The Seduction Game novel · Chapter 20 of 24

Chapter 20: The Proctor

I stood up slowly, with both hands open at my sides.

My heart was going like a hammer, but my voice came out like a ruler.

"That isn't mine," I said. "I'd like the time noted. It's 10:41."

"I found it under your desk," the proctor said.

"I'm sure you did."

"Sit down and give me your booklet. You are disqualified under the honor code."

"Before you take it, look up."

She frowned.

"At the clock above the door," I said. "The one with the new battery."

For one second nothing happened.

Then I watched the color go out of her face, inch by inch.

She did not look at the clock.

She looked at Camille.

Camille had lifted her head.

Her eyes were wide and blue and innocent, and her mouth was soft.

It was the face she wore for her father and the Dean.

I had never been so glad to see it fail to work.

"I don't know what you're talking about," the proctor said, much too fast.

"The clock has a camera in it," I said. "It has been recording since eight-thirty this morning."

"That's not allowed."

"A trustee asked for it last night, under the leak inquiry, and the Dean signed it."

The boy from the debate team put his hand over his mouth.

The quiet girl in glasses had stopped writing altogether and was watching the proctor with her pen in the air.

"You have no proof," the proctor said.

The door opened.

The Dean came in first, thin and upright, with a tablet held against her chest.

Behind her walked the chairman, in his gray suit, and behind him, Nash's father.

All three had the look of people who had been standing very still in a small room for a long time.

"We have been watching the feed since nine," said the Dean. "I was hoping to be wrong."

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