The Secrets in a Computer

The Place Where Promises Aren’t Kept [Chapter 21]

I couldn’t focus on any of my classes after the office visit. Kyle was just out there, too, lying and getting away with it. I definitely wasn’t going to go to Mr. Adams again if he was just going to ignore the issue. Jakey was the only one who understood.

I joined him in the computer lab that day. I didn’t feel like playing online or even using the computer, but I didn’t know anything else to do at lunch. “Did you face Kyle in a proper duel?” Jakey asked.

I slumped down on the desk. “He played dumb when I confronted him in first period. He lied about it, of course. Then I got sent to the office.”

“What a scoundrel,” Jakey said with a proud nod.

“We should log onto his account and delete all this stuff, too,” I said. “What do you think his password would be.”

“Imabigfatliar,” Jakey said back.

I laughed. “Hah, that would fit.”

“I thought it was strange,” my friend said back. “I was playing yesterday afternoon. Your character was online, too, but you didn’t chat back with me when I messaged you. I was wondering if you had bought anything with all that gold we got.”

I tapped on the desk. “That must have been him! My mom was making me do a bunch of junk this weekend instead of letting me play.”

Jakey sighed. “I wish I could have done something. You should change your password, man. Hey, I think there’s a way to even see when you logged on. You could show that Mr. Adams in the office there’s no way you could have been playing then.”

“What?” I nearly yelled. “You’ve got to show me where to find that!”

“I guess I can call you when we get home…”

I panicked a little bit. “That might be too late. Let’s ask the teacher if he can get us on.”

Jakey nodded and pushed himself up out of the chair. We both showed up beside Mr. Tate’s desk.

“Can I help you boys?” The teacher asked, looking up at us in our sudden arrival.

“Can you unblock a site for us?” I asked, wasting no time.

“What site? I mean, it’s a process. The school district makes those filters that block games and the bad internet stuff.”

“It’s for Rune Quest,” I said.

“Not to play, though,” Jakey added. “We just want to check something out.”

Mr. Tate laughed. “Sure, I’m sure that’s all you want to do.”

Jakey slapped at the edge of the teacher’s desk. “I’m being serious. Mike got his account hacked and all his stuff stolen.”

“It was Kyle,” I said. “The other kid who used to come with us. I’m sure of it, but I don’t have the proof that Mr. Adams in the office needs.”

Jakey huffed. “The site could show that the perpetrator was hacked in during a time Mike couldn’t have been.”

Mr. Tate hummed. “So, you’re looking for something like an alibi. I see. You’re lucky that as a teacher, I can go to certain sites that are blocked for you guys. Rune Quest, was it?”

“Yeah,” I said.

Mr. Tate typed away on his computer, then invited us around to the game’s login page. It was definitely something I never thought I would see at school.

“Log in and go to your account at the top corner,” Jakey instructed.

Mr. Tate sat back in his chair and watched on. “I would believe if it was Kyle.”

“Huh?” I said back.

“Remember that rude drawing that got set as your computer background?” The teacher continued. “I did track it back to him.”

“How come you never told me that?”

Mr. Tate sighed. “Because it was between me, him, and the school. He got a lunch detention for that. But I could let Mr. Adams or whoever know that Kyle might have it out for you. You seeing what you wanted to see there?”

I looked back at the computer screen. Jakey had gone to a particular page under my account. “Look, this shows when you logged in for the past few months.”

I looked and saw what he was describing. There were times and there were dates. There were also numbers with dots in between. They were labeled ‘IP address’.

“What’s an IP Address?” I turned and asked the tech teacher.

Mr. Tate scooted and looked at the screen with us “It’s the address of your computer on the internet. It helps data like web pages and downloads get to the right computer. It’s not exact, like the address for your house, but it can say what city or town you live in. Look, you always log in from the same IP address. That’s your IP address at home. Except for yesterday afternoon, there’s a different one. The IP is different.”

I looked. Mr. Tate was right. “It’s different! I wasn’t on, then. Is that Kyle’s IP address? Do you know, Mr. Tate?”

“That’s kind of impossible to know,” the teacher sighed. “At least for me alone. That’s a whole big investigation for your internet providers at home. But you do have your Alibi, showing that someone other than you was on your account.

I shook my fists in excitement. “This is it! Can you print this out for us? Maybe you can stop by the office tomorrow too and explain this to Mr. Adams.”

Mr. Tate sighed. “Printing, sure. I can try and leave my schedule open tomorrow, too, in case Mr. Adams wants to give me a call to stop by.”

My Mom’s Investigation

I finished out the school day with some hope that I would be able to get all my stuff back. That Kyle would get what he deserved.

My mom came home a little bit after me. She was calling my name the moment she stepped through the door. “Mike! I hope you’re not on that computer.”

I was in the kitchen, making myself a snack. “Huh? What?”

I could tell something was wrong. Even though I had a success with Mr. Tate, the events of that morning had still happened.

“Sit with me, Mike,” said my mom with a serious face, huffing all the way to the kitchen.

I sat with her at the dining table. I didn’t want to tell her more than she knew.

“The school called,” she said. “Well, Mr. Adams called. I’m sure you know who that is.”

I nodded. She was going to talk, and I was going to listen. I was used to that.

“Why didn’t you tell me about Kyle and this stealing thing?”

I sighed. “You wouldn’t have understood.”

“I can understand if you just explain it to me, Mike. And not just about this video game thing. About you not getting along with Kyle in the first place. Or about the other bullies. I know about you hiding away in the computer lab at lunches, too. I’m your mother, you should be able to talk to me!”

That was the second time that day I felt betrayed. My mom knew stuff that I had only told Mr. Adams. “I asked him if he would tell you! He told me he wouldn’t!”

“Mike,” my mom sighed. She turned her eyes down toward the table. “I originally had Mr. Adams reach out to you to see if you were doing well at school. If you were making friends. You always just go and hide away on the computer, so I felt like I didn’t know anything about your school life.”

“So Mr. Adams was just… spying on me?” I huffed, my hands grasping at the edge of the table. I wanted to cry again, but I was too mad.

“Mr. Adams was just doing his job.”

“He lied, he said he wasn’t going to tell you anything!” I yelled.

My mom tried to hold my hand across the table. I pulled my hand away. “I’m not mad at you or anything, Mike. I don’t care that you go to the computer lab. Obviously, there are better options, but that isn’t what is important right now. There’s this whole thing with Kyle now. Now, I asked Mr. Adams about it, but I think he’s a little confused. Did Kyle take something of yours when he was sleeping over here?”

“Why does it matter! If he didn’t understand, then how are you supposed to understand?”

My mom pursed her lips. “If you try to explain it to me, I will listen and try to understand.”

“He logged into Rune Quest! The game we play together online! And all the money and items and stuff I had on my character are gone!”

My mom sighed loudly. “And you decided to punch him and disrupt your class over a game?”

“You don’t understand!” I yelled again. It felt like it was the hundredth time I was explaining that to someone. “All that stuff is from months of playing. And Kyle is lying about it all. He’s lying to me and Jakey and Mr. Adams.”

My mom sighed and leaned on her elbows on the edge of the table. “Okay, well, that’s kind of what I heard too from Mr. Adams at school too. There’s no way to get that stuff back, I guess?”

“Kyle would have to log in himself and trade it all back to me. But he won’t do that because he’s a liar!”

“Have you considered that Kyle isn’t lying? That it was someone else entirely?” My mom asked, shaking her head.

The idea popped into my head. I jumped up from the seat and ran to my backpack where the printout from Mr. Tate was.

“Mike, where are you going?” My mom shouted after me. “We’re not done here!”

I returned with the paper folded out for her. “Look! Mr. Tate got this for me. It proves it.”

My mom looked back and forth and up and down. She barely shrugged. “I’m not sure what I’m looking at, Mike. And who’s Mr. Tate?”

I slapped my hand on the paper. “Mr. Tate is the computer lab guy. This shows when I was logged in to my character. It says I was logged in yesterday afternoon, when you had me doing chores! So I couldn’t be online! It must have been Kyle.”

My mom rubbed the sides of her face. “I guess I understand, but…”

“Can you come to me to see Mr. Adams tomorrow morning?” I asked. “Please, please, please? Mr. Tate says that you’re my… Alibi. He’ll be there too!”

My mom shook her head. She eventually smiled. “I guess that’s the least I can do. So I can understand better and we can get this sorted out.”

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