Chapter 145: Zero Percent Trust

Aveline's POV

Theo and I walked back towards the main school building. Neither of us spoke after leaving the equipment shed. There wasn't anything left to say. I couldn't stop thinking about what Silas had said. Then Theo's request for Asher's pharmacy records came back again.

We had barely stepped through the front doors when someone grabbed my shoulder.

I spun around with a gasp. Kieran was standing right there. His hair was completely messy, and he was breathing hard, like he had just run across the entire campus to find me.

He took a deep breath, trying to calm himself, but it wasn't working. Kieran didn't even look at me first. His eyes went straight to Theo. Theo stopped, turned his neck slowly, and gave Kieran a blank look. Then he just turned around and walked away into the crowd of students.

Kieran didn't waste a second. He grabbed my arm gently but firmly and pulled me straight into the narrow space by the janitor’s closet.

"What the hell were you doing out there with him?" Kieran hissed. His voice was a rough, angry whisper. His jaw was clenched so tight it looked painful. "Do you remember that Theo found out about your identity, Aveline?. You can't be near him."

"Kieran, just listen to me for a second," I said. I tried to push his hands down, but he wouldn't move his arms. He was completely stiff.

"No, you listen to me," Kieran cut me off, his eyes wide. "My trust for Theo is zero percent. Why were you out there with him?"

"I know you don't trust him, okay?" I whispered, looking around the hallway to make sure nobody was watching us. I understand why. But he is still my friend."

"Asher's friend," Kieran spat. He said it like he wanted to remind me all my friends were because of Asher.

"Yes, Asher's friend!" I snapped, dropping my voice down quickly so nobody else would hear. "And he cared about Asher. I know he did, Kieran. Theo wants to help me expose the betting app. He is going to help me find out what Silas’s real connection to it is."

"Have you ever asked yourself why he wants to help you?" Kieran growled, stepping closer until his chest almost brushed mine. "Either he's using you, Aveline. Or He's looking for a way to find more evidence against you, and you're just handing him the knife."

"Theo has always been genuine, yes we had our back and forth only because he thinks I was Asher and he was losing his friend!" I argued back, my frustration bubbling over. "I'm trying to find out what happened to my brother. I have to look everywhere, even if it means taking Theo’s help."

Kieran just stared at me. A muscle twitched in his cheek. He looked completely angry, like he thought I was being totally blind. He didn't argue with me anymore. Instead, he pulled his phone out of his pocket and shoved the bright screen right in front of my eyes.

It was a new post on the school's anonymous gossip page. It had been uploaded just a few minutes ago.

“Heard a rumour from the field house. The regional athletic board is stepping in this week. Mandatory random drug screening for varsity lines starting anytime soon.”

My stomach turned completely over even though I knew it was Silas.

"This isn't about you seeking help from Theo, is it?" Kieran said. His voice was quiet, but it sounded heavy. "This is about you knowing who to trust, Aveline.

Taking a standard drug test for sports is normal. We always do screening, especially after break, in preparation for the new season. But what happens when they dig deeper? What happens when the board starts asking about your specific medications? What will happen then?"

"I know, Kieran," I whispered. My heart was thumping so hard against my ribs that it actually hurt. "That's exactly why Theo requested to see...."

Ring!

The loud, class bell cut me off completely. Kieran stared at me for one more second, his eyes full of fear, but the hallway was already filling up with students running to class. The conversation was over.

By the time we shuffled into the advanced senior seminar classroom, the bad mood from the holidays was sitting right on the desks. Katty walked in late. She had spent the entire winter break dealing with Kieran ending the fake relationship, and she looked completely stressed out.

She walked straight toward our row, completely ignoring the empty seats near the back. She didn't even ask. She just sat down in the chair right next to Kieran and dropped her bag onto the floor.

"Well... look who's back together," Landon shouted from three rows back, laughing loudly.

Kieran didn't look at her. He kept his eyes fixed on the empty blackboard, his back completely straight.

Milo turned around from his desk, looking confused. "Wait, why is Katty sitting there? She has never really cared about this class. Aren't Asher and Kieran always the ones sitting together?"

"Because Katty and Kieran broke up over the holidays, you idiot," a girl near the window snapped loudly. Her voice carried across the whole room. "It was because of a huge cheating scandal right before the New Year. Everyone knows."

Katty’s face turned bright red, but before she could shout back, the door opened, and the teacher walked in.

The room went quiet, but nobody relaxed. We all expected the final semester to be easy territory classic senioritis where we could just slide by until graduation. But the teacher didn't even open a textbook. He stood at the front and started passing out a thick packet of papers to the front row.

"Pass these back," the teacher said. He looked completely serious. "This is your final syllabus."

Nobody laughed anymore. Just like that, the whole room went quiet as the papers hit our desks.

"I'm going to be very direct with you," the teacher said, leaning his hands against his desk. "Half of the students in this room are currently on the verge of failing. Your semester results before the holidays were terrible.

If you do not pass the final project and the senior essay at the end of this term, you will not walk across the graduation stage. You will not get your diploma. Period."

Reed groaned loudly, burying his face in his hands. The girl next to me started frantically flipping through the pages. The panic in the room was real.

"Before we begin the lesson," the teacher continued, clearing his throat, "the guidance counsellor asked me to hand these out. These are your freshly updated, official class rank and credit evaluation envelopes."

He walked down the aisles, dropping a sealed white envelope onto each of our desks.

I looked at the white paper sitting in front of me.

Across the aisle, I watched Kieran rip his envelope open. He was expecting his usual clean report to keep his university acceptance safe. But the moment his eyes hit the paper, his face changed. The colour drained right out of his skin.

His injury last semester had caused him to miss major exams, final assignments, and the championship game; his overall credit standing and academic evaluation had taken a devastating dip.

I could see the shock in his shoulders. His entire future and his college prospects just took a massive, unexpected hit. The injury had severe consequences, and I didn't need to read the paper to know what it meant. Kieran had spent four years building the perfect record. One injury had finally cracked it.

I felt a wave of absolute dread for him because it was all my fault, but before I could even reach across the aisle, the teacher tapped his chalk hard against the board to quiet everyone down.

"Now," the teacher barked, his voice booming in the quiet room. "The guidance office needs to finalise our profiles for college acceptance this week. We are going to go around the room. I want everyone to stand up and announce their post-graduation plans and the university they intend to go to."

He looked down at his master list, running his pen over the names.

"Let's start with the highest-ranked student," the teacher said, looking up with a small smile. "Asher Carter."

My legs felt completely numb as I stood up. My chair scraped loudly against the floorboards. Every single eye in the room landed right on me.

The teacher smiled. "Which university offered you early admission? Tell us about your future plans."

My mind went completely blank.