Chapter 36
"Well," Steph mentioned with a groan as she put the last cardboard box on a whole stack of boxes. "I think this was the last one."
"Yeah, guess so," Rachel returned as she brushed some sweat off her forehead before she took her friend in a tight embrace. "Thanks for helping me, Steph!"
"No problem, Rach. Just too bad that Max isn't allowed in here and Chloe's still pissed that you two fucked in her bed."
"Yeah," the blonde sighed sadly, breaking the hug and backing away a bit. She missed living at Max's place. All this time together after so many weeks of being apart had felt so soothing. So good. Like balm for her soul. Now, she was forced to live in the dorms, far away from her boyfriend, who couldn't even visit her.
Feeling the melancholy of her friend, Steph softly touched her shoulder and said "Hey, chin up, buttercup! If you need somethin', my room's straight down the hall, and…" She leaned in, whispering "If you want Max to visit you overnight, don't worry, I know a way to smuggle him in."
Both chuckled mischievously upon that comment. Steph because she imagined how she would lead Max through cobwebbed catacombs under Blackwell, and Rachel upon the thrill of doing something forbidden. Yet, this awesome idea was sadly set to fail from the beginning.
"Thanks, Steph. But I don't think that Brooke's gonna be that thrilled if we fuck right beside her while she's trying to do her homework. But I appreciate the effort!" Rachel said with a wry smirk and hugged her best friend once again, adding after they parted again "Hey, how about we have a housewarming tonight before my roomie moves in here tomorrow?"
"Sure, buuut I doubt that Chloe's gonna be in for that. Still moping, y'know."
"Fuck Chloe!" the blonde cheerfully announced, flinging one arm around Steph's neck. "Tomorrow's monday, so Max isn't allowed to stay overnight anyway. So, it's just you 'n' me, a bottle of booze and a lotta shit to talk about!"
"You, me and a bottle of booze?" Steph remarked with a frown and one hand to her hip. "Sounds more like you wanna try to get into my pants. Or better said, I'd try to get into your pants."
For a moment, Rachel stayed silent. Yes, Steph could sometimes be very direct and even fast forward with her comments. And normally, the young blonde would just mark them as very offensive jokes, but since she had started to doubt her straight sexuality, such words just poured even more gasoline into this vast fire of self-doubt. Like she had done with Chloe, Rachel now imagined how it would be to sleep with Steph and if she should just let it happen. But then again, she didn't want to cheat on Max.
'Fuck, life is so fuckin' complicated!'
Luckily, Steph broke this cycle of thoughts as she mentioned "I better keep going. Need to prepare for tomorrow's drama lesson. So, we'll see each other later, right?"
"Uh, right… See ya, Steph!"
Then, Steph was gone and Rachel was alone in her new home. Alone. All alone. Missing Max and a simple life at her mom's place. She would've loved to cry again, but decided to distract herself by unpacking all those boxes, starting with a photo of her and Max. Which she put on the nightstand of her bed before she gave the entire room her attention, pondering where she should place all her stuff.
The dorm room was of standard size, like Steph's, yet instead of one bed and one desk it had two, plus two shelves, but only one closet. Everything was cramped and only accessible by a small corridor.
Rachel just hoped that this was indeed just a temporary solution and not a constant situation to make more money by stuffing more students into this dorm.
Well, tomorrow she would meet her roommate and, internally, the beautiful blonde just prayed that she wouldn't be a hard case like Victoria…or even worse.
Living in the dorms had a whole spectrum of advantages and disadvantages.
For one, no school way whatsoever. Literally just falling out of bed and directly into the classroom. Also, no parents who'd tell you when to turn off the light and go to sleep.
However, this all came with the cost of having not much privacy. It wasn't uncommon to wait in front of the shower and toilet stalls in the morning. Not to mention that you had to endure the sounds and smells of the other girls. Then there was the fact that the walls seemed to be made out of cardboard. It was easy to overhear conversations of your neighbors or what music they were listening to. Not to mention their sexual activities.
The next drawback was that it was impossible to avoid people you don't like but were living on the same floor, like Victoria Chase.
No wonder, that the first morning in the dorms was a pure shock for Rachel. And it didn't start with the alarm of her clock, but as the stereo of her neighbor began to blast some loud Hip-Hop music, which's loud bass almost shook her out of bed since the subwoofer seemed to stand right at the wall bordering her room.
But the chaos continued once she had left her room.
