it done before the deadline. And make sure to include your own locker number on the stuff you hand in. Once you're finished, you can drop it all off in Locker 218. The cash is delivered straight to your locker within a couple of days."

"Is that the one?" I ask, pointing at a page Sam had uncovered on the board.

"Yep. Here, take this ticket. It's for a grade nine class so it should be an easy place to start." Sam rips off a stub from the bottom and hands it to me.

The ticket is for a Math project about probability. I absolutely suck at math. Still, it'll be useful to have. If I scan a photo of the ticket and include it in my journal article I'm sure the judges will love it. A reader loves evidence.

I hug Sam lightly and give her a huge smile. "Thanks a ton! I owe you big time. Right Felix?"

"For sure." He says. "I told you she was cool. You're the best Sam."

The bell rings signalling the end of homeroom and the start of first period. Sam waves to us politely and walks away to her class.

The second she's out of earshot Felix lets out a huge breath. "That was the most stressful conversation of my life. And that's saying something."

"Felix that was amazing! You were fantastic! The flirty glances? Don't think I didn't notice mister Casanova. Best of all, I recorded the whole thing on my phone! On a scale of one to ten how much do you think the judges would love it if I sent in audio of all my interviews all with the journal article? Probably a ten. God I'm so pumped."

Felix's expression does nothing to mirror my excitement. "Hold on. Are you planning on naming Sam in the article?"

"Obviously."

"Ali you can't do that. Sam could get in a lot of trouble."

"Where was this concern when I told you I was going to drag Kevin's name through the mud?"

"Kevin is an asshole! He deserves everything he gets. But Sam is a good person. She's just trying to save up money for university, surely someone like you can understand that."

I give him an offended laugh. "What, because I'm poor? Fuck you. Sam has just as big a part to play as Kevin does, bigger even. You're the one who said this was some shady shit. If she gets in trouble for being involved isn't that kind of deserved?" 

Felix doesn't respond. He only looks at me sadly. No, judgingly. 

"Fine. Whatever." I say. "If it means that much to you I'll leave her name out of it. Now come on. We need to set up a camera in front of Sam's locker while the hallways are still empty. Her payment might be delivered today and I don't want to miss it."

The promise does its job. Felix's face softens and he agrees to lead me to Sam's locker.

I was lying of course. About leaving her name out of my article. I meant what I said. If exposing this thing and winning that contest burns some people along the way, so be it. Better them than me.