Page 35 of Chasing Headlines
And she took my picture. Great.
“When does Hilda get here?” Cat threw the question out into the silence of the room.
“Thursday,” I said with a sigh. “She got caught up in the worst series of flight delays. But she’ll be here Thursday.” I turned to look at Cathy. “She’s asked us to collect syllabi and assignments from her classes.”
“You’ve got the list?” Cathy's keyboard tapping began again in earnest.
“Yeah.” I unlocked my phone as I moved closer. “It’s in my ForeverNotes. You want me to text it to you?”
“No need. I'll just snag them from your cloud account.”
I frowned and looked at my phone. “What?”
“I have the list, now.” Cathy sipped at her StarStruck soda and went back to typing.
I looked at Dublin. She shrugged and focused on her social media-ing.
“Um, how?”
“I'll just download the assignments and syllabi from the administrators' ShareDrive. We won’t even have to leave the dorm.” Cathy cracked her knuckles and wiggled her fingers. As if she needed to rev them up.
“Uh? Isn’t that kinda, illegal?” I leaned over her shoulder. “I can just hoof it tomorrow.”
“Is it illegal to have a bad password?” Cathy yawned and stretched. I darted out of the way.
“Um? I don’t think so?” I stared at my ForeverNote app and looked for some sign she had accessed my files. “Can anyone just get into my stuff?
“Is it illegal to randomly guess a bad password?” Cathy kept her eyes on her computer as she scoffed her question.
Curious, I leaned over her shoulder, again. Several dark screens with green code sat open on her desktop. In one window,she typed a series of commands. Words scrolled across the screen.
“No,” I said as I straightened and leaned against her desk. “But, I'm pretty sure there’s some acceptable use language that we signed that says it’s against policy to employ a password cracker and obfuscate your IP address while using university resources. She finally glanced up and gave me a lopsided grin.
“I’ll go tomorrow. Don’t . . . hack anything.”
Cathy pouted.
I rolled my eyes at her. “Unless it’s an emergency.”
Green eyes met mine and she grinned.
“What did you do? No, don't tell me.” I shook my head and rubbed a hand over my forehead. “Yes, tell me.”
“Hilda's all checked in. Wouldn't want her to get dropped for missing the first class.”
The fact that it was a fair point . . . I sighed. “Just don’t hack anythingelse.”
“Unless it's an emergency. Got it.” Cathy actually bounced in her seat as she went back to her coding. Or whatever.
“I’ll finish editing this reel later. It's going to be epic.” Dublin announced as she bounded to her feet. “I’ll call it ‘Cinnamon Rolls over Alpha-holes, advice from Livvie’s BFF.’”
I turned to face her. “Sometimes I hate you.”
“But youalways love me. Liv, your toxic ballplayer guy has anger issues, a juvie record.” She lifted her eyebrows and made a ‘mom’ face at me.
I groaned.I can't argue with that, but the way she says it is so unfair.
“And is only here at Podunk Cattle Tech West Texas onscholarship. Translation: he’s poorer than dirt.”