The whole floor was filled with a cacophony of different sounds and music, voices and songs. One room played Hip-Hop, another countered with Death-Metal, the third one with R'n'B. Doors were opened and shut close, people talking or yelling at each other. It was just pure chaos, and Rachel in the middle of it, trying to find some salvation in the toilets.
She had barely entered as she literally walked against a wall of disgusting stench.
Whoever said that women were always smelling like flowers, deliberately lied. And whoever died in this room internally, should've brought some air freshener.
Gulping down her nausea, Rachel took the next free stall and sat down on the toilet bowl, which was surprisingly clean. So, there was still hope for womanhood. But whoever thought that using the toilet as a place for some quietness would be so disappointed.
"...but I tell you, this asshole fucked with her."
"No way, he did not!"
"Yes, he did. First he came out of the toilet, then she did, spunk still drippin' down her leg. What more proof do you need?"
"Eww, da fuck?!"
"I tell you, this fucker…"
Dorm-gossip. Steph had mentioned it several times during their shindigs. Half of it was untrue, the other half exaggerated and all of it just annoying bullshit.
Rachel just commented on the overheard conversation with a loud sigh and left the toilets, heading for the showers. Of course, one of the four stalls for 15 students was always out of order while the rest was simply occupied.
Sighing again, Rachel made her way to one of the sinks on the opposite side of the room and wanted to brush her teeth. But this effort was immediately underlined with a loud screamed "Fuck! Waterpressur, bitch!" as soon as the blonde had turned on the cold water, which, in return, caused all running showers to just spill hot water.
Rachel recalled this voice and who it belonged to. Already being fed up with the dorm life, she turned on the water repeatedly. It made her giggle as the following complaints almost turned into some kind of wicked music, until one of the shower curtains got ripped aside and Victoria Chase stood there in her naked glory, her angry glare resting on Rachel, who had her toothbrush in her smirking mouth.
"Fuck, Amber, are you kinda nuts in your eff'ed up brain?! Some people try to shower here and not wanna get cooked."
"So'y, Icky-'icky!" Rachel mumbled back, using the faucet once more to flush out her mouth.
"Fuck you, Amber!"
After five more minutes of waiting, the curtain of another stall opened and Steph, her body wrapped in a towel, stepped out, giving Rachel a big toothy grin.
"Already making some friends, huh?"
"Nah, just messin' with the usual suspects," replied Rachel, giving the brunette a wink before she entered the now unoccupied stall and took her well deserved morning shower.
Suddenly, the originally comfortable warm water turned ice-cold, causing the young teenager to let out a loud gasp. From the snickering outside she could hear that it had been Victoria, who had played her that prank. Well, she deserved it and wouldn't give the bitchy girl more satisfaction than necessary by insulting her. No, she enjoyed the short surge of coldness until the warm water would heat her up again.
Like Steph's, her body was wrapped in a towel as she walked back to her room, only to find that it had now a few more boxes in it and that a strange girl was sitting on the second bed, who was staring at her smartphone. She was of petite stature, Asian descendant, wore some big glasses and had her long, black hair partially dyed and bound into a ponytail.
"Hi there!" Rachel said politely, reaching the other girl her hand for a handshake. "I'm…"
"Rachel Amber, I know," the young Asian girl dryly replied, not taking her eyes off the phone for even a second, which somehow took Rachel entirely aback as she was faced with such rude behavior.
"Uh, right…Brooke, wasn't it?"
Now the younger student shifted her attention faintly towards the blonde, gazing at her over the rim of her glasses.
"Wow, you read the memo, congrats! Now leave me alone, will ya."
Hearing this aloof tone, paired with the snark and this arrogance, plus the fact that she got ignored again as Brooke focused back on her phone, Rachel lost it again. Furiously, she snapped the phone out of the young girl's hand and threw it out of the open window, which caused the Asian girl to jump up in an instant as she tried to follow it, yelling "What the fuck?! Are you totally bonkers? Do you even know how much that cost?"
"iPhone, latest model, 550 bucks. Yeah, I know how much it costs, got one myself. And I also know that it's impolite to ignore someone, who's talking to you," retorted Rachel with crossed arms as she watched that girl leaning out of the window, probably seeing her phone in bits and pieces on the concrete in front of the dorms. At least, her very sour expression told Rachel that the phone didn't survive the landing unscathed.
