Privilege

Chapter 7

After two mornings of typing in everything Niall knows about Zayn - which he might point out isn’t much to begin with - to crack the password on the computer, and getting nowhere, he is at a complete loss.

He knows he has to give Jordan’s plan a try, but he has never been a good actor and he is terrified that it’ll end in a disaster; Louis and the other boys finding out he snooped in their room.

He is very nervous as he walks into the library one rainy afternoon, not quite ready to execute his plan but not having more time to waste. He knows that the senior class has a huge English test coming up and half of privilege house residences will be here studying. He makes a beeline for the very back of the stack, where he knows the girls and boys from his dorm sets up.

And true enough, he finds a table containing Louis, Liam, Conrad, Danielle, Linh, Jeremy and a girl named Amanda. They are all bent over their books, some taking notes, other whispering to each other in low tones. There is a single empty chair at the end of the table.

Niall sinks to it, dropping his books on the table with a frustrated huff.

Everyone looks up at him at once, happy for a distraction.

“What’s the matter, Niall?” Liam asks.

“Nothing. It's just this current events paper for modern civ,” he says. “I have to write eight pages on that whole hacking scandal.”

Louis and Liam exchange a look. They aren't buying it. There is no way they are buying it. And why will they? It is a complete fabrication.

“You mean that thing at that high school in New York?” Conrad asks.

“I heard about that!” Amanda puts in, excited. “Someone hacked into all the students' computers and posted a list of all the illicit Web sites they were looking at. So scandalous.”

“Those poor bastards had all their porn deleted,” Linh says. “That's not scandal. It's a crying shame.”

“Well, there are about a million articles on it and it's ridiculous trying to sift through it all,” Niall says, lifting out a Xeroxed page. “Plus it's scary. Did you guys know that ninety percent of high school students use something obvious for their password? Like a girlfriend's name or a birthday?”

Everyone just stares at him and he wonders if he is the worst actor ever.

“I would never use something that lame,” Jeremy says.

“Yeah. You just spell curse words backward,” Linh says with a laugh.

“Dude!” Jeremy complains, whacking him with the back of his hand.

“I would never use anything that obvious,” Danielle says, turning the page in her English book. I just use random characters.”

So not what Niall wants to hear. If Zayn is using random characters, he is screwed.

“How do you remember them?” Amanda asks.

“I just force myself,” Danielle says. “I repeat it over and over until it's in there. Four, dash, dollar sign, eight, /, star. Four, dash, dollar sign, eight,/, star.”

“Nice one! Now we all know your password!” Jinh laughs.

Danielle blushes.

“Well, that's not my password now.”

“'Yes, it is! Yes, it is!“ Amanda thrills, bouncing up and down in her chair, her long earrings slapping her in the face. ”We know your password! We know your password!"