Risen by Lauren Barnholdt, Aaron Gorvine Read Free Book Online Page A

Playmate, which is admittedly hard to believe. But Jay claims that his dad has an old copy of the issue in question and he keeps promising to steal it and bring it in some day.
    Now kids have taken to calling her “Spreadwell” behind her back. Even I’ve used the nickname a few times, guiltily.
    As she looms over us with her disapproving gaze, I’m feeling less bad about the rumors. Doesn’t she get it? I think. Nate Diaz wanted to throttle me and all Jay did was try and help.
    “Since Mr. Stevens was so busy causing a ruckus in the hallway and distracting us from our work, perhaps he’d like to start off today’s discussion about his website,” she says, closing the door and striding toward us with folded arms.
    Jay and I are sitting at adjacent workstations, and he briefly glances over at me with a look that I know well from when we were younger. To anyone else he seems like the same old confident Jay, but I can tell he’s panicking. He hasn’t done a shred of work for this class.
    Jay throws up his hands. “I don’t see why I should have to start. I didn’t do anything wrong.”
    “Because I asked you to, and I’m in charge here.” She waits in the center of the room while everyone turns and stares in our direction.
    “We always go in alphabetical order. I don’t see why you’re punishing me for trying to help out a friend.”
    Ms. Gedwell smirks. “So you aren’t prepared. That’s what I thought, Mr.
    Stevens. Typical. I hope you don’t mind taking this class again over the summer.”
    “Who says I’m not prepared?”
    “If you’re prepared then you shouldn’t have a problem explaining your website to us. Please elucidate. What’s the website name, how are you branding it, who will be your customer base and what service will you provide? Let’s see the work you’ve done on the homepage, which was supposed to be done by now as well.
    “Well—the thing is…“ He licks his lips. I see his desperation growing. His eyes dart from side to side, as if he’s searching for an escape route.
    “We’re working on it together,” I say, surprising even myself. But I figure one good turn deserves another.
    “Oh, is that so?” Ms. Gedwell’s head turns and her hawk eyes are suddenly boring into me.
    “You said that eventually we would be paired up so Tim and I just kind of went ahead and paired up to get a jump on things, so to speak,” Jay says, immediately taking my lie and running with it.
    Ms. Gedwell folds her arms. “I planned on making the decision regarding who would be partners. And I’d rather not pair someone who puts in very little effort with a partner that’s going to do all the work for the team.”
    Jay looks hurt. “But I am working. Yesterday afternoon I spent like three hours on the project. Right, Richardson?”
    This is a complete and total lie. Jay doesn’t even know what kind of site I’m working on.
    I nod vigorously. “It’s true. He helped a lot. I mean, I had to explain some things and show him what to do, but he did work on it. He wrote a bunch of homepage content. And he thought up the idea of the blackboard. But you don’t know what that is, I’ll show you in a second.”
    “And Jay Stevens helped you with all of this.” She says it almost like it’s an impossibility that Jay did any work at all, and of course she’s right, but I can’t let her know that.
    “He did like probably fifty percent of it. I swear.” I look her right in the eye and she seems to momentarily buy it. I keep up the sales pitch, hoping she doesn’t notice that Jay has no idea what I’m talking about.
    I pull up my login screen as Ms. Gedwell approaches. She puts her glasses on and peers down at the monitor.
    “So, this is the entry portal to the site,” I say, showing her the main login page.
    I’ve put a lot of work into making a very slick design—but not TOO slick—she wouldn’t approve of anything overly flashy.
    “Mister Stevens, what’s that logo in the upper