With angry steps the raven-haired girl closed in on Rachel, not showing any signs of intimidation. "Now listen, you stupid bitch, you're gonna pay for that phone! And then we're gonna play by MY rules. No touchy-touchy my stuff…EVER! No party. No loud music. No noise. No boys. You get that in your tiny slut-brain?"
But Rachel stayed unimpressed, just giving the smaller Asian girl a soft push, which caused her to sit down on her bed again. "How about we play survival of the fittest, and I'm gonna punch you in the face every time you annoy the shit outta me?"
Seeing the stern demeanor and the piercing gaze in Rachel's green eyes as she was towering above her, Brooke froze for a moment, pondering about what to return to that threat. She wasn't one for physical violence. Her strength was her mind. She was a person who would build an army of killer robots to do the dirty work, instead of using her own hands. And right now, she wished for such a robot. Maybe a Terminator?
But lacking the robot as well as the muscles, she just lowered her gaze and huffed. "Threatening with physical violence is a sign of a weak mind."
"No," Rachel returned calmly, as she began to dress into some casual clothes. "It's the natural way of every conflict if we don't find a common ground. We could either bust our asses and throw stupid rules at each other until we end up in a bitchfight, or we stick our heads together and find a solution to make this work."
As soon as she was fully dressed in jeans and a checkered button shirt over a black top, Rachel once again approached the younger girl, a soft smile on her lips. "How about we forget those last five minutes and start again, okay? Hi, I'm Rachel!"
This time, Brooke took the older girl's hand and shook it, saying "Hi, I'm Brooke. Brooke Scott."
"Pleasure to meet you, Brooke. Don't worry, I'll order you a new phone right away and gonna bill it to my dad. And believe me, I won't get cheap on him."
A bit dumbfounded, Brooke followed the blond with her gaze until she was gone, and just wished that she wouldn't be at this school.
His lips on hers. There was nothing better than this. Rachel loved kissing Max. It set her on fire and made her wish to rip her clothes off her body to cool down this burning heat.
But sadly they were sitting in the science lab, waiting for the lecture to begin.
"Fuck-dammit, just get a room, you two!" Chloe complained from the off, rolling with her eyes before she shifted her attention back to her sketchbook in which she scribbled some artful ideas for tattoos. Which she suspended as soon as Ms. Grant entered the room.
"Alright, everybody," she announced, putting her bag on the teacher's desk. "Stop the chitter-chatter and the smoochin', take your seats and listen up! Next week, we're gonna make a lil' field trip to Overlook Park to learn a bit about Arcadia Bay, its surrounding wildlife and history. We'll stay overnight in the woods, so please let your parents fill out the form I'm gonna give you after class. If you lack some camping equipment - like a tent or a sleeping bag - please tell me until Friday so that I can organize something."
The whole class was cheering upon the chance to skip an entire school day for some camping in the woods. Miss Grant, however, immediately dampened the mood a bit by saying "This won't be a party trip, y'all. No alcohol, no drugs, no sex. We go out there to do some science, not to get wasted. Now, let's focus on the lesson, you can figure out who's gonna sleep in who's tent after the lesson. Justin, turn around and pay attention! Victoria, Courtney, Taylor, you can gossip later. Rachel, Max, I know love's beautiful, but stop lockin' lips during my lesson! Alright now, Alcalines and their use…"
"I hate camping!" Chloe mentioned grumpily as she was walking side-by-side with her step-brother, Rachel and Steph towards the pool building as they were about to attend the swimming lesson.
"Huh, strange," Max replied, looking at her with a frown. "Three years ago you couldn't get enough of it."
"Yeah, but three years ago my mom was still alive, too, y'know. And secondly, it's a huge difference if you spend your night in an awesome treehouse or just a stupid tent. Do you remember how Will epically failed to build up our family tent?"
Indeed, Maxine remembered this event since it also had happened in her own reality.
"Oh yeah, Will totaled it on the first try to build it, and Joyce was so pissed at him, 'cause it was brand-new and had cost 500 bucks."
"Now you know why I hate camping, Max. So, camping…no, thanks!"
And now it became crystal clear. Chloe suffered from PTSD since that day of the crash. In Maxine's reality it had been William, in this one, Joyce. The punky girl tried to avoid everything that could trigger another depression, and a camping trip obviously was on that list, too.
"Well," Rachel then said joyfully, flinging her arms over Max's and Steph's shoulder. "Looks like it's gonna be the three of us."
