“You like?” Tracy asked.
“Yeah, you look good,” I said to Lisa. “I thought you couldn’t wear jeans.”
“Turns out pure silk underwear doesn’t irritate me and allows me to wear pants,” Lisa supplied.
It was strange to see Lisa looking like a typical teen. I was sure most of the guys would be disappointed. Brook might be happy that she no longer had competition, though.
“I found out who hacked your blog and posted it: Alan Douglas.”
All three girls got mad. Pam and Tracy worried me because of Pam’s stun gun and Tracy’s pepper spray.
“I suggest you tell Mr. Palm, because Alan posted it on the school’s chat site,” I recommended.
The girls huddled up and then walked off. I wasn’t sure what they planned to do, but so long as they left me out of it, I was happy.
◊◊◊
Famous last words. Lisa threw me under the bus when Alan tried to deny it. I found myself in Mr. Palm’s office with my mom during third period.
“I need your help in clearing up something. Lisa Felton says you told her Alan Douglas stole her personal blog and posted it on the Lincoln Chat Board. This is a serious matter, and Alan has denied any involvement,” Mr. Palm said.
“Get him in here,” my mom said.
I was surprised when Mr. Palm did just that. Alan had a cocky smile on his face until he saw my mom. I just shrugged to let him know that it wasn’t me and he was on his own.
“Tell Mr. Palm the truth,” Mom ordered.
Their eyes locked, and Alan was the first to look away. He knew when he was beaten.
“I did it. I posted Lisa’s blog on the chat board,” he admitted.
“Alan, cyberbullying is taken very seriously at Lincoln High,” Mr. Palm started.
“He’ll never do anything like this again. Isn’t that right, Alan?” Mom asked.
“Yes, ma’am. I’ll never do something like this again, I promise,” Alan said.
“I’m sure you won’t, but there will have to be consequences for your actions,” Mr. Palm said.
“Something that confuses me is how it was taken down. Whoever did it wiped all traces of the post, even those forwarded,” Alan said.
“I don’t believe you need us for the rest of this,” I said and stood up to leave.
Mr. Palm tilted his head and gave me a funny look.
“Alan, go out and sit down in the waiting area. I’ll deal with you in a moment,” Mr. Palm said.
Once Alan left, Mr. Palm turned to me. I decided I’d better come clean, so I told him about Frank and what his people had done. That also explained how I knew Alan was the one who posted the blog. Mr. Palm wasn’t sure what to do about it. On the one hand, I’d solved a lot of his problems by having Frank’s people delete all traces of the blog. On the other, I’d given my password to someone outside of the school. While there were no explicit rules against it, Mr. Palm wasn’t happy about it.
“David has to protect his image. You’re lucky he isn’t looking to take legal action because of what was posted,” Mom said.
“There’s no need for that. Next time, please come to me before you let your people loose on something like this,” Mr. Palm offered as a compromise.
I understood his point of view. He was responsible for the school and didn’t need a student having his PR team deleting posts on a private chat website.
◊◊◊
At lunch, Alan was missing in action, and I wondered if he’d been suspended. It was too bad because today was the first official day of the lunch-buddy program. Wolf, Brit, Gina, and I were picked as hosts. I guess it wasn’t a surprise when the theater group showed up at my table. They were all excited about opening night this Friday. I was a little shocked when they shared they were already sold out. The reason I worried was I hadn’t gotten any tickets for my parents. That was when they explained that cast members had four tickets per performance set aside; those would be handed out tonight at play practice.
The theater group also wanted to make sure I was coming to the cast party on Saturday. They had an inside joke about cast virgins and some ritual. They had another think coming if they thought they could haze me. I would bet that Halle would take a similar stand.
Then they told me they’d never sold out a play before. I admitted that I’d never gone to one. Still, I was astounded they seemed nervous about it. After all, I thought they did this for the attention. They’d done scenes in the quad and at lunch for previous plays. I wasn’t sure why an auditorium full of friends and family would make them nervous, especially after getting pelted with food and garbage at lunch. Of course, I would never toss a dinner roll at an unsuspecting teen acting goofy. Honest!
And I never fib. Not even in jest!
◊◊◊
At baseball practice, Moose announced that Yuri and Justin had been kicked off the team for fighting. That meant that Burt, Brock, and Bryan had to compete to see who our lead pitcher would be. It also meant that Ray Quinn was promoted to starting at third.
I received confirmation that Alan had been suspended for three days for bullying. That was the harshest penalty they usually gave, short of expulsion. Mr. Palm was sending a message with that punishment.
◊◊◊
I was a little rusty at play practice, which sent Mr. Dutton into a tizzy. I hadn’t looked at my lines while on vacation. Halle wasn’t happy with me, which made me realize I’d better buckle down. She reminded me that there weren’t retakes in a play. I took her pointed remarks in stride. It seemed everyone was nervous about the show selling out.
◊◊◊ Wednesday April 6
I skipped out of school again, this time to go to Indianapolis to NCAA headquarters. I’d requested a meeting to get my eligibility cleared up. Mr. Morris, my sports attorney, was going to lead the session for our side. The number of people we were bringing was a little embarrassing. Besides Mr. Morris, Ms. Dixon and Tom Dole were there representing Dixon and Dixon. I was also bringing Caryn, my business manager, and Dad. Fritz was drafted to drive and act as security.
We all met at the Westin, where the Chicago contingent had spent the night. Mr. Morris had arranged for a conference room for us.
“I received a strange message last night. It seems the NCAA has expanded our meeting today. I’d thought we would just be meeting Jackie Davis, the chair for the Initial-Eligibility Waiver Committee, and Steve Anchorage, the chair of the Amateurism Fact-Finding Committee. It sounds like there will be several other chairs and members of the Board of Governors in attendance. And NCAA President Mark Ellison will be joining us,” Mr. Morris said.
“What do you think that means?” Ms. Dixon asked.
“I expect they don’t know what to do with David. He potentially poses some serious problems for them with respect to how they want to protect their use of students’ images and names. They’ve gone for a few years with no major challenges. They have to know that David’s fame isn’t derived only from sports. That’s their normal excuse for not allowing student-athletes to make money off it while in college. They may try to make David some sort of deal, like eligibility in exchange for his support in not making waves,” Mr. Morris said.
“Should we address his movies and modeling while in college?” Tom asked.
“I propose we play it by ear. If they want something more than just to confirm David’s eligibility, we pull out the waiver to allow him to fulfill his obligations for promoting movies. I don’t believe they have a leg to stand on, but we need to get him eligible first. My plan all along was to attack that as a separate issue, but if they want David to do something, we need to get this in return,” Mr. Morris said.
The way the NCAA rules read was that you couldn’t engage in the promotion of commercial activities while you were a student-athlete. A strict reading could mean that if I did a movie while in college, I might not be able to have my name added to the credits. And I couldn’t give any interviews about my role in the movie. But by that same token, I was in the clear for everything I did while in high school.