Caitlin In Charge

Chapter Seven

All throughout the day, Caitlin has been sneaking glances at the questions. Some of them she knows the answer to, but others she has to look up. She figures that since there’s no answers, they’re basically just a big study guide. But she knows she has to tell her teammates.

After school, the girls meet at Natalia and Zoe’s house. For once, Caitlin welcomes the noise and chaos of their house. Upstairs in the twins’ room, Caitlin hands them the packet. They read the first half, nodding. But then they get to the second half.

Zoe asks how Caitlin got this half, and she shrugs and responds it was just attached to her packet. It seems like an accident. Natalia agrees with Caitlin that it’s okay to use the questions. Their team didn’t seek them out, and they’ll still have to find the answers and memorize them.

Emma thinks using the questions is totally wrong. She argues that because they’re provided by the test officials, it’s cheating. Emma thinks they should go to Mr. Patel and explain what happened. The test officials have time to change the questions if they’ve been compromised.

Caitlin is nervous about that. What if she’s kicked out? Or worse, what if the whole team is kicked out? Caitlin knows that having the questions is a clear path to winning, even if the girls still have to do a lot of the work themselves.

And suddenly, Caitlin is angry. Emma has been on her side the whole past few weeks. In fact, Emma’s been her best teammate. Why is she fighting with them and turning against them now?

Caitlin argues that they should use the questions as a study guide. Natalia agrees. Emma turns to Zoe and asks how she feels.

Zoe nervously looks back and forth between them. Eventually, she states that she just wants to go with majority rule.

Emma looks furious. She can’t believe the others would want to win this way. At the end, she sighs. She says she won’t tell on them, but she doesn’t want to be a part of the team if they use the questions. And she walks out the door.