"Miss Rachel Amber, please report to the Principal's office! Miss Rachel Amber, please report to the Principal's office!" it suddenly chimed through the school's PA, causing the four friends to stop and look at each other.
"Maybe tossing your roommate's phone out of the window wasn't a good idea after all," Max mentioned, but Rachel just shook her head.
"No, I made a deal with her that she'd get a new one. Already ordered it online."
Eventually, and while everybody was still puzzled, the young blonde just sighed loudly.
"Guess there's only one way to find out…"
She gave her boyfriend one last kiss and told the three of them to move on while she went back to the main building and straight towards the Principal's office, where she was already awaited by Mr. Wells.
"Hello, Mr. Wells. You wanted to see me?"
As it was his trademark when a difficult topic needed to be discussed, the broad, black man was standing in front of the big window, looking at the campus outside, his hands behind his back.
"Miss Amber, please take a seat!" he ordered and Rachel followed. He then turned around and sat down on his big cozy chair, resting his arms on his elbows on the desk while intertwining the fingers of his hands. The stern, piercing gaze he always added, was intimidating, even for students like Rachel or Chloe and increased the tension to a maximum.
"For over ten years, I'm now the Principal of this school," he started the conversation with his booming voice, and Rachel had a hard time not rolling with her eyes upon the upcoming monologue. "During these years I've seen numerous students come and go, who's vitae have been as varying as their appearance, ranging from very wealthy to not so socially fortunate. And it were especially those students who I was always awestruck by how they managed to earn their living and their place in these halls of wisdom. Not only by knowledge, but also by hard work to earn some additional money. These jobs varied as well and it was always interesting to learn about those very creative ways to finance a good life. But…there are always two kinds of jobs, the good ones and the very questionable ones."
He then leaned back, but his fingers remained in this intertwined position.
"Miss Amber, I'm fully aware that, since you are in a difficult situation, you want to have a good financial basis, but this…"
He then turned the monitor of his computer towards Rachel. On its screen were several of the young girl's nude shots Victoria had taken last winter, especially the spicy ones.
"...this is unacceptable."
Her hands started to shake as well as her jaw as a wave of panic and pure fury surged through her body like boiling hot lava that was about to erupt from a giant volcano.
"Victoria…" she hissed before she jumped from the seat and ran out of the Principal's office, ignoring all the complaints and warnings he called after her.
Her sight was fogged by a red veil as she sprinted towards the swimming pool. Normally, it was forbidden to enter the pool area with street clothes and shoes, yet Rachel also didn't care about this at the moment. Everybody was busy and distracted by the ongoing lesson anyway. And then she spotted her: Victoria Chase, chit-chatting with her two minions, Courtney and Taylor.
Everybody present looked at the furious blonde as she was walking straight towards her target. And as soon as her with anger burning green eyes locked with Victoria's blue ones, the lanky high-society girl panicked. Trying to get away, she walked backwards, but slipped on the wet, tiled floor and landed on her behind. And though Courtney and Taylor tried to stop the furious girl, their resistance was at best weak and they got tossed aside without any effort, whereas Courtney fell into the pool with a loud screech, which caught the attention of even more students, including Rachel's friends.
Eventually, she was standing in front of Victoria, towering over her with a murderous gaze that was literally burning a hole through her skull.
"Why?" she hissed, before she grabbed the blonde with the pixie haircut by the top of her bikini and pulled her on the feet, not caring that it shifted and her bare chest got revealed for everyone to see, since Rachel's focus was entirely on her face as she yelled right into it. "WHY THE FUCK DID YOU DO THIS?!"
Her mind and body still filled to the brim with rage, Rachel was about to hit the terrified girl right in the face, if she hadn't been stopped by some of Victoria's buddies that were taking her into a tight hold and trying to pull her away. Of course, she struggled, wanting to attack again. Then, Chloe, Max and Steph came into the mix, as well. It was just pure chaos, which not even Ms. Boreas could end. Only as one of the struggling students slipped and the whole bunch fell into the pool, the situation finally calmed down again.
Small droplets of water were falling onto the wooden boards of Mr. Wells' office, already forming small puddles.
Rachel and Victoria were standing in front of the broad man's desk, everyone having a towel over their shoulders. But whereas Victoria was only a bit damp, now wearing her sweater, Rachel was entirely drenched from head to toe, water pouring from her entire, still clothed body.
"I think I don't need to emphasize how much I'm disappointed by the two of you. Especially by you, Miss Amber!" he pointed out, the undertone of his voice chiding and full of anger. "Production and publishing of pornographic material of an underaged student. Violent behavior. Disregarding my orders. This is unacceptable!"
"Mr. Wells, I didn't…" Victoria tried to defend herself, but got shut down immediately.
"The pictures got published on the Vortex Club's domain via your account, and Miss Amber already confirmed that you were the one taking those shots."
"But I…"
"Do you want to confess those allegations right away or do I have to order campus security to search your room and computer?"
With a mixture of guilt and anger, the arrogant girl looked at Rachel, who was staring at some point behind the principal, not even giving her any attention at all.
"This is preposterous!" was everything she added, which got noted by Mr. Wells with a nod before he shifted his attention towards Rachel again.
"Miss Amber, let me rephrase this. Miss Chase took these pictures for academic purposes only?"
"Yes, Mr. Wells."
"And they weren't meant for the public and no money was paid whatsoever to do them."
"No, Mr. Wells. I just wanted to do a fellow student a favor. We agreed that those shots wouldn't get published and were supposed to get deleted right after the session. But obviously…" Rachel then looked at Victoria again, her gaze piercing daggers. "...Miss Chase had other plans with 'em."
With a loud sigh, Principal Wells leaned back in his chair, crossing his fingers again as he let his gaze wander between the two students, constantly.
"Miss Chase, you're hereby suspended for the rest of the week. Your computer and camera are going to be confiscated by our security for the time being. You can use the school's various equipment for your educational work. I'll also inform your parents about this. Thank you."
The blonde's mouth constantly opened and closed upon these penalties. Her mind was in a state between desperation and anger, causing her to shed some bitter tears. A reaction not even Rachel had ever seen her doing, and made her question her rival's guilt.
"And you, Miss Amber…" the Principal then continued, drawing Rachel's attention back to him. "I know that you're going through a very difficult time. The accident, your mother's unfortunate demise, a new life situation in the school's dorms and now those unwillingly published pictures… One can only imagine the psychological stress that is now resting on your young shoulders. But it doesn't give you the right to assault your fellow students, no matter what they've done. Let alone that this isn't your first infraction regarding physical violence. I think a two week suspension is the absolute minimum you deserve, and this only because of your current condition and the fact that nobody got injured speaks in your favor. This suspension also includes scholarly activities like Miss Grant's field trip."
"Fuck!" Rachel sighed quietly. Yes, it could've been worse, but she had already imagined a cool camping trip with Max, even planned to stay with him the rest of the weekend in the woods. Just the two of them. But now, joining him after the trip, failed upon two things: a car and motivation. Besides that she had to solve the issue with these damned pictures.
As she finally came back from her inner thoughts, she was already standing outside the Principal's office and Victoria was gone. Where to? Probably the dorms, but the young blonde needed a change of clothes anyway, so she made her way to her room.
Before entering it, the handle already in her grasp, she turned towards Victoria's door and pondered for a moment, eventually deciding that she was not in the mood to talk to Victoria at the moment. Instead, she stepped inside her own dorm room and began to get rid of her wet clothes and dry her hair and body with a towel.
As she was doing so, she saw that Brooke had already started to unpack her boxes and especially the lightsaber that was now hanging over the Asian girl's bed drew her full attention.
Rachel wasn't that big of a Star Wars nerd, but she appreciated the franchise and found the thought of a destructive device like such a laser sword as nothing but funny. So, using the chance that she was alone and classes wouldn't end for another half an hour, she took the saber from the wall and activated it, the front part now glowing red.
"Awesome!" she chuckled, swinging the plastic blade like in some action movie while she was still naked, only a towel over her shoulders.
Her imagination fired up. She was now a Jedi-Knight, protecting the poor people from the evil empire.
"Begone, oh evil forces of the emperor! Yield to the power of the Jedi, fiends!"
"Red is the color of the Sith, by the way," suddenly someone mentioned, startling Rachel so much that she gasped loudly and spun around so fast that the saber knocked some of her stuff off her desk.
In the now open door stood Victoria Chase with crossed arms, wearing a casual shirt and some sweatpants that were still looking very expensive.
"Fuck, Vicky, did nobody teach you to knock?"
"I did…twice!" she replied, closing the door and approaching the other girl. "If a Jedi you want to be, a lot to learn you still have." She then took the saber from the blonde and swung it around like a professional, though the space was very limited, rendering Rachel speechless. Once she was done, she deactivated the saber and handed it back to the actress. "Nice toy, Amber."
Still awestruck, Rachel took the saber and looked at it for a moment, saying "It's my roommate's, and sure as hell you didn't use it like a toy, Chase." Before putting it back.
"It wasn't me, y'know," the pixie cut blonde then mentioned, ignoring the topic from before. "I didn't put those pictures online."
"Then who did it, Victoria?" Rachel returned sternly, crossing her arms and not worrying that she was still in her Eva-costume. "And how is it possible that someone had 'em at all?"
Victoria stayed quiet for a moment, her gaze lowered to the ground while she was fumbling with the straps of her pants.
"I…I didn't delete 'em. I copied them onto a second card in my camera."
"What?!" Rachel blurted back, stepping closer to the other girl. "We had a fuckin' deal. No. Copies!"
"But it was a stupid deal!" Victoria blurted back, facing Rachel head-on. "How am I supposed to work with the shots if I can't even edit 'em? It would've been a waste of art, of talent and…and beauty. Damn, you should see 'em. I made 'em so much better. The lighting, the contrast…those enhancements paired with your performance just made 'em perfect. Shit, I even fucked myself while editing them."
Silence. Both looked at each other in silence. Rachel in shock and Victoria in embarrassment, her cheeks beet-red and her lips trembling, until she broke eye contact. Her voice was nothing but a faint whisper.
"I envy you, Amber. Everything about you. I can never be like you and that just drives me crazy."
Wanting to soothe her at least a bit, Rachel wanted to put a hand on Victoria's shoulder, but it got swatted away in an instant as she furiously spun around, yelling "I mean, look at me! No tits, no ass, no curves. I look like a fuckin' scarecrow. Even your pussy looks nicer than mine."
Hearing this bunch of self-pity, Rachel eventually refrained from feeling sorry and couldn't do anything but scoff and shake her head.
"You done now drowning yourself in self-pity, Vicky? Listen, I don't give a damn that you're jealous of me or crush on me or…whatever. Hell, I don't even give a fuck that you use my pictures as jerk-off material. All I wanna know is, who did this shit. So, let's focus on that, shall we?"
Huffing out some air, Victoria eventually agreed with a nod, adding a quiet "Yeah. Yeah, of course."
"So, again, how could those pictures get on the Vortex Club's domain?"
"I actually don't know," the slender blonde sighed, sitting down on Rachel's bed. "I just had 'em on my laptop. Nobody could access it without my knowledge or permission."
"And your Vortex account?"
"I volunteered to take care of the Vortex Club's website. That's why I have an account. But again, the password is just saved on my laptop, so…"
"... someone must've done it over your laptop then," Rachel concluded, but it still didn't answer the question of who actually had done it. And she knew that they needed some help to solve that mystery. But who could have the skill to help them?
Finally the day was over. Rachel's first day of living at Blackwell…and it sucked hard. Not only all the stress of living in the dorms, but also those damned pictures that had gotten published. Thankfully, the Vortex Club's domain had gotten closed down right away by order of Principal Wells, so that, as far as Rachel knew, none of those pictures had made their way into the depths of the world wide web, going viral. And this was only thanks to an anonymous hint that the Principal had received right after those pictures had been put on this website.
Right now, Rachel let her mind do some hard work on recapturing this day while lying in bed and staring at the ceiling.
Brooke was lying in her bed as well, watching some sort of R-rated Anime with headphones. Rachel had just glimpsed at her screen sporadically, seeing blood, gore and sex. Well, that signaled at least that the Asian girl wasn't as stuck up as she had feared before and gave a damn what others were thinking about her, plus that she was a tech-wizz. A tech…wizz!
Having an idea, Rachel smirked wryly.
"Brooke?" she called into the room, waiting for an answer that came in the form of a humm. "Can you hack a computer?"
"Define 'hack'!" the Asian girl replied, obviously showing some interest.
"Finding out who could've used it to put something on a website…for example? Y'know, digital fingerprints 'n' shit."
After pausing the movie, Brooke gave her roommate her full attention and looked at her with a frown, before saying "50 bucks and access to the computer that had been used."
"Deal!"
Right away, Brooke returned her focus back to her laptop, while Rachel's smirk became even bigger. She would find out who played her this messed-up prank and then would go full ballistic on them!