The girl in the pink sweater set nodded. “Yeah, you drove up the curve, you creep!”

The insults went on in hushed voices, and the boom mike picked them up. Jody looked defensive, and then nervous, and finally about to jump out of his skin as the other students taunted him.

“Come on, guys!” he said in a low voice, glancing back at Hannah. “I didn’t mean to ace that test.”

“What’cha got going with Miss Bowman, huh?” the boy in the yellow shirt, who’d started it all, moved over to stand between the table at the back and Jody’s desk. Hannah couldn’t see it, but she’d read the script and she knew the boy cuffed Jody on the back of the head.

At that point, Lynne motioned to Hannah and she got up to stand at the side of the room. The master shot was finished and they’d already shot several minutes of her at the table, pretending to grade papers. As Lynne had explained it, they’d intercut the footage so that Miss Bowman appeared to be oblivious to the harassment of her best student.

“Cut it out!” Jody hissed, glancing back at the table. But when he saw that the boy in the yellow shirt was blocking his teacher’s view, he started to tremble. “I don’t have anything going with Miss Bowman. She’s our teacher, that’s all.”

“That’s what you say, and maybe it’s right. But you’re teacher’s pet, aren’t ’cha?”

The boy cuffed Jody again and he started to shake even more violently. Hannah felt her heartbeat speed up, even though she knew everyone in the scene was acting.

“So

let’s talk about this test we’re having next Friday. You’re gonna sit next to me and give me the answers.”

“That would be cheating!”

“No, that would be smart. If you don’t do it, I’ll find you after school and beat you into meatloaf. Got it?”

“But

”

The boy threw a punch that seemed to hit to Burke’s head. It didn’t. It missed by several inches, but it would look as if it had on camera. And even though Burke hadn’t been touched, Hannah saw tears spring up in his eyes.

“Next to me,” the bully warned. “And anytime I ask, you give me the answer. If you let me down, I’ll make sure my dad finds something wrong with your dad’s work. Got it?”

Burke dipped his head in a nod and Hannah saw the anguish on his face. He knew it was wrong and he didn’t want to do it, but he believed the bully’s threats.