She was one 'x' away from doing it.

Miss Stephanie Peters had heard stories about how seriously Texans took high school football, but now she was experiencing it firsthand. St. Joseph High School had made it to the State Finals for the first time in eight years thanks solely to Corey Wyatt. He was the captain of the football team, Homecoming King, most popular boy in school, and practically illiterate.

That was why he had always been in danger of failing her class. And now, right before "the big game," he was hovering between a D and F.

Stephanie Peters was about to push him over the line.

In the past ten days, Stephanie had received exactly seven death threats and twenty-two threats to do her bodily arm. There had even been another one directed at her cat. She hadn’t taken them seriously until five minutes ago, when she was about to mark the last question on the exam wrong and fail Mr. Wyatt, rendering him ineligible for the state game.

That was when the rifle shot had blasted through her front window, terrifying her beyond all reasoning.

Now she was curled up on the floor, clutching her cat so hard that she almost suffocated him. She was shaking like a leaf and sobbing. But she was still able to reason out whether or not it was worth risking her life over this lunacy.

She reached out with a trembling hand and made one final mark on the paper.

‘X.’