Nick wanted to know what happened after that, but no one at school had any idea. At least none of the kids did, and if the adults knew, they weren’t talking. He assumed that Victor had been arrested, and was being held either at the jail or at the hospital, chained to his bed, with one of those guards outside his door. Because he definitely looked sick.

He wondered if Victor would be tried as a juvenile or an adult.

Was anything going to happen to Mr. Worthington? Nick certainly hoped so. They should definitely be able to get him on something. Obstruction of justice? Maybe. Although, according to what he saw on the news, a lot of people didn’t even seem to consider that a crime anymore.

He wondered if he or his dad would be called to testify. They had been the ones to find Victor’s parents. And he and Aaron had found Victor at the bank and had spotted him today at school. Probably all three of them would have to testify.

Nick was called to the counselor’s office during sixth period. He could not recall ever being called into Mrs. Lee’s office before and had only spoken to the counselor in private one time, when he’d wanted to transfer out of a math class. The call slip said nothing about a reason, and he assumed that it had something to do with Victor, so it was a complete surprise when he sat down in the small office and the counselor said, “Congratulations, Nicholas. Mrs. Nelson has nominated you for a fifteen-hundred dollar writing scholarship.”

It took a moment for his mind to shift gears. “A scholarship?”

She nodded.

“Me?” he asked incredulously. He could not believe it. That witch hated him.

“Yes.” Mrs. Lee smiled. “Apparently, Mrs. Nelson is very impressed with your writing ability.” The counselor handed him a printout. “Now this is a new scholarship, offered this year for the first time. It’s sponsored by The First People’s Bank…”

He heard nothing she said after that. It was as though his body had been dunked in ice water. He was cold all over, and the counselor’s voice became a low drone in the background of his much louder thoughts. The fact that the teacher who’d gotten him suspended was teaming up with the bank seemed very suspect to him. She had turned him in to the principal because of his writing, and now she said she was a fan of his work and thought well enough of it to recommend him for a scholarship? Was this a freaky coincidence or was Mrs. Nelson working in collusion with the bank? Who had approached whom? Had his teacher heard about the scholarship and known about his problems with the bank, and recommended him for that reason? Or had Mr. Worthington found out about his problems with Mrs. Nelson and recruited her to recruit him?