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Kit covered her mouth with her hand to keep the gasp from jumping out of her mouth. Eyes wide, she stared at Connor.
“For high school?” he asked, equally shocked. “That’s what a lot of universities cost.”
“Exactly,” Parker said. “That’s why the scholarships are fought over.”
“I guess so.” Connor shook his head. “So is this a full scholarship until graduation, or do you have to try out every year?”
“Once you’re in,” Tanya said, “tuition is covered for the duration. You can get kicked out, but hardly anyone does.”
“Okay.” Connor still looked shell-shocked. “My girlfriend’s daughter heard a rumor that there were other ways to get in. Not that she’s going to do them, but some of the other girls were talking. You know. Like girls do.”
“And boys,” Parker said dryly. “Check your misogyny at the door, Connor.”
Connor blinked. “What? I’m not misogynistic.”
Kit gave him a look. Seriously?
Connor looked a little hurt and Kit wondered if no one had ever confronted him before.
“I’m sorry,” he said quietly. “Boys gossip, too. I think the topics are different, though.”
Both Parker and Tanya laughed. “I wouldn’t be so sure,” Tanya said. “So this rumor. Is it that there’s a guy who knows someone who can get them a private audition, which is code for sex?”
“Yeah. Any truth to it? My girlfriend’s daughter was worried she’d lose out because she wasn’t willing to do that.”
“Good for her,” Tanya said fervently. “That she knows her personal limits so young is good to hear. I heard that rumor when I was in school, but I attributed it to people who were angry that my tuition was free. You know, she only got in because she slept with someone. Sick people.”
“There is that other scam, though,” Parker said. “Which is probably worse, because so many kids get disappointed.”
“Yeah,” Tanya agreed. “It’s fake, but nobody can ever figure out what the scammer gets out of it other than humiliating some high school kids.”
Kit and Connor shared a glance. This could be it.
“What’s the scam?” Connor asked. “So I can warn my girlfriend’s kid about it.”
Parker sighed. “A high school kid—always a girl—would get an email from someone claiming to be on the admissions committee. They always said they’d seen her in her high school production and thought she was super talented. You know, the flattery that we all like to hear. Then they say that Orion is doing an audition for an extra scholarship.”
“First red flag,” Tanya cut in. “They only do extra admission auditions for kids who’ve transferred into the district during the school year. And never for scholarships.”
“He sends a form and has her fill it out and says she can invite her friends,” Parker continued. “She tells her friends and they all show up at Orion for this audition, only to find locked doors and a grumpy security guard telling them to go away.”
Yes, Kit mouthed, and Connor grinned at her, triumphant.
“And there’s never another email from this asshole?” Connor asked.
“Nope,” Parker said. “It’s really sad. I was at the school for a weekend rehearsal once when a group of kids showed up for the fake audition, and there were tears. Buckets of tears. Girls and boys, crying their eyes out. And then they ganged up on the girl who was the scam recipient. It was ugly. They screamed in her face, and when they left, they didn’t take her with them.”
And yet that girl’s probably still alive, Kit thought. Unlike Cecilia, Jaelyn, Naomi, and the others.
“You called her a cab,” Tanya recalled fondly. “You even gave her cab fare.”
“I felt so sorry for her,” Parker said. “She couldn’t afford the cab home. Her parents didn’t have the money for things like that. And certainly not for Orion’s tuition. I think whoever was targeting these girls knew they were financially desperate.”
Good to know. Financial need was a detail they hadn’t yet considered. But who paid forty thousand dollars a year for a private high school?
Apparently, all but the one scholarship kid in every Orion graduating class.
“So basically, there are no shortcuts,” Connor said. “My girlfriend’s daughter has to go the distance.”
