For a Song

Jules Kendall has just gotten an F on her history paper, and she vents to her friend Buck Meltsner while scribbling in the journal Connie has encouraged her to keep. Trying to cheer her up, Buck shares something he has never told anyone: back when he was a con artist working for Mr. Skint, he attended a prep school in Wichita and sold stolen exam answers to a struggling student named Austin. Then Skint sold the list of cheaters to the school, Austin was expelled, and Buck never found out what happened to him. Buck asks Jules if she wrote that story in her journal, and she says no. Their talk is interrupted by Valerie Swanson, who breezes in to promote the new song on her FaceSpace channel. After she leaves, Jules scoffs that she could write better songs in a coma, but insists, "There's no way that I'm ever going to write a song. Ever."

Naturally, she writes one. With Buck laying down a guitar track, Jules records a catchy tune about failing grades and homework stress, and Buck talks her into posting it online. To Jules's shock, it takes off. Classmates hum it in the hallway, the views climb into the hundreds, and a girl named Savannah pulls Jules aside to thank her privately. Savannah confides a painful secret: she is being held back a grade and placed in a slow learners class, and Jules's song made her feel she wasn't alone. Even Valerie comes around, offering to "collaborate," but Jules turns her down flat, and Valerie warns her not to feel too badly when her popularity plummets. Spurred on, Jules writes a second song and starts saving the personal messages fans send her as inspiration for more.

Then things go wrong. In the lunchroom, a girl named Madison bumps into Buck and Jules, spilling a drink, and shortly afterward Jules's phone disappears. Madison, it turns out, is Valerie's tech-savvy helper, and she has swiped the phone so Valerie can dig through it. Since everybody apparently knows Jules's passcode, Valerie copies everything, including Jules's notes about her fans' private stories. Soon a new page called High School Confessions appears, made to look like Jules's work, and Savannah's secret is splashed across it. Savannah, hurt and betrayed, tells Jules to stay away from her. When Jules confronts Valerie, Valerie admits everything and delivers her blackmail terms: delete the music page, or the secrets keep coming. She adds a chilling warning: "What's on the internet can never be erased." Jules refuses to back down and posts a defiant new song aimed straight at Valerie.

Valerie strikes back where it hurts most. The next confession post announces that Jules's upcoming song is inspired by Buck and airs his prep school secret for the whole school. Buck goes cold toward Jules, and she is horrified to realize what has happened. When they finally talk, Buck admits he never believed Jules posted it, but he knows the story came from her phone, and Jules confesses that she did write it down later because it inspired a song. Buck is deeply hurt; he told her about Austin for the same reason he tells her everything: "I trusted you."

Meanwhile, Madison begins to have second thoughts, especially after seeing how upset Buck is, but Valerie keeps her in line with threats. When Madison accidentally spills a soda on Buck at Whit's End, he kindly buys her another one and gets her talking about all the "shortcuts" she handles for Valerie.

Jules arranges a showdown with Valerie, with Buck at her side, and announces that she has already deleted her music page, not because of the blackmail, but because she started writing songs to encourage people, not to hurt them. "My songs aren't as important as my friends," she says. Valerie gloats and refuses to give up her copied files, until Buck reveals his surprise: FaceSpace has just deleted Valerie's entire account. It turns out Valerie has been stealing her songs from other artists, and the original release dates were all the proof the site needed. Madison, now switched to the right side, helped make it happen and will take down the confessions page herself if Valerie doesn't. Valerie storms off, defeated.

Jules asks Buck whether he did it for her, for Madison, or for revenge, and Buck says none of the above: he discovered the artists Valerie was robbing were talented college kids trying to get noticed, and he figured they could use the help. Jules has already apologized to Savannah, who is still angry but may forgive her someday. As for Buck, he agrees they can be okay again, starting with Jules buying him a milkshake for